The Cambridge Chat Thread - it's over 90,000!

Wasn't it a European Court of Human Rights ruling? Something from Europe anyway. Damn-blasted Europeans.

Was stuck on the Cambridge-London Kings Cross train on Monday for an hour, and nobody knew what was going on since the train intercom wasn't loud enough. Consequently missed two of my connections at St Pancras and decided to go to Victoria by tube to catch a train to Gatwick from there. Tube was absolutely packed and terribly hot as well, and the train to Gatwick was so crowded that I didn't have to make any effort in order to avoid falling over, there was 'human support' all around me anyways.

Still, I suppose it could have been worse: The train was passing some London stations where hundreds of people were stranded waiting for trains. Apparently a bit of rain and a lightning are enough to nearly shut down the railway network in London?

Wasn't it a European Court of Human Rights ruling? Something from Europe anyway. Damn-blasted Europeans.

Hopefully it's long enough so that I'm old enough to not have to pay through the roof whatever! Car insurance is horrible

No it's not, it's the Court of Justice of the European Union - it's not the same thing. In fact, the body has absolutely nothing to do with the ECtHR and completely different membership and powers.

It's extremely unfortunate that the media always conflates the two. The European Court of Human Rights is much wider, it includes 47 states. The CJEU is the judicial body of the European Union, ruling on matters such as harmonisation of movement of persons and provision of services, and the movement of goods.

is that the eu flag i see there, on the top right hand corner.

Anyone who knows anything about Cambridge will know that a 2.2 here is a lot better than a 2.2 elsewhere, as good as and maybe even better than a 2.1 from some other unis. I remember reading that a few years back our Faculty compared the absolute levels of performance of students here to those elsewhere and found that the standard for a 2.1 here was at least as high as for a 1st elsewhere. This makes quite a lot of sense if you think that pretty much everyone who might have been good enough to come here were probably rejected to end up elsewhere, so it's a bit odd if they then go on to do better than most of those were were accepted here.

Want to hear something depressing? When I was at school I was the top of every class, just like most Cambridge students. I got the highest marks in Maths and Physics at A level and won prizes every year at school.

I have just realised that I got the worst result of anyone I know from my home for my degree. People that I constantly out-performed are getting firsts and 2:1s and I get a 2:2. A good friend of mine went to Bristol to do Chemistry, got a third in the second year, switched to Surrey and has now graduated with a 2:1. People who got Bs rather than As at A level are graduating with 2:1s. Another friend, who did similar subjects to me is probably going to get a 1st in Engineering and turned down a job at Rolls Royce for one at Airbus.

This bothers me. I feel like if I had left Cambridge after first year and gone somewhere different then I could have got a 2:1. Now this was never going to happen (far too stubborn for that), but the fact that this could happen makes me cross. And depressed.

Can any Queens students tell me whether there's wireless in Cripps court accommodation? I'm working at a summer school, and I'm pretty sure we'll be in Cripps, although the organiser couldn't remember exactly when I asked. We'll be in en suite rooms.

Was stuck on the Cambridge-London Kings Cross train on Monday for an hour, and nobody knew what was going on since the train intercom wasn't loud enough. Consequently missed two of my connections at St Pancras and decided to go to Victoria by tube to catch a train to Gatwick from there. Tube was absolutely packed and terribly hot as well, and the train to Gatwick was so crowded that I didn't have to make any effort in order to avoid falling over, there was 'human support' all around me anyways.

Still, I suppose it could have been worse: The train was passing some London stations where hundreds of people were stranded waiting for trains. Apparently a bit of rain and a lightning are enough to nearly shut down the railway network in London?

I had a very similar issue on Tuesday.

Got on a 12.45 train from Cambridge to Kings Cross. Train arrived at Kings Cross at 16.15! We were on the train for three and a half hours due to 'a direct lightning strike' on some signals. Grrr

The reason that I took the train in the first place was that I was worried the coach might get stuck in a traffic jam ...

EDIT: Ukebert, I don't mean to imply that your 2.2 = a 2.2 from Anglia Ruskin (to pick a uni at random). But I think you would be the first to admit you have been heavily involved with other commitments that took time away from your degree...? I know that's been a factor in my grades at uni as well.

Snap. Just met up with all my home friends yesterday, and (even though I don't have my grades yet, I'm 100% certain that I'm getting a 2.2 at most, and most likely a 3rd) - all of them have done better than me pretty much. All of my friends have gotten 2.1's or 1sts, and what makes it worse is when I told them that I'll be getting a 2.2 at most, they were all "Don't be ridiculous, you did amazingly at school, and always did better than all of us! If we can get a 2.1s/1sts, you'll definitely be getting a 1st"

Sometimes I do wish I'd just gone to an easier university Hey ho. Just got to work even more next year I guess

En Suite rooms:
Some of Cripps. No wireless for Cripps as such, but if you're near the bar you might be able to get some.
Fisher: No chance of wireless
Erasmus: If you're in the right room you can pick up the library's wireless (maybe three or four of these rooms total though).

Why do you need wireless anyway? We have awesome wired internet. (But that may be quite expensive for you. Queens' does like charging people for everything).