Things to know about Caius
First off, it was founded by some guy named Gonville in 1348 and then it fell into a financial crisis and was saved by some guy named Caius. All you need to know is that it is called just Caius which is pronounced "Keys." The stereotype is that Caius will have a lot of Medics.
Things to do before/when you come
- Apply for an IP address before you come, the waiting process is 1 week. http://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/college/computing/iprequest.php
- Go to the Porters Lodge near your residence to sign in and get your key
- The Porters Lodge at Harvey court sells a few used gowns at the start of term. Get one before the freshers get here.
- Go to the Computer office in the college library to get your swipecards. Lol you need a swipecard to get to the computer office. Good luck!
- Go to the Kitchen office to get your meal tickets which you have already payed for. You also need to get your meal card here. The tickets are for dinners and the card is for lunches and breakfasts.
Housing
FYI, they kick you out during the holidays. You have to pay for every day during holiday that you stay here. This policy is different at different colleges.
The college is somewhat spread out. You have the "Old Courts" which are in the main college location near the center of the town. These rooms are in the best location, but they tend to be smaller and colder with stone staircases you have to climb to get to your room. These rooms are within the walls of the college so you don't get the noise of drunken street wanderers. Makinde was placed here after complaining about not having internet access (which i will get to) in his original room in 37 Green Street.
27 and 37 Green Steet are both outside of the college walls, in the center of town very close to the college. 37 Green Street is the International House and will have mostly Chinese freshers in it. You do not want to be in 37 Green Street! They do not have ethernet jacks and there is no wireless on campus and it is even hard to get a wired connection on campus outside of your room. 27 Green Street on the other hand seems quite nice, from the one room I've seen in it, but keep in mind that drunken ppl outside your building will be making noise all night long. A plus about the location is that it is between the college and Sainsburies, the supermarket.
Harvey Court is another location situated on West Road, outside of the center. To get there from the college, you have to walk through Kings College and over the river. It is about a 10 minute walk. Kings will close its gates after 7PM so you will have to then walk through Claire college. They will lock their gate at 2AM. After that you will have to take a bridge (nicknamed the orgasm bridge because of the panting affect its extreme curvature imposes on bicyclists) farther north. There is construction just west of Harvey Court, what will soon be Harvey Court Part 2. Harvey court is a big complex and people will be friends with the people they live near. Some complain that the rooms don't have much privacy. There are giant windows facing a courtyard so when your blinds are open, you can see lots of other people. Right next to the main complex which is like a big dorm (Blocks A, B, C, and D) is a separate little house called K block. K Block is home to again, first year international students. The rooms are cozy and most are big although there are a couple smaller ones. This is where Ali, and Chen live.
A Note on Bedders and Room Provisions.
You will be given a bed and matris and pillow, but no sheets or blankets. These people called Bedders have keys to your room and will come in every day to empty your trash and occasionally hoover it. Hopefully they wont intrude too often when you are actually there or sleeping in. You can leave your trash can outside of your room if you don't want to be disturbed, but the official policy is that you cannot do this on consequtive days.
Dining at the College
Each weeks hall menu can be found on the Caius JCR website http://www.caiusjcr.co.uk/
Within the walls of the college you can find the dining area where we eat dinner almost every night. We must buy something like 40 dinner tickets each term at 5.25 pounds per ticket. Here you will also find the main JCR where people will sit and read the paper or talk before dinner. Each night there are two halls. Regular is at 6:15 and formal is at 7:20. You must not be late since you are served at distinct times. It is a 3 meal course and despite people complaining about Caius food, it is pretty good in your humble narrator's opinion. This bad stigma might be due to the fact that it used to be worse. They have Vegitarian options. If your diet is more restrictive you need to contact them to make special arrangements or for them to waive your requirement to eat there. The formal dinner is exactly the same as regular except the time is different and you must wear a gown. However, you do not need to dress up. Lunch and Breakfast can also be had at this location, but this is not manditory and may or may not be convenient depending on where you are at those times. These meals are not served and are more cafeteria style. You are not required to eat these meals here, but the prices are pretty low. Its good stuff.
The college bar is just downstairs and is frequently a hot spot after dinner especially after formal hall on nights when clubs invite guests. The bar has two levels though it took almost 2 months until we ventured downstairs. It isn't as lively down there, but there is a television which you can check out if you are keen as it will probably be the only TV you watch while in Cambridge. No satellite though, for that you have to be friends with someone at Trinity or Sidney Sussex or something.
The Tyranny that is Internet Access at Caius
As mentioned before, 37 Green street has no ethernet. If you are here, move at all costs. You must apply for a static IP address as soon as possible. The link is above. After a week they will send you an email with connecting information. But if you say you have windows XP on the form, you won't be allowed to connect until after they inspect your computer. Inspect is a polite word for what they do. They will uninstall any peer to peer software you have. They will uninstall your antivirus software and install their own. They will make sure you have winXP service pack 2 and security patches. Once they give you the ok, you can go home and you will be connected the following day after following the instructions at http://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/college/computing/setup.php People with other OS's i believe don't need to have their computers checked.
Once you are online, you just need to make sure you dont go over 500 megs a day or else you risk getting your connection turned off. The Janet website http://www.cam.ac.uk/localusersonly/cs/netdiv/usage/janet/item/byhost/00086/ will help you track your usage as they post the top 20 users.
Sports
Caius is known for its Rowers. We have a Boat house that is far from the college. It is where all the other boat houses are. If you become a rower you will have access to the weight room there which is the closest thing to gym the college owns. There is also no university gym. Caius also has a sports field and squash courts just south of Havey court on Barton Road. There are various college teams for different sports like frisbee, rugby, and netball. The list is quite long actually.