An article written for The Cambridge Language Collective
A busy afternoon along King's Parade, Cambridge
The Year Abroad has always been a talking point for returning MML students, and what with Brexit-related visa nightmares, pandemic-induced travel chaos, and the standard assortment of mishaps, our cohort is certainly no exception. Running into people in Cambridge for the first time in around eighteen months, I am often met with ‘You were in Vienna, weren’t you?’ and a barrage of questions about my extended Austrian adventure. Without me realising, I seem to have become some sort of student ambassador for Stadt Wien, regaling anyone I meet with the delights of a slice of Sachertorte in one of the many Kaffeehaüser the city has to offer.
But what’s it like to be back where the adventure all began?
Returning to Cambridge after such a long time away from the place has been a disorienting experience. On the surface much seems exactly the same as when I left. The washing machine in the basement is still temperamental and the meal deal, temporarily swapped for a year of European bakery treats, once again a recurring feature of my week. Yet it is also very clear that much has changed over the last year and a half. Posters, open windows, and one-way stickers remind us of the pandemic which ground the world to a halt, and the state of the Sidgwick Site, essentially the Construction Site, has led many of us MML finalists to feel like sheepish Freshers asking for directions to elusive rooms in Mill Lane.
It is not just the physical changes in the city around us we notice, but also the personal ones too. As we have not lived through the intervening time in Cambridge, it sometimes feels as if we have slipped back into Second Year, and are picking up where we left off, even though anything and everything has happened since. There is a sense of being forced to slip back into old habits and routines, although we are not quite the same people as the ones who left for Easter Vacation in 2020, and don’t quite fit them anymore. Many of us lived a completely different lifestyle for the past year, working, teaching, or studying in completely different systems and living independently, or at least with people who aren’t Cambridge students setting off the fire alarm with burnt toast at 11pm. It was initially quite difficult to revert to this lifestyle, and difficult too to explain this to friends who have been here the whole time, without speaking in clichés, sounding pretentious, or bringing up the fact that I lived in Vienna, again.
Some of the most jarring changes I’ve felt on my return to Cambridge have however been the ones you can’t see; the absences which make their presence felt as you go about the day. The absence of college friends who graduated last summer; the absence of familiar faces eating dinner in Hall, or doors to knock on. There is also the absence of the friends we left behind in Europe, people we shared formative experiences with and find ourselves wanting to turn to for advice. I am painfully aware too of absence in its more profound sense; the absence of loved ones who passed away during the pandemic. Where I perhaps felt detached and able to distract myself more easily abroad, coming back to Cambridge has forced me to confront and process this grief in a particular way. I still sometimes feel that our late Catholic Chaplain, Fr Mark, is about to come running through the doors as we rustle up dinner for our weekly student night or return from an Italian holiday with a suitcase and a smile. Yet it has also been a time of healing for the community, of sharing memories with other students who knew him, and of filling the Chaplaincy, which Fr Mark gave so much to, with laughter and new friendships.
Beneath all these changes there is however a sense of great joy and relief at being back in Cambridge. We have survived the rollercoaster which was the Year Abroad of 2020/2021 and are once again on relatively stable land. Lectures are in English, and although there unfortunately seems to be no direct correlation between all the hours I spent in Kaffeehäuser or watching Germany’s Next Top Model, and my German homework grades, the lessons learnt from my Year Abroad are already proving their worth. Whether we like it or not, there is less time left here now than the time we were away for, and the pandemic has only heightened the sense of wanting to make the most of all this microcosm has to offer. Autumnal walks along the River Cam, discovering new cafés, exchanging Year Abroad stories with other MML students, diving back into academic texts, and, having been through it all ourselves now, helping new arrivals and Erasmus students to settle into their life here.
Returning to Cambridge from the Year Abroad has in many respects been a bittersweet experience, only intensified by the pace of work here, and I encourage you to ask your resident Fourth Year linguists how they’re finding it. The term so far might have consisted of a lot more essay writing and supervisions than the past year, but that’s not to say it hasn’t had its fair share of adventures, meaningful conversations, and of course, cake.
Swapped out my afternoon walks around Türkenschanz Park for Jesus Green...