Well, it's done. And, no, it's still not over. (Cambridge, my beloved Cambridge, oh how I hardly knew ye.)

Not a graduation pic.

On the river Cam

Welcome, Voyagers!

Today counts three whole days since I finished my dissertation and submitted it, somehow without access to an actual library or to Cambridge’s Criminology Institute. It also counts a looooong time since I regularly posted in this blog and sent y’all emails. That shall change now. (And, while you’re here, click below to subscribe so you won’t miss a thing!)

(I am peppering this post with some of my favorite pics from my time over there, as they reflect the best of the experience. Hope you enjoy them.)

One of many gorgeous river views around the Granta pub.

Other than Queens’, St. Johns is my favorite college. Soooo pretty.

So, how’d you spend your 4th of July weekend? I spent mine immersed in murder. To be more specific, immersed in my dissertation’s topic: using intuition to prevent murder. To be even more precise, here is my cover page:

The controversial dissertation topic.

Sound bad? Well, you’re not the only one. Everyone from some of my fellow students to my supervisor to the head of the master’s program, to at least two other big-deal criminologists hated the topic, too. No joke. Yours truly almost changed it, but, turns out, I just couldn’t make myself write about anything else when the topic was something I am so passionate about. 🤷‍♀️

Punting on the river behind King’s College. My friend Hania took this pic. She loves it. And I love her.

This damn dissertation took over my life for the past few months, and now that it is done, I am finally coming to the realization that I missed out on Cambridge’s legendary/infamous May balls (replaced with virtual ones), and yet I couldn’t bring myself to delete them from my calendar.

Queens’ Mathematical Bridge.

If the world were not currently spinning off its axis, by now I would be awaiting the graduation ceremony with my friends. This is not a complaint, just a recognition that I am still in a bit of mourning for…for what just wasn’t meant to be, I suppose.

(giant) me in the (tiny) doorway to Queens’ College

Sunset over parkers piece.

We did a lot while we were in the UK. The lakes district in the north. Stonehenge. The Cotswolds in the west. Ireland. Scotland. Lots of plays and musicals in London. The Roman ruins in Essex County…

Roman ruins in Colchester, Essex.

Cliffs of Galway,
Ireland

Lakes District.

I am grateful for all of that while still wishing we could have done more, which, you know, we were all planning to do this summer…😢

It is crazy to think, only a few weeks before Cambridge shut down, some of us were celebrating our friend Sean’s birthday and talking about the travels we all wanted to do as a group during Easter break. A beach in Spain? (Maybe.) Amsterdam? (The guys sure voted for that…)

Bridge House in Ambleside, Lakes District.

Edinburgh.

I am missing my Cambridge friends. Zoom isn’t quite doing it for me. The friends who are now scattered across the world, or are about to be, once their degree is done-in Canada, Italy, Korea, Greece, Mexico, The Bahamas, Egypt-all of whom we promised we would visit, are now scattered across a world we are unable to visit.

Local music in galway

The Cotswolds.

So, hopefully a graduation commencement will happen someday very soon, and the economy of the town of Cambridge can start to recover from its complete lack of tourists. And and our lovely friends will gather and we can celebrate with another drink overlooking the river Cam at the Granta:

more granta beauty.

The tiny village of Ely.

If all goes as planned (for once, this year), my dissertation will be accepted and I will have completed the requirements for graduation even without an officially ceremonial-bestowed degree. Until then? Since there’s no traveling the world, I shall stay in and just keep studying and reading about investigating murder, especially writings from the brilliant and gone too soon Michelle McNamara.

Stay in, Voyagers. Stay safe. And try to sleep after watching I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.

-VV

PS. For more about Cambridge University and my experience there, please read more:

🤔A life-changing, astonishing, glorious event is occurring. (And, no, I'm not having a baby.)

🤔Just cause you Party with 20-somethings doesn’t mean you are one, and other observations from Cambridge.

🤔On a Pandemic, Panic-packing, and an Ancient University (ghost) town

Where it all began…