I just got back from Emma Sprints (one of the main rowing regattas of the term) this morning, and my goodness, was that a disaster! To be fair, we had been hampered by really poor weather (e.g. wind) for the past week, so we barely had any time to practice together as a team with respect to proper rowing technique (we had not been feathering our blades) or rowing as a complete set of eight (we generally did at most groups of six so that the boat could be somewhat balanced as we practiced our technique). Honestly, we had nothing to lose, so any win or advancement in the competition would have been a major success! Alas, there were no wins, but we did have a great time. We were so discoordinated and so out of sync that we were laughing the entire time. As they say, as long as you had fun, you are also a winner, which then means I won big :)
With that excitement done for today, I think this is a good time now to talk a little bit about Cambridge clubs (or societies). Where to begin? For starters, Cambridge societies exist at two different levels: college-level and university-level. For societies that exist at both levels, the university-level society requires a more significant time commitment than its analogous counterpart at the college-level. MIT, on the other hand, just has university-wide clubs for the most part. Thus, participating in many such groups can be tricky due to the necessary balance of large time commitments from each group on top of all of the work we have each week (yes, PSets, those things...). Because of the participation stratification at Cambridge, I prefer their societies over those at MIT because the lower-commitment college societies give you a chance to participate in an extracurricular without having to necessarily sacrifice a lot of time to do so relative to higher commitment / intense societies.
I have been able to participate in numerous societies at Cambridge that cover a broad spectrum of areas such as chocolate, singing, chess, rowing, engineering, and investment. I don't believe I would have been able to achieve such breadth in my extracurriculars at MIT due to the workload I had each week and the commitment expected for these clubs to make the membership worthwhile. While the time commitment can add up once you start participating in more and more societies at Cambridge, I have enjoyed them immensely, as not only have they allowed me to meet people who share my interests, but they have also provided a nice break from the work I have to do. I certainly would encourage you all to join societies if possible while you're at Cambridge. Not only are they fun, but they can definitely help you settle in socially by meeting students from all around Cambridge or your college who share the same interests as you do.
A word of warning though: while it may be tempting to sign up for as many societies as possible like you did in freshman year back at MIT, be aware that you probably will not be able to participate in all of the societies you might have an interest in. In addition, membership in many university-wide societies require paying a membership fee for the year. College-wide societies do not mostly because they receive sufficient budget allocations from the JCR of the college. Thus, if you plan to participate in many university-wide societies, be aware that you may have to pay a lot out of pocket to do so. Thus, from a financial standpoint, it is better to join lots of college-wide societies than lots of university-wide societies. The fees for each society may be relatively small, but together, they can add up to be a lot of probably unnecessarily spent cash.
You might be wondering though: how do we get to see or sign up for all of these societies? Good that you asked! During Fresher's Week, Cambridge has "Activities Midway"-like events in college for all freshers. The university-wide one is called Freshers' Fair. In addition, each college hosts its own midway event as well, either called Societies Fair or Societies Squash. Make sure to check out both events (the midway at your college and Fresher's Fair) during Fresher's Week! Otherwise, you're going to miss out on a lot of free stuff! We had Domino's pizza being served for free to students at Fresher's Fair! Perhaps you're not a fan of pizza, but I think my point has been made clear. :)
I hope this blogpost helped to provide a good overview of Cambridge societies! If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email under the "Contact" section OR checkout this link that gives you information on ALL university-wide societies (http://www.cusu.co.uk/groups/).