To be able to study at Cambridge, all students need to go through matriculation. I went through matriculation with the Corpus Christi College* freshers. I was considered a "fresher" because it's my first time in the college. I felt so old...
(*See note at bottom of post.)
Freshers (fresh-ers) noun. The Cambridge slang for Freshman; equivalent to "Frosh" at Caltech.
For the occasion, we had to wear gowns over our "smart clothes." "Smart clothes" basically mean "business" clothes in British English. It's a tradition here to wear gowns to the formal occasions, such as matriculation, graduation, and formal dinners. Before, it was mandatory for students to wear gowns all the time, even when just walking around the town of Cambridge, to separate themselves from the townspeople (The term "town and gown" was used to describe the two parts of a college town). At the more conservative Oxford, students are still required to wear gowns when taking exams! I like gowns because they make me feel like I go to Hogwarts.
After pictures, we proceeded to the Hall where the matriculation ceremony was held. The Hall is structured like the hall in Harry Potter, except we have 3 rows of tables while Hogwarts has 4. There's a special elevated table in the front where the master, tutor and fellows sit. On a day-to-day basis, this is where we eat lunch and dinner!!
In the Hall, we signed a special "Corpus book." After matriculation, we had tea in the master's garden. I managed to find some fellow American exchange students.
The Americans! From left to right: Conan from Caltech, Me!, Laura from Arkansas, and Alexandra from MIT
Then came the formal matriculation dinner. Grace was said in Latin (a bunch of sounds I don't understand..) once before the first course, and once before dessert. We sat with our Director of Studies (DoS), who are basically our advisers and academic faculty associated with the college and university. My DoS actually had his Ph.D. supervised by
Sergio Pellegrino, who was, at that time, a professor at Cambridge, but is now an Aeronautics professor at Caltech! Small world. Or maybe it's just common for brilliant academics to all know each other.

I also learned from my DoS how ball bearings used to be made. They used to melt metal and cool them drop by drop in liquid. Because the intermolecular forces in the metal are much stronger than the forces of gravity, the droplets stay very round, thus making good, round ball bearings. Being a MechE, I think that's pretty cool!
*NOTE: You might be confused what the difference between Corpus Christi College and Cambridge University is. Cambridge University runs on a unique system. The University is comprised of the professors, staff, research facilities, etc. The College (Cambridge has 31) has the students, housing, and dining. The Colleges admit the students, collects the money, and pays the University. The University, in return, offers education and hands out the degrees. I've heard that the Caltech housing system is based on this Cambridge system, but the houses are definitely less autonomous than the Cambridge Colleges. They're like businesses of their own!