Cambridge

On the way to Cambridge, we stopped at an American war cemetary, which was intersting... yet I felt only done because we are Americans, and thus it was a little silly. Our British tour guide got the staff to give us free booklets about the site because we are American.

Cambridge, which the folks here call 'the other place,' was a very lovely city. I think I may have even liked it better than Oxford, though it is hard to say after only a day's visit. I think it may have only seemed more beautiful because of its seclusion and the fact that all the beautiful buildings were not clustered on top of one another. In Oxford, a building may be extraodinary, but you can't fully appreciate it because it's right next to five other amazing buildings; the sense of beauty is dulled, whereas the nature of Cambridge enhances it.

I wasn't aware that Cambridge placed such an emphasis on the sciences and technology. We visited the 'modern' part of campus, which was very modern indeed and featured a European headquarters for Microsoft and a huge academic building patronized by Bill Gates.

We visited King's College, which was exceedingly beautiful, particularly its cathedral. This had been filled with propogandic bas-reliefs by Henry VIII and then used as a stable for Oliver Cromwell's army during their campaigns to destroy priceless stained-glass and other royal iconography during the Civil War. Luckily, the usefulness of the building's windows to keeping the army and animals warm prevented their destruction. Oh and it also has the largest fan vaulting, I think in the world.

I ate lunch at a pub called The Eagle, where Watson and Crick discussed their research. While they 'discovered' DNA, I discovered that Steak and Ale Pie is the most delicious thing ever.

In other news, Hugh Laurie attended Cambridge, where he pursued rowing, following in the footsteps of his Olympic-winning father, that is until he lost to Oxford, and decided to turn to acting.

Cambridge also presented by far one of the coolest things I have ever seen--a clock built by alumnus John Taylor. It possesses a large gear that ticks in rotation with each second, whilst a large and sinister insect hybrid sits atop and eats the passing moments. For you Greek-learned, the architect fittingly named it the 'Chronophage.' It is supposed to remind us of Time's consuming nature, and that it is not on our side. There is also more to it about the time only being completely accurate every once in awhile, but I did not really understand that bit. While slightly creepy, it was completely awesome. Sadly my picture did not come out well, but it's really something you need to see in person for the full impact anyway.

To escape the cool, English drizzle we retreated to Cambridge's free museum (I'm loving this country's embrace of free museums), which like most others here, consisted mostly of Greek, Roman and Egyptian artifacts. Apparently somewhere in one of the libraries was the first manuscript of Winnie the Pooh, though I did not get to see it.

Portsmouth

The next trip sponsored by the program (so I suppose ultimately sponsored by us...) was to Portsmouth, a port city (who knew!) on the Southern coast of England. We spent the day exploring the harbor, and England's naval history. We were given all inclusive passes to visit three historic battleships and various museums and tours. Unfortunately, one of the three ships was undergoing preservation processes and another had a set tour time, which I and many others missed to due some misguidance and a fast clock. Alas. But I did get to wander freely about the battleship Warrior, which as fascinating.

The museums contained lots of interactive activities for children, all of which I annihilated, and a whole lot of prow sculptures, many of which were mythological figures. I must say, I do not like what they did with Calliope. I thought she was supposed to be Jane Austen.

The day was sunny, for once, and we managed to find a very strange and somewhat random stone path that just disappeared into the water, from which we watched the sunset. It was beautiful.

Stonehenge and Bath

The OSAP program went on its 2nd of 4 trips this past weekend [*now many weekends ago*], this one to Stonehenge and the city of Bath. I thought the trip was very nice, but a lot of people thought the sheep garzing in a nearby field were the highlight of the day.

I suppose old rocks don't do it for everyone.




Stonehenge was very VERY cold. So cold that I got halfway through the first audioguide speech before calling it quits and returning my hands to their pockets. I honestly don't understand why so many students were disappointed, since that implies they had some sort of expectations that were not fulfilled. It was exactly what I expected. They're rocks; they're not going to put on a show for us. I think the true grandeur of the site is crippled by the fact that it is such a prominent tourist site. Just imagine if you came upon those rocks at random while taking a stroll through a field... pretty awe-inspiring. I mean, I was impressed enough by pillars of rocks someone had taken the trouble to stack in a creek at Old Elicott City, MD (=a lovely place. I highly recommend it if you're ever in the area). Anywho, we were only at the Henge for a little while, enough time to make a slow lap around the circle and peruse the gift shop.







Then we made the arduous treck (and by 'arduous treck' I mean a snoozey ride in a double-decker bus) to see the Roman Baths at Bath. Needless to say, they were pretty cool. I somewhat felt that the site was not particularly explanatory, for example about which baths served which function, but admittedly I did once again ignored the audioguide, which may have been more enlightening. There were several half-excavated areas on display, which made me nostalgic for my Rome days. The pictures I took would've been very helpful a few months ago when I wrote about these baths for Carol NdeV, but such is life. Like a good tourist, I bought a bottle of the bath water, which I shall of course keep for posterity.


The actual city of Bath was quite impressive. Some of the people on the trip even went so far as to say that it looked nicer than Oxford... I don't know if I'd quite agree with that, but its bigger city feel was a nice change. As night set on at its early winter hour, we walked the streets and came upon Bath's famous Roman bridge and some adorable tea and leather shops before the sleepy bus ride home.

An Introduction to Oxford

I feel the best way to summarize my experience in Oxford thus far would be to tell you the little anecdote of how one day when I was reading a book in one of the University libraries, on one of the pages someone had crossed out the word ‘less’ in the text and petulantly scrawled ‘fewer!’ in the margin.

Take that as you will.


So. I suppose I should explain something about the educational system here. Rather than classes, the student’s schedule consists of tutorials, which are private meetings with an assigned tutor in the subject of your choice. The term generally includes a primary tutorial which meets once weekly, and a secondary tutorial which meets once a fortnight. (My tutorials are studying the archaeology of the Roman Empire outside of Italy, and Greco-Roman religion.) A reading list and an essay are assigned for every tutorial, so that in the brief eight-week term, twelve essays are written. Additionally, there are a multitude of lectures in every subject offered daily, which are open to the general student body and, in some cases, the public. So basically, the term is what you make of it, and relies heavily upon your own initiative. Well that’s enough of the mechanics of it. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.


My particular college (I believe there are 38 that make up Oxford University) is Christ Church…which is a rather large and prestigious one, if I do say so myself. Excepting a certain Fish Fiasco, in which my roommate and I were clapped in shackles and hauled off to the dungeon for taking a picture of a fish in the courtyard’s fountain, Christ Church is a lovely place. For you Harry Potter fans, the dining hall was the basis for Harry Potter’s great hall, and the scene where Harry and Malfoy meet for the first time was filmed on the steps there. Lewis Carroll also studied there, and the characters from Alice in Wonderland are in one of the dining hall’s stained glass windows. Einstein taught there for a brief time as well. And the poet W. H. Auden, who wrote the poem “The Shield of Achilles”, which I read for my terrible interview with Oxford some four years ago. Ironic.

Unfortunately I don’t live in the college, but rather a pit of an apartment complex, twenty minutes (on foot) from the center of town. But luckily there’s an absolutely gorgeous meadow nearby, which, as a local told us, was documented by William the Conqueror in his surveys of 1067/8 because every year in the winter the meadow becomes a lake, and in the summer it dries up. Pretty cool to be looking upon the same sight as people did nearly a thousand years ago.

So far, my favorite places are the meadow, the botanical gardens (which are free like most of the museums here), and the rock bar that offers heavy metal karaoke on Monday nights. (Say, today is a Tuesday…)The OSAP program took a trip to London two Saturdays ago, but I felt like I only saw the ghost of the city, so I’m going to go back and explore it more thoroughly. Tomorrow’s slated for another day of Oxford exploration, and this Saturday, OSAP is taking us to Stonehenge and Bath. I’m pretty excited!

That’s all for now.

less fewer!

-Cindy

PS I will update this when I bloody well please.