Week 8: Cambridge

Wednesday 

13 November 2013

A couple of weeks ago, when my brother was leaving home for 2 years, I was going on my last day trip to Cambridge. What a fun time! It was a pretty fall day, and everyone was in good spirits because we didn't have to be on the coach until 9am.

The first thing I did when I got to Cambridge was go Punting on the Cam. I didn't know what that meant until the second that it was happening, but I learned pretty quick. Cam is Old English for river, and a punt is a special type of boat that is steered by someone pushing a long stick-thing through the water. When I first saw the boats I did NOT want to go, because they literally are so flimsy looking and really level with the water. Our guide assured us that the boats can't ever flip over though because of the way they are made (I'm not sure if I believe that).

A boat with my name on it

A boat with my friend Cat's name on it

And me and Cat who just happened to be sitting next to each other

Our Punter Tim. He had a pretty hard job pushing us around but he did great 

A bridge built by some famous science person

Kings College Cathedral

Another college, for really rich kids

The boat ride was the best thing I did at Cambridge. I can't even believe how pretty it was. The river follows the trail of the colleges at Cambridge, so we got to see some pretty incredible architecture, and learn some cool facts about the school and the town. For example, there is one very old and famous bridge over the river which is how Cambridge got its name (River=Cam+Bridge=Cambridge). 

After our boat tour we got a walking tour around the school. My groups tour guide was a graduate of Cambridge and was a scientist, so his skills in humor were very lacking. He kept making fun of Americans, and then he got mad when he thought we weren't paying good enough attention to him. In the end he gave us free postcards though, so I guess that was nice of him. He took us to lots of the science buildings, which was cool because in one of them Watson and Crick discovered DNA, which had kind of been an important discovery.

Kings College Cathedral

Watson and Crick DNA

Cool clock in the center of time. There was a lot of symbolism behind it but I've forgotten now

Inside one of the colleges

Outside of the Cathedral

The stained glass of the Cathedral

Inside the Kings College Cathedral

Evensong by candlelight

The way Cambridge works is different than American Universities. There are separate colleges which people have to apply to get into the school. When they get accepted they live at that college for pretty much their whole school career. There are special apartments there, a dining hall, and all the classes in there at the college. Each college is gated with its own courtyard and everything. You aren't allowed to walk on the grass anywhere in the colleges unless you are a special graduate. We saw one lonely man walking on the grass and I was so tempted to run and join him. The colleges have rivalries with each other, almost as big as the rivalry they have with the Other School (which is Oxford, but we weren't allowed to say that when we were at Cambridge). It was cool to learn about the different colleges and their histories.

Our last activity of the day was going to Evensong at the Kings College Cathedral. It was so good. The guys in the choir are apart of Kings College and study music, so part of their schooling is participating in Evensong. There were candles in the Cathedral and the music was nice. It was the perfect way to end our last day trip!