Bishop's corollary: And a heckuva long plane ride.
Alright, I know it's been a while, but I have officially arrived at Cambridge. Haven't been able to post until now due to severely limited Internet access. As such I'll update when I can, but it may take a while, days maybe weeks at a time.
First off: the plane ride over. Good. Lord. I thought it would be cold traveling at 37000 feet, but it wasn't. I came off that plane feeling like a camel who had just crossed the Gobi desert. It also made it rather difficult to sleep (that and the fact that The Incredible Hulk was playing on my entertainment center, not exactly a film that puts you in a sleepy mood). All that said, we arrived at Gatwick at around 7 am their time and after the swiftest check through customs I've ever seen (guess they figured "Heh, American students, what harm can they do?") our UK adventure began.
We met Andy Sinclair, our chief UK guide/human resource center outside the airport. Andy's been with almost every Lee-Cambridge group since the program began. We rode his bus north to Cambridge (during which time I had to fight to keep my eyes open, if I fell asleep it would have made the jetlag even worse). We arrived about two hours later and checked into our home away from home the Hamilton Hotel.
Myself and the rest of the guys got put in the annex in the hotel back lot. It's cozy but rather cold in the mornings. Good thing they give us extra thick blankets.
After we'd unpacked and had lunch, Andy took us out back and gave us our bikes, the main form of transportation for students in the city of Cambridge. I was both excited and terrified about this: on the one hand it was nice to have a bike again, on the other hand we were told we had to ride in the street with the cars, not on the sidewalks.
We rode around Jesus Green (the nearest park) to get a feel for our bikes, then hit the streets (not literally hit...you know what I mean). I found myself with a group of eight, which quickly became a group of four, then three as we lost sight of Anna R. who flew threw the streets like Little Red Riding Hood on speed.
After a couple of near misses with some red mechanical titans (ie double decker buses) I broke off with Mel and we rode a path we found along the river Cam. Here's something I bet you didn't know: the name Cambridge came about because when the town was first settled, someone built a bridge over the river and the name stuck. Ah British literalism, gotta love it.
The next day we went on a walking tour, trading our sore bums riding for sore feet from walking. We split into two groups and explored several of Cambridge's main colleges (Cambridge has dozens of colleges but apparently they all make up one "university"). Our guide was kindly old Irishman (at that's what he said) who took us first through Magdeline (pronounced Maudlin) College, where C.S. Lewis was educated and and later in his life taught as a professor of literature.
After Mageline, we toured St. John's and Trinity colleges (seeing a theme with names here?). Unfortunately, before we got to Trinity my camera was down to one picture (memory card's not as big as I thought). I'll have to go back and get pictures of some of the cooler stuff later, like the statue of Henry VIII holding a chair leg (he's supposed to be holding a scepter but one year a student stole it. Now as a prank they put something new in his hand every once in a while, like a bike pump or coca-cola can).
Here are some pictures of St. John's (as least I think they are, they all kinda look the same at first).
This I think is the Bridge of Sange, where prisoners were led across to be executed. Nowadays it's the bridge students cross on their way to take their finals.
When the walking tour was done, Adam and I decided to go around town ourselves for a while. We each had a pasty for lunch (meat wrapped inside a crust) which were good but extremely hot. Our tour guide ran into us and told us a story about engineering students who hoisted a car on the roof of St. John's. They did it at night, and to distract passers-by they had their girlfriends stand outside the buildings and hike up their skirts so no one noticed the vehicle suspended in midair. Apparently they got a certificate from the college for creativity.
Adam and I spent the rest of the day exploring Cambridge's museums. We went to three in all: the Whipple Museum of Science, the Zoology Museum (aka the Temple of Charles Darwin), and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology where I took my last picture of the day: an altar of Hercules left behind by the Romans when they abandoned Britain.
Today was our first day of overseas class. We followed Andy on a rather perilous journey on our bikes to St. Paul's Cathedral, where all our classes in Cambridge will be held.
Our lecturer was Dr. Raby, who spoke to us about Romeo and Juliet, and he seems to be quite the Shakespeare expert (which will hopefully will make the class interesting since R + J is in my opinion one of Shakespeare's most boring plays). Here's something I bet you didn't know. Shakespeare borrowed the majority of the story of Romeo and Juliet from a man named Arthur Brooke and his play Romeus and Juliet, although he changed the theme from the condemnation of forbidden love to the beauty of it.
Alright, that's all for now. My battery's dying and the Internet is acting like a hyperactive prarie dog, up down up down up down up down. See you next post, which will be soon, Lord (and WiFi) willing.
Great post. Loved the story and the pictures.
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