Week 7: Climbing Through Cambridge

This week I got to climb on the roof of the King’s College Chapel!  To fully appreciate how cool this is, understand that, in order to get a roof tour, I had to know people who know people who know people.

King’s College Chapel was constructed between 1446 and 1515

Interior of the chapel

Before going out on the roof, my friends and I had to sign a form saying that King’s College wasn’t responsible if we plummeted to our deaths.  Then we climbed more than 100 worn, spiraling stone steps to the top of the chapel.  

Five Reasons to Love the Pembroke-King's Programme (With Pictures!)

I have tried to avoid gushing too much about the Pembroke-King's Programme on this blog, largely because I can't find words to express what an honor and a delight it has been to be here.  My fellow students have described their experience with the PKP as "the best summer of my life," "like a fairy tale," and "like a dream."

Here are five reasons to love PKP--for the most part, I'll let the photos do the talking!

(1) PEMBROKE COLLEGE

The oldest part of the College was built in 1355

Top Secret Week 6

I attended two plenary lectures at the Cambridge Union Society this week, both of which dealt with British and American intelligence during the Cold War.  The first was by a historian of government named Lord Peter Hennessy.  (Yes, that’s LORD Peter Hennessy—you don’t get those back in the States!)  The second was by Professor Christopher Andrew.  Both lectures were fascinating.

Interior of the Cambridge Union Society

Fun fact: the current Master of Pembroke College, Sir Richard Dearlove, used to be the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).  Guess I'd better not try any funny business while living here!

The following highlights of the week have also been declassified...

London

On Sunday, August 8^th I took a trip to London!  I had visited London several times before, so rather than dashing around like a crazy person I was able to soak in a small number of things. 

My group’s first stop was the British Museum, which is enormous and completely overwhelming.  I could have spent days in that building, marveling at relics from a huge number of regions and time periods.  Highlights were the Rosetta stone (which allowed archaeologists to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics), statues and friezes from the Pantheon, and Egyptian mummies.

Interior of the museum

Punting My Way through Week 5

This week I finally went punting!  King's College allows PKP students to borrow their punts, making the enterprise less expensive.

I hadn’t thought to look up any punting tips beforehand, so my friend and I had to figure it out as best we could.  I managed not to fall in the river, but my friend did topple backward into someone else’s punt!  The punt’s occupants and the onlookers on the bank all found this highly entertaining, I’m afraid.

View from the front of the punt

A Morning Walk Through Cambridge

Cambridge is a beautiful city.  Even though I have been walking around it every day for several weeks, I’m still amazed at the natural and architectural beauty that greets you everywhere you turn.  To show you some of this beauty, I’d like to take you along on my typical morning walk to class. 

My walk begins when I step outside into the grounds of Pembroke College.  The College is made up of many interconnected courtyards surrounded by beautiful buildings. 

Sometimes I eat breakfast in the dining hall.

Week 4: Olympians and Poets

Unsurprisingly, this week has carried an Olympic theme.  

On Monday, I attended a lecture in the Cambridge Union Society on “The Olympic Ideal.”  One of the speakers was an Olympian named Cath Bishop.  She is an alumna of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and she won a silver medal in rowing in the 2004 Olympic Games.  

I was intrigued by her description of life as an Olympic athlete.  She had to take scrupulous care of her body: she avoided crowded spaces and even family members to keep from catching an illness.  And she trained seven days a week for years on end: by the time she retired, she had rowed a distance equivalent to several times around the Equator.

The Cambridge Union Society

Oxford

On Sunday, July 22^nd I went Oxford, which Cambridge students call “the other place.” 

After a short walk by the river, my friends and I went to the Eagle and Child, the pub where Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and their writers’ group the Inklings used to meet.  As a fan of both writers, I was thrilled!

The outside of the pub.

The Behavioural Ecology of Week 3

In the somewhat colorful words of a friend of mine, “This has been the week where everyone realizes, “Oh f***, oh f***, oh f***, we have finals in one week.’”

The Pembroke-King’s Programme offers both four-week and eight-week courses, so I have a final exam coming up in my four-week course, “The Behavioural Ecology of Animals and Humans.”  Accordingly, this week has been largely consumed with (1) an essay on the evolution of altruism and (2) some of the most amusing labs (aka “practicals” or “seminars”) I have ever done.

For instance, on Monday we went to the mill pond and fed the ducks in order to test optimal foraging theory.  On Friday, we looked at the personals ads on Craigslist to identify trends in human mating preferences.

The Mill Pond

Week Two Highlights

(1) First guest lecture for my Creative Writing Supervision.  The lecturer was Graham Joyce, and he spoke about narrative structure.  (Interesting note: Joyce compared developing plot to an archeological excavation, which is the same metaphor Stephen King uses in On Writing.  In my experience, writers often describe their process in uncannily similar ways.)

(2)  Walking along the Cam.  The scenery is beautiful, and in some places you would never guess that you were at the edge of a city.

Trip to Edinburgh in Scotland

Thursday, July 5^th

Today was the long coach ride up to Edinburgh.  Along the way, we stopped near Ripon (which is mentioned in the television series Downton Abbey, by the way) to visit the ruins of a monastery called Fountains Abbey. 

The abbey was founded in 1132 and abandoned in 1539 upon King Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries.  The ruins are very beautiful, and unlike anything I had seen in England before.

Then we crossed the border into Scotland.  We drove past rivers, fields of cows and sheep, dense forests, dramatic hills, and ruined stone buildings all shrouded in mist.  Everything looked ghostly and mysterious through the thick fog.

Finally we arrived and settled into the student housing at the University of Edinburgh—I was in Baird House.

First few days in England

Arrival: Saturday, June 30th

Last time I flew to England, the flight went like this:

Sleep.

Sleep.

Sleep.

AAAAAAAAAAGH!!!

The angel-faced little girl behind me, bored after many hours on the plane, had crawled under the seat and grabbed my ankles.

This time was much better.  And I was lucky enough to be picked up at the airport by my relatives, so I didn’t have to mess with trains in my jet-lagged, zombie-like state.

By the way, this was a useful checklist when I was packing (though if you’re bound for England I doubt you’ll want to take shorts or a swimsuit!): http://thestudyabroadblog.com/study-abroad-packing-list-2-2/

First day of the Pembroke-King's Programme: Sunday, July 1st

I couldn’t check into the Pembroke-King’s Programme until the afternoon, so I spent the morning with my relatives in Dedham.  We walked along the Stour to Flatford Mill, an area much beloved by the famous painter John Constable.  In case anyone had forgotten how beautiful the English countryside is, some reminders:

 

Less than one week to Cambridge!

Less than one week until I leave Texas and fly to Cambridge University in England!  I'll be studying abroad for two months through the Pembroke-King's Programme, and I plan to write about the highlights of my trip on this blog.

Pembroke-King's Programme website: http://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/ip/pkp/

Pembroke College: