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

Other highlights of the week include:

(1)  Creative Writing lecture by Anne Rooney.  She spoke to us about conducting research to add accuracy and concrete detail to our stories.

(2)  The Museum of Zoology.  This excellent museum contains fossils, stuffed animal specimens, and skeletons, including the enormous skeleton of a whale.  The collections put me in awe of our world’s weird and wonderful animal life—who could have dreamed up the flying mouse, pink-headed fruit pigeon, or giant spidercrab?  To top it all off, some of the beetle and finch specimens were originally collected by Darwin!

(3)  Formal Hall in King’s College!  My friends and I were seated next to Dr. Richard Barnett, a historian and Fellow of Pembroke College.  As Americans and Britons are wont to do, we began talking about differences between our countries.  He said he found Americans’ egalitarianism and lack of class-consciousness refreshing.  This assessment was, of course, pleasing to our American ears.

(4)  After the Formal Hall, some friends and I went to a pub called The Eagle.  As it happens, Watson and Crick announced their discovery of DNA there.  Cambridge is just that sort of city.

(5)  First attempt at portrait-painting in art class.  My piece came out looking…well, somewhat humanoid.  Much to my own surprise, the sitter and I are still on speaking terms.

(6)  Guided tour of Cambridge’s Botanical Gardens.  The gardens were beautiful and contained many interesting plants, including some from the southern United States—kept warm in a greenhouse, of course!

The Botanical Gardens

(7)  PKP costume party!  We had to dress up as things beginning with “P” or “K.”  Given the limited contents of my suitcase, I went as “purple,” but some more imaginative people went as a pineapple, a porter, a punter, a peacock, and the phantom of the opera.

(8)  Swing dancing.  Two of the guys in the programme happen to be experienced swing dancers, so they set up an event and taught the basic steps.  Afterward, some of the other students entertained us by playing the piano.  PKP students are just so talented!

Post about London coming soon!