A Life Less Ordinary

Oxford and Stonehenge

by Irene

Hi Aleonka,

Wanted to share with you the Oxford and Stonehenge trip.

 

After staying first one in Cambridge, I decided to not stay here for another weekend because there is actually not very much to do. A colleague from Berkeley with whom I became friends with over the course of the past two years is also travelling through Europe. He stopped by Cambridge for a visit, and the following day he, myself, and the other IARU student – WH – and I set off for Oxford. I had booked WH and me a hostel last minute, and almost wasn’t able to get us spots! The hostel was absolutely packed when we arrived. I guess Oxford is a hot tourist spot, especially over the weekend. The interesting bit about Oxford is that it was just as busy on the streets around 10pm as 2pm. At 2pm everyone is shopping and visiting colleges, and at 10 foreign teenagers (I’d say mainly from Spain and Italy) go to clubs. It was very odd to seem, them, actually, because everyone going out to clubs was about 16-18 or so years old – so much younger than the folks who go to clubs in America! On Friday night we hung out with two girls we met at the hostel – I tried Guinness bread, which is dark brown, moist and crumbly, and over all quite delicious! On Sunday, we met up with Matt and the friends he went to Oxford to visit. His friends are working at Oxford and gave us a more ‘insider’s tour of their colleges than we could’ve seen on our own. I saw Church College, supposedly the dining room which inspired the one from the Harry Potter movies. But in addition, John Locke is buried in the College’s chapel, and it’s where Lewis Carol lived and wrote Alice in Wonderland.

 

All of Saturday WH and I were also preoccupied with a logistical question of how on earth we were going to get to Stonehenge and back to Cambridge in time to watch the football game at 7:30pm. I had looked into numerous options – including renting a car, joining an equivalent Zipcar, looking into car shares, all types of buses and trains – and for one reason or another the options didn’t work. We finally bought tickets, though, and left Oxford in the morning on Sunday. Stonehenge is only 80 miles away from Oxford, but it took over 2 hours and three transfers to get there. It was actually a little bit of a feat to do this, considering the transfers were all 5-7 minutes, meaning the trains absolutely had to be running on time. Unfortunately, second-to-last train was running late and our last train wasn’t – so we had to wait an hour in Exeter for the train to Salisbury – the town 30 minutes away from Stonehenge. Because the journey was so ridiculously not direct, we took pictures of almost every train station/bus stop we were at to document the journey. It was at Exeter that I was using the train station restroom and accidentally rang the alarm bell thinking it was the way to flush the toilet. Apparently there was a rather annoying and loud alarm sound that went off while I was fixing my hair and generally taking my time to exist…..whoops.

 

So Stonehenge is, up close, exactly what it looks like on pictures: a group of rocks. You can’t walk close up to them because quite some time ago someone seriously vandalized the stones. But actually that doesn’t mean the site shouldn’t be visited. I was worried that I might be disappointed, especially after travelling all that way and really putting a lot of energy into searching for a way there. On the contrary, I enjoyed being there. Even though there were a lot of tourists, there was something calming about the place. Five thousand years ago humans began building this structure, which also acts as a month-calendar. Which of today’s man-made structures will last for 5000 years, other than perhaps nuclear storage sites? Not knowing how the stones were erected or put one on top of the other, transported all the way from Wales when they are so heavy, and also have some sort of solar/universe counting capabilities all adds to the wonderment of how much knowledge humans have gained and lost over the course of our evolution. Here we are, at what we consider to be the height of our knowledge, having access to the most advanced technology ever – and yet we don’t know how to have done what people 5000 years ago knew how to do, because their knowledge is not accessible to us.

 

Before heading back to Cambridge, we went into the Salisbury Cathedral, which was built in the 1200s and has the tallest spire in the UK. I think it might be the most beautiful cathedral I’ve ever seen, not counting St. Peter’s (by the way, a Church in College was built by the same person who designed St. Peter’s, if I’m not mistaken). It was absolutely beautiful. Also, a little bit to the side, there was one of only four copies of the Magna Carta – seeing that last bit almost made us late to our train to Waterloo, London – we were seriously running in order to get on it.  

 

Anyhow, from Waterloo it was a rather straightforward trip back to Cambridge. It’s funny how Cambridge now feels like home, in comparison to a completely new place like Oxford or Salisbury. Our final train back to Cambridge from Platform 11 at King’s Cross. Sightings of owls, wizards, flying brooms, and moving pictures still 0, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

 

Pictures coming soon.

 

Some more news from Cambridgeshire

Today I rented a bike for the rest of my time here! I rode it  back to my college but it was extremely busy on the streets and I didn't have a chance to practice to completely break down all the rules engraved in any driver and re-learn everything. So I took a ride around 8-10ish (it is still light out at this time!). It was a lot of fun to ride through Cambridge on a bike, and of course, I could see a lot more of the town! I would say the train of thought was something like this....

1. It's beautiful! Look at the sun setting!

2. Look at me! I'm not a tourist at all! I'm on a bicycle! I'm going to take a picture and look at a map...I guess I am a tourist after all. 

3. Which way would I be going right now were I in America? Ok. Now do the opposite. 

4. YES! I'm getting the hang of this! Oh wait....no I'm not, I'm riding in the wrong lane. Again. Is this a one way street? Is that a double decker on this cobble stone street? 

But at least left turns are easy. It's the right ones that are scary!!

On another note, the people living in my staircase are really nice. We have a full international house. A Singaporean, German, British, Indian(s), Korean(s), American (only me actually), and Singaporean/Chinese. Often times we gather in my room to drink tea and eat various things. My room is the largest and therefore can hold a number of us comfortably. On Thursday evening we are organizing a potluck in the courtyard, and everyone is encouraged to bring cultural food. I don't know what to make, actually. I want to make something Russian -- I was thinking Olivye? Suggestions welcome. Something that is easy to make is a must! 

Okay, that's it for now! 

Love,

Irene

Tidbits from Cambridge

Hey Aleonka,

So I thought I'd post a bit about life here in Cambridge.

Firstly, my room is quite big. It is roughly the size of my freshmen dorm room, but just for me instead of three people. I have decorated it because otherwise all the white wall space would get pretty dreary. I brought quite a few sheets of tissue paper from home and made "flower-like" configurations out of them and hung them on the walls. I also brought small decorative things from home. For example, you're "in a  world where you can be anything, choose to be yourself," Brindha's graduation gift which is this red pouch/purse like jewelry container, and various other things. My room has a sink in it and a window seat. No wireless!

In terms of food, I am shopping at Sainsbury's -- the local grocery store -- and cooking in the little kitchenette downstairs. Mainly I'm eating a lot of bread and jam -- which is highly reminiscent of undergrad, except there jam was cheese. The current exchange rate is about 1.5, and everything is borderline the same price as in the states, but probably more often a bit more expensive.

Trips: I'm currently planning various trips. I'll be visiting Gorelivs (parents friends) the 23rd, and will be going to Oxford/Stonehenge next weekend. I still need to figure out my London weekend, though I think it might be the 16th. I will get back to you ASAP. I was also planning to go to Paris, but I think I'll have to do that during another trip the Europe, seeing as there's already so much to see in the UK. For example, I'd like to go to Brighton and Dover -- south England which I won't have a chance to do if I go to Paris. And yet....Paris sounds so romantic! It just rolls off the tongue!

Entertainment: there's a moderate amount of stuff to do around here. Punting is popular for tourists, though I have yet to try it. Imagine is as a very large canoe....or maybe a large flat-like boat and someone is pushing it with a VERY long metal stick thing (pushing against the bottom of the River Cam. There are a bunch of pubs. We've been watching football quite a bit, and have gone to play tennis. Also, there are a ton of pubs. Oh, I already said that -- it's not an understatement. I went to the Fitzwilliam museum today with a girl from Germany who lives next door to me. It's the University museum and is quite nice (if you ignore all the 18th century paintings -- English art is so boring, really).  Did I mention pubs?

Colleges: there are 30 colleges in Cambridge. The really famous ones include Kings College, Trinity, St. John's, Clare, and Corpus Christi. This is a little paragraph I got off of Wikipedia which explains the totally different method of education here, which really revolves around the colleges (not lectures):

"The principal method of teaching at Cambridge colleges is the supervision. These are typically weekly hour-long sessions in which small groups of students – usually between one and three – meet with a member of the university's teaching staff or a doctoral student. Students are normally required to complete an essay or assignment in advance of the supervision, which they will discuss with the supervisor during the session, along with any concerns or difficulties they have had with the material presented in that week's lectures. Lectures at Cambridge are often described as being almost a mere 'bolt-on' to these supervisions. Students receive between one and three supervisions per week, depending upon their subject. This pedagogical system is often cited as being unique to Cambridge and Oxford (where “supervisions” are known as “tutorials”)

Okie dokie, well ....really, pictures are way more exciting than what I'm writing anyway, so here it is:

 

This is the view outside the office I'm working in, which I didn't know until a local mentioned that this is the main street that runs through all of Cambridge.

Trinity College, where Isaac Newton studied and discovered important things. This is the fountain in which supposedly Lord Byron pranced about naked.

This is supposedly the descendant of the apple tree (standing outside Trinity College) which is part of the legend surrounding Newton's discovery of gravity. 

 
This is the chapel in King's College. It has the largest fan vault ceiling ever (it's really beautiful). You are only allowed to enter a college if you are a member (or, apparently, if you are somehow affiliated with the University). Tourists need to pay to enter or are just not allowed in. There are rather foreboding looking people wearing what can best be described as graduation gowns with purple sashes who give you a stink eye if you look remotely like a tourist. Cameras, maps, and any sign of interest in the architecture must all be put away in order to get in without a hitch.