That Place and the Other One

Walking towards King's College Chapel, Cambridge

The past four or so days, I visited two of the most highly acclaimed universities in the world: Oxford and Cambridge. I had the idea to add them to my trip as early back as Paris to hopefully spark some motivation to make some headway on my THESIS. Despite being surrounded by brilliant minds and architecture commissioned by kings (most likely Henry VIII), there was not much headway on my paper. However, not all way lost. I got to see the amazing architecture of the colleges, find some pretty quaint coffee shops, and learned about a completely different school system.

DID YOU KNOW, that Oxford and Cambridge follow the same college system?


Dining Hall of Exeter College, Oxford



Basically, students who wish to attend the university apply to one college directly. You decide which college to apply to, not necessarily based on which discipline you'd like to study, but by who is a fellow at that college, the prestige of the specific college/how wealthy it is/location of the college within the town and university, and on that college's own traditions and legislation. Pretty much, each college is the dorm/dining hall/tutorials and life of the student. The only time you ever need to leave is when you have a (non-mandatory) lecture scheduled elsewhere. AND, the entire year is a progression towards a final exam at the end of the year. The first two are really just to get to the next year, and your thrd is the one that determines the status of your graduation--whether you are a first, a first second, second second or third. I don't know if this description really helped anyone understand the British system, but I thnk it gets the point across that it is completely different than what we have in the States.



View from the cafe I found in Oxford



Oxford was a pretty touristy place overall. There were tour options to go on themed tours such as Harry Potter, Alice and Wonderland, Inspector Morse, Ghost tour, J.R. Tolkein among others celebrating the esteemed alumni of the university. They even had a red tourist bus driving around, which I didn't expect to see, but I guess it makes sense. While I was there, I also found a very nice coffee shop I had high tea at--ginger cake with lemon icing with black tea. It was a lovely little spot that looked out on a library in a middle of a quad surrounded by colleges. While I was there, a big regada between the colleges was going on too--although I didn't attend the races, I did purchase an Oxford crew sweatshirt. Close enough?



Girton College, Cambridge



Of the two schools, Cambridge was my favorite. This status may have been earned by the fact I actually stayed at a college! Thank you couchsurfers for getting me in contact with Tim, the nice Cambridge student who let me live in his room the past two nights. He showed me around Girton and pretty much gave me the inside scoop on life there. Although Girton is one of the poorer colleges that only became affiliated with the University in around the 1940s (originally established as a woman's college) it is now a part of the University and is very modest. Especially when you compare it to King's or Trinity. Those are the two oldest colleges (I think) and were both established by either King Henry VIII or some royalty. While I didn't get to really explore the city centre much in Cambridge, I DID get to eat at the dining hall and talk to crazed students worried over their status in the housing lottery.



Walking into Clare College from the river





Interesting fact: Oxford was afraid that they would have to close down when the Bubonic Plague swept through Europe. Where did they think of moving? Cambridge of course! They even bought the main market square of Cambridge, and still own it. Buy anything in that square and the profits go to "that Other Place." Hilarious.