of mathematicians and punting

Cambridge (the original), UK

19 July 2008

I've always wanted to see for myself how the land of geniuses is like. Having visited (the fake) Cambridge in Massachussets (where Harvard and MIT are) in 2005, it was finally time to make a 'pilgrimmage' of sorts to the legendary town where all our (Singaporean students') misery begin and end.

With an overwhemling percentage of fellow interns hailing from there, it wasn't too hard to find one who would be willing to bring me back home. Lots of them study mathematics, descendants of our beloved prime minister, a respected alumni. I tagged along with my Vietnamese friend, who works in the same dept, when she went back to Cambridge for a dinner. The extremely unreliable weather forecast nearly thwarted our plans, butI decided that it was today or never, let it rain for all I care.

The ride there was pleasant enough. Getting out of the hustle and bustle of the city and being transitioned slowly into the countryside with its rolling plains, fields of flowers in full-bloom and cattle grazing was therapeutic enough. The length of the train ride (1.25 hours) was lost in the nice chat we had.

meet my friend, thuong! :)

Upon arrival, things weren't quite as serene and quiet as I had hoped it to be. Alas, it was a summer saturday and the student town was transformed into a giant tourist attraction. The streets were full of people and the university has cleverly (what do you expect?) cashed in on the visitors. There was a long line to enter King's college (the most famous college of the university) and one had to pay about 5 quid, or something like that just to go see the chapel and grounds. Thankfully for me, all Thuong had to do was to flash her student card and we just walked right along the queue and into the college. The King's college chapel is home to the King's college choir- one of world renown, especially at Christmas time ('Festival of 9 lessons and carols', et cetera). The chapel is supposed to be the most magnificent in both Cambridge and Oxford, but it's really nothing compared to all the other great European cathedrals, so i was none too impressed. but still, for a college, it's not bad; and considering that they hold services in there every day, and students actually attend it, that i find more remarkable.

the line starting to form outside...

outside king's college

side profile of the chapel -->

in the choir

inside the chapel...

on the grounds of king's college the flag is up, and the fountain filled with water, only because it's graduation day!

I never understood the complicated education system of the university of Cambridge until this day. Thuong explained to me that within the university there were 31 colleges, each independently run. These colleges house students, and organise what is known as 'supervision', which are 1-to-1 sessions between the student and a senior supervisor (usually a PHD student) once a week for each subjecy. It's the equivalent of 'tutorials' at normal unis. Wow, i never knew they had such personal attention. Every college thus has their own administration (and separate, different entrance fees for visitors), own chapel, hall, library etc. The interesting thing is that students are not split into colleges based on their fields of study. Each library has a collection of books across all disciplines. Amazing. Obviously, the colleges also represent the heart of student life and there is a lot of rivalry among them. I only visited 5 colleges that day (Downing, King's, Trinity, St John's and Queen's). Each was different in their own right, but all beautiful, full of grandeur, and awe-inspiring. i can totally see how students are so motivated and clever there.

downing college (looks like some resort!)

Queen's college
looks like some place out of a fairytale!

'mathematics bridge' in queen's. (some great engineering feat, apparently)

Thuong is from Trinity, which also explains why we spent the longest time there. Wasn't entirely bad though, since Trinity is also the biggest and richest (the amount of land they own in the UK is only 2nd to the queen). More importantly, we had picked the right day to come, because it was graduation day for the masters students, so there was a banquet, and you can walk on the grass. only on graduation day :) we were slightly late for the lunch tho, but we did manage to get some dessert and drinks. the cup of strawberries in milk & sugar was sooo good, and the bottle of apple juice lasted me for about 4 days. haha. we totally blended in with the guests at the graduation. the garden at trinity was especially beautiful, with carefully planted flowers which had a violet colour theme, all in full bloom, and trees that were manicured with equal care. more importantly, within the walls of the colleges, it was an oasis of calm, a world of difference from the noise and crowds just outside.

me and my apple juice bottle (and the library in the background)

thuong and her porter.

the hall of trinity college (where they have their meals)

more lawns (except you cant step on the grass!)

in the beautiful garden

with the manicured trees (can you spot them?)

one of the manicured trees had a secret opening at the back - it is her secret hideout!

another part of the college's sprawling grounds!

The river Cam runs through the town, and through some of the colleges, and is very pretty. A favourite activity along that river is punting, which really reminds me of what we always do in Chiangmai, but the people here would rather think of it as 'Little Venice'. It was quite a crowded day though, and the narrow river was quite full. It was also quite chilly with threats of rain (remember the weather forecast?) so i decided to give it a miss (anyway, how different can it get from the rafting we did down the mekong, right? haha.) it must be quite romantic tho, and james & sarah mentioned at lunch on sunday that their friend proposed to his girlfriend there - hired a boat and filled it with rose petals, how terribly sweet, awww :)

a typical cambridge postcard picture :)

boats for self-hire (i.e. not a chauffeur punt)

Another reason why it resembles Venice, is because of the effort that has gone into trying to replicate what they have on Venice. In St John's college, one of the bridges over the river is called the Bridge of Sighs, after the one in Venice.

there! the bridge of sighs. (i think we saw the wrong one in venice last time?)

we then went shopping a little after lunch (for books, what else?), and walked around somemore till it was time for me to leave, and for Thuong to go for her dinner. She very kindly invited me to stay, but i wasn't keen on walking back home past midnight alone, plus i was tired out from all that walking (and waking up early on a saturday morning!).

the market

graduation takes place in the white hall.

that all-too-familiar crest that adorns every GCE booklet cover!

no prizes for guessing the name of this cute church!

cambridge is a bicycle city - even 'car park' actually refers to 'bicycle park' - unless genuises have their brains wired differently?

My storybook accompanied me half the way, and i was dozing off when a rowdy bunch of youngsters got onto the train, bound for the saturday night life of london.

GCE- the average singaporean student's much-feared nemesis.

there, i've paid homeage to those conspirators. too bad the closest most sg students come to know about cambridge are the exams, not the beautiful town i had the privilege to visit.