Looking Back, part 1

Cambridge, England

This entry was posted in my old blog and I decided to move it here to log all my travel adventures in one site. This entry was looking back at a trip that I made years ago, the second time I traveled to Cambridge, England for a Visiting Student Program. 

The picture above is of a college along the Queens Road (if I remember it right). I’ve always passed by this building everytime I go to the department but now, I couldn’t remember what it is called. As you can see, it has a great architecture, which I bet would date back since the 14th-15th century. Imagine, this place was founded around the 12th century, while our forefathers were still in their bahags and living a peaceful life until the Spanish discovered the Philippines in 1521. I love old buildings and this place is full of them. When I walked around the town, I just have to touch the walls and think at the same time, ‘wow! People who lived centuries before me also touched this wall, must have also slipped in the icy, wet road…’ I am very glad that I had the chance to visit and experience this place.

 

This is another entrance that I love in Cambridge because of its history. This is the Trinity College entrance. The story is that the statue of King Henry before was holding a scepter in his left hand and the globe with a cross on top on his right hand. But as the story goes, there came a time when ‘drunk’ students played a prank on this statue by the entrance and replaced the scepter with a leg of a stool. Hehehe… Anyway, this is also obviously an old building and you could even see the three coats of arms that is the symbol (or so) of the college. The clock design must also be standard before because this one looks almost the same with other clocks I’ve seen there, including that of the Big Ben.

The next picture is inside one of the two Catholic churches in town, and the nearest to where we were staying (meaning: probably a 20 minute walk). The design again, is very medieval with arches and ‘domal’ structure at the altar, heavy doors, simple wooden pews, exquisite wall carvings, and stained glass windows. How romantic but the one and only time Eden and I were able to get the schedule right and attend the mass, I was reminded that religion is really a big business enterprise. We went to mass to pray and listen to the word of God but what do we get during the Homily? Mostly a discussion of the church’s finances! We were pretty much disappointed so we consoled ourselves by drinking hot choco and checking our emails after the mass.

This next picture is a punting scene near the Bridge of Sighs. It is a big thing to learn how to punt or just to sit back in the punts during the summer although I think it is all year round, weather permitting. Lucky enough for me, I got to experience punting and even tried to go for one of their traditions where you reach up and go over a bridge and then jump back to the punt when it had finished crossing beneath the bridge. For the avid Amazing Race viewer, this scene might be familiar to you. This was one of the detours in one of the legs of the third season.



But what did we really do there? We did research. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the department where we’ve done our respective researches. (Why didn’t we take a picture of it, anyway?!) But let me tell you, I was happy staying at their library with their almost complete set of journals that runs from floor to ceiling (since I am petite, I always get a kick going up and down their footstools and ladders just to get to the journals I need!), very big tables or small tables set against a window or a heater, extra fluorescent lamps, automatic lighting system, free internet, do-it-yourself photocopy system, borrow-it-yourself system, and most of all, the enter- whenever -you- like- with- your- own- key system. I wish we have something like that here in our own department. It would truly make research more enjoyable.