"From tutors to tailors, dons and drapers"

A festival going on in Cambridge right now with a lovely name: the Festival of Ideas.

I left the lab somewhat early to take in one of the talks this evening, a talk on town-gown relationships at the Country Folk Museum. The hour-long talk explored the way that the university and town have interacted over the past 800 years by examining records of the clothing industry in Cambridge. It was quite interesting to hear some local history, see the roots of some of the university clothing traditions, and spend some time thinking about the college system, as it exists now, evolved.

Under the Apple Trees

Saturday (24 Oct) here was overcast and threatened rain, but I was a bit stir crazy after a week in the lab. On hearing that the weather was nicer than it looked from my window, I examined a map and left in search of a place I've been meaning to go for some time now: The Orchard.

left to right: an entrance to the Orchard off public land by the Cam; the back of the tea hall facing the apple trees; chairs and tables in the apple orchard

The Orchard is a tea garden with a pedigree. Like the Eagle (a pub near Trinity frequented by, among others, Watson and Crick), famous Cantabridgians have frequented this old-time out-of-the-way tea garden in nearby Grantchester. The establishment is a bit of a pilgrimage for devotees of Rupert Brooke, an English poet who rented rooms at the Orchard in the early 1900s, with a small museum devoted to him adjacent to the parking lot.

I some of Brooke's poetry over my cup of tea and scone (with clotted cream and jam, yum!). My favorite excerpt--at first read, that is--was part of Brooke's The Old Vicarage, in which he mentions parts of Cambridge that I've been.

...And things are done you'd not believe
At Madingley on Christmas Eve.
Strong men have run for miles and miles,
When one from Cherry Hinton smiles...

Making History

By a fluke of dates, I ended up in Cambridge in a big anniversary year--800 years for the University and 50 years for Churchill College. Today, I attended a commemoration of one of these anniversaries: the Lady Mary Soames, Sir Winston's daughter, came to college to plant a tree as her father had done inaugurating the college, his living memorial, 50 years ago to this date. It was obvious that Mary has done some gardening before--after moving a bit of the top soil over the root ball with the same shovel her father had used (well polished for the occasion), Mary tamped down the dirt a bit with her foot.

Lady Mary Soames (left, with shovel) being introduced before planting the commemorative tree (already partially planted, at right)

In fact, Sir Winston has been featuring prominently in my activities this past week. Last Sunday (after playing tourist in Cambridge on Saturday and positing for matriculation photos on Saturday, which I mentioned in my last post) I took a field trip with the MCR to Chartwell, Sir Winston's residence in Kent. After about two hours on a coach driving from Cambridge to slightly east of London, we arrived at Chartwell:

Chartwell, from the back yard

Sir Winston bought Chartwell in 1922, while his wife Clementine was pregnant with Mary. It was--according to the accounts I heard--a quite run down country estate with 80 acres. The Churchills renovated extensively, adding on an east wing and changing the existing building. The east wing includes the lovely dining room with a view of the back yard (and the lands, on a clear day), a sitting room and a bedroom all decorated by Clementine. Sir Winston's library and study, renovated areas from the original house, are wonderful rooms. If I can't have the library from Disney's Beauty and the Beast, I'll settle for something like Sir Winston's library!

another addition: Marycote, a cottage built as a playhouse for Mary. I'm posting in the left window (after a mad dash from setting up the camera!)

Tan and me posting with a bench facing the backyard outside of Chartwell

Tourist for a Day

This weekend, I took advantage of the end of Freshers' Week to become a tourist for a day in Cambridge, my city home. My college MCR sponsored free professional tours of the city, stopping at the "Big-Three" colleges (King's, Trinity and St. John's), Newton's apple tree and an (unadvertised) stop for free samples at the fudge shoppe across the street from the Senate House .

One of the nicest things, by far, about our tour was the fact that the tour guide tailored it to us and made it more of a 'taster' (with loads of ideas for later visits) than a self-contained tour. That being said, we saw quite a bit for the two hours we spent wandering around near the market square, including a lovely fan-vaulted ceiling in Kings' College Chapel (serenaded by organ and choir practice (although it wasn't the Kings' Choir)), the wonderfully ridiculous Corpus Clock (You-tube: The Corpus Clock and Chronophage, the tour guide unintentionally narrating part of this home video led the other half of the MCR members who turned up for the tour) and St. John's Bridge of Sighs.

Fan vaults over the organ in King's College Chapel (of the Lessons and Carols fame)

Bridge of Sighs over the Cam at St. John's

Fresher's Week

Lo and behold, I am officially a Cambridge student! After a few weeks in an ambiguous status, I'm in the midst of 'Fresher's week'. 'Fresher's week' is the first week of the Michaelmas term, the full week before 'full term'--the 8 weeks of term when classes are held--begins. As far as I can tell, it's Cambridge's version of Freshman orientation, with a healthy amount of the schedule conflicts between college, department and university obligations and events that seem to partially define the Cambridge experience. I'm spending the week in the midst of safety courses, graduate events, filling out forms, gym orientations and getting myself a proper orientation of the Cavendish (the physics buildings) and the 'uni' as a whole.

Here's a smattering of the fun stuff I've been up to since Fresher's week kicked off with a mass delivery of pizza to the MCR on Friday:

• A traditional British pub lunch, consisting of an Indian-inspired lamb burger and a pint, with a bunch of other first year graduate students from my college on Saturday. Slow service is just an excuse to chat for longer.
  
  
• A scavenger hunt, running around my college with a bunch of other MCR members looking for minutia like the one outdoor drinking fountain on college and making instant friends with a JCR member wearing his bright red 'hello I'm a Fresher' college t-shirt. Look, we found a patch of blue sky!To translate: MCR is the Middle Common Room, which consists of the members of my college who have completed the equivalent of our undergraduate education. JCR is the Junior Common Room, consisting of undergraduates and SCR is the Senior Common Room ('readers' or faculty). Any of these (JCR, MCR, SCR) are used as nouns to refer to either the people that comprise the social body or the rooms in the college set aside for their meetings.
  
  
• A few hours at the University Society Fair, informally the 'Fresher's Fair'. An expanded version of the Activities Fair I had experienced as an undergrad, the 'Fresher's Fair' had groups represented from various colleges as well as the university as a whole. I chatted with everyone from fencers and jugglers to Jane Austin dance societies and pick-up orchestras. I came away with a bit of loot: a free t-shirt, two cycle reflectors, more cycle maps and innumerable fliers.
  
  
• A Quiz Night in the MCR. My team did abysmally. We got the 'wooden spoon'--Cambridge code for last place--but had loads of fun.