Monday, August 3, 2009

A visit to the "other" university

This last week was much more relaxing than the previous few. The first one that I have not had atleast one paper due (don't worry I have three due in the next week). I was able to spend more time participating in activities like croquet, basketball, punting, and sightseeing around Cambridge. On Thursday we went to the Wren library, named after the designed by Christopher Wren, that is located at Trinity College (where the race scene in Chariots of Fire takes place). On display there they have a Bible from the 8th century, Isaac Newton's personal copy of the first edition of Principia Matematica with his own notes and corrections in it, and A.A. Milne's first edition copy of Winnie the Pooh.

On Friday we woke up really early to catch a bus to go to Oxford. We found bus tickets for one pound each, the only catch was that we had to leave at 5:30 in the morning. Oxford is a very cool city, much different than Cambridge. It is much bigger and busier, with lots of busses and traffic zooming all over whereas Cambridge has much more of a small town feel to it. We saw several of the colleges, and many of the spots where they film the Harry Potter movies. Also went to the college where C.S. Lewis taught, and had dinner at the Eagle and Child where the Inklings used to meet. The Inklings were a group that included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis would meet to discuss the books they were writing and other things. We actually got to sit at the very table where they would meet, and on the wall they had pictures of them and a framed piece of paper where they had all signed their names.

I went with a few other BYU students, two of which knew a former BYU student who is a faculty member there now. She took us on a tour and was able to get us into a few places for free, like the tower of St. Mary's Cathedral that had an amazing view of the city. At the end of the tour we went to the Oxford Museum of Natural History where they have the last remaining soft tissue from a dodo bird, a dodo bird skeleton, some dinosaur skeletons, and shrunken heads from south america that were used in one of the harry potter movies.

I spent most of Saturday studying. I also found out that my camera arrive, but it is being held hostage by Cambridge customs until i pay them 70 dollars, so I am going tomorrow to see what i can do about that. Luckily one of the other girls in the program has an extra camera, so I have been using it for the last few days, the only thing is she does not have a computer cord for it so I still can't upload any pictures.

Yesterday I taught primary again, it was just me and two five year olds. I taught for the first five minutes and then we ended up drawing pictures on the blackboard for the next half hour. After church we went to the American Military Cemetery that is here in Cambridge. There were dozens of American air bases in the Cambridge-shire area, and many are buried there along with a memorial to all the air men that were lost fighting over the english channel and Europe.
After which we had a testimony meeting in the Kings Chapel.

That's all for now, I will start uploading pictures this week for sure so expect more frequent posts of mainly just pictures.

3 comments:

  1. Love your blog. I thought Oxford was beautiful. We have a picture of us standing by one of the light poles with a gorgeous hanging basket. GM and GP Best

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  2. Hey Clark
    I can't tell you how much I enjoy following your excellent adventure through your blogs. I just love reading them and am so envious. I am glad that you finally got to visit the real university in England! I did make it up to Cambridge once; but, while working for Blackwell's from 1995 to 2006 I visited Oxford over thirty times. I have gone up the tower at St. Mary the Virgin several time to take pictures, and have attended numerous Evensong services in Christ Church cathedral and New College chapel. One summer we attended a marvellous brass and timpany concert in the Magdalen College chapel, where you visited. I have been in the "Bird and Baby" (Eagle and Child) several times. I hope you got to go into Blackwell"s book shop in Oxford. That is the original one. Blackwell's bought the Heffer's bookshops in Cambridge a few years ago. I believe they have finally changed the name to Blackwell's, right? The other evening Sara and I went to see the new Harry Potter. I thought of you and your comment in the blog when we saw the opening scenes of destruction in London. I look forward to seeing all your pictures when you get home. Cheers, Gary

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  3. I did not make it into the Blackwell's in Oxford, but I will have to check out the one here in Cambridge. I have bought books at both Cambridge University Press and Heffer's, there's still a Heffer's around so I don't believe they have changed the name. But there is also a Blackwell's here so I will have to look into that. I did like Oxford a lot, but I dont know if I would call it the "real university in England". I like the smaller feel of Cambridge better; Oxford may be a little older, but Cambridge has produced more than double the Nobel Prize winners as Oxford!

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