Cornelius O'Boyle and his Troope of Intelligent Ducklings...

...Or so we started to call ourselves as we marched through the rain on a day trip at Cambridge.

So, I recently got invited to participate in an extra one credit class for only ten kids. This "Honours Seminar" is intended "to encourage appreciation of the part that intellectuals play in shaping cultural values. Using lectures, exhibitions, recitals and other events taking place in London, this discussion-based seminar introduces students to the role that artists, authors, academics, journalists and broadcasters play in the formation of British public opinion. Particular attention is paid to the role that universities play today in helping to form this intelligentsia.". To do this, we're attending a series of cultural events throughout the semester and discussing them. In addition to these events, our professor, Prof. O'Boyle, took us to Cambridge one Friday so that we could see what a British university among the top 4 in the world is like.

The day started off with us walking through part of the city to a pub along the river Cam. The river Cam is what gives Cambridge its name, as it was a good place to ford the river (Cam bridge). We got to see some punts, the watercraft involved in the traditional Oxford and Cambridge recreational activity of "punting". If you're unfamiliar with this, think Venetian gondolas, only they're flat like barges and you don't have a rudder...you only have the pole with which to push yourself along. Prof. O'Boyle told us that it's a common and fun thing to strap a few punts together, get a bunch of friends, and go punting up the river while drinking wine or champagne. Anyway, upon hitting our first pub, we had a late pub lunch and a pint or two. I had Cumberland sausages and mash, which was absolutely delicious and quite hearty. It had sausages, mashed potatoes, peas, & gravy, all on top of a quite large Yorkshire pudding (kinda like a dense bread...hard to describe...see my Webshots pictures). After lunch, we made our way through the rest of the town, visiting various colleges at Cambridge (and getting in for free b/c O'Boyle was a Cambridge alum). We concluded the evening at another pub, but there's quite a bit of background in between.

Cambridge is most definitely quite a different educational set-up than American universities (or those I'm knowledgeable of). Within Cambridge University, there are 32 colleges. Each college has most of the majors, it's own dormitories, chapel, dining hall, and classrooms. While each college offers most majors, each is well-known for a few specialties (for instance, St. John's, Prof. O'Boyle's college, is well known for history). When applying to Cambridge, you not only have to get accepted to the university, but also to a specific college. Once in though, you are considered part of that college for life. Another interesting point about the colleges is that you're organized according to stairway, not corridor. For instance, instead of being St. Edward's Hall, section 4B, I might be Churchill College, Court 3, Stairway B, Room 2. This makes it a pretty interesting communal environment, even more so by the fact that you can have undergrads, grad students, and single professors living together on the same staircase. You could in fact be living a few doors away from some of the greatest minds in the world.

An interesting aside...I was probably about 100 yards away from where Oliver Cromwell's head is buried. With the reinstatement of the monarch following the English Civil War, the king had Cromwell's body unearthed and beheaded, and the head was placed on the Tower of London as a warning to all those who favored republicanism against rising up again. However, the members of the college that Cromwell attended got quite upset about this, and managed to steal the head back and bury it somewhere in their courtyard. To date, only two people know where it's buried at all times: the headmaster and the chief porter (head of security). How neat is that!

The end of our night brought us to The Eagle pub (I believe). This was the pub that Prof. O'Boyle went to for 11 years while at Cambridge in various faculties. After the day was over, his department would gather as many as it could and go to the pub. Sometimes the conversation was gossipy, but other times they had legitimate discourses on the history of science, etc. Here, he said, was where Prof. O'Boyle learned to argue properly, drink socially, and learned more from his peers and colleagues than he said he ever did in the classroom. Thus, following, he likes to conclude his tours/discussions with a trip to the pub. Thus, at the Eagle, while kicking back a few pints, we managed to get in some excellent conversation and debate about life at Notre Dame, politics, religion, & gender issues. It was a nice informal, yet intellectual environment.

A bit about the pub itself...two very important things bear mentioning. 1) The pub was a popular hangout for the US Air Force troops stationed in Britain during WWII. One common thing for them to do was to write their name or messages to loved ones on the ceiling by burning it into the ceiling with a candle. Some of these writings are the last things these boys ever wrote, if they went off on a mission and didn't come back. Prof. O'Boyle said he's seen older gentlemen come in at times, look at the ceiling, and just break down in tears. 2) The labs where the atom was first split and the structure of DNA was determined were just a couple hundred of yards down the street. When Watson and Crick made their breakthrough discovery, they ran into The Eagle and screamed "We've discovered the structure of DNA!!!". How awesome!!

Well, I'd love to write more, but I have a philosophy paper due in a few days, so in the spirit of great intellectual achievements occurring in pubs, I think I might just go have a pint while I write. Cheers everyone!

Food porn

Yes yes, I know...that title sounds quite strange and perverse. Allow me to explain.

So, according to our rector, over the past year or two, a new style of food advertising has come about which can best be described as "food porn" (the industry uses this word too...they know it's food porn). Basically, food porn involves making commercials that have artsy shots of really delicious looking food, having someone with a seductive voice describe the food, and playing smooth jazz guitar riffs in the background. It's really quite hilarious if you don't take the commercial seriously. So, at the risk of sounding weird, I've decided to share this cultural oddity so that you may all get a good laugh about it. Here's a clip of one of Marks & Spencers' Christmas ads...watch it and tell me if you don't see what I mean or if you don't laugh. We all think it's pretty humorous over here, but maybe not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHFKE6PD_6U

Hope you enjoy (fingers crossed)

Checking more off the list...

Wow, what an eventful past couple of weeks! Sorry I haven't had the chance to update sooner, but as I've been going along I'm keeping tabs on what I want to write about. It's quite the list after these three weeks. I'll start off with a bit about some classic London/England experiences, and maybe move on to the myriad other topics in subsequent posts.

So, a couple of weeks ago as a weekend day trip, a couple of friends and I went to Windsor, home of Windsor Castle and Eton College (famous as where Princes William and Harry went to college). Unfortunately, by the time we got around to visiting Eton College it was already closed, so I can't tell you much about it aside from "It looks interesting from the outside." (shrugs)

What did occupy most of our day however was Windsor Castle, which is one of the royal residences (sadly, the Queen was not in residence when we were there...). Among other things, Windsor Castle is the site of some important state ceremonies and home of the Knights of the Order of the Garter (more on them later). First off, this place is a legit castle...ramparts, towers, moat (no longer filled in, but a garden), etc. It's situated up on a steep hill and about 900 feet above sea level, so you could see any approaching armies a long way off. I asked a tour guide and apparently it was attacked once in the 1200s, but because it was so defensible, no one ever bothered again. The state rooms were absolutely magnificent though. I truly can't fathom the amount of work that must go into the ornamentations for each of those rooms. While the state rooms were wonderful (they didn't allow photography...sorry), the part I enjoyed most about Windsor Castle was learning about the Order of the Knights of the Garter.

A bit of backstory for you...the idea for the order arose from an awkward social situation. At some royal shindig, the Countess of Salisbury happened to lose her garter. Lest she be embarrassed, King Edward III picked it up and tied it around his own leg, which some people tried to poke fun at. He replied, "Shame on him who thinks evil of it" and vowed that he would make the garter the symbol of the highest honour in the land. Thus, the Order of the Garter was established in 1348. There are only 24 knights at a time, and they are selected by the Queen alone to serve for life. In order to be chosen as a knight, you must have done some great service to the State. The knights have regalia that they wear to all State functions, including a garter belt which bears the inscription above in Latin. Ok, two coolest things about the knights: 1) Upon becoming a knight, they are installed (literary, given a stall) in St. George's Chapel. Above each stall is the knight's coat of arms, their symbol, and a sword half-drawn (symbolizing that they're always ready to serve the Queen). Furthermore, within the stall is a plaque containing their coat of arms. When a knight dies, all of the above regalia is removed except the plaque...as such, there are 998 plaques still nailed to the various stalls in St. George's Chapel. 2) In St. George's Hall, in the castle proper, all along the walls and ceiling are the coat of arms of the 998 knights that there have been since the order's inception (we found Winston Churchill's!). Many of them have the same insignia (which we learned were honorary knights from outside the country, i.e. all the Japanese knights had the same coat of arms), but the best part is that some are purely white. This is to signify knights who committed some grave act of dishonour and were removed from knighthood. Rather than take their coat of arms down, they leave it up there blank as a reminder to everyone else of the wrong they've done.

Our night concluded by eating some cheese, crackers, and scones along the bank of the Thames as the sun set...picturesque :-).

My next major British attraction was Westminster Palace / Houses of Parliament. Again, no photography :-(, but it was really neat to see. If you've ever been to the Senate or House of Reps, it's very similar in that it looks much bigger on TV. Still, it was cool to be in the chambers that you only see on CSPAN and the like. The tour route followed the path that the Queen takes when opening Parliament for the year, and then through the rest of the important political spaces, with commentary on the political process and proceedings. In many ways, it was quite similar to our Congress set-up, minus a few details. What really struck me is that although many of the rooms were sooo ornately decorated, it was the first set of rooms decorated such that didn't seem a bit over-the-top. All of the decoration, paintings, etc. flowed so well together that the room felt like a proper whole.

Finally, this week's excursions into the various neighborhoods of London took me to Brick Lane, now one of my favorite places in all of London (because of the food...if you haven't figured this out yet, food is a major player in what I enjoy :-D ). Brick Lane is a Bangladeshi neighborhood, and as such is well known for it's curry. Curry is absolutely delightful. There are no better words to describe it, and I could sit here typing for many paragraphs and still not convey its deliciousness, suffice to say that I will be eating much more of it. My friends and I all enjoyed some pampardam (think like a tortilla chip, but about the size of a tortilla, and spicy...with chutneys), various curries (I had chicken damsak, which was spicy, sweet & sour, with lentils), rice, and nan bread (like a flatbread...good for sopping up extra curry ;-) ). It was absolutely wonderful! I recommend you all at least try curry someday. If you're really interested, I'll make some for you, because I'm probably going to learn some curry recipes on my return.

With your mouths watering, I leave you thus. Cheers everyone!