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!