Cambridge, Day 1

I don't know what it is, but for some reason we cannot seem to arrive anywhere on time. Perhaps it's because things seem like they're going in slow-motion in the United Kingdom. Or maybe it's because of a lack of good planning. Whatever it is, again, we arrived late, this time to Cambridge. While annoying (because, trust me, I am very annoyed because aren't we supposed to act as professionals here? How professional can one be when being herded off a bus and told they have to not eat for another few hours? Shouldn't we be preparing to be early and not late? Doesn't this make us look bad?!? But I digress...), it serves as a good reminder for how to act--and prepare--for when I am in the field. A couple of lessons lie within these constant late arrivals:

1.) Always allow enough time to travel. If a website or person says it'll take an hour, allow at least an hour and a half. Maybe that's the neurotic being that I am, but I'd rather be early than apologize for making people wait.

2.) Never trust MapQuest. Never. I've always gotten lost while using it and now? Now it's given our driver faulty time estimates, which goes back to my first lesson of allowing puh-lenty of travel time. Seriously.

3.) Enjoy the ride. While severely annoyed by this, I realized there was nothing I personally could do to make us get there on time. All I could do was breathe deeply, put on some good tunes on my iPod and watch the gorgeous British scenery. I theorized that if I looked at this as a gift, it would be come a gift. And it did.

After checking into our lovely, um, temporary home (see last entry for full details), we all headed into the heart of the city for our visit with a couple of faculty members from Cambridge University. The walk to the campus was lovely, albeit drizzling. Cambridge is exactly what I would picture a university city to be: charming, full of brick and stone buildings and lots of friendly people. The lawns and parks were lush--a shade of green I rarely see. A shade that tells that the city indeed gets plenty of rain and this makes for a gorgeous and picturesque scene.

Nearing campus, I noticed that the roads were narrow and didn't allow for cars to park. Then I realized that there weren't too many cars around. Instead bikes lined alleyways and were locked around anything stationary. I later found out that undergraduates cannot have cars, so bicycling was the preferred form of transportation for most of the student body, even during the chilly winter months. I was charmed and delighted by the rows of multi-colored bikes, which turned up everywhere I went.

The visit with the professors from Cambridge was very interesting and enlightening for a couple of reasons. They were both warm, welcoming and quite entertaining. It was interesting to hear about how this prestigious institution does things. The school is broken into 31 distinct colleges, where students live and learn. Each college has its own faculty and staff who work closely with the students. Our hosts made it very clear that they were tied to the students and that they cared about their progress and success. They all personally know their students and work closely to ensure that they are successful. What I took from the presentation is this: you have to be among the best to get into this school for a reason. Once you're in, though, it's almost impossible to fail because of the amount of support behind you, helping you. The faculty and staff will do anything to help their students. One thing that sticks out to me was that one of our hosts said that no student should have to leave Cambridge for monetary reasons; they'll find ways to help students out no matter what the problem. It was really inspiring to see how devoted they are to them.

After our talk with the faculty, we were taken on a tour around the campus. The school isn't strictly a campus like in America, where there is the campus and then the city surrounds it. Instead, the campus and city coexist and intertwine. One minute you can be walking through one of the schools and the next you'll be strolling down a street filled with shops and cafes. I learned that the schools actually own much of the city's land and rent it out in order to make money to pay for upkeep on buildings and to pay salaries and such. Everything we saw was intentionally a part of the school even if we didn't realize it.

Our guide told us many legends, fables and tales about the school and its history. At one point we were in one of the churches on campus (each school has its own church, so there were 31 different churches) and we found out that Oliver Cromwell's head was buried somewhere in the premises. We left the building soon after that tale was told thankfully.

One of my favorite stories was told outside of King's College. On the top of the entrance there is a statue of King Henry VIII, who funded the school. In one hand is supposed to be a sceptor. One night, nearly a hundred years ago, a student scrambled up the wall where the statue stands and replaced the king's sceptor with a chair leg. It stayed that way for a while and when officials found out the prank, they found it so amusing that they let it stay because they recognize the value of good legends. The school is full of legends and stories like that, which make the school both more real and more magical to me. Cambridge has been in existance since the 1200s, so the stories we heard on the tour have been handed down through many generations of students. To think what that must do for their pride and sense of identity--it's amazing. It makes me value the things that schools do to invoke pride and investment in students. And it's something I believe professionals should always strive to do in order to help students succeed. Between the legends, stories and commitment of the faculty and staff of Cambridge, it's no surprise that it's lasted this long and that it has the prestigious image that it does.

While I may not be fortunate enough to work for this school, I will definitely carry a bit of Cambridge pride with me through life because I can now say that I studied there...if only for a day or two!