Went on a day trip to Cambridge today. The bus left our campus at around 9 a.m. and a good two hours later, we were breathing the fresh Cambridge air. Compared to my place where you can find many Muslims (bersepah gitu), you hardly find one there. I bet there must be loads of Muslim students around, but throughout my stroll, I only caught a glimpse of letsee.. one greeting her friend who rode the bus with us, one riding a bicycle, one at McDonald’s, another two at McDonald’s as we were leaving.. That’s it. Maybe the rest were busy studying in their dorms, after all, it is exam time. Not many colleges were open for visitors at this time, so most of my pictures were taken from between the gates.
The University is made up of 31 colleges with the oldest founded in 1284 (gosh, no hantu ke if you stay there?). In fact, I can say that half the city is the university. The buildings are old, yet very well-kept. The whole city breathes of history, with many old buildings and some still in its original Tudor style. It really shows how proud they are of their past, taking loads of effort to preserve their history. That reminds me of home. We (still) have a lot of old buildings around but somehow, I dunno, the buildings don’t look old. Perhaps due to too much paint job or ‘modernisation’. Some aren’t that lucky and knocked down. I think we should maintain them to its most original state, lest our younger generations won’t know of our historical background. But that’s just me.
The University colleges really rake in money from tourists all around the world who’d stop at nothing to photograph the rooms or peek at their ‘lives’. What more if they’re like me. I have always wondered how it’d be like to study at such an esteemed place. No doubt that their historical backdrop is Christianity-laden (hear all the names of its Colleges), but you go there to take advantage of its excellence in academia, not immerse yourself too much in their beliefs and forgo your own. The name itself is enough to send me shivers. Good shivers, of course. I have high admirations for those studying there (and Oxford, LSE and Ivy League Universities too). As much as I’d like to think that I’m smart, I’m in no way Cambridge material. So setting foot on their College grounds is the closest I get to feeling the Cambridge aura. A naughty thought did occur to me to camouflage myself as one of the students and walk into the Colleges. I mean, we are students, and we do look young enough to be one of them. No one would notice. But the thought just remained a thought. I may be full of admiration but I ain’t crazy yet. Hehe.
I went punting too. It was fun! I didn’t punt myself, of course, for fear of getting stuck in between the rocks and hanging to dear life on the pole. Can you picture that? My friend and I joined another group of tourists and apart from taking pictures/videos, we enjoyed listening to our punter’s (uh, don’t know if the word exists) description of every College that we pass. He looked like a Sunnies model, only to know that he’s a second year Psychology student. According to him, a lot of Cambridge students punt around for tourists to earn extra income during summer. As we passed this particular ‘Mathematical Bridge‘, I remembered hubby. He’s so into math and Physics (nerd alert) and I know he must find it interesting.
Oh yeah, guess who else I saw at Cambridge? Professor Stephen Hawking! I didn’t notice it was him at first (how blur could I be? Who else would ride that special chair with monitor??) maybe ‘cos there were so many other nice things to see. But when one of his assistants fell in front of me -she tripped and splatted on the stone ground- I took notice. Didn’t occur to me to say hi. I immediately took out Black K and snapped him. Hehe.. Sure hubby jeles. That’s his idol. I remembered how he used to story me with that ‘Brief History of Time‘.. zzzzz… Yeah, that was part our courtship. Scary stuffs.
My regret would be not buying a Cambridge University t-shirt. Hehe, the superficial me wants to shout to the world that I’ve been there.
Now back in my room blogging about my trip, I reflected on my own university, how beautiful it is in its own splendour and how prestigious it is in its own right. Think I’ll get my Uni t-shirt first before anything.
