Today I just got back from an academic tour of southern England with my friend and LL.B. colleague, Jonathan Price. Prior to leaving for England on Monday, 13 June, I met up with my former Third Grade teacher, Carol (Beck) Martinson, and her husband, Lee Martinson, in Edinburgh. They were on a cruise ship tour of the North Sea countries and one port of call was Rosyth, which is about 30 minutes from the city centre of Edinburgh. It was pretty cool showing them around Edinburgh and catching up over a traditional Scottish pub lunch.
After leaving the Martinsons at Waverly Train Station I walked up the Royal Mile and noticed a plethora of classic Bentleys. One Bentley from the 1920s was displaying a Colorado and Swiss flag and I had to inquire about the owner. The man was half-English and Swiss, but lived in Colorado. His attire and demeanour seem very much reminiscent of someone from the autocracy and I didn’t suppose collecting classic Bentleys and having multiple residences around the world were characteristics of an average middle aged man. He was very kind and allowed me to photograph him with his prize car, which carried a top speed of 120 mph (193 km/h).
I was delighted to receive a text from a friend, Nayha Sethi, whom I studied with during the LL.M. programme that another friend, Myggan Hagenfeldt, was going to be in town. I met with the two of them plus all of the others who were in the LL.M. together and are still hanging about in Edinburgh at the Advocate pub. It was great to also meet Myggan’s fiancé.
At 22h00 I arrived at the bus station to take the night bus down to London, where I would rendezvous with Jonathan. To my surprise, another friend and colleague, Pippa Robertson, from the LL.B. programme was also riding the same bus to London. Even more surprising we were going to be in Oxford on the same day and taking the same bus back to Edinburgh on Thursday (16 June) night. For the majority of the ride we talked about our travels around the world, the LL.B. and post degree plans and dreams. I discovered the two of us could not be more opposite, yet we have always gotten along – perhaps a tribute to a diplomatic personality my characteristics inherited from my grandpa Howard of not knowing a stranger.
From London, Jonathan and I rode the train to Cambridge. Once in Cambridge, we checked into our hostel, which was inexpensive, but not very nice, and headed for the university buildings. Cambridge and Oxford are both colligate institutions, meaning they are a collection of colleges, each with their own student living space, dining halls, libraries, chapels, quadrangles and cloisters. Wealthier colleges would also have sports halls, gardens, deer parks, orchards, docks for punts, and such amenities as lawn for tennis, croquet, and bowling. Each college looks after their own students; however the university’s function is to regulate the curriculum, examinations, lecture and tutorial time tables and facilities. Each college will have students from a variety of backgrounds, each reading varying topics. For example, we met up with a friend of mine, Liz Campbell, who is doing her LL.B. at Cambridge and she explained that only five students in her college are reading law, out of two or three hundred students in total. There are 31 colleges in Cambridge and 42 (9 of which are private) at Oxford.
The colligate structure seems to extract the greatest learning potential out of students, however the inequality of the colleges and the elitist attitude of the entire university mean that there is aura of self confidence and entitlement to being the leaders in their career fields, which is both commendable and irritating if you are not from the Ivy League / OxBridge.
Jonathan and I engaged in the traditional Cambridge activity of punting on the River Cam and drinking Pimms and Lemonade. After punting we joined my friend Liz for the opening night of Cambridge Footlight’s Edinburgh Fringe 2011 comedy show. Footlights is the British comedy club of Cambridge University, founding in 1883 and has amongst its alumni the likes of John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and Douglas Adams to name a few. After the performance we took a drink at the Cambridge Union.
The next day we rode the three hour bus to from Cambridge to Oxford and joined two of Jonathan’s friends for lunch a Oriel College, Oxford, which is the fifth oldest (founded 1326) amongst the colleges of Oxford and was funded by a foundation charter from the monarch, King Edward II. Oriel would be equivalent to King’s College, Cambridge, since it was originally funded by the Crown. Because of this, Oriel’s dining hall features the largest portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II.
We toured several Oxford colleges, including Christ Church, Trinity, Lincoln, Jesus, Magdalen, Merton, Pembroke, University College. At Jesus College we watch students douse a fellow student who had just completed her final exam. Apparently this is a fairly old Oxford tradition. I did not realize before visiting Oxford, that student wear academic dress to each and every exam and must also carry (but never wear) their mortar board hat. Only upon commencement and award of degree is the student permitted to don the hat. Also at graduation, a academic hood is worn to denote the degree and college. A few years ago Cambridge voted to get rid of the tradition of wearing the academic robs to exams and in response Oxford liberalized the tradition by permitting student to wear cotton, in addition to silk socks, to exams.
During the evening we attended Choral Evensong at Christ Church College Cathedral, which is the seat of the Oxford Archbishop. The music of the choir was Heavenly and it was very nice to be able to partake in such a vivid and living tradition of the university. After Evensong we had a traditional pub dinner at the Eagle and Child pub, which was a famous hang out of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and their literary friends known as the Inklings. On the way back to our hostel we pasted by Black Friars, which my friend and former flatmate, Kyle Bixenmann, from the U.S. studied. The next day we had breakfast at Oriel College and then caught the train for William Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Stratford-Upon-Avon is a town which survives solely on William Shakespeare’s legacy and has been a tourist destination for over three hundred years. Some of the first entries in the visitor registry of the birthplace house were Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both of whom went on to serve as presidents of the American Republic. The home Shakespeare actually built no long exists, however the adjacent home and the home of his daughter, who married a wealthy medical doctor, are preserved as museums for the nation and public. Had we had more time it would have been great fun to attend a performance of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), which operates in Stratford-Upon-Avon, London, and New York City. The town is very Elizabethan, with the iconic black and white framed homes with the thatched roofs. A few building have been built to match the vintage ones, but a careful eye will note that the ancient buildings lean and sag from the weight and passage of time. It was a pilgrimage to finally see where William Shakespeare was born and lived and to have the connection with one of the world’s most well known playwrights.
From Stratford-Upon-Avon, Jonathan and I rode the bus to London where we met Pippa at Victoria Train Station for a cuppa tea and a recap of our exciting week. From Victoria, London, we headed back for Scottish Capitol of Edinburgh. I am always amazed and impressed that I have had the opportunity to study and live in Great Britain and be able to see sights which I had previously only read about, I am truly a blessed individual.
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