P is for ...

P is for Programme, Cambridge College! ... okay, so maybe I fudged with this one a bit. But I have too many C's and I wanted to include Cambridge, too. So the Cambridge College Programme (yes, the British spelling is correct) became Programme, Cambridge College.

So, sometime in my 11th grade year, I got this random mailing (I still don't know how they got my name) about a high school-level study abroad summer program in Cambridge. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun, so I begged and pleaded Mom to let me go. It was for just a few weeks, and we'd be taking three classes as well as chaperoned trips around to the sights. Kind of like college with training wheels, because we were responsible for getting to class and meetings on time, and we could roam Cambridge fairly freely, but we were chaperoned with an iron fist whenever we left the city.

The Mathematical Bridge (in the back, not the one I'm standing on) over the River Cam (get it? Cam-bridge? The British were very original in naming their cities).

I like the Mathematical Bridge for a few reasons: first, it looks unique and different without being "arty" and ugly. Second, there's a legend that the bridge was built by the engineering department of the college, using no bolts, with the weight of the wood holding it all together. A hundred or so years later, people wanted to know how it was done, so the bridge was taken apart; but they couldn't figure out how it went back together, so bolts were needed, thus ruining the original design. (In truth, the bridge was built in 1749 by James Essex the Younger, using an innovative design that needed fewer, smaller pins to hold it together. Subsequent renovations have used big ugly bolts that are very visible, and thus people thought it had been messed up.)

Me in the Newnham College Gardens. Nothing in life is comparable to the serenity of a English garden... Japanese gardens come quite close, though.

My room! (second story) English don't have dorms -- you apply to a certain college of the University and they will house you and feed you. That's how you get "Queen's College, Cambridge" and "King's College, Oxford."

Lara later went to a W&M study abroad program in Cambridge, and we have both fallen in love with the city. It's got that nice "small town" feel, but it's only a few hours by train outside of London if you want the big city. When we helped Mom with the Girl Scout trip to London, we reserved a day for just the two of us to go back to Cambridge and enjoy it together. Odd, how we had both found the Fudge Shop (yummmy handmade fudge!) and the open market (fresh cherries!) and the English Teddy bear Co. (cute bears!). :)




And for those of you who are upset at my ABC fudge-along, P is also for pencil skirt (so attractive) and the puppy highway (the puppies don't like walking on the gravel driveway, so they use the logs that edge the garden).