day thirteen
Thursday 13th June 11.30pm day thirteen: 4.10pm – Bismuth crystals at Cambridge market Extremely long but very rewarding day. Woke up at 5.30am, was out of the house by 6.45 and met Chelsea at the station to catch our 7.40 train to Cambridge. Louis joined us a couple of stops down the line. We talked of school and the PC results, and university. The man who joined us as there was nowhere else to sit informed us he’d attended Durham – and Louis then suddenly realised that he’d actually come into school a few months ago to give our optional Classics group an archeology talk! Coincidences like that are so odd. We arrived in Cambridge and made our way to St John’s – we were attending an English Literature Study Day at my dad’s old Cambridge College. We spent some time wandering around the town before heading into the Divinity School. After registering we attended an introductory lecture, followed by one regarding the importance of popular fiction before splitting into smaller groups to discuss a given short story – The Werewolf by Angela Carter, one of my favourite authors. It was pure chance that I happened to have read the story, and some criticism around it as well, and our group had some interesting discussion before heading down for our buffet. After lunch we were taken on tours around the College by some third-year English students. We glanced into the College library and Chapel, as well as walking through the courts and over the bridge. It is such a stunning place. I couldn’t stop thinking about Dad, and how many times he must have walked these same stone pathways – and all others who have walked it, from standard students to inquisitive tourists to extraordinary people such as Wordsworth. It was a little surreal for reasons I could not quite place. The afternoon began with another lecture-type activity entitled ‘Reading Difficult Poetry’ and we then split back into our seminar groups, to continue discussing the poem, Camping Out by William Empson. The day concluded with a talk from the St John’s admissions tutor about creating a competitive application, which was useful. Once all was done, we had an hour and a half before our train was due to depart. Louis, Chelsea and I decided to head back out into the town, and were joined by another guy, Seth. We took a walk through the market and talked to a woman selling crystals about her items, and steadily made our way up towards the train station where, after exchanging the spelling of names so as to find each other on Facebook later, we left Seth behind and boarded our train. As always, I couldn’t help but crack a smile at the sign on the platform. pretty sure there’s another university around here, too… Our journey back was quieter than our train down – all three of us suddenly became rather tired. I listened to Springsteen and then Frank Turner, and read a little…
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