cambridge part 3: which wise guy indented snow?!

was bored, so I tried checking how ucl's econs department ranks against the rest of the world. It was kinda depressing: the highest position I found was 34th. (FYI: US unis generally occupy the top 15 or so spots, and right after that is usually LSE.) Some possible consoling explanations: the rankings are based on academic output, and not teaching quality or other measures; and the data on which the rankings are based are from the 90s, so it's not the most recent picture. I realise that there are counter-arguments to these points, but I'm not going to spoil my own day by listing them out here; nobody likes a whiner.

but I digress. I'm here to round off the happy events of the weekend, not to bellyache. So, here we go:

3) Saturday (or, of college chapels and clock towers)

zhimin skipped her lecture to bring us four rustic unlearned city-dwellers around her cultured historical town on saturday morning. Though this was (I think) my fourth time in cambridge, it was still refreshing to walk around and listen to the tour-guide stories that she told. (Even more interesting were zhicheng's versions of the same stories.) Finally managed to get into king's college chapel, which has an 'adoration of the magi' by peter paul rubens hanging above the altar. Other stops on the itinerary included trinity and st john's colleges (with associated missing clock face story); stephen hawking's supervision room (where he conducts supervisions/tutorials) in some college I can't remember; the mathematical bridge (which newton supposedly put together so he could say 'look ma, no rivets!'); and the bridge of sighs. Oh, and free fudge.

after lunch the other two guys decided they'd had enough of drowning in the immensely intellectual atmosphere of cambridge and decided to flee back to london before it diffused into their brains, raised their IQs to unimaginably high levels and destroyed their mental well-being and emotional stability. Or perhaps they just had other appointments.

so zhicheng and I were in zhimin's room around 4pm and- having been appointed her accomodations advisers- looking through her harvard accomodations booklet (which looks suspiciously like the HDB booklets for flat buyers) and talking, while miss chua went to play netball outside with the temperature hovering around zero (yes, cambridge people are crazy). The first bit didn't take long (note to zhimin: remember 1306 Mass. Ave!), so we had a lot of time to catch up on stuff. And it felt really good to be able to sit and chat until the sun went down and zhimin turned up tired and worn and ringing her own doorbell.

later the 3 of us and wanxian went to nando's for dinner. Nando's is this restaurant chain that serves roast chicken, with various degrees of spice. Being typical s'poreans, we ordered the spiciest stuff that we could find, and then proceeded to use up half a bottle of the very hot peri-peri sauce on our chicken and chips. And being typical s'poreans, we had plenty of amazingly intellectual gossip over chicken, chilli and wine, and then proceeded to continue post-dinner discussions at starbucks. Eventually though, this waiter came up to our table and politely announced that they had to close before the next ice age arrived. And that, essentially, was the end of the cambridge trip.

me and zhicheng took the train back to king's cross station, and had more male-bonding conversation along the way. London arrived as a confusion of colours, noises and people at the tube station. We said our goodbyes, and were swallowed by different ravenous maws of the beast that is London Underground. Yours truly went down the gullet of the victoria line, and eventually got spat out at marble arch. From there, it was a short walk back. Back to home, and to reality.

the worst part of dreaming is the waking up.