Yes, I went to Cambridge for the first time last Sunday. I knew a person who was living there so she showed me around. The city was full of CAMBRIDGE UNI-SMELL. There were many colleges merging into the town. Very quite atmosphere, I guess for the students to study well. Living in London, I hear the sound of the ambulance almost every day. I cannot imagine London as a quite city. However, Cambridge had few nightclubs and places where student can fool around ( Sorry I didn't know well, but I can guess from the sight). To enter the colleges, they required some money even though we were not going into the building. Cambridge owns many houses around the city, too. They even own some houses or flats in London to run their business. Yes, it was a perfect place to study and calm down and think about philosophy, but at the same time, I couldn't imagine this place without spending so much money. We students in London might pay for going out at night or eating junk food or paying the bill of our flats and dorms. But this was a whole different story. Every old building, statue, field, book, garden, gate, and so on, there was money and pride behind it. And then I realized that it is a hierarchal world. The educated must have money. Because of the diversity of the students in SOAS, I sometimes forget that UK is still a class divided society until a came to Cambridge. This was representative of the wealth or the future wealth. That is when the word posh naturally came into my mind. I enjoyed Cambridge and was fascinated to see another side of education, but I was relieved when I came back to London and saw the redbus rushing into the streets, people dressed whatever they wanted, dirts on the streets, and of course noisy sound of the ambulance. For me, this was the real world where people are living and suffering and all those feelings are just squeezed into one small space. The big city, London. Welcome back, me! ( And I have to say that, for each person, their Real world is different and I understand that, its just Cambridge was not my type:))
Extra...
I went to the house of the curator of TATE. I guess he is dead already but the house remained as a gallery. It was creative and beautiful. My dream house was there. I enjoyed this moment the best.
Here are some pictures of Cambridge uni colleges and TATE curator's house...
THE HOUSE
Fortunately the U.K. is big on equal opportunities so if you have the grades people from all walks of life can apply to Cambridge. But I think that due to its reputation for being for being the wealthy classes only not a lot of people apply there. I know that if I had the grades I wouldn't have applied there, I would have felt too uncomfortable. You should also visit Oxford, it has a lovely campus too :).
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