The First Report from the Country of Separate Water Taps

When you realise that you are really in Cambridge, you sometimes tend to walk on air. However, all the new challenges bring you quickly down to earth.

I purchased a bicycle straight after my arrival, because cycling is famously one of the defining features of student life in Cambridge. Fortunately enough, cars are not allowed in the town centre, so the beautiful old streets are always full of pedestrians and nervous cyclists. It takes me just about five minutes to get from my college to the faculty of philosophy, as well as the legendary Sainsbury’s supermarket. I live in the Churchill College, which was founded in the 1960s by Sir Winston himself. It differs from other Cambridge colleges by its unusually modern appearance, stemming from brutalist architecture and a collection of sculptures scattered around. I have to admit that it sometimes feels a bit dreary, but the autumn spirit together with sunshine always turns it into a really lovely place. It is lucky that Cambridge is allegedly one of the sunniest places in England.

Studying philosophy in Cambridge, or ‘moral science’ in the traditional local slang, is simply awesome. A young idealist like me enjoys spending time in the places where some of the greatest thinkers in history contemplated. The faculty of philosophy is a mysterious building with many secluded places, where deep dialogues are being led, and a quiet library full of warning notices exclaiming ‘No language games!’ (Language game is famous philosophical concept coined by Ludwig Wittgenstein, a great philosopher who used to work in Cambridge.)

Our best lecturer teaches logic.  His lectures are remarkable not only due to the great clarity of presentation, but also of the incredible amount of cultural references and intellectual jokes that he hides in pretty much all sentences he utters. I sometimes don’t get them until a few days after the lecture. But to be fair, most of our lecturers are interesting and their names appear in our reading lists right beside Plato and Descartes. Perhaps that is why they successfully face the influx of questions and objections coming from my fellow-students. Yes, Cambridge students tend to be kind of brainboxes. Here, intellectual discussions substitute for chat about weather and philosophy often becomes even a pub conversation topic. Where else could it happen that someone comes to a party dressed up in the costume of an existential quantifier? (that is a kind of logical operator)

The Czech writer Adolf Hoffmeister, who came to study in Cambridge almost a century ago, described his experience by these words: ‘Here in Cambridge, student life takes place in these three places: a) in playing fields (primarily); b) on the River Cam, embraced by a girl, in a punting boat no less comfortable than a sofa; c) in a church. How much has the situation changed since then?

Although traditions are still widely maintained and most Englishmen like to emphasise their religious identity, it would be ridiculous to claim that they actually go to church at all. The Churchill College is in fact the only college that does not have a chapel in its centre. It is because it was originally intended as a purely scientific modern institution, and scientists, of course, do not believe in God, because they can find a proof of his non-existence in their formulas. The River Cam, which runs through the town centre of Cambridge, has retained its romantic flavour and natural surroundings. Yet, as it is often crowded with Asian tourists during the day, the students usually prefer spending their time in one of the numerous Cambridge parks. The one worth mentioning is certainly the Parker’s Piece, a massive grassy space where people go for picnic and where you always get a view of a many sportsmen and street artists. Hoffmeister’s first point about playing fields then remains the closest to the current reality. Sport certainly belongs to the Cambridge culture and all the inter-college matches are taken as seriously as the whole-university matches against Oxford. Nonetheless, I should point out that a great number of my fellow-philosophers do not seem to have ever deciphered the semantics of the word ‘sport’. I personally have returned to some of my favourite racket sports, which I am lucky enough to be able to do in the college itself.

I have to say that I enjoy the inspiring environment and friendly atmosphere. If they had mixed water taps here, there would not be anything left for me to complain about.