by Gina Cariño
Home >> Postcard from Cambridge
But which. In alphabetical order, I could be sending this from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, or the USA. The USA alone has Cambridge cities in at least fifteen states including Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, to mention only those that begin with the letter I.
Of course the name Cambridge most commonly refers to two famous university cities, one in the UK and the other in the USA. Both are county seats, one being the administrative center —oops, CENTRE— of Cambridgeshire, the other the administrative center —yes, CENTER— of Middlesex County, in the state of Massachusetts.
The famous English Cambridge is near London and lies along the River Cam, formerly called the Granta. It dates back to before Roman times and the Anglo-Saxons and Normans gave it names like Grantebrycge, Grentabrige, and Cantebrigge. The famous American Cambridge is near Boston and its river is the Charles River. It was first established in 1630 by English Puritan colonists, who called it Newtowne.
Cambridge, England is most famous for the University of Cambridge. Cambridge, Massachusetts is best known for being home to Harvard and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
The University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England was founded by University of Oxford students escaping hostile townsfolk in nearby Oxford. Harvard University in Newtowne, Massachusetts started out as a college for training Puritan ministers. Newtowne was renamed Cambridge to reflect its status as a university town as important as the original, English Cambridge.
Both Cambridges also happen to be cradles or incubators of technological innovation. The old Cambridge is at the heart of a high-tech zone dubbed Silicon Fen. The newer Cambridge could be said to be a kind of east-coast Silicon Valley.
Vain comparisons, inane parallelisms. So what, you say. WHO CARES? I couldn’t care less. I came to Cambridge —Cambridge, England— to visit my friend Gideon and we are having a great —oops, LOVELY— time. Good Gideon works in the Department of International Programs— oops, PROGRAMMES— and he’s given us a “fellow’s� room in Pembroke College, alma mater of sharp Tom Sharpe, where we are surrounded by Californian and Japanese students doing their desirable Cambridge stints and walking around in “jimjams.� He mixed me a Cosmopolitan and baked me a cobbler —oops, CRUMBLE— and we went punting on the Cam. You can punt on the Cam because it’s narrow and shallow. If you’re the punter, you stand, hold a long pole, feel for the side or bottom of the river, and push…
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2007-09-13 10:00:00 +0200
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I love rivers and the River Cam is beautiful.
Rivers always remind of Kenneth Graham’s book The Wind in the Willows
The River Cam. Is it pronounced CAME or CAM?
The CAM in River CAM is pronounced like CAT but with an M. I have a CAT here whose NAME is SAM, short for SAMantha CHAPlin.
When we went punting on the CAM, I did the rowing, especially when there was boat traffic or when we got stuck in the weeping willows. The CAM flows behind lots of the colleges. The area behind the colleges is called the BACKS.
It seems punting might not be easy because you have to stand (don’t you?)
on the boat. But it must be funny. Maybe we should ask Gallardon to put some punts in the Manzanares river now the M-30 is underground and it is much easier to get the river bank.
By the way, punt (the boat), is it pronounced like punt ( the kick)?
Regards from CAM ( Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid)
Hi!
The River Cam (the Granta), is the river of the annual race against Oxford and Cambridge? It´s very exciting this kind of confrontation between Universities. Here in Spain is usual with Rugby matches. Best Rugby teams in Spain are settled in Universities.
Speaking about Manzanares River, I think isn´t as deep as the River CAM, and the mud of the river … maybe if you fall from the boat, you´ll die in the mud !
When you are listening to conversation about Cambridge University or Oxford University, you usually imagine these universities are in famous and beautiful places, are these so real? . At least both of them are a symbol in the world and you can see them in a lot of movies.
Best regards, Conchi F.
Hi,
good to hear news from Cambridge, it’s a place I’d like to visit. Because of the University, so famous in the world. And now for punting on the CAM river, wow it must be exciting.
Sometimes I travel to visit friends abroad. You know, moreover you see your friends, you have the opportunity to be guided for experts in the city where you go (your friends ;-)). I prefer to go to recommended places, it’s the easiest way to be right.
Regards from CAM too.
Begoña.
Hi,
The word Cambridge must be in English like the word Villanueva is Spanish. There is a lot of villages in Spain with the name of Villanueva, and when someone founded a new village in the past, the name of Villanueva had a lot of possibilities to be used. Also, when someone founded a new village in other province or in other country, he sometimes used the same name that had his village of birth. For this cause, we can find the same names in different parts of the world.
The differences between the pronunciation in American English and British English are common, as also are common in Spanish. And the way that the words are writted.
About the Gideon’s job, does he control students in Cambridge?.
Regards.
Conchi Calvo
I went punting once on the Cam. We chose to have a “punter” because we thought it looked far too easy to fall in if you didn’t know what you were doing. Aside from piloting our punt, our guide was also extremely knowledgeable about Cambridge and its history, and gave a running commentary on what we were seeing. It was a very relaxing (and fascinating!) cruise along the river!
On the topic of cities of the same name, you may want to see Jordi Bernadó’s book True Loving.
Hi Gina,
Good report!!
Sorry for the delay but today is my first day of work. I have been in San Francisco, in a long business trip.
I prefer to travel to visit friends because when I travel to visit my family it is very stressful… I have to visit all my family (all my uncles, aunts, cousins,...) because if you don’t visit some of them, they get angry.
Bye,
Leticia.
A very witty comment, Juan Carlos! I have liked very much the reference to our particular CAM(Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid).
I have got a doubt, Gina, why do you think that the students moved from Oxford to another city? Were the townsfolks so hostile?
Hi!
Your article is very interesting!
I went to Cambridge last summer and went punting on a beautiful-sunny Sunday (the only day that it was sunny during the two weeks I stayed there)! It was lovely to see the Backs, the colleges are really beautiful.
Cambridge must be a nice place to study. It must be wonderful to study in such a good university and in those beautiful buildings. Each has a different architecture… but once you have seen the colleges, the river and some impressive buildings…the city in my opinion is quite boring…
Regards,
Claudia