Rugby School

Today was the first day I got to sleep in since I've been in England. I didn't have class until 11:50 today so I got some much needed rest and headed over to the Union for class around 11:30. After class, I rushed over to Pembroke to catch the bus to Rugby School with the rest of my The British and Their Sports class. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Rugby School. The tour that we received was quite interesting despite the rain and freezing cold weather that we had to endure for the outside portion of the tour. It was exciting to learn about how much a group of teenage boys influenced the evolution of games into the codified, organized sports that we have today. Rubgy School also has some rather distinguished alumni including Neville Chamberlain (British Prime Minister 1937-1940), Lewis Carroll, Salman Rushdie (in addition to attending Rugby School, Rushdie also studied history at King's), Rupert Brooke and William Bateson (the first person to use the term "genetics"). In addition to being the birthplace of Rugby, Rugby School is considered to be the birthplace of crosscountry running. The Crick Race, which still takes place at the school, is the oldest half marathon in the world. We also learned about the various other games invented at Rugby School including racketball and squash. The Rugby School even has its own musuem which is pretty cool. The school itself was beautiful with ivy covered buildings and, of course, plenty of spacious green areas for sports. The students all play some type of sport 6 days a week and only have Saturday nights free. I wish I could remember more from the tour right now, but I'm very tired and I need to be up early for London tomorrow so this will have to do for now. For anyone interested in the history and evolution of sport, I suggest you read up on the history of Rugby School.

On the bus ride home, we passed through the very center of England. It's referred to as "The Heart of England" and there is a plaque to show the location. After we got back, I grabbed a pizza from Gardenia's and then hung out with some friends for a bit. We headed out to the Back Lawn of King's to watch the fireworks that had been advertised in the Union. Little did we know that the fireworks were being put on as part of the Fellows Ball. Every year the King's Fellows have a Ball which is paid for by the College and is apparently very costly (according to our new grad student friend, Thorton). There were Fellows everywhere and they were dressed to the nines and some even had masks on as if it were a masquerade ball (which, of course, it may very well have been, but I have no idea). The Fellows were all congregating on the Back Lawn and they were given sparklers to play with which, given the general state of intoxication in the crowd, was probably not the most brilliant idea. Anyway, the firework display itself was wonderful and far better than the fireworks we saw last week at Parker's Piece. Since I'm missing the feast at home this weekend, I guess these fireworks were my way of celebrating. After the fireworks, the fellows were going night punting which is supposed to be very fun, but Thorton, who was one of the punters for the evening, was a little worried that the Fellows might try to tip the boats. I think this Ball may have been an early celebation of the graduation that is taking place tomorrow. Several of the PA's are graduating tomorrow. We were all invited to the graduation, but I will (unfortunately) be in London. It would have been really fun to attend the graduation because it is steeped in tradition and apparently blunted swords are used in some way during the ceremony so I'm sure it's pretty cool. I guess I'll just have to wait until I graduate from Cambridge to see it :-)

Cheers!