Cambridge: The Reason We Went

So, Friday I finished subbing and by the time I got home I was DONE being in the car. There was major traffic for almost an hour and a half. My poor left leg was shaking as I was pushing the clutch in and out (I've started back running this week with my ex-military nurse friend, Ashley, and I was burnin'!) Then, as six lanes were merging into two in order to go under the Tyne river, the toll thingamajig decided to break right in front of me. And we hadn't even started our four hour journey south to Cambridge. Blech.

Finally, I made it home. I heaped myself onto the couch, Nathan rubbed my feet and made me a cup of tea, I trolled around on Facebook for thirty minutes, and then I felt up to packing. While I was finishing up, Nathan cleaned up the kitchen, took out the trash, made us some packed dinners. What a champ!

On the road again! We passed some awesome signs that read, "Sherwood Forest," "Robin Hood Airport," and "Nottingham," which made me whistle all of my favorite songs from the Disney movie Robin Hood and say thing like, "Oodah-lolly!" Down the road a piece I opened our sack dinner and found a special surprise dessert. Tiramisu!

Yum! Thanks, babe!

We arrived at Celwyn College fairly late, but we had a lovely new room on the top floor. We went for a short walk around town and then went straight to bed. 

The next morning, we walked to King's College, where Nathan was to read his paper at the Cambridge French Graduate Conference. 

"French?" you ask. 

Yes. This year's focus was on all things French having to do with the apocalypse. Nathan's topic was tangentially related to his dissertation. The title of his paper was, "Proselytism and Apocalypticism Before and After the Toleration Act of 1689: the French Threat and a Lone Puritan." 

"What the heck does that mean?" you ask.

Basically, Nathan's guy, John Flavel (the said "lone Puritan") thought that the newly deposed King James I of England was going to team up with Louis XIV of France (the said "French threat" and invade England and bring about the end of the world (the said "apocalypse"). As soon as it became legal to be a Puritan (the said "Toleration Act of 1689"), he was evangelizing (the said "proselytizing") like crazy, saying that Christ's return was eminent because of the recent political movements. His paper went something like that. I was so proud. I couldn't stop smiling! 

We crept through the gates early on the Saturday morning. No one else was out. It was misty but warm. So nice...

There's King's College in the background.

So handsome!

We walked past the white building and made it to the porter's lodge, where we were directed to the correct building.

It turns out we were early, earlier than the organizers. No one was there. After I posed Nathan at the podium for a fake "I'm delivering a brilliant idea now" picture, we looked around at the original paintings and fancy rugs and furniture and enjoyed the views out the window. 

The King's College chapel is the big thing across the lawn. I've forgotten the name of the building on the left.

More of the chapel and the statue in the middle.

The conference started around 9:30, and Nathan read his paper second. The first one was delivered by an American Art History lady, who showed all kinds of pretty pictures from cathedrals all over France. The third girl was French, and I have no idea what she talked about. 

There were three papers in the morning, followed by questions, followed by a tea break, followed by a team of keynote speakers (one who reminded me of Will Ferrel's impression of Harry Carey and the other who looked like Lieutenant Dan post-Vietnam, pre-titanium legs). It was really funny to me, even though I only understood about 70% of what they were talking about. Just thinking about describing them to you as these characters from TV and movies, adding in the British accent, made me chuckle.

Credit

Credit

After Nathan read his paper, we explored the building a bit more and came upon this sign on the door. He said, "I think I've found my calling in life." You can tell by his face that he was much less stressed by this point. Time for fun! There will be lots more pictures tomorrow.