Irina Kovalenko
Living and teaching in this educational Metropolis is a privileged dreamlike existence. One for which, having suffered the hardship of perestroika, I’ll always be thankful.
My morning bicycle journey to college exposes me to the beauty of Midsummer Common and Jesus Green. With my face fanned with the clean fresh air, I surrender with acquiescence to the city’s mysterious enchantment.
As I ride past the Colleges, my thoughts are with the hundreds of famous graduates that walked their cloisters, and the ninety-four Nobel-Prize winners. And then, Kings College - I hear in my mind a version of Nunc Dimittis made famous by its amazing boy’s choir. And, its magnificent spires remind me of Arnold’s poem “Thysis” with its reference to Oxfords dreaming spires, I wonder... did he ever visit Cambridge?
It is said, the mere mention of Cambridge priorities you on life’s shortlists.
