Student Journal: Jacki Raithel,  '10, Explores Cambridge 

As part of the Jepson at Cambridge program, students study law and leadership at Emmanuel College, one of Cambridge University's constituent colleges. The program is in collaboration with the University of Richmond School of Law. This year's trip is July 6 - Aug. 9. Jacki Raithel, a leadership studies and journalism double major, writes about her experiences after her first week there.

See a show at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Take in a musical in the West End. Watch a cricket match at Lord's Cricket Ground. Shop on Portobello Road. Tour a royal palace. Walk through Hyde Park. Dine at a historic pub. Tea - British style. Ride on the London Eye. Talk politics with a cab driver. Read on the train. Attend classes at Cambridge University. Shop for umbrellas. Eat potatoes at every meal. Explore in the rain.

All in a week's time.

Next four weeks: continue filling the days with as much excitement as possible.

As part of the program we'll also be taking a tour of Parliament, the Royal Courts of Justice and the Middle Temple, as well as attending a reception with Lady Margaret Thatcher!

Four of us from the Jepson School have joined students from the School of Law to take two classes: Legal History and Comparative Public Law of the U.S. and U.K.

Classes are a great length at just over an hour each. Both are taught by Cambridge professors who, apart from their accent, could not be more different. At 8:25 a.m., Comparative Law is taught by a young                                       Photo by Jacki Raithel, '10   professor who walks around in front of the class, 
                                                                              occasionally draws diagrams on the whiteboard, and   likes to ask our opinion on the differences and similarities between the U.S. and British governments.

Later in the morning, Legal History is taught by a man who seems to me the definition of a distinguished British law professor.

He sits on a desk at the front of the room with his legs crossed and talks continuously for about an hour using words such as jolly, half-wit and brilliant, all the while explaining the origins of property law and the significance of the year 1154.

   From left: Sherie Mungo, Tom Borwick, Katy              Speaking of 1154, just about every time we decide to
   Groover and Jacki Raithel at a restaurant.                venture off the campus of Emmanuel College, we
enter and exit through what has become known as the Hobbit Door. This door, which is about 5-feet by 2-feet and opens about six inches higher than the ground so you have to step over a large doorsill, is actually cut out of a much larger wooden door that I would guess remains from the original college construction.

Part of the fun we get from the door comes not only from its height and inconspicuousness, but that it deposits you right in the middle of a busy sidewalk so that we frequently get odd looks from passer-bys, as if we have just popped out of nowhere.

Outside of class, we spend our time walking around the city centre where there are several other colleges, a mall and tons of little shops. There are also several parks if we decide we want to join the locals for a game of cricket or netball.

Despite all that, a favorite with the law students is punting down the river. Much like a gondola in Venice, we can ride down the river here and see the back of many of the colleges, some of which are as much as 700 years old. Unlike Venice, here you can rent the boat and the pole and snake and swerve your own way up and down the river.

The locals told us it was a tourist attraction... which I guess makes us really good tourists because two students have already bought season punting passes.

On weekends we Jepson students are sticking together, but many of the law students head off in different directions to make the most of the opportunity to travel in Europe. We're hoping to take a trip to Paris as well as Milan. We spent last weekend in London.

Next weekend we're hoping to take a walking tour of Cambridge and maybe do some more punting or visit Windsor Castle. Until then, we've got books to read and classes to go to... and we're hoping to see the original Winnie the Pooh book at a library near here!