The University of Durham is an obsession and a knot in my heart that is hard to let go of. In the past year, I thought it would end my journey to stay in the UK.
During this year, I have met a lot of Durham friends. We all shared chicken soup during the late nights of fighting for IELTS and made appointments to grab colleges and student accommodation in Durham together. People from all over the world opened their hearts to another group of people they had never met before because of their desire to go to one school.
Why I’m excited to go to Durham University
During this year, I got to know this school. This school has a good reputation in the UK, along with Oxbridge. It also retains the traditional college system, as does Oxbridge. I learned about the colleges and the colourful Formal events. I had countless visions of myself in black robes walking through the cloisters where Harry Potter walked—sitting in the Cathedral for Commencement or listening to Latin prayers before starting Christmas dinner.
Like a dream come true, Durham was my first stop on my outing here. The 15-minute train ride from Newcastle to Durham is as long as the year it once was. I remembered when I was preparing for my exams, I was exhausted from studying late into the night, and before I went to bed, I said to Dora, “I’m going to Durham!”. I’m going to Durham! And then it’s like I’m alive again, day after day. I think of the tears that came out of my eyes the day I received my offer and my mixed feelings when I got my Unconditional Offer. It’s all in the past.
How is Durham?
I’m here. I’m finally here. The train station, the streets, and the houses were all as tiny as building blocks. There was a market in the city centre on Saturday, with stalls hawking fruit, pastries, and handicrafts. It reminded me of Lily’s “Mirror Mirror”, where you walk out of the castle into a tiny square where the market is.
The people here are happy, sitting on the bridge and playing the accordion. The joyful rhythm stirred up a pool of waterfowl, and the townspeople came and went clutching flowers and bread. They have many dogs, fierce in appearance and gentle in temperament.
In front of Durham Cathedral, there is a large lawn, and when the sun shines, people sit on the grass and read books and eat sandwiches in the wind and the birds chirping.
The cathedral is magnificent, and I heard that it is comparable to York Minster. I can only carve all the magnificence in my memory. The deep aisles, the flickering candlelight, the stained glass skylights, the solemn religious statues and paintings. In my ears was a chiming of bells and whispered prayers or whispers that I can still hear with my eyes closed.
Durham stays in time.
The beauty of Britain is its ability to hold on to time. Let the spokes of modernity extend to every corner. It is still silent to guard the ancient heritage. Many people say that England is an extensive countryside except for London. Maybe it is true. I have seen sheep walking around the city and large village houses. Apart from the hustle and bustle of the city centre, everyone still lives a simple, unspoken, idyllic life: eating homemade artisanal bread, drinking locally produced milk, cultivating their gardens, and selling meat from their farms. I often see open stalls on my way to school with labels saying “from the family farm”.
Durham University was also scattered between the streets, and behind a wooden door lay an old college. A wooden escalator babbles up the stairs to what could be a tiny library upstairs, a witch’s library in a fairy tale, patted on the dust. There’s a desk and lamp by the window, and you can see the cathedral spire when you look up. Delve into a quiet pile of books, no wonder everyone says Durham is good for studying.
My memories of Durham University
And a few floors downstairs is the college party. Indoors, students chatted over beers and juices, and outside on the lawn, men and women of all nationalities played a game of Croquet croquet. When the catering is ready, everyone lines up with their plates to get their food. The food is a mix of brightly coloured salads, hot dogs, burgers and chicken fries. It was so comforting and warm when you were hungry.
There are so many memories of that day, and I love this place. It’s like a baked sweet potato in the winter, dense and with proper warmth. How can you not be sorry when it’s as good as this place? It’s like breaking up when you’re about to talk about marriage and stopping to walk through a sea of people. It’s like being exhausted in front of the Hillary Steps, turning around, and possibly missing Everest for the rest of your life. Falling in the last hundred metres of a marathon, regret and aggravation. But I know that only remembering can last forever. Just like the vermilion sand mole branded on the mouth of the heart, sprinkled in front of the window of the white moonlight, that is time and years can not steal away the timeless.
Luckily, Durham is so lovely, and my student housing is also very nice. There are rivers and churches and wind and birds. The students are warm, the teachers are kind, and every day is fun. No one can cross two rivers at the same time. Who can measure the loss as regret? I gave up the Chinese department and switched to English, and now I am in a foreign country, and every choice in my life is terrific.
Suddenly, I remember Robert Frost’s Unchosen Path:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I took the one less travelled by.
And that has made all the difference.
Here’s to the past, and never looking back. One day, light and light will meet, and rivers will meet rivers, and I, and you, will meet.
The trip to Durham University was really worth it.
