Emily: Cambridge Scholar!

During these annual pilgrimages to England I have had some stellar experiences -- for which I am mighty grateful -- but this weekend may have been one of The. Best. Ever.

I attended a seminar at Cambridge University. Yes, THE Cambridge University. It was through the university's Institute for Continuing Education, which is housed at magnificent Madingley Hall, an historic 16th century country house on the outskirts of Cambridge.

According to its website, the Institute "offers adult learners the opportunity to study at the University with options ranging from weekend courses to two-year, part-time Master's programmes, with thousands of enrollments each year from all over the world."

A session entitled "Behind the Scenes of History: The Ordinary Women who have Shaped Our World" had my name all over it. The "tutor" (the term for the seminar leader) was Jane Robinson, a prolific author and Oxford-trained social historian. The chance to go to Cambridge University, meet some interesting women, learn something new from a well-known scholar -- what's not to love?

Being able to stay on the premises of Madingley was also a big draw for me, but to tell you the truth I was expecting rather primitive, Medieval-standard living quarters. But no! This conference center is state-of-the-art -- on the level of a Holiday Inn Express, actually -- but with a candlelit Elizabethan dining hall in which everyone is served exquisite food on linen-draped tables. Following a prayer in Latin, of course.

My session: How can I describe it? From my arrival Friday afternoon to departure after lunch on Sunday, it exceeded all my expectations. I could have listened to Jane for hours -- and did, as a matter of fact: Ten-and-a-half hours, to be exact. The time galloped by, and I was not ready to leave! She introduced us to scores of "ordin'ry" women who have done "extraordin'ry" things over the centuries, and led us in discussions about what their contributions have meant to us personally. I was utterly mesmerized.

Her presentation was organized into seven general topics: History's first career women, the eccentrics who became the world's first women travellers, the fight for education for women, women writers and literature aimed at instructing women on "proper" behavior, the lives of women pioneers and immigrants, military wives and women on the battlefield, and the role played by the Women's Institute, a prominent organization in the U.K.

To supplement the original documents and books she herself had brought, Jane asked us to share photos or mementoes of a woman who shaped our own world. Thanks to my cousin Jack, the family's historian, I was able to share material from Jack's intrepid aunt -- my mother's first cousin -- Tela Beanblossom Apple, who was the first person in the family ever to attend college and died in 1997 only three months shy of her 100th birthday. "T" was a real original, a strong, beautiful lady who was loved and admired by everyone fortunate enough to meet her. She inspired me more than she ever knew.

If I do say so myself, my classmates seemed to enjoy my "show-and-tell," which included one of Tela's signature lacy handkerchiefs. To think how modestly proud she would have been to be remembered this way in this particular setting just makes me well up with tears. Of everybody in my family, T would have been the most curious and interested to hear of my weekend's experiences.

Mine was one of several continuing ed courses offered this weekend. There were men and women studying pollination, geology, fossils and Ovid's Metamorphis -- in Latin, of course. The rowdiest group were the creative writers working on their Master's degrees, but they kept to themselves mostly. The bee and rock people were much more sociable with us "ordin'ry women," and I enjoyed mingling with them at meals and over innumerable cups of tea, which appeared at every break.

Besides myself, Jane's group comprised four high school history teachers, an artist, a retired barrister, a couple of retired scientists, all from England, a obstetrician from Kurdistan, and a Ranger with the U.S. Park Service stationed in New York City. I was fascinated with them all.

The few images here don't come close to conjuring up the experiences of me, your enthusiastic Cambridge scholar, trodding the halls of an Elizabethan estate, heading up to the Prince Consort Room for her next session, sipping tea on the terrace overlooking the impeccably trimmed topiaries and manicured lawn, smelling the intoxicatingly fragrant roses climbing within the walled garden, dining on succulent British beef and Yorkshire pudding, having her head filled with marvelous social history which she has never even imagined existed, and pinching herself that she is blessed with such bountiful riches.