Winchester College 2013

My trip to Winchester College was quite an interesting one.  Traveling with Henry Ingram and Taylor Adams, I set off for Winchester almost directly after graduation in the spring, leaving little transition time from school to Summer.  Upon our arrival, we were all immediately thrust into the life of an English boarding school.  I was housed in Fearon's house, commonly known as Kenny's, and placed in the fourth year, which is the Win Col equivalent of Junior.  The first day, I immediately felt the huge presence soccer, or football, has in their culture.  I spent the entire Sunday either playing football or watching it that night until I collapsed from exhaustion due to jet lag.

A view of Kenny's from its garden

As Winchester is renowned for its academic rigor, I found myself working surprisingly hard for being on summer vacation.  I was placed in English, European History, and Theology/Philosophy courses.  The courses differ from MBA, though, in that one has two teachers for each subject.  The classes also go exceedingly in depth.  In my English class, with the legendary don Simon Taylor, we spent the entirety of my time there studying T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland".  I found myself in awe of these lessons, once completely losing track of time as Si Taylor read the poem for the entire 40 minute lesson.  In my history class, I was able to learn about the likes of Pitt the Younger, William Gladstone, and Benjamin Disraeli from the best possible type of person: a Brit.  Finally, in my Philosophy class, we spent our time discussing morality, logic, and metaphysics.  Overall, the academic portions of Winchester were equally rigorous as they were intellectually rewarding.

Outside of class, a majority of our time was spent either playing football in what is referred to as "yard", or engaging in the Winchester favorite hobby of banter.  Yard, a chicken-wire caged astro-turf field unique to Kenny's, was were most of my time was spent honing my skills in hopes of becoming a better Englishman.  Following classes in the afternoon and tea at night, many housemates would assemble in yard for massive football games, a favorite tradition of mine.  Aside from football, a lot of time was spent reading, watching Cricket matches, and taking walks through the medieval downtown. In terms of banter, the most used word at Winchester, much time was spent engaging my English friends in conversations ranging from English Universities to movies.  An extremely unique aspect of Win Col is its notions, or made-up words.  These notions include "bunter", meaning something stupid or foolish and "goive" a versatile word, most of the time meaning to put something off.  The various notions appear in nearly every sentence spoken at this boarding school, and have become a part of their culture there.  

Overall, my experience at Winchester was an extremely rewarding one.  It offered me an entirely new perspective on what we consider to be 'highschool', as well as exposed me to an entirely new culture.  I met some incredible people and learned things I never would have discovered in the states, be it in or out of school.  I would like to thank the school as well as Mr. and Mrs. Warner for making this great experience possible, as the opportunity is exceedingly generous.  

A view of the War Cloister at Winchester College

A shot of Winchester's chapel