Goodenough College

I spent eight months at Goodenough College in 1995.  That's a residence for international graduate students located around Mecklenburgh Square in the Bloomsbury neighborhood of London, where I was researching my Ph.D. thesis on the British community in the Chinese treaty port of Chongqing. (I was fortunate that my sister Margaret had stayed there the year before:  her connection helped me get in.) I did most of my London research at the Public Records Office in Kew (consular reports), though I also did some at places like the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies.

They have two main residences:  William Goodenough House (where I stayed, which is nicknamed Willy G.), and London House.  It occurred to me that London House was like Chongqing's foreign merchant community, being mostly single people, while Willy G., with many married couples and families, was more like the foreign missionary community.  They also have a hotel-style Goodenough Club, where I stay whenever I visit London.

When I revealed to my friend John George that I have a Ph.D., he was really impressed and said I should make more of it.  But it really doesn't mean so much to me.  When it was over I felt like the scene in EASY RIDER where Dennis Hopper says "We did it!" but Peter Fonda says "We blew it." The thesis wasn't as good as I wanted it to be--I was too defensive--and I was lucky to pass.

But the eight months I spent at Willy G. were the best eight months of my life!  Besides my research work, I had time to get to know a great city full of history and culture, and even take part in several Willy G. activities--I helped run the video club--and get to know people.  I remember a moment when I was strolling through the University of London campus on a Sunday afternoon in the fall, and really felt at home. (Or maybe it's a composite of moments in my memory.)