Trip To Oxford (with big pictures!)

A hometown friend of ours named Nicole has been studying at Oxford for the past year as a Rhodes Scholar, but Grace and I haven't managed to get up there and visit her all year. Now, with the summer upon us, she was leaving in a few weeks, so we finally hurried up and made the trip to Cambridge's arch-enemy.

We woke up early, around 7:30, because Grace had a doctor's appointment at 8:15 to deal with a painful ear infection. She got the antibiotics and then we headed off to Paddington train station around 9:15. At Paddington, we grabbed some seats in the quiet carriage and were off on the 10:20 train, set to arrive at 11:20. We've never ridden this line before and it passed through some really nice country - old stone bridges with boats going along the rivers, green hills and forest, and, um, a gigantic nuclear power plant with six cooling towers.

By the time we got up to Oxford it was really bright and sunny, perfect weather for a trip. Nicole met us at the train station and started us off. She had made some tentative plans for what we might want to do, which was good, because neither Grace nor I had gotten around to reading the Oxford section of our Great Britain guide. One of the first things she did is take us to the top of the university's church for a top-side view of the city.

From Oxford

That big round building is the Radcliff Camera. Nicole couldn't take us inside because its still in use by students. She said she studies there, and uses the wireless internet!

Oxford is bigger than Cambridge, and it feels it. The streets are busier with traffic and we spent most of our time on sidewalks, instead of ambling through the pedestrian-ised streets, as you would do in Cambridge. We didn't see nearly the whole city, but the bits we did get to were more often big roads, and less often windy little alley-ways, like in Cambridge. It also seems to be more traditional. Nicole had already told me that Oxford students are required to to wear their gowns when they sit exams (you will be turned away if you don't - one of Nicole's had to run back and change when she showed up at her test with the wrong colored socks!), but there are a host of other little traditions that people still follow, but that have been abandoned in Cambridge. For example, when you take your first exam, you wear a white carnation. After that, you wear a pink carnation for your the rest of your exams, until the last one, where you wear a red carnation. Because of this system, you can glance around the testing site and tell at a glance who is taking their first exam, and who is taking the last one.

Furthermore, exams were a big deal in Cambridge, but they are an even bigger deal at Oxford. At Cambridge, your work for the entire year is graded based on your performance in a three hour exam plus an essay for each class (the essay is usually worth less than the exam!). But in Oxford, you only take exams twice during your three years of undergraduate education - once after your first year, and again at the end of your last year! The middle year has no exams, they're lumped in with the last one. Talk about stress! We arrived amid the tests and on a degree day, so many of the buildings were closed, but we saw a lot of students in robes walking around the city. The undergraduates who have finished their last set of exams get pretty excited, as you can imagine, and we saw them starting out the afternoon in a lot of pubs.

From Oxford

In the picture above, Nicole and Grace are standing in front of All Souls College, which is a college for professors and researchers only, no students. To get in is a major challenge, as the fellows can ask you any question they can think of to test you, but once you make it, you have some huge ten-year grant to basically study and research whatever you want. Sounds pretty good to me.

From Oxford

The view from on top the university church tower.

From Oxford

I think this next picture counts as photo of the week, this week.

From Oxford

After the tower, we all headed to a coffee shop for lunch, then on to Christ's Church college. This was one of the richer colleges, and it was ostensibly closed to visitors, but Nicole got us in. We cut through the old college to the meadows, which are pretty much what they sound like: a big expanse of meadows and grass. Christ's Church college keeps cows in them, and the cows were out today (more traditions). We headed to the other side of the meadows and came to the Thames river, which winds through Oxford on its way to London and the sea. Here we had a long sit and chat.

From Oxford

Nicole is in rowing, so she's intimately familiar with the river. Cambridge has a river too, the river Cam (Cam Bridge... get it?), but it's significantly smaller and winds straight through the heart of the city. It can only really be used for punting and the occasional kayak, as it's too small and narrow for many rowboats and the bridges are too low for any kind of motorboat (you have to duck to get under them when you are punting sometimes). The Thames, on the other hand, was much more a recreational piece of water, with tourboats, punts, rowboats, motorboats and more cruising it's length.

After awhile on the river, we started to sunburn, so headed back into town to see Magdalene college, another rich and old one, renowned for their garden and deer park. At the door they stopped us and the guard sheepishly told us Nicole was only allowed one guest in and that one of us would have to pay £3. He said he felt really embarrassed to tell us this and we felt bad for him. Inside, we headed to the garden and deer park while Nicole told us a story of the college's hubris. It seems the college was hoping against hope that Prince William would choose them for his university studies, and in a bid to tempt him their way, they built a brand new dormitory. The only problem was that they wanted the new dormitory to fit in with the other much, much older buildings on the college grounds, and the roof was causing them problems. The roofs of the old buildings were made of a certain kind of slate which just isn't available these days. Being a rich college though, they hit upon a solution. They bought an old Chateau in France with the right kind of slate on the roof, and just tore the roof off that building so they could use it. In the end, Prince William went to the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and the Chateau sits, presumably ruined.

The garden - really more of a giant cultivated park than a garden - was nice, but filled with stereotypes. At one point in the walk, the student ahead of us was smoking a pipe, and the students behind us were discussing deep things. We overheard "Essentially what I'm arguing is that the essence of objects comes from their interaction..." Check out the tree stump chairs.

From Oxford

Magdalene college also has a deer park, with a white deer (very rare!). Deer are considered exotic enough over here to rear. Rumour has it the top student at Magdalene college during the year is rewarded at the end of term with a meal at the high table. The meat? One of the deer in the deer park.

By now it was getting towards five, so we headed down to take a look at the law building, because Grace is thinking of applying for law school here, and then we went down to a famous book store. They have a lot of books.

From Oxford

We ended the day at the Turf Tavern, the pub where Bill Clinton didn't inhale during his own tenure as a Rhodes Scholar. It's actually a famous old pub beyond it's association with Mr. Clinton. By the time we got here, we were sleepy and tired from a day walking in the sun and Grace's ear was starting to act up, so we decided to leave after a pint. Nicole walked us back to the train and we said our goodbyes...

Next weekend - two weeks in Scotland!