Wikipedia on Oxford:
Oxford (pronounced /ˈɒksfərd/) is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in Southeast England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre. For a distance of some 10 miles (16 km) along the river, in the vicinity of Oxford, the Thames is known as The Isis.
Buildings in Oxford demonstrate an example of every British architectural period since the arrival of the Saxons, including the iconic, mid-18th century Radcliffe Camera. Oxford is known as the "city of dreaming spires", a term coined by poet Matthew Arnold in reference to the harmonious architecture of Oxford's university buildings. The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world.
Lovely London Ladies @ Christ Church College
My thoughts on Oxford:
We visited the city for a day trip with the Program in connection to the Archaeology and Ethics class. Which I am not in. The students in the class were expected to visit two different museums, the Ashmolean and the Pitt Rivers, and evaluate lots of archaeological and ethical things. I clearly did not have the knowledge base or inclination to do that. Nor did the majority of our group.
When we arrived at the Ashmolean at around 10:30 am, we quickly realized that we were going to get next-to-nothing out of the trip when we saw copies of various marble statues and busts we had just seen the originals of in Rome. Yup. We booked it straight to the Ashmolean Café, where we gobbled down croissants and chugged cappuccinos before ditching that museum like a bad prom date.
Instead of lingering at the Museum of Bad Copies of Awesome Art We Saw In Rome, a big group of us headed to Christ Church College, which is really famous for a lot of reasons, but most importantly (for this blog anyway) for being used in the filming of the Harry Potter movies. We all nerded out pretty intensely over things like Harry's dining hall, the staircase ascended by the first-years before they're Sorted, various campus locations we recognized as sites of Harry-Ron-Hermione interactions, and other more obscure but exciting Harry-related locales. Kayla and I also had a wand-fight in the dining hall. Because we're cool like that...
Expelliarmus! Dueling in the dining hall.
After playing and having endless fun at Christ Church, we headed through their beautiful cathedral...burial place of John Locke, famous philosopher, and home to a lot of pretty beautiful architecture. I loved it, and decided to challenge myself by reading the cathedral guide in French instead of English. It was kinda fun...I love that this semester has enabled me to use so much more French. Then...we went shopping.
Outside the cathedral. Isaac=pimpin'
We hit up the Alice in Wonderland store (Lewis Carroll was an inhabitant of Oxford!), then grabbed some traditional Cornish pasties for lunch at the Botanic Gardens. This was the best best best part of the day because...
MY FAVORITE!
The entire gardens' ground was BRIMMING with DAFFODILS. I went postal. I was in heaven. I went completely kindergarten on everybody and started jumping around like a little child. It was a beautiful 65 degree day in England with abundant sunshine and I was having a picnic in a FIELD of my favorite flowers. It was, in a word, perfect.
That's the face of Lizzie Schwegman in BLISS.
I may or may not have even made a crown of daffodils as the world floated by in punts and paddle-boats along the river. (We all did. It wasn't just psycho me. I promise!)
"And if you wrap yourself in daffodils..." -Counting Crows
We turned on some Beatles music and read some books and talked among great friends. It was a pretty beautiful way to spend an afternoon. After watching (and laughing with, and talking to) punters and passersby for nearly two and a half hours, we headed back to the buses to return to London. It was, all in all, the best way to escape from the hectic crush of the city. Oxford is so picturesque, quaint and incredibly beautiful. I had the best day ever!!
PS: if anybody from the Botanic Gardens ever asks, those daffodils were just lying on the ground, and we definitely would never have picked them. Ever. :)
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