Let’s talk about Oxford. I could talk about Oxford all day. I’ve had the privilege of visiting this famous collegiate city twice this May–once with my friend visiting from home and once again with some friends on my program. I chose to go back simply because I loved the place so much the first time–it felt like home as soon as I arrived–and I’m so glad I did: while I liked Oxford in the rain on the first trip, I enjoyed it even more on the second trip, in warm, summer weather (and I’ll use mostly pictures from the second trip in this entry).  Anyway, to start with, Oxford is the city that houses the famous Oxford University, although even Oxford is not just one university–it’s a complicated network of 37 mini-colleges, all of which have their own buildings, programmes, and faculty. Prospective students actually apply directly to the college at which they’d like to study, although all the colleges are united under the banner of Oxford University (or University of Oxford–the Brits don’t discriminate.). I’m not sure exactly how this works, but I think that the term “Oxford” refers more to the educational system in that city and at those colleges than to a specific university in the American sense. In other words, the 37 colleges at Oxford are all Oxford, but they are also more specific than that. That being said, my friends and I took a walking tour which let us walk through four colleges: St. John’s, Exeter, Lincoln, and Christ Church. All of them were similar but unique, with beautiful white-yellow sandstone, ivy, roses, and gardens for students to lounge in.

Our first stop in Oxford, however, was not the universities but the famous pub The Eagle and Child. This is where the group of writers and thinkers, The Inklings, regularly met to discuss their lives and their work. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien are the most famous members, and they sat in the same pub that my friends and I ate lunch in! They referred to it as “The Bird and Baby.” (As another plus, this was the only pub in England that we’ve found that serves real American lemonade. What the English call “lemonade” is usually Sprite, so needless to say, finding real lemonade is a big deal.) As for the atmosphere of the pub, I understood why the Inklings chose to meet there: dark mahogany booths were situated in quiet nooks, with tablecloths and candles on the tables. The pub itself is very old and has the traditional cozy feel of an English night in. As my friends and I ate our fish and chips for lunch, we wondered where Tolkien and Lewis might have sat…and of course, it must have been at our table.

                After lunch, we went on a three-hour walking tour of various colleges and around the city, and our outrageous tour guide told us hundreds of years of history–not only of the city and the very old buildings, but of the famous students who have come and gone: George Washington and John Adams attended Christ Church University; Tolkien attended Exeter (twice, as he went off to fight in WWII); and even contemporaries like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair have studied at Oxford. Throughout the tour, I kept finding myself fascinated by the history that surrounded me, but also by the living, present feel of the city and the colleges. Below are pictures of just a few of the colleges and (the second picture) the Bridge of Sighs.

Like so much of England, Oxford really feels like living history–a place that’s been lived in but is also being lived in. For example, while on my tour in Lincoln college, a student ran through our tour group in shorts, with her face painted light and dark blue. Our guide stopped her and asked why she was wearing this. “I row for Lincoln,” she said. “There’s a boat race on the Thames today. So go down there and root for Lincoln!” She made a “woo!” and ran off, but I might never forget how enthusiastic she was–and how nice she was to a tour group invading her school. It was an interesting juxtaposition: a young, very normal college girl among the very old, magnificent and beautiful architecture of Lincoln college. But I think it’s this mix of past and present that makes Oxford so vibrant. I can’t wait to visit there again…perhaps as a grad student? I hope so.

Location: Oxford, U.K.