Day 20 - Oxford

Today I had a class field trip to Oxford...famous for Oxford University. It was a wee (sorry still hanging on to Scottish ways) two hour drive there, long enough to get a nap in! Something interesting I did not know until today is that Oxford University is actually made up of 38 different colleges of different religious denominations...you learn something new everyday right?!

We took a walking tour of the University which is basically these huge old beautiful buildings filled with stained glass and huge arched hallways. We started out at the Sheldonian (made me think of President Shelton at U of A haha) Theatre and it had awesome views from the top of it of the city.

Melissa and I on top of Sheldonian Theatre over looking Oxford!

Here is the actual view looking out one of the windows

Next we toured around some little parts of Oxford, saw the Radcliffe Square (which you can see in the back of the above picture, it's the dome building) and other parts of the school. Their education system here is very different from ours in the U.S...first of all, their tuition is not very much at all! For a European student to study at Oxford their tuition fee is only 3,000 pounds, comparing that to an ivy league school in the U.S., that's quite a difference! Also they're very independent study based...students get their work, they have tutoring times with grad students and then turn their work in. I'm not sure I'd fit in here (maybe at Jesus College), but it was great to see where people actually study!

There were also these great little figures on top of a ton of the buildings, just these faces, sitting there! This one is of the Lion from C.S. Lewis' (who is also from Oxford) Chronicles of Narnia, I thought you'd appreciate that Fed!

For lunch a group of us found a great little pub to eat at...chicken sandwiches, safe bet right? Next we met up with the whole group for a self guided tour of Christ Church college and cathedral. Fun facts about Christ Church: the hall is where some of the Harry Potter scenes were filmed and inspiration for Alice in Wonderland came from a few Crist Church students and the dean! Alice was even depicted in one of the stained glass windows of the great hall (see if you can find her in the picture below). Also, my favorite guy Henry VIII founded this college!

Afterwards we had some time to diddledaddy around the town, enjoy the rainy weather, and even get milkshakes yum yum! Two hours back on the bus (man I'm sick of buses!) and we were back home! Love days like this where our class gets to spend a whole day somewhere else.

Moo Moo's milkshakes are the best! Here's the Spice Girls (as Gucci Man calls us) and Gucci Man haha but actually in the picture are my new friends Jordan, Mr. Marinelo (teacher from UNC Charlotte), Melissa and Lee!