Harlaxton Day 7: Oxford

We were somehow able to sleep in for an extra hour today. Thank goodness. It felt good, though it didn’t fully account for the jetlag and lack of sleep that has almost transformed us students into zombies.

I’ll start on another note.

I exited the bus at Oxford not knowing what to expect. Maybe an intense environment where students roamed everywhere? Maybe a typical college town? I noticed immediately that Oxford students were nowhere to be found. In their place were hordes upon hordes of tourists roaming around. After all, the city is home to one of the finest and oldest universities on this planet, making it a prime destination for tourist students on the verge of applying to college who are seeking false hope of defying reality and actually getting accepted into their dream school.

ANYWAYS, as a group, we headed through the town on foot to Christ Church College, one of the 38 colleges which make up Oxford University. Once we were outside the college building, the staff laid some ground rules and gave us around 1.5 hours to roam around the area and city prior to our tour of Christ Church. Pokey mentioned that some past students typically rented either rowboats or punt boats and chilled on the River Thames to pass some time. That sounded great to me, so I got with seven “lads” of our group and we headed down to the riverside in search of a good time.

We rocked up to a dock where a guy was renting out boats. He gave us a few options. We could split our group into two and pay £40 for each group to ride a punt boat, or we could do something slightly more economical: rent one motorboat for the entire group for £55. The decision was obvious. We gave up our desires for a quaint rowing trip on the river to reap the beautiful fruits of industrialization.

Next thing we knew, we were absolutely speeding down the River Thames. Just kidding. As you likely predicted, us Gatton students are responsible drivers, so we settled for a nice, smooth stroll down the river. Okay, that might not be entirely true, either. Honestly, we couldn’t figure out how to put the boat at full-throttle until toward the end of the excursion, so a leisurely ride on the river is what we settled for. Regardless, we had a fun time.

Following the boat ride, the whole Gatton group reconvened outside Christ Church College to prepare for our tour. Our tour guide arrived on the scene. A charismatic fellow, he showed us around some interesting sites. Most notably, he showed us the Christ Church College Great Hall (the inspiration for the Great Hall in Harry Potter), the Bridge of Sighs (inspired by the one in Venice), the Bodleian Library, and the Sheldonian Theatre.

During the tour, I asked the tour guide a question here and there, and I wanted to learn more about who he was. I could tell he had a story to tell. He had mentioned he had attended University back in his day, so I asked where he went to school. He responded with “Not Oxford. I actually went to a school down south called the University of Essex.” I followed with, “What did you study?” And he replied, “I studied electrical engineering. What are you interested in?” I responded, “Cool, right now I’m interested in pursuing either computer science or electrical engineering.” Then the man shared some interesting facts: “Well, actually, I studied computers and telecommunications, and how to combine the two together. I even wrote the first textbook on combining computers and telecommunications. Not the best one, but I can still say I wrote the very first one.” Wow. What a guy. Apparently, he has also published a few books pertaining to Oxford. Even though he wasn’t a widely-known author, it was cool learning this information. It is moments like this that have defined my trip thus far. The superficial pictures in front of tourist attractions are not the things I’ll remember the most, but it’s the personal interactions with people that have forged my experience here. Whether that’s talking to an Italian kid at breakfast, talking about the progression of soccer cleats (football boots) with a worker at the Nike store, or learning that my tour guide has significantly contributed to a field of science, these interactions are what have formed my experience in England.

 

Trivan