Being a student in Oxford is a great experience. The city has a rich culture and a lively student population. Oxford is a historical city and offers a lively social life: there is always plenty to see and do. Walking around the city is a good way to admire the wonderful architecture of the famous university college buildings, to visit the museums, and to enjoy the many beautiful parks and gardens near the River Thames. In the evening you may like to go to a theatre, cinema or have a meal or a drink at one of the many restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs.
A. Guided Tours
The course included a guided historical tour of Oxford and a guided tour of Christ Church College and Cathedral. Apart of these tours at the weekend I did two voluntary guided tours with some teachers from my group. On Friday6th July after finishing our lessons we visited Blenheim Palace an on Saturday 7thJuly we visited Stratford and the Cotswolds.
Blenheim Palace. Home to the 12th Duke of Marlborough and his family and the birth place of Sir Winston Churchill, Blenheim Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site boasting a long and diverse history.
The palace is a masterpiece of Baroque architecture which sits among more than 2000 acres of extraordinary landscaped Parkland and Formal Gardens.
Stratford-Upon-Avon and The Cotswolds.
Within half an hour of leaving Oxford, we were travelling amongst the rolling hills of the Cotswols before visiting the ghostlty Minster Lovell Hall. At Burford, we visited the famous church before we explored the four thousand years of history at the Rollright Stones.
World famous for its association with Shakespeare, Stratford-Upon-Avon was like a fabulous history lesson. As soon as you arrive, you are transported back to the 16th century when Shakespeare was growing up. The perfect place to hear the amazing story of how a normal man from Stratford-Upon-Avon became the greatest writer in the English language. We visited Shakespeare's birthplace, Holy Trinity Church where is Shakespeare's Grave and walked along the lovely River Avon.
B. Visiting colleges, museums, libraries , exhibitions & places of interest
1. Colleges
There are lots of Colleges to visit in Oxford. Thirty eight constituent colleges and six permanent private halls in total! Naturally, as a visitor to Oxford I wanted to go in some of these forty three iconic. We were able to visit a lot of them because we have a student card. It is wonderful to be a student for some weeks!
I am going to talk about my favourite colleges.
Christ Church College
Without a doubt, Christ Church is the most recognisable college at Oxford, having given England Thirteen Prime Ministers and of course being the site of the Grand Stairwell in Harry Potter. Christ Church is without a doubt, one of the grandest colleges at Oxford and actually encases Christ Church Cathedral (The Diocese of Oxford) within its walls. Along the walls of the Dining Room are portraits of just some of the many notable alumni who studied at the College. This includes the likes of William Pitt, the Founder of Pittsburgh, John Locke, the Philosopher and Charles Dodgson, who most people know by the name as Lewis Carroll.
Balliol College
This College is indisputably the top of the best colleges at Oxford to visit. Not only is it one of the oldest Colleges to visit in Oxford (1263), it also gave us three well known Prime Ministers (H.H. Asquith, Edward Heath and Harold MacMillan. The list doesn't end there though as amongst others, Balliol is the former College of Adam Smith, Aldous Huxley and Richard Dawkins… and Boris Johnson went to Balliol as well! The College itself benefits from a stunning chapel, a huge dining room and a beautiful garden which covers a large portion of the Colleges grounds.
2. Museums
We visited the main museum at Oxford The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford University Museum of Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museum.
Ashmolean Museum
Established in 1683, the Ashmolean Museum is the oldest museum in the UK and one of the oldest in the world. It houses the University's extensive collections of art and antiquities, ranging back over four millennia.
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
The University Museum of Natural History houses the University's collections of zoological, entomological, palaeontological and mineral specimens. With 4.5 million specimens it is the largest collection of its type outside of the national collections.
Pitt Rivers Museum
The Pitt Rivers Museum holds one of the world's finest collections of anthropology and archaeology, with objects from every continent and from throughout human history.
3. Libraries
On Sunday 8th July we did a tour of Bodleian Library. This tour offered us the opportunity to visit both the Bodleian Library's wonderful historic rooms and the modern underground reading room. We saw 15th-century Divinity School, Convocation House, Chancellor's Court, Duke Humfrey's medieval library, Radcliffe Camera and Gladstone Link.
4 Exhibitions
On Tuesday 12th July I went with some students to a wonderful exhibition on Tolkien at Weston Library. The exhibition Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth explores Tolkien's amazing legacy from his genius as an artist, poet, linguist, and author to his academic career and private life.
The exhibition takes you on a journey through Tolkien's famous works, The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings, displaying an array of draft manuscripts, striking illustrations and maps drawn for his publications. Discover Tolkien's early abstract paintings from The Book of Ishness, the touching tales he wrote for his children, rare objects that belonged to Tolkien, exclusive fan mail; and private letters.
5. Places of interest
Botanic Garden On Friday 13th July we visited The Botanic Garden which is the oldest botanic garden in Britain, and forms the most compact yet diverse collection of plants in the world.
C. Going to the theatre
On Thursday 5th July we went to see a play at Oxford Playhouse .The play was Peter Pan . This reimagining of Barrie's magical story sees John returning from the WW1 battlefields in the early Autumn of 1918 to find No. 14 Kensington Gardens transformed; the Lost Boys, once soldiers, recuperate in the nursery, Michael is an unkempt rascal and Wendy is a suffragist too busy campaigning for votes for women to sew on shadows! All is topsy-turvy until Peter Pan flies through the window to transport them all back to Neverland for a final battle with Hook.
The talented young people of MCS Theatre Academy performed this adaptation of Peter Pan and we had a wonderful experience at the theatre.
On Thursday 12th July we went to see a Shakespeare's play. 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at Oxford Castle.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is Shakespeare's best loved comedy and one of the greatest plays in the English Language.
Young lovers escape Athens to a forest so they can marry in secret. Meanwhile, some workmen also arrive there, looking for a quiet place to rehearse a play they will perform for the great Athenian Duke. In the forest the King and Queen of the fairies, helped by their fairy servants, play tricks on them all with hilarious results. Great comedy and farce with music, song, dance and sumptuous costume. This, elegant and dynamic production faithful to Shakespeare's beautiful language was "Definitely one of the 'must-see' productions in Oxford this summer!"
As you can see being a student in Oxford has been great.
Thank you for such an unforgettable cultural experience.
Isabel Soriano Botella. July 2018.