It would be incredibly overwhelming to write about everything at Oxford so far, so I thought I would rely on the tool that gets me through life: incessantly draw Harry Potter comparisons to everything.
For dinner, we have the option of “scaf”, or self-serve like those at Cornell dining halls, or “hall”, where you sit and wait to be served a formal three-course meal. Some colleges even require dinner attendees to dress of for hall, but over at St. Catherine’s we’re pretty chill about that.
This is our hall during dinner:
The faculty (the “Master” who is our dean plus other professors, tutors, and fellows) sits at a slightly elevated table at the head of the room. They arrive every night in a procession and everyone immediately stands up when they come in. The Master then says some blessings in Latin, like “Benedictus Benedicat” and then bangs a gravel. Everyone sit down and lively conversation immediately erupt in the hall. Sounds familiar?
Oxford has 38 colleges – think of them as the different Houses in HP (University of Toronto has a similar system). You basically eat, sleep, and hang out in your college so it’s a nice, intimate community. Dorms are grouped by staircases, so someone might be Staircase 17 Room 2 or something. Every college has a Common Room where there are tons of cushy chairs for big groups to watch football (soccer), play pool, or drink at the college bar.
Hearing the English accent everywhere is lovely. After a week here, I’ve finally stopped in squeaking in delight every time I hear one.
I’m glad malls are an American invention because I love the boutique style of shops that characterizes Oxford town center. I like to think Blackwell’s, which sells textbooks, leisure books, posters, music etc. is Flourish & Blotts. Cornmarket St. could easily be Diagon Alley. Walking around town, there are so many nooks and crannies you can sneak into and find yourself in a totally different world.
Now, Hogwarts wouldn’t be Hogwarts without… house elves! Now I’m not going to tell you that I have big-eyed, floppy eared creatures wearing tea cushions visiting my room every day. We DO have maid service, called scouts, who come to our rooms every other day to take out the trash and every week to change our sheets, vacuum, and clean the bathroom. Since my roomie and I are nocturnal, we sometimes don’t even see them coming in in the morning (probably judging us American kids for sleeping in so much).
I’m constantly in awe of how beautiful Oxford is, inside and out. Yesterday, while exploring a floor of the Bodleian Library we’ve never been to before, we stumbled upon the Duke Humfrey’s Library, which contains rare manuscripts. Photography was not allowed, neither are pens, highlighters, touching the books without washing your hands first, reading a book without putting it on the book stand first… etc (photo credit: beattiesbookblog).
Look familiar?
On the other side of the Bodleian, we saw these gorgeous windows of the Divinity School. We circled the place twice but still couldn’t find a way in (photo credit: someone’s picasa account).
I climbed the wall under one of the windows there, peeked in, and immediately recognized the ceiling that served as the backdrop to this:
Really, all I need to do is take a train from London to Oxford and my life is pretty much complete.