The main event of yesterday was a fairly extensive official tour of downtown Oxford. Our tour guide has lived in the city all of her life, and seemed to know what she was talking about. All of it was really fascinating.
This graveyard is stuck right in the middle of downtown.
The Engineering and Science Museum. Einstein once lectured there. Apparently Oxford students are especially fond of pulling pranks on the stone busts that "guard" it, like tying pink ribbons around their heads. I'll visit the museum later--it's free woo.
The Divinity School
The courtyard surrounding the Divinity School and the Bodleian Library.
And a bit (just one building of...many) of the Bodleian Library itself. The 2nd largest library in the U.K. It has the first copy of every book printed in the U.K. since the library's creation thanks to a clever setup the founder made with the printing companies of the day. The library uses a series of underground conveyor belts to move books from the archives to the various reading rooms for use. I'm a member now too! That happened later in the day from a quick orientation to the library and how it works. We all had to swear, aloud, individually, before we could get our library cards, to never damage any of the books, never take any books out of the library, and most importantly, to never "kindle any fire therein." More pictures of the great library to come later.
The Bridge of Sighs, as it is colloquially called, after a larger bridge in Venice that looks similar. Tradition is that wishes made under the bridge come true as long as you don't tell anyone what you wished for. We'll see about that one.
More Bodleian. This time, the massive side entrance to the main inner courtyard of the library.
And the inside of the courtyard:
Oxford Police. The whole city is under watch by cameras. Kinda makes you paranoid. Especially about j-walking since there are no cross walks ANYWHERE. These cops don't seem too worried about that though, as they walk down the middle of the street.
The Radcliffe Camera, now part of the Bodleian, was originally a medical library for some doctor named Radcliffe.
And some surrounding buildings, including the Christ Church chapel seen in the background above.
Lincoln College. Think of it as a sister to Trinity College where I'm staying.
Exeter College. Another sister, but a special one. J.R.R. Tolkien went here. In. Sane.
The courtyard:
The Chapel:
Amazing. No wonder Tolkien was so inspired. Blows my mind.
On that note, here's The Eagle and Child pub. That's where the famous literary group The Inklings met and some of the greatest literary minds just hung out and acted like great literary minds. In case you don't know, The Inklings were an awesome little informal club of sorts that included Tolkien and C.S. Lewis as well as a few other geniuses. Pretty much my dream. We didn't eat there today, but it's only a 5 minute walk from Trinity, so I'm sure we will soon.
And I'm sure by now everyone is tired of all these pictures of buildings, so here are a few with people in them. Yes, amazingly I have met some pretty cool people. The tours have just been going to fast to line people up in front of buildings to take pictures of them. Here's most of the group after our formal Monday night dinner yesterday, although a few people are missing from these pics:
It's not my fault they are all female. The guys are just outnumbered here. I have met John Thomas and Brian though, and they are playing an important part in leveling out the hormone levels. Brian was asleep by this point though because his plane was late and he was dead tired. I don't know where JT was.
And here is what we do for studying...the sweet massive sublime grass quad in the rear of the college...presented by Linsey (left) and Chelsea.
And speaking of quads, I realized I forgot yesterday to explain what the magic grass was:
Magic grass is simply what we call this, because that's how the Trinity people treat it, like it's magic. No one is allowed to even walk on this grass, ever. I think snipers pop up on roof tops and shoot you if you do. All the Oxford colleges have an entrance quad like this with magic grass. Apparently when students graduate, their last action in college is to run across the grass and straight out the front gate, never to return to face the consequences for defiling the magic grass.
Also, totally random but right next to my room, is this thing:
The metal ball in the middle is called an armillary. I'm not sure if that's how it's spelled. But it's now one of our favorite words to say in a British accent.
So this has been an excruciatingly long post, and everything is up to date now. Updates will probably be shorter now till I travel somewhere outside of Oxford.
The Divinity School
The courtyard surrounding the Divinity School and the Bodleian Library.
And a bit (just one building of...many) of the Bodleian Library itself. The 2nd largest library in the U.K. It has the first copy of every book printed in the U.K. since the library's creation thanks to a clever setup the founder made with the printing companies of the day. The library uses a series of underground conveyor belts to move books from the archives to the various reading rooms for use. I'm a member now too! That happened later in the day from a quick orientation to the library and how it works. We all had to swear, aloud, individually, before we could get our library cards, to never damage any of the books, never take any books out of the library, and most importantly, to never "kindle any fire therein." More pictures of the great library to come later.
The Bridge of Sighs, as it is colloquially called, after a larger bridge in Venice that looks similar. Tradition is that wishes made under the bridge come true as long as you don't tell anyone what you wished for. We'll see about that one.
More Bodleian. This time, the massive side entrance to the main inner courtyard of the library.
And the inside of the courtyard:
Oxford Police. The whole city is under watch by cameras. Kinda makes you paranoid. Especially about j-walking since there are no cross walks ANYWHERE. These cops don't seem too worried about that though, as they walk down the middle of the street.
The Radcliffe Camera, now part of the Bodleian, was originally a medical library for some doctor named Radcliffe.
And some surrounding buildings, including the Christ Church chapel seen in the background above.
Lincoln College. Think of it as a sister to Trinity College where I'm staying.
Exeter College. Another sister, but a special one. J.R.R. Tolkien went here. In. Sane.
The courtyard:
The Chapel:
Amazing. No wonder Tolkien was so inspired. Blows my mind.On that note, here's The Eagle and Child pub. That's where the famous literary group The Inklings met and some of the greatest literary minds just hung out and acted like great literary minds. In case you don't know, The Inklings were an awesome little informal club of sorts that included Tolkien and C.S. Lewis as well as a few other geniuses. Pretty much my dream. We didn't eat there today, but it's only a 5 minute walk from Trinity, so I'm sure we will soon.
And I'm sure by now everyone is tired of all these pictures of buildings, so here are a few with people in them. Yes, amazingly I have met some pretty cool people. The tours have just been going to fast to line people up in front of buildings to take pictures of them. Here's most of the group after our formal Monday night dinner yesterday, although a few people are missing from these pics:
It's not my fault they are all female. The guys are just outnumbered here. I have met John Thomas and Brian though, and they are playing an important part in leveling out the hormone levels. Brian was asleep by this point though because his plane was late and he was dead tired. I don't know where JT was.
And here is what we do for studying...the sweet massive sublime grass quad in the rear of the college...presented by Linsey (left) and Chelsea.
And speaking of quads, I realized I forgot yesterday to explain what the magic grass was:
Magic grass is simply what we call this, because that's how the Trinity people treat it, like it's magic. No one is allowed to even walk on this grass, ever. I think snipers pop up on roof tops and shoot you if you do. All the Oxford colleges have an entrance quad like this with magic grass. Apparently when students graduate, their last action in college is to run across the grass and straight out the front gate, never to return to face the consequences for defiling the magic grass.
Also, totally random but right next to my room, is this thing:
The metal ball in the middle is called an armillary. I'm not sure if that's how it's spelled. But it's now one of our favorite words to say in a British accent.
So this has been an excruciatingly long post, and everything is up to date now. Updates will probably be shorter now till I travel somewhere outside of Oxford.
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