So those little cottages aren't from Oxford, but they're cute aren't they! (The blog site doesn't give many options for pictures to upload)

On Saturday I ventured off to Oxford with 9 other American students. We had a blast! There was a little trouble at first, with our train tickets costing a bit more than expected... We thought we were going to get a discount fair because there were so many of us, but the train we needed to take doesn't honor that discount. So, 20 pounds later I was on the train, crammed in next to some random man. It was packed!

The city was a fabulous place. It's filled with colleges, all combining to make Oxford University. I forget exactly how many there are. The buildings that these students get to study in are amazing! I would instantly feel more scholarly if I had the opportunity to go to school in ancient stone buildings. Especially since the students there wear robes to class! How cool is that?! 

To start off the day a bunch of us took a tour of the library. It is massive, and full of over 8 million books. Every time a book is published in England, a free copy automatically goes to this library. They have books dating back to when they first started the library, ages and ages ago. I wish I could have taken pictures of the shelves full of old volumes, but no photos were allowed. This is the kind of place I love, full of history and stories, and so many shelves of books that even a lifetime wouldn't be long enough to go through them all. I'm such an English major... ;)

Another highlight of the library tour was the Divinity School. This is a room where scenes in the Harry Potter movies are filmed! Not quite as scholarly as the library, but still cool to see.

After the library tour we met back up with everyone and grabbed some lunch. Being the poor student I am, I opted for a 3 pound meal deal from Boots, along with Jay and Emily. The others all went to McDonald's. By this time it was pouring out, and we all huddled inside the McDonald's to eat. Emily and I got caught with our non-fast food, and were told off by the cleaning lady, but at that point we were almost done and ready to leave anyways.

After lunch we split back up into groups. Emily, Jay and I stuck together, searching out Christchurch College. We didnt' feel like paying to go inside, so we just enjoyed the scenery outside. That's where all the garden pictures and scenic views came from. Such a pretty place! Across the street from there was a little shop where the real Alice, who inspired Alice in Wonderland, used to shop, since her father worked at Christchurch. We stopped in and were touristy, then moved on.

Next we headed back into the downtown area to find "The Oxford Story". It's a small ride, full of wax figures acting out the history of Oxford. You sit in a little cart that moves through the building, listening to a recording. It reminded me a bit of Heritage New Hampshire, but with a ride. It sounds like it would be really cheesy, and it was a bit, but it was also really interesting. Oxford has been a place of study for such a long, long time, and the way things have changed over the years was really cool to find out.

We also made a brief stop in the museum who's name I forget... It had a bunch of Greek and Egyptian stuff in it, and took up the last part of our time in the city before we caught the train home.

Before we left the city, we did stop into some of the gift shops, and to make ourselves feel smarter, I bought an Oxford t-shirt, and the others bought sweatshirts. Maybe some of the knowledge will rub off through the shirt! It's definitely as close as I'll ever get to a place like that!

-Cassie