Of Oxford and Other Scholarly Endeavors

I am resolved to think that despite popular opinion to the contrary, UK students are the same as American students (and perhaps, if I may generalize, students around the world). This thought occurred to me as I was coming into the kitchen and lamenting my state of always reading and yet, never being caught up with everything (it is almost like, the more you read, the amount of reading you have to do suddenly grows). One of my flatmates answered that he never reads and most of the time when researching for essays, he just skims and puts any quote he finds interesting in his paper. Another one, a fellow English major, has not been keeping up with her reading, having yet to finish The Aeneid, which we were done with 3 weeks ago.

Then walking to class, I saw a fellow student reading that week's assignment (Milton's Samson Agonistes) outside of the seminar room. So, procrastination is the same anywhere you go to, especially when you have students who would rather go out than do their assignments. You know you're an overachiever when you realized that while you have half of the assigned 3000 essay already written out, some people have not even started yet. I flew halfway around the world to realize that I am still more studious than most people I know. Maybe this will change when exam time comes around for everyone next quarter (they only have exams once a year since the classes last all year...lucky). Then again, it's the nature of the college student to leave everything until the last minute and waste time in between.

My version of time wasting? Day-long trips during the week to various destinations...while I have three research essays due within the next two weeks. But maybe a trip to Oxford University will motivate me to want to work harder.

The town of Oxford

Oxford University, one of the oldest colleges in the English-speaking world (Chaucer freakin' mentions it in Canterbury Tales) and the alma matre of such names as CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, John Donne, and former president Bill Clinton and the inspiration for the Harry Potter movies. It's as if I died and moved to Hogwarts since the sets were modeled after Christchurch College.

Christchurch College

The Great Hall, sans enchanted ceiling

There are 38 separate colleges and they are divided by department. The colleges are all dispersed across the town of Oxford which means the entire area is a college town. And you had to pay if you want to enter the more famous colleges such as Balliol, Magdalena, or Christchurch. It's almost as if the entire University (I hesitate to say campus since there is no central campus or main student square) was transported from the Middle Ages and placed in present day. There's hardly any modern style buildings and the buildings are still made of stone, with buttresses and curved windows.

Not to mention heads on blocks

I have a feeling the admission fees into the colleges, Natural History Museum, parks, libraries, church, and botanical gardens was mostly for maintenance cost. I must admit, it was beautiful, though a bit like walking through a zoo since there were students living out their daily lives right next to the tourists who were trying to take pictures. They probably have dozens of pictures of themselves in a stranger's Picasa or Facebook album somewhere...strange.

Walking down the hallowed halls that once bore the footsteps of generations of the greatest English thinkers and writers, one cannot help feeling astounded and both small. What kind of expectations and confidence must you have in yourself to be able to go to a place like this? Is there pressure to do great, especially when you have such a large precedent to live up to? Not to mention the money you need since Oxford carries a hefty pricetag (at about $60,000 a year for EU students, according to Lana). It's a beautiful campus and I admire anyone who has the ability to succeed there. For me, the university was inspiring enough that now, I get to go back and attempt to be studious.