Off to (Visit Oxford) College!

It's not that I've exhausted everything to do in London, but other cities beckoned to me last Tuesday. I woke up at the ungodly hour of 7AM (ha! What's funnier is that my friends were probably on they're way to school by then!) in order to catch the OxfordTube to Oxford. I bought the bus ticket through megabus.com (thanks Ms. Pizzazz!) and the bus was surprisingly comfy with a bathroom and wi-fi. Sadly it rained the whole trip there but as soon as I got off the bus it halted! I've been incredibly lucky with the weather.

My first stop was the Pitt Rivers Museum. It was all about archaeology and anthropology and everything in it from the University of Oxford's collection. It was interesting to see but archaeology is not really my thing. They did, however, have an insect section which I chilled in for a while and was handling it perfectly fine until I saw pictures of cockroaches. As if that wasn't enough I then looked to my right and saw a display FULL of live cockroaches! Remembering it makes me nauseous and it was so gross! I practically ran out of the museum afterwards he he.

Entrance to the Pitt Rivers Museum

I'm telling you, dinosaur skeletons are a must for every history museum!

So I obviously researched a little about what I thought was University of Oxford to see where to go but I learned that the University of Oxford is composed of thirty-eight colleges spread out all across the city! Obviously there was no way I could visit them all (plus most of them had entrance fees...) so I went to the three that seemed most interesting to visit. The first one was Christ Church and I believe this one is visited the most. After visiting the college I have learned to never have great expectations for things. I don't say this because Christ Church wasn't amazing but because I was so looking forward to seeing it's Dining Hall that I was sort of crushed when I found out it wasn't open to the public that day! The Christ Church Dining Hall is important because it is the model for the Great Hall in Harry Potter and it also contains a stained glass window of Alice from Lewis Carroll's novel Alice in Wonderland. I still in joyed it though!

A little house and garden right next to the entrance to Christ Church

The visitors entrance was quite intimidating yet beautiful

Do these stairs look familiar to anyone? Yup!
They are the same ones from the first Harry Potter movie where Harry makes his choice about having good or evil friends!

The Great Quadrangle

After Christ Church I kind of walked around a little bit because I the next college I was going to visit, All Souls, did not open until 2. I saw the most peculiar things!

This door appears to be the home of a little dwarf!

Banagrams!!! As well as the other fruit themed games.

Typically you see people bicycling with their children but this couple decided to ride around with their dogs in the backseat instead!

Not sure how legible this will be (or how excited anyone not interested in science will be) but I was near the home of the famous Robert Boyle who invented Boyle's Law (Pressure and Temperature are inversely proportional)

All Souls College was different from the other ones in several ways. To start off it clearly wasn't that popular since I was alone in its Chapel for a good 30 min. alone. It was also smaller than the other two I visited and yet I really enjoyed it's grounds and it's solitude. I actually think I ended up spending the most time at this college since I stayed until 30 min before it closed at 4...which is another reason it makes me think it wasn't that popular since it was only open to the public for two hours! All Souls is only open to graduates and is apparently the toughest to get into. You have to take the "hardest exam in the world" to get in and only 0-2 "Fellows" are accepted every year!

The exterior of All Souls college

Inside the chapel

The wall behind the altar is full of sculptures of disciples (I'm guessing) 

The Hawksmoor Towers AKA the "Ivory Towers of Academia"!

The last college to visit on my list was Magdalen College. Ugh, you guys clearly aren't English since you pronounced the word wrong. Nope try again. It is not pronounced mag-dah-len so you're wrong again. Give up? Well the proper was to say it is maud-lyn. Like Madeleine but with a "maw" sound. The English are so silly!

St John's quad with the Grammar Hall (constructed in the 15th century!) to the right

The chapel had the most amazing sepia glass panes!

A picture from across the cloister of the Great Tower

The Dining Hall! Even though I missed out on the one at Christ Church this still looks a little like Hogwarts eh?

The New Builiding...which was actually built in 1733! C.S. Lewis had a room here when he was a student!

I got to see many deer in Deer Park right next to Magdalen college!

Addison's Walk which was very nice to stroll on.

I also visited the Ashmolean museum and learned about the work of the conservators as well as money (coins in particular). I didn't really know what to do with myself since they kicked me out at 6 and nothing else was open but then my stomached reminded me what I needed to do next! Once again I ate a Cheese & Bacon burger with some delicious chips and a glass of pomegranate juice which was delicious! Afterwards it was back home to London at 8!

It was an awesome day that ended to quickly...unlike this blog post which has taken me forever to write! So goodbye my lovely readers the next time I post I will be back home in Virginia! Although there's still a few more London posts so be sure to check back in!

UYL,
Andre