It is hard to believe that I have already been in Oxford for a month (and that I have only been in Oxford for a month). Particularly when this October felt like the longest month ever, probably since the Covid pandemic started in late 2019 and since I had to live through the first lockdown in mid 2020.
My research progress here continues to be slow but hopefully is moving along at a steady pace. For now, I am still trying to acclimatise, which means that there were days where I found it hard to concentrate on work (think dreary rainy days). Still trying to understand the English culture and communication norms also meant a certain amount of anxiety regarding committing social faux pas. Furthermore, trying to shift my mental model from being a learning designer to an educational researcher turns out to be much harder than I thought it would be. All that said, given that I am already here, I have little choice but to press on. Thankfully, almost everything that I am learning has been most fascinating (even statistics!).
To help myself feel less homesick and more fully embrace life at Oxford, I decided to set for myself the goal of visiting as many as possible of the over 30 Oxford colleges. And I am quite pleased to say that in the past month, I have visited 5 other colleges, namely Green Templeton College, Keble College, Kellogg College, Lincoln College and St Cross College. Unfortunately, I did not manage to take any photos of Keble College as I was only there for a really short while. I also did not manage to take photos of Kellogg because each time I was there, it was to hang out with friends and I always forget to take that tourist photo as a result.
Green Templeton College
One of the newest Oxford colleges (founded in 2008) which supposedly serves the best food in its dining hall. And of course that was why my friends and I decided to have lunch at GTC before heading to class. And in case you were wondering why there isn’t any photo of the food, I must confess that it was so good (we had lasagna) that I forgot to take a photo before i gobbled it all up.
And even though we were there for the food, it didn’t stop us from admiring the college grounds and enjoying its beautiful architecture and landscaping.
Lincoln College
This was a surprise visit at the invitation of a friend whom I happened to be studying together that day. She was meeting some church friends for lunch at Lincoln and asked if I would like to come along. I was initially hesitant, but I eventually decided to join them, since I needed lunch anyway and it was an opportunity to visit the college.
For a college that was first built in the 1400s, I was thoroughly impressed by how its builders over the years have blended different architectural styles so harmoniously as they expanded the site. I am not an expert so I can’t say much about this, but you can see for yourself what it is like, at their college virtual tour.
I was privileged to be able to see the college dining hall, chapel and library during this visit and I must say that all these places blew my mind away. But, I have to confess that my favorite of the three would be the college library. Maybe because I am a nerd to begin with.
A bit of a trivia here… do you know that the library was once a church? And that is possibly why this library is rather unlike the others.
St Cross College
It is kinda funny that the more times I have been to a college, the less photos I have of it… yet, this kinda also makes sense. I have a couple of classmates who are from St Cross and thus we do get invited over quite often, though I am not always able to join them. However, the few times that I have been able to, I must say that I do enjoy the vibe of the place. There is a certain serenity and openness, which isn’t so obvious from the photo. I guess it also helps that each time I was at St Cross, the weather was fabulous.
Apart from visiting colleges, I also had the opportunity to visit the Natural History Museum, the Old Bodleian Library as well as take a walk at the Christchurch meadow. These were all lovely experiences that uplifted my spirit and I’ll share more about them in a separate post.
An Ordinary City Dweller 