Rain dots our view as my mother and I watch the lush green countryside through the train windows on our way from Oxford to York. At first six nights seemed too long to stay, but in the end my daughter Courtney was two days delayed in meeting us in her university town, and we enjoyed the time sightseeing and finding the necessary supplies to turn her dorm room into a cozy home.
My "mum" and I stayed in a welcoming B&B called Heather House, a short ten minute's walk from Courtney's dorm. From there, she walks over lovely Magdalen Bridge and is suddenly amid the towering spires of Oxford. While it is one overarching university, Oxford is comprised of 39 colleges, each with its own tutors and students and buildings and churches and grounds, and wide range of courses to study.
During our time there, the students arrived in waves. We could feel the town literally expanding and contracting as cars and luggage and parents and students came and departed once again. First the international visiting students arrived, then the regular three year students, and finally the freshers.
Because so many came from abroad, we were all competing for the same types of things: SIM cards for cell phones, sheets and blankets for twin beds, towels and tea pots and extension cords, and...until it became a type of scavenger hunt that happened to serve as an excellent introduction to the town!
And Oxford is full of stunning buildings, magnificent gardens, international people, and wonderful restaurants and shops. It has stunning museums like Pitt Rivers in which one can walk amongst towering skeletons of elephants and horses and polar bears, and whales; artifacts like Sri Lankan Disease Demon Masks; and insect collages displaying the array and beauty of their many varieties. And these wonders of nature are all displayed in a cathedral like building build especially to house them, topped with an arched glass ceiling that raises one's heart and mind to the wonders of God.
After a pot of tea and a quick sandwich in the museum cafe, we walked down a leafy sidewalk and peeked through a gate of an estate surrounded by a lush lawn and spectacular perennial garden. We noticed a sign indicating that visitors were welcomed to enter the grounds through a gate around the corner. So we went down the block and stepped inside and found ourselves standing in the Administration Building for Rhodes Scholars, with portraits of Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton on the wall. Through a door and out into the garden, we sat for a while imagining what it would be like to be a scholar who had come to learn and to grow and to exchange ideas in the service of becoming a leader for change and understanding between countries in the world.
And I could really see how time spent in this place called Oxford University could help one to aspire, to dream, to work, and to become the very best version of who he or she was created to be. And its effects are on not only the scholars themselves, but also on regular people, like my mother and I, who pass through for such a very short time, yet are somehow inspired by that same spirit of learning.
Awesome and Brilliant!
My "mum" and I stayed in a welcoming B&B called Heather House, a short ten minute's walk from Courtney's dorm. From there, she walks over lovely Magdalen Bridge and is suddenly amid the towering spires of Oxford. While it is one overarching university, Oxford is comprised of 39 colleges, each with its own tutors and students and buildings and churches and grounds, and wide range of courses to study.
During our time there, the students arrived in waves. We could feel the town literally expanding and contracting as cars and luggage and parents and students came and departed once again. First the international visiting students arrived, then the regular three year students, and finally the freshers.
Because so many came from abroad, we were all competing for the same types of things: SIM cards for cell phones, sheets and blankets for twin beds, towels and tea pots and extension cords, and...until it became a type of scavenger hunt that happened to serve as an excellent introduction to the town!
And Oxford is full of stunning buildings, magnificent gardens, international people, and wonderful restaurants and shops. It has stunning museums like Pitt Rivers in which one can walk amongst towering skeletons of elephants and horses and polar bears, and whales; artifacts like Sri Lankan Disease Demon Masks; and insect collages displaying the array and beauty of their many varieties. And these wonders of nature are all displayed in a cathedral like building build especially to house them, topped with an arched glass ceiling that raises one's heart and mind to the wonders of God.
After a pot of tea and a quick sandwich in the museum cafe, we walked down a leafy sidewalk and peeked through a gate of an estate surrounded by a lush lawn and spectacular perennial garden. We noticed a sign indicating that visitors were welcomed to enter the grounds through a gate around the corner. So we went down the block and stepped inside and found ourselves standing in the Administration Building for Rhodes Scholars, with portraits of Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton on the wall. Through a door and out into the garden, we sat for a while imagining what it would be like to be a scholar who had come to learn and to grow and to exchange ideas in the service of becoming a leader for change and understanding between countries in the world.
And I could really see how time spent in this place called Oxford University could help one to aspire, to dream, to work, and to become the very best version of who he or she was created to be. And its effects are on not only the scholars themselves, but also on regular people, like my mother and I, who pass through for such a very short time, yet are somehow inspired by that same spirit of learning.
Awesome and Brilliant!
