My college, my room, my classes

So as I said I'm staying at Worcester College, which is somewhat off to the side of the main University campus. Not necessarily a bad thing because once I walk out the front gates it's only a few blocks to all the dreamy spires. We're situated in the city centre which means it's a short walk to local shops and eateries, a few of which we've gotten a chance to explore. For instance last night we walked into town and found the Bridge of Sights which is an exact replica of the Bridge of Sights in Venice. Cambridge has one too, though their bridge is actually over the river Cam, the one in Oxford is just over a road. My album has a picture of me under the bridge of sights too:



We also found a quaint pub called the White Horse, which I dubbed the Prancing Pony because I'm a nerd. Speaking of Tolkien, the Eagle and Child, the pub where Tolkien wrote a good bit of Lord of the Rings, is a few blocks to the left of campus. Me and some classmates wanted to find it, but the pouring rain that started a few hours ago cut our day short. Back to the Prancing Pony, er... White Horse: I got a real pint of real Guinness which is so very cool for some reason, and the bartender somehow wove a three leaf clover into the head, I was super impressed:



There are a few pictures of the short walk outside posted in the around Oxford album, but there will be more later. I'm not going to post ALL of my pictures, mainly because I took 77 that day, but also because not all of them are as spectacularly interesting. The few I chose are of Bodleian Library and Radcliff Camera, all famous buildings the latter being built in honor of a famous physician and teacher and at one point used as an auditorium for students. Now there's a book shop in the basement and it's just a touristy spot.

Inside Worcester is designed like many other colleges at Oxford. There is a central quad with a grassy knoll which you can't step on because it's "sacred ground". A lot of times the dorms and classrooms are mixed in together along with professor/don/fellow housing, although I still don't know what a don or a fellow is. We were warned about a million times by a million different people NOT to step on the grass in the middle or the slopes around it. No one explained exactly why the grass is sacred but it just is. So here's a lovely shot of the main building with the sacred grass in front of it. The three right-most arches lead to the Harry Potter like dining hall, and the three left-most lead to the chapel. Both of these pictures are in the Photobucket album. The center arches lead to the porter's lodge and the outside:



My room is pretty nice, I guess. I've never lived in the dorms so all you dorm people will need to tell me whether or not this room is good. It's good for my purposes, let's just say that. I live in a lovely building that consists of several blocks of 6 single rooms with a communal kitchen. The rooms are of varying size depending on which part of the building you're in, my room is along an outside wall and is circled in the picture below. I've got a lovely view of the lake from the large sit-in window. My room is actually circled in this small photo:



My classes aren't anything to really talk about. One is Shakespeare and the other History of Medieval England, both relevant to where I am. The history class is coming out to be the winner in interestingness, mainly because I've read all the plays for the Shakespeare class already and Prof. Wood is not the most titillating lecturer. Dr. Moore is by far more interesting, plus she likes to tell us how strangely people get killed when she tells us about important dates and battles.

This is going to be the last of the super informative blog entries, the rest are going to be more about what I'm up to and how my days are. Pictures of things will still be included but check the album daily for more picture fun! The albums are subcategorized for easy access and all that. So for now, toodles.