Oxford
On Tuesday we had a day trip to Oxford (hour train ride). We had a little time to explore so I went to the Covered Market to get lunch. I bought a pork pie. The shopkeeper recommended eating it cold so I didn’t use the microwave on the shelf, a decision I regret. Traditional English food has yet to impress me.. Afterwards we went to the Museum of the History of Science. They had some cool exhibits including a bunch of early astronomical instruments (astrolabes, telescopes), the first “computer algorithm” (written by Ada Lovelace), and a blackboard with writing from Albert Einstein (that contains an error).
Next we got a tour of Oxford from a former student and professor who instructed us to refer to Cambridge only as “the other place”. He explained the unique colleges system that Oxford employs (the University consists of 30 or so largely independent colleges). We walked through a few of these colleges as well as some University buildings, everything was stunning. After the tour I climbed the St. Marys cathedral tower to get a fantastic aerial view of Oxford. Then I went into The Divinity School, the site where a number of scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed.
Wednesday was time for more museums. The Royal institute in the morning and then the museum of London in the afternoon. Our tour guide at the RI was a guy named Frank James who is one of the world’s leading experts on all things Michael Faraday. Unfortunately he is also a terrible tour guide. He had a tendency to talk very quickly and very quietly and only seemed to want to pronounce the first half of most words; so it was difficult to understand anything he was saying which is a shame because he was clearly very knowledgeable. The museum of London allowed us to walk through time from the Roman occupation of Britain in 40AD all the way up to present day.
That evening we had an alumni reception held at the Royal Automobile Club. The club was so extravagant that they provided a pair of Oxfords for one of the guys in my group who only had “trainers” on, and refused his entry until he had changed shoes. President Ensign was there and delivered a speech. Then during the QA she tactfully dealt with an alumni who asked, rather aggressively, when fraternities would be brought back to prominence on campus “as they should be!”. I was mostly just standing uncomfortably pretending to drink wine the whole time but did get a chance to meet and talk with a few recent grads who had gotten jobs in London.
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