Our First Forays

Yesterday, the OSAP students went on a guided, two hour tour of our adopted home. Starting at the OSAP office on George street, we moved towards the old Saxon Tower, St. Michael at the North Gate. 

We continued on to Broad Street, where we saw the first charity shop in the UK, Blackwell's book shop, and the Sheldonian Theatre. Unfortunately one of the Greek philosophers had a slight wardrobe malfunction (below), so we moved on.

Next, we moved to the area between the Sheldonian and the Divinity School. When the council had realized many of the gargoyles on the outside of the Bodleian would need replacing, Philip Pullman suggested that children submit ideas which could then be rendered in stone. The council agreed and there are now some very neat designs on the sides of the Old Bodleian.

The Sheldonian (right) showed us it's Roman Amphitheater style which was designed by Astronomy professor Christopher Wren, who went on to design St. Paul's cathedral in London.

We also got to see Oxford and Hertford College's "Bridge of Sighs" (left), which is supposedly where students going to take exams catch a last glimpse of sunlight before they begin.

After this, we promptly lost our bearings as we somehow looped around Oxford, passing New College, Christ Church College, Magdalen College, the Turf Tavern ("An Education in Intoxication"), the flooded Oxford floodplain and hundreds of other notable places!

These include the playing fields of the Christ Church Cathedral Choir and the place where "Lewis Carroll" wrote the famous Alice in Wonderland books. Mr. Carroll was actually serious academician and Mathematics professor Charles Dodgson but chose the pen name so as to avoid being ridiculed by fellow academics. Apparently Queen Victoria sent him a condescending letter once the word got out and asked him to send him a copy of his next book because they were such a delight. What did Queen Vicky get in the mail? A copy of "Curiosa Mathematica, Part I: A New Theory of Parallels".

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Today we got inducted and introduced to our colleges, mine is New College! Despite its name it is one of Oxford's oldest colleges and is officially named "The Warden and Scholars of St Mary's College of Winchester in Oxford" but since Oriel College (which was older) was also dedicated to the Virgin Mary, people called it "New College of St. Mary" and then eventually "New College". I guess even people at Oxford get lazy...

They are well known for their wall, which is the only portion of the original Oxford city wall still standing. The Mayor and the city's bigwigs inspect the wall every three years and have done since 1379. To put it into perspective, that's well over 100 years before Columbus stumbled across our home continent. We also got to see one of the filming locations for Harry Potter!

My fellow cadet and classmate David Holmes and I went off to explore some interesting Oxford landmarks. We made it into the Sheldonian, which is where Oxford graduates receive their degrees (in a ceremony almost completely in Latin), and we also got to explore the Old Bodleian, the Radcliffe Camera, and the tunnels connecting the two!

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Can't wait for another great day tomorrow!

Sincerely,
James McManus
The Oxford Observer
Sierra Company, Class of 2016