{"id":518,"date":"2011-11-14T13:53:06","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T18:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/studying-abroad\/?p=518"},"modified":"2011-11-14T13:53:06","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T18:53:06","slug":"floyd-13-enthusiastically-embraces-oxford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/2011\/11\/14\/floyd-13-enthusiastically-embraces-oxford\/","title":{"rendered":"Floyd ’13 Enthusiastically Embraces Oxford"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Riley Floyd ’13<\/em> – Greetings from Oxford!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve just finished the fourth week of my study abroad experience at Oxford\u2019s Lady Margaret Hall (LMH), and I can say without reservation that Oxford is one of my favorite places in the world! I\u2019ve made some great friends here, and we\u2019ve had a ton of fun \u2014 including the inevitable embarrassing moments as typical Americans abroad. What\u2019s most captivating about the place is everyone\u2019s story. Everyone I\u2019ve met here has had some amazing life experiences, and the difference in their academic interests is fascinating too \u2014 from astrophysics to the Cold War \u2014 the options are endless.<\/p>\n

LMH is a really friendly place. And it\u2019s beautiful\u2014complete with gardens and Georgian architecture. It\u2019s a little removed from the City Centre, and it\u2019s one of the newer colleges \u2014 founded in 1878. I say \u201cnew\u201d because Oxford\u2019s oldest building was constructed in 1049. It\u2019s quite small too; there are only about 450 students here. But it gives you a great chance to get to know some of the British students \u2014 particularly if you take on a sport. And the tradition here is awesome. Formal, three-course dinners take place every Friday in the college\u2019s dining hall \u2014 a wood-paneled hall with austere portraits of all of the College\u2019s principals. And there\u2019s quite a sense of hierarchy. The tutors and principal literally sit at a table on a higher plane than the students. But once you leave the hall, that hierarchy disappears; everyone here is really accessible.<\/p>\n

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And the town itself is great! There are so many pubs, restaurants, and historical sites that it will make your head spin. I\u2019ve been here for four weeks, and I still haven\u2019t seen everything. In fact, I only went into the Radcliffe Camera for the first time last weekend. The kebab carts are really good too \u2014 think of it like the Brit equivalent of late night Taco Bell runs in C-ville \u2014 which, by the way, the British are incredibly jealous that our fast food joints are open 24 hours. Everything here closes early; even pubs shut the doors at midnight.<\/p>\n

Academically, Oxford provides a uniquely individualized setting. There are no \u201cclasses\u201d \u2014 unless you\u2019re a science student. Instead, there are tutorials. I meet once a week with my Modern Literature tutor and once every other week with my Jurisprudence tutor. For each meeting, I complete a reading list and write a 2500-3000 word essay on that week\u2019s reading. And then we discuss the paper and the readings in tutorial. It\u2019s tough. And the week is easily consumed with reading, writing, and preparing for tutorial. But the social aspects are great too.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve started rowing crew, and it\u2019s a ton of fun. It\u2019s quickly becoming one of my favorite sports \u2014 and not just because of the crew dates (dinners and club nights where guys\u2019 VIIIs pair with women\u2019s VIIIs from other Oxford colleges). We\u2019re gearing up for the Christ Church Regatta in 7th<\/sup> Week \u2014 a race for novices only. With weekly outings and gym sessions there\u2019s plenty to keep me busy. And it gives me a needed break from all the reading.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard people talk about their study abroad experience \u2014 the nervousness associated with being in a new place, the new people they met, the traveling they did, and the amazing memories they had. And I thought it was just hype.<\/p>\n

But they were on to something. There\u2019s something to be said for leaving everything you know and everything with which you are familiar behind and starting entirely from scratch. That\u2019s exactly what studying abroad forces you to do \u2014 particularly at a place like Oxford. And I\u2019m having the time of my life. I can\u2019t explain why, really. I think it\u2019s mainly due to the incredible variety of experiences you can have here. It forces you to look back on everything that brought you here and everything that\u2019s yet to come. And that\u2019s vastly rewarding. I\u2019m exceptionally grateful to be able to have the experience. As great as Oxford is, I\u2019ve also come to appreciate Wabash even more by being here. And I have to say thanks to everyone at the College and to my family for preparing me for this experience. I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s nearly over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Riley Floyd ’13 – Greetings from Oxford! I\u2019ve just finished the fourth week of my study abroad experience at Oxford\u2019s Lady Margaret Hall (LMH), and I can say without reservation that Oxford […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-study-abroad"],"w_featured_image_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}