This Saturday I took a day trip with a friend to the city of Oxford. We were able to go into the dining hall at Christ Church College, one of the 38 schools of the University of Oxford, which inspired Hogwarts Great Hall in Harry Potter. The thing that I have been noticing about being in England is that everything is so old and historic, but people continue to use the old buildings or household items as if it were no big deal at all. It makes me realize how young the United States is in comparison, and how that’s something that would take getting used to. Also have I mentioned that our NYU in London Academic Centre is in an old Georgian style house? There are fireplaces and chandeliers in our classrooms, which is pretty cool. Actually it seems that a lot of office buildings are just old houses in the city, which I just began to notice.
Great Hall at Christ Church College.
The Bodleian Library at Oxford is also very beautiful, and supposedly inspired the Hogwart’s Library. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go in because there was a graduation ceremony going on at the time.
On Sunday I tried to attend an event for Open House London. It’s a weekend every year where some of the most famous buildings in London are open to visitors. This is a great chance to see some buildings that usually wouldn’t be accessible, or usually have an entrance fee. I tried to go into the Gherkin, but upon arrival discovered that the queue was already closed off. Some people had been waiting 6 hours or longer just to get in! If I had another day, I probably would have planned ahead and picked one place I really wanted to see and gotten in line early. After that we just decided to call it a day because we figured most lines would be too long at this point and we wouldn’t have much time left to explore the buildings. The Gherkin is just an office building, but I really like the architecture of it. “Gherkin” is just a nickname, but it is called that because it looks like a pickle—or a gherkin. My friend studying at NYU Paris had a Open House Paris weekend, and she was able to see the French President’s office. I think this is such a cool idea and something I’m sure would receive a lot of interest in New York.
Tales from Study Abroad 