Reconciling Expectations with Reality

With two full weeks in Oxford already come and gone the creation of this blog is long overdue. I feel as though I should wax poetic about the grandeur that is Oxford, but would be disingenuous. Thus far, the journey has been about reconciling expectations with reality. Oxford has a reputation with mythic proportions- it’s the oldest university in the English-speaking world and has produced twenty-six British prime ministers and no less than twelve saints, so of course one tends to idealize it. But it’s actual character is much more complicated. 

Oxford is a series of contradictions- both ancient and modern, charming and exasperating, intimate and aloof, egalitarian and hierarchical. The system of exams and tutorials dates back centuries and yet Oxford is in the grips of the modern higher education funding crisis. The slow-paced lifestyle of a small town is charming and yet the amorphous and ill-defined bureaucracy of the university leaves you wondering what is expected of you, much less who to ask. The college system creates small, intimate communities where you see the same people at meals and walking wave while you walk through the quads on your way to the library or your room but this also makes you feel disconnected from the rest of the university. And while the system of academic advisors provides a unique level of access to professors, the system is overtly hierarchical as epitomized by the “high table” at which the faculty sit during meals.

But beyond these cursory observations, Oxford remains very much a mystery. It is a city with a deep history, a complicated personality and a myriad of quirks. And I very much look forward to becoming better acquainted in the years to come.