Exploring the beautiful, historic city of Oxford

              As I took the "Airline" coach bus from London Heathrow airport to the Park and Ride at Thornhill after a long 11 hour direct flight from D/FW International airport, the lyrics of the song "What a Wonderful World" come to mind: all I saw was luscious green forest and blue skies. Driving on the left side of the road was a bit like entering an alternate universe-it just seemed so strange! I was too tired from the flight to think about that, as it was about 1pm GMT, around 7a.m. CST. A family friend from Oxford was nice enough to come pick me up from the airport and help me move in. Luckily, my roommate was still there (she had said earlier that she may not be) to show me around the house. After moving in to my cozy room and dropping off my luggage, we went on to City Centre to buy a bus pass and a SIM card for my phone as well as some other necessities. We had dinner at  her home before heading back to my place. It was wonderful to get such a warm welcome before starting in the lab.

                The sound of a bicycle riding down Acacia Avenue, the roar of a Smart Car turning the narrow corner of Verbena Way, and the scurrying of the neighbor's cat are the sounds of Greater Leys.  I live in a residential area at the edge of Oxford, a little further from the main area. I take the 12 bus to get to the City Centre.  Wanting to allow time to get a little lost, I left early around 7:30a.m. for my first day and was at the lab around 8:30 (only had to ask for directions twice!).  On the walk to the lab, I saw some landmark Oxford sites such as the Sheldonian theatre and the Radcliffe Library.

                The first lab member I met was Christy, a very sweet girl who helped me apply for a University card (the equivalent of the Emory Card) as well as Wireless login. The other lab members came in around 10a.m. and headed straight for coffee and tea (a European tradition in the mornings, it seems.) I soon learned everyone's names and had a feel of the lab. After tea and a morning snack, everyone goes off and works on their projects, attending to participants or working on publications-it was interesting to see the difference in work environment. It was quite quiet for a while until lunch around 12:30pm. I occupied myself reading research articles and even participating in a few experiments! The lab members all headed upstairs to Darwin's cafeteria for lunch-it was really convenient that everything is in one place! After lunch I finally met my host PI, Professor Spence to talk about my project. Since the proposed project seems to require a bit of programming knowledge, I spent the next few days observing the others' projects to see which one interested me the most.  On Tuesday, I even got to hear about a project in Spanish, as about half the lab is from Spain and Latin America. The other half is Italian, which I also have been hearing bits and pieces of (not really understanding much though!). It was a eventful, but quiet week: my computer overheated on Wednesday and wouldn't start up (for now using the departmental spare computer) and my phone number was blocked until Thursday because of some technical issues. The people in the lab were super nice and allowed me to use their computers in the meantime. The weather also proved to be as bipolar as Atlanta, as it got pretty cold (7C) on Thursday and Friday and was warm again over the weekend (17C).

             As I hadn't yet recovered from the jet lag, I caught up on sleep over  the weekend. On Saturday, I ventured to City Centre to go on a walking tour. I hadn't had the chance to really go around Oxford, and the tour highlighted much of the history as we went through the heart of Oxford. We started at Trinity College, which is one of the oldest colleges. Then we moved on to the heart of Oxford: the Bridge of Sighs and the Bodleian Library, where some scenes from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" were filmed. We even got to witness one of the college traditions: splashing buckets of water on students who had just finished their exams at Exeter College. This reminded me of senior splash day at Greenhill!

           After the tour ended a grabbed some lunch in the Claredon Shopping Centre and took a little tour of my own back to the heart of Oxford. I saw the Radcliffe Camera and even climbed the tower to see the city from above! It was quite the spectacular view. Being the nerd that I am, I stopped by the Museum of the History of Science and toured around there for a bit. It has several cool scientific instruments and artifacts.As an NBB major, I particularly liked the Brain exhibit. It was only 4pm, but I still had so much to see! I went back to High Street to see some of the colleges there and get a feel for the city. I went by the Botanical Gardens to "stop and smell the roses" and saw Magdalen college on my way, where C.S. Lewis studied. I toured around the city a bit more to see some more colleges before heading home for the day.

            Sunday morning started off another eventful day of city sightseeing. I started the day off by boarding the "City Sightseeing Oxford" bus, which offered plenty of historical information and a unique view of sites, as I sat on the top level of the two tier open-top bus. It highlighted the last tower of the Castle and several of the 39 colleges of the University of Oxford. I learned about how everything at Oxford happens 5 minutes late because of some odd time difference--it explained so much! I grabbed a quick lunch and entered the wonder that is the Covered Market. There, I saw what must be the world's most extensive milkshakes menu at Moo Moo's and a fancy Cake Shop that has everything you will ever want from a cake. The warm weather enticed me to some ice cream at Thorton's. I enjoyed the bus tour so much that I went on it again! Before heading home, I stopped  by the Ashmolean Museum, Britain's oldest art museum and version of the MOMA. It had so much to see that the one hour I spent was not enough! Learning about artistic movements around the world was the perfect way to end my weekend!

Bridge of Sighs

Bodelian Library-where some scenes from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire were filmed"

the view from the tower

The heart of Oxford-the Radcliffe Camera

moo moo's menu-so many options!

Ashmolean Museum