My summary of the Oxford University trip:

I, Claire Davis, sat and had a drink in the very same pub that CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien once got hammered and discussed epics together. Oh, and I stood in a spot where Daniele Radcliffe once stood for the filming of Harry Potter.

Talk about "EPIC!" 

Oxford college--cold, ornate, distinguished, traditional, challenging, successful. Some of these aspects appeal to me; others do not. Oxford itself was how I would have expected--a mix of towering, beautiful stone buildings, coffee shops, and chain shopping stores. I always romanticized Oxford college in my mind, and it altered my perspective to see it in reality. I disliked that the traditions in place seemed to detach students from professors and students from one another; it was frustrating to me that so much emphasis was placed on decorum that students couldn't even sit in the grass outside of their building. Structure is good, and traditions can bring people together, and the solitude of winter and stone can birth many poetic sorrows, ideas, and imaginings, but it just wasn't enough, somehow. I like my sunshine, and I like the freedom to romp outside or go where I please. I like it when barriers are broken down; I like when I can stop worrying about being impressive or respectable and just really get down to learning. Oxford was incredible, but it just wasn't the place for me.

The "Eagle and Child" pub, however... Well, I'd drink with CS Lewis and Tolkien any day.

WeekendTripsNov_0320