My Oxford Summer

Most people are familiar with the bittersweet ending that a program like this has. For those of you who are not (I really hope you get to experience it soon), but I’ll try and sum it up for you: I’m so happy I spent the summer here and learned so much. I made many new friends all over the world, and we have all decided to try hard to keep in touch. I submitted papers to Oxford and did well on them. I toured the great colleges and shopped at Blackwells. I read in the Bodleian library and had a Guinness at the Eagle and Child. I wandered the streets of one of the most beautiful, and now I can say one of my favorite, cities in the entire world. That’s the sweet part, with the other side being the fact that I’m packing up now. I know I’ll be back; I want to bring my friends and family to see it and give them the grand tour, but I’ll never be able to leave Oxford for the first time again. I may never be able to study here again. I probably will never be in this city with all these wonderful people again. Despite the sad thoughts that come with ending a period of studying and living with a close group for a little while, I think we can all say we are leaving quite happy. We are leaving knowing we just had a life changing summer, one we will be able to reminisce on over tea and cold toast all over the globe for the rest of our lives.

I started the day by getting up early and writing my blog post for the day before. I headed out from Exeter to try and get some more souvenir shopping done before going to the final plenary lecture. I bought a few things, with the intention of finishing up tomorrow, and headed back to school to meet everyone else. Before going in, I stopped by the summer school office to pick up my EU paper, which I did well on! Huzzah! With the relief that I passed my first paper behind me, I went to the lecture.

It was titled Labour Prime Ministers from Attlee to Brown and was delivered by Lord Kenneth Morgan. Yes, the final lecture was given by a member of the House of Lords, and it was fantastic. He gave us the history of each of the Prime Ministers from the Labour party, started with Attlee right after WWII. This complimented my British Politics class nicely since that’s right where it ended. After giving us the lecture, he and Dr. Buchanan read off our names and gave us our certificates. We all cheered for each other and had a lot of fun. The plenary lectures during this program have been wonderful learning experiences and I think they were organized very well. I am really going to miss those.

From there I had lunch one more time in the dining hall, and then met up with Daniel, Anna, Blake, and Antonia to go explore Christ Church’s campus. I’d been around it so many times, but never inside. We walked through a side entrance and flashed our Bodleian Library cards (people in the know call them ‘Bod Cards’), and got in for free. It’s the biggest campus in Oxford, and it is quite a sight. The quad is huge, and the buildings are filled with hallways scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed in. We also toured the great dining hall which inspired the Hogwarts one. After nerding about that for a while, we got ice cream at a famous place across the street (the name escapes me at the moment), and then went over to Magdalen college. It was similarly an amazing and beautiful campus, with the best chapel of all the colleges in my opinion.

After heading back with my friends, I started packing my suitcase and listening to music. At 4 o’clock, I went to the room I’ve been having my British Politics course in to get my paper back. I would say of the two I put the bulk of my work into this one, and was thrilled when I got a good grade on it. I got to speak to Dr. Buchanan about the paper for a while, and he gave me some really helpful and interesting feedback. One of the best parts of this summer school has been the feeling of genuine interest the professors here have taken in our work. I will always be thankful for that.

I packed and walked around the streets some more, taking in all the sights I could, and then headed to Exeter for the closing dinner. After getting all cleaned up and fancy-like in my suit, I walked to the dining hall to get some pictures in the front with everyone, and then we went to the Fellow’s Garden. Like the opening reception, we had champagne and talked with each other and the professors. Unlike the opening reception we all felt a lot more comfortable and less awkward mingling. I tried to make my way around the garden to see everyone, and hopefully was able to take or be in pictures with everyone. I even got a picture with Tom Buchanan, which was really cool. We all moved from there into the dining hall for our last dinner together.

The food was wonderful; they saved the best for last. It was a fig salad, white and red wine, a steak with sautéed vegetables and then coffee for dessert. I sat with Kevin, Bryan, Alex, Blake, Jessica, Julia and Joanna and we all had a great time. After eating, the heads of both departments said a few words, thanking us for a great month and hoping we make it back to Oxford. After they had spoken and received hearty applause, Lord Morgan gave a brief speech as well. He opened with what I thought was a phenomenal speech-starting joke by saying he knows he was not elected as a Lord in a democratic process, but the Americans can’t hold that against him because neither was President Bush. I probably laughed harder than Blake on that one. He also gave an all around wonderful speech by thanking us again for our participation and welcoming us to stay in touch and come back to visit. The part I loved the most was when he said “I hope you all enjoyed the Oxford summer, your Oxford summer.” In case you hadn’t gathered already from reading my updates, I did.

Tomorrow I am spending my last day in Oxford with Blake and Joanna. Hopefully I can see some of my friends off as they leave. Thank you so much again for reading my posts, there are only a few left now, so I’m taking suggestions for what to blog about next. All I’ve got is “Benjamin’s Big Blog of Bacon Dishes,” and “I Miss Oxford: Sad Haikus from America."