The End of Hilary Term

I spent the latter half of Hilary Term (the second term at Oxford) eagerly planning and awaiting a visit from a college friend. In the spare time between my having to write essays and complete assignments, I was starring places in google maps, searching for connections on trainline, and studying the histories of the places we would visit. I did, however, have time to do other things as well. For example, my housemates and I visited the Pitt Rivers Museum, a major anthropological and archaeological museum in Oxford. The collection was interesting enough, but the lack of any logical geographic or temporal categorisation nearly drove me up the wall.

My friend arrived on the Sunday of March 13th when I was still studying for my last exam of the term. I completed the exam on the morning of the following day, after which my friend, two of my housemates, and I made a visit to the Natural History Museum. Two pieces of trivia stand out about the Natural History Museum at Oxford: it was the site of the famous 1860 Oxford evolution debate, and it houses the world’s only surviving remains of dodo soft tissue. The dodo, which is no longer on display but of which there is a replica, famously inspired the one in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Following our visit to the museum, we went down to the Radcliffe Camera to do some sightseeing and bought a few things at the Covered Market. My friend and I had dinner at Christ Church that evening, with one of my course mates there kindly offering to treat us (students from other colleges must be invited to the scenic dining hall by a member of Christ Church to be let in). Since the term had officially ended, there were only six people in the dining hall, excluding the fellows at high table, which means we were outnumbered by the people in the paintings lining the walls.        

Mammal skeletons at the Natural History Museum
Many of the columns have intricate designs
Small mo'ai
A massive totem pole
Easter eggs from Central and Eastern Europe
The second floor at the Pitt Rivers
The view of the Pitt Rivers from the back
Daffodils at Wolfson College
A kiwi at the Natural History Museum
Beautifully coloured serpentine
An orca skeleton
More skeletons of cetaceans
A stone frog (detail of a larger statue)
The head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex
This is not a fossil! Manganese dendrites on micritic limestone
The view from the first floor of the Natural History Museum
More of the same
All Souls College
The Radcliffe Camera
More of All Souls
The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland at the Covered Market
The Church of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga on Woodstock Road

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ireland: Day 8 – County Louth

Image
My plans for my last day in Ireland came together in a very ad hoc fashion. Having seen everything I wanted to see, I searched for interesting sights close to the highway between Dublin and Belfast. These did not include – though I found it the most interesting sight of all – the modest highway sign saying “Welcome to Northern Ireland” painted over with several streaks of dark red paint.
Read more

Southern Delhi and Other Bits and Pieces

Image
On my last day in Delhi, I managed to cross off the last few items on my sightseeing list. I began by packing my luggage, all the while congratulating myself on having remembered to ask the hotel to do my laundry in advance. That finished, I ordered an Uber to Akshardham, a massive Hindu temple east of the Yamuna River. The opening hours of the temple are not well advertised, and when I arrived by the front gate, I learned it was still closed. For a few minutes, I took pictures of the temple from afar, when suddenly an autorickshaw driver approached me. He reasoned with me that since the temple would not open until ten, I had better come with him and see other sights. I had to admit the soundness of his reasoning and gave him my next address.
Read more

Vietnam North to South – Day 1: Alone in Hanoi

Image
My redeye from Delhi arrived close to five in the morning, and I did not catch a jot of sleep. Once I got to my hotel, however, I did not feel particularly drowsy, and instead of napping for a few hours, I started sorting through my photos from India. This exercise lasted for as long as it stayed cloudy outside – that is to say – until around eleven, when I grew bored of the very mechanical editing process and decided to go out.
Read more