Tag Archives: Keble College

wide as England, tall as a spire: Cambridge and Oxford

wide as England, tall as a spire: Cambridge and Oxford

originally published October 31, 2021

As coursework wound to a close, I determined to collect all my end-of-term travels into a single story.

A few weeks have stretched into a few months, and here I find myself with three months and five countries to cover! Make that six countries – I write to you from my quarantine facilities in Tokyo, Japan. (No need to pity me: my organization, JET [Japan Exchange and Teaching] has arranged for us to pay our purgatory dues in commodious and well-stocked hotel rooms near the airport. They delivered breakfast to my door at precisely 7:30am: scrambled eggs, salad, and…chicken nuggets. More anon.)

Appropriately enough, my ventures beyond Oxford began with a trip to her sister city: Cambridge.

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Plain Living and High Thinking: Exploring Oxford

Plain Living and High Thinking: Exploring Oxford

“We should celebrate!”

My first day out of self-isolation, the gracious Audrey paraded me around Oxford for a tour and congratulatory tea (in classic British style, with scones and clotted cream). We last encountered each other while doing undergraduate studies in Michigan – small world!

She inaugurated my first ventures afield into the puzzle of walls, roofs, and doors that unwinds from my newly built accommodations, overlapping medieval, modern, and everything in-between.

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