Museums, Libraries, and Colleges, Oh My! (Part 1/3)

The first of many Museums I went to was the The Ashmolean. It was incredible and incredibly overwhelming. It was HUGE and I never quite figured out the numbering system they had going on for the exhibits. Now that I am looking through the floor plan in the pamphlet, I guess there was some kind of pattern or method to the madness, but when I was there, everything just seemed out of order. Every time I thought I had seen all there was to see in an exhibit, I turned the corner and found more! It was absolutely amazing. And there were students everywhere drawing different displays and artwork, which made me really want draw everything so badly! But there is simply to much too see for that right now (I am just making sure I load up on pictures for references in the future)! 

This Box - The Camera Obscura - was outside. When you go inside, it is pitch black, but it you open the little hole coverings on each side the box (see above) then the image of the outside is reflected upside down on the wall in the box (like an upside down movie of what's going on outside)

SO many plates!

SO many heads!

SO many sculptures!

SO many floors! 

So many security guards and paintings!

Then I explored the Bodleian Library. Like the Radcliffe Camera, the computers are so outdated, but I've accepted this as a trade off to having access to the other amazing resources Oxford has to offer (diversity, brilliant tutors, other students, practically endless book supply, etc.). I read the library oath on a bag in the gift shop before I actually went into the library and mistook it for a line from Harry Potter. That's a reasonable mistake, right?

Library Oath

Inside the Bodleian Library Gift Shop

The Gladstone link is an underground chain that holds more books and links the Radcliffe Camera to the Bodleian Library. I didn't even know it existed until I stumbled upon it. It is pretty spectacular! Going from the historical Bodleian to the modern Gladstone link is like entering a different world! I find much of Oxford has that same juxtaposition of the old and the new. A Brit who started up a conversation with me said, "If you squint your eyes, Oxford sort of still looks like a historical city!" I understand where he's coming from, although I don't really need to squint much!

Bodliean Library

Inside Bodleian Library

I love it! 

Gladstone Link Tunnel

More books in the Gladstone Link - The lights work on a motion sensor, so the shelving is totally dark until you walk between them! 

That same night I had my first pub experience! I went with Katherine and 4 of her friends who are also 3rd year students. The decor of the pub was very strange - not so lively looking flowers lining the ceiling and purple walls and a live jazz band that played an encore of the 2001 space odyssey theme song. And a British man at the bar asked me if I was from Canada because my accent led him to believe I was. It was definitely interesting!