Oxford - The City of Dreaming Spires

All's well that ends well

2017-04-02T12:16:42+03:00

It's been a lovely fortnight in Oxford. I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog (it's my first one ever). I do recommend Erasmus+ courses to all European teachers!

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Blenheim Palace

2017-04-02T10:53:27+03:00

This is Blenheim Palace, a monumental country house in Woodstock, with its wonderful gardens and park. I really enjoyed my visit there especially because my course was drawing to an end.
The Palace is known as the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. It was great to see the Churchill exhibition and learn more about him as we had already read a short chapter on his memories of his first school day on the course.

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About the Course

2017-04-02T12:14:58+03:00

The second week of our stay the course venue for the morning classes was changed to Oxford Union which is a famous debating society. A Swiss teacher also joined our small group. During the morning classes we had some theme like literature, British food, the environment etc. and we listened to music and read texts related to the theme. We also had discussions and different types of exercises, which was all very good practise for our English skills. It was also very valuable and enlightening to learn how people think and how things are in other European countries.

In the afternoons I had private lessons for the most part with a teacher who had been working with online testing. I learnt so much about assessment and testing and we had a lot of good discussions on the topic. I also met a tutor called Leslie whose wife is Finnish. It turned out that she comes from the same place in Finland as I do. Small world, isn't it? Leslie introduced the British educational system to me. One afternoon I had the pleasure of talking to a head and deputy head of a private tutorial college. No matter where your school is there are issues and concerns that are the same. I really enjoyed all these private lessons even though the idea of one-to-one classes was new and I was not accustomed to them at the very beginning.

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Bath

2017-04-02T10:32:57+03:00

In addition to Stonehenge, Sunday's excursion included a visit to Bath. First we did a guided walking tour and then explored the city on our own. It's a beautiful Unesco World Heritage Site with Georgian architecture. In the pictures you can see Assembly Rooms where people of higher classes used to gather for entertainment like balls, concerts or gambling. Mothers brought their daughters for the season in the hope of marrying them to a suitable husband. Both Jane Austen and Charles Dickens visited Bath and mentioned Assembly Rooms in their novels.

For thousands of years the biggest attraction for coming to Bath has been the spa called Roman Baths which is the only place with naturally hot spa water in the UK. Other places of interest are Royal Crescent, Pulteney Bridge and the Jane Austen Centre.

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Stonehenge

2016-07-08T00:14:22+03:00

There is only one word to describe this place, it's impressive!

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Stratford-upon-Avon

2017-04-02T10:32:01+03:00

On Saturday I went to Stratford-upon-Avon with a German teacher from my course. The whole day was all about following in William Shakespeare's footsteps with more than 21,000 steps taken during the course of the day. We started off with a visit to Shakespeare's birthplace. The exhibition was very informative and on the courtyard there were actors bringing Shakespeare's well known works to life. There was also Hall's Croft where Shakespeare's daughter Susanna lived with her husband Dr John Hall. It was a beautiful and wealthy country house like our next stop Harvard House from the same era. Last but not least on our tour was Anne Hathaway's cottage. Anne was Shakespeare's wife. The cottage was so typically English, the garden absolutely fantastic and the weather gorgeous!

There were words and quotations
from Shakespeare on this wall. My
favourite one is "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."

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About the Colleges

2017-04-02T10:07:09+03:00

Oxford University had an open day for prospective students and their families on Wednesday and Thursday. More than 7,000 people were expected to come each day. We lept at the opportunity and had a lovely chance to see more of the colleges than we would have otherwise. In total there are more than 30 colleges in Oxford. Below is Wadham College.
The colleges have their own dining halls, libraries, chapels and gardens. The students can have their accomodation on the college premises or in the city.

Some colleges have formal dinners with three-course meals every night. Tuition fees for all colleges are 9,000 £ a term at the moment. The following pics are from Christ Church College, the biggest, richest and most famous college right in the city centre. Do you recognise which pic is from Harry Potter films? By the way, there are no lecture theatres in this college because the teaching method they use is tutorials. Tutorials are weekly meetings where a student or two see the tutor or professor to talk about ideas and opinions relating to that week’s reading or problems.

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Oxford University Press

2017-04-02T09:50:18+03:00

After our classes on Wednesday we visited Oxford University Press. It's a department of the University of Oxford that brings in a lot of money to the colleges. It started printing in the 15th century.
In the picture above there is a printing press. On the left there are cases of cast metal type pieces. On the right there are pages from Alice in Wonderland with the famous concrete poem of The Mouse's Tale.

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The Very First Days

2016-07-06T22:51:13+03:00

I travelled the whole day by taxis, buses, trains and planes. Everything went fine and I even managed to take a three-hour-long nap on the plane. I arrived in Oxford on Sunday evening and you can probably guess what the weather was like - yeah you're right, it rained. But it didn't matter because I'm staying with a very lovely and helpful couple in Kennington.

The next morning was really lovely and the city looked really beautiful. I take the bus every morning to this place right in the middle of Oxford where my course is being held. We're four people on the course and the nationalities are a good mix. There is a Polish, a Spanish and a German teacher besides me. We have two lessons in the morning and one or two in the afternoon. The first day ended with a guided tour around the city that basked in the sun after weeks of rain. There really are a lot of spires in the city - I just wonder why they are dreaming. At the present neither the city nor the country are dreaming - they are just trying to cope with the aftermath of the referendum and its implications. The people I have spoken to seem to be surprised or shocked about the unexpected result.

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My Travel Plans

2017-04-02T10:02:07+03:00

Finally ready and set to go! I'm really looking forward to getting to Oxford to attend my Erasmus+ course even though I'm dead tired after all the long hours at work getting things ready for the next school year.

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