Oxford, a new Adventure

One of my flatmates from last year has moved down to Oxford to continue her studies. This past week I decided to head down there on a "research trip" to go and visit (the library at my university is terrible and I had a bibliography of about 4 pages of books and articles I needed to look at). I had such high expectations of myself, I felt motivated and was going to spend my 4 days down there in the libraries, working. As it happens, I was too optimistic. I spent about a total of 4 hours in the libraries (and 20 pounds in photocopying) and spent the rest of the time, wandering the city, playing tourist, and enjoying the pubs. Not a bad time for a "research trip".

This trip to Oxford has convinced me of a number of things.
1) Where I am is exactly where I should be. My supervisor is amazing (a friend of mine at Oxford only gets to see his supervisor once a semester and she is thoroughly unhelpful if he needs her to look at anything for him), the department I work in is great, and I am surrounded by some amazing people.
2) Oxford attracts a very specific kind of academic and teaches in a very specific way (they only really hire their own, perpetuating this uber conservative approach to research with very little room for innovation).
3) The town I live in is like a little fairy world, or a bubble. I miss life in the city, cool restaurants, a music scene, etc. Not that Oxford is a huge metropolis but it does have a number of features that I really miss living in my little town.

Unlike my last trip to Oxford, this one was thoroughly enjoyable. E and I did all the touristy stuff: We rode on the tourist bus, went to Oxford Castle, Bleinhem Palace, a number of the colleges (we even had the chance to have a meal at Corpus Christi, and I'd have to say, even though it's Oxford, the hall food is just the same as hall food everywhere else), and drank at a number of pubs (the highlight being the Eagle and Child, where Tolkien, Lewis and the rest of the Inklings met up to talk about their work and their new worlds).

All in all it was a great trip. It was a nice vacation and now I feel overly inspired to get back to work for the week before I head back to Canada for a month.