St. Hilda’s College

What is so rare as a day in June?  And we can see both senses of ‘rare’:  rare in that June days are particularly lovely but also a sunny warm day in Oxford has been quite rare in my experience!

After a delightful flight (as any flight could be delightful if one is not in first class) 14 of us arrived in Heathrow airport outside of London, exhausted by exhilarated.  We met Dean and Karen, two of our students who traveled separately in Central bus station and zoomed off to Oxford.

We are staying at St. Hilda’s College.  The Oxford colleges rent out rooms during the

Magdalen College

breaks to help make money and our accommodations are lovely.  After getting our luggage settled we walked en masse up the High Street but then let the students go to get food and explore.

Few can sleep on an airplane so my faculty colleague and I let them rest up for the first day.  Walking around Oxford one realizes what a rarified place it is:  spires, scholars, tourists- all mingle and enjoy the lovely evening.

Blue Boar Street

Tomorrow we meet for our first class.  Our plan is to use a particular text by David Horan in the “Cities of the Imagination” series to explore the meaning of Oxford through the lens of individuals, real and imagined,  associated with it, from St. Frideswide to Oscar Wilde to Inspector Morse.