Saturday in Oxford

First, I just want to say that I'm not being anti-Oxford just for the sake of being anti-Oxford. But I will say that I didn't really like it. When you have an idea of a place in your head, and then it's not like that, it throws you a little. I showed up in Oxford thinking that it would be this cozy place with little literary pubs and great courtyards and fancy libraries and all that. It turned out to be very similar to many other kinda medium-size UK cities. There was a main shopping street, and two more running across that one. Of course, there were really old towers and buildings and things, but there were stores just like anywhere else. The streets were busy and the sidewalks narrow. We wandered into a few colleges, but the difference between the "poorer" ones and the famous, expensive ones was really noticeable, and disorienting. We went into Christchurch, which is the most famous and where they filmed some of the Hogwarts shots for Harry Potter (like the dining hall, etc.). They charged admission for visitors, and while it was pretty and cool and all, I don't think I would've wanted to go there. On the brighter side, there was a street farmers market, which was fun, and there was another Christmas market inside a school, which was a lot like the ones that happen in schools back home. I bought a wooden puzzle of the British counties, like the kind you can buy of the 50 states. And I bought some Christmas cards that are made of welsh sheep poo. Kinda weird, eh? Anyway, overall, I'm glad that I went, and I think that I would have liked it better if I'd spent more time in the other colleges there, and I think I'll want to go back to explore it more. But as for now, I'm glad I didn't end up in a university like that.