Picture this: You’re walking down a crowded street full of shops, the sea of people is beginning to get thick, so you step off into an alleyway. As you walk, the scenery morphs into something of a twelfth-century vista. Canopied under a colossal apple tree, you can see a portion of the old city wall, as well as a house that has to be at least be as old as America. This was a huge part of my experience in Oxford. I was studying events that had occurred in the very streets I walked. To use a quote from Isaac Newton, who had once researched at Oxford, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” I have felt this quote nowhere more than in that city.

The college that my cohort studied at was Corpus Christi, a college vital to the King James translation of the Bible, as well as one that housed a royal during the English Civil War. Since my classes were on the English Civil War and the subsequent Glorious Revolution, there was nowhere better to study than the formal royal capital of England. Our Study Abroad group went on many field trips, ranging from St. Paul’s Cathedral to Blenheim Palace. It was fascinating to see history that was still alive; with Blenheim still being actively used as a home, and St. Paul’s Cathedral still hosting worship services.

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Learn more about this blogger’s study abroad program: Kinder-RAI Oxford Summer School