Day 18 – Oxford & Blenheim Palace
Today we had a bit of a lie in before heading to the City of Dreaming Spires, Oxford. We were dropped off next to the Ashmolean Museum, home to the only surviving stuffed dodo in the world, and met our blue badge guides at Martyr’s Memorial. They took us around Oxford, showing us the Bodleian Library, the Radcliffe Camera, the Sheldonian Theatre, a number of the University of Oxford’s 38 colleges and Oxford’s Covered Market! We were taught a lot about the city’s history and about a number of the famous people who have once lived there such as Alice in Wonderland’s author C.S. Lewis and the author of the Lord and the Rings Trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien.
The students then had free time where they were able to buy lots of University of Oxford merchandise. We then made our way to Blenheim Palace, the seat of the Duke of Marlborough and the birthplace of the great British Wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Here the students were able to explore the palace, the Pleasure Gardens and Capability Brown’s stunning landscape. Many of our students saw the Grand Cascades which is considered as one of England’s most picturesque waterfalls, and some even took a ride on the Blenheim Park Railway to the Butterfly House and the world’s second largest symbolic hedge maze. Many of the students managed to find their way through the maze, however several of the international faculty had some difficulty. It was a beautiful day and the sun came out for us making the day even better. This evening we then had our staff vs student volleyball match where the students put up a great fight but overall, the staff won it. Tomorrow we have our 6th and final on-campus day where we will be hosting the ISCA Olympics. Which team will win?