Saturday, May 30th, 2009

Trip to Oxford, then to Bath

Oxford is the rival of Cambridge, remember? this is the school that opened just a few decades before Cambridge and allowed women into the university first (1920). Going to Oxford meant you had the wealth to gain some hefty knowledge or were from a very privileged background (old admissions policies included that children of past graduates could get into Oxford). Today, it remains a mecca for higher education.

We first checked out the Modern Art Museum in Oxford. This was a very noticeable gallery (it's facade painted a vibrant pink) and carried many interesting artworks within it's exhibition of the time.

We did a small campus tour, witnessing architectural work by Christohper Wren, Biggs and H guy. We had effectively seen generational riffs between architectural designs within one square. S'alright.

From there we also explored the Pitt Rivers Museum. The place featured many different artifacts, categorized (unusually) by type of object and not by culture or time period. i found this to be the most interesting aspect of the museum (besides the colorful fish and the objects made out of used cans and consumer goods packages). The museum had brought in alot of culture from other parts of the world, sparking discussion among us about the capitalization of 

we then left Oxford University to explore a museum in the town’s core. Unfortunately, we had arrived to find it closed. We then set to gather in front of the gallery after a roundabout for coffees and shopping. We had all arrived back, only to find that Amanda Goodyear hadn’t arrived back. after 40 mins of searching for her, we came to a conclusion that she had made it back to the vans (parked just outside oxford). With that, we found her just outside the parked vans, it all happening over a misunderstanding. 

After that stress-case, we then headed for Bath. Bath is quite a historical anomaly in and of itself. It settled well after the medieval times and is mainly made from limestone buildings. The limestone turns, through nature, a dirty yellow color, but the building surfaces also turned black and shades of grey from the industrial eras here in england. recent restoration projects have put most buildings in Bath back to a near-original color. 

we headed to a pub (the porter) that served vegetarian meals and had a decent selection of drinks. the food was pretty great (considering it’s bar food) and the atmosphere was great, with all of us eager to have a drink from all the traveling. 

There was this other place we had checked out before the porter, but where it was saturday, they were blasting their dance music for the night crowd. i even went as far as to say that eating there would be like eating at Nightsounds (a horrific idea, if it were ever done). 

I then headed for an early bedtime. Gerard wanted us up for an early morning. total Z's were needed after all the travel of today.