Oxford #1 : Green Templeton College

Tuesday, 14/12/10

I arrived in Oxford 20 minutes later than the expected schedule. Cold and hungry, as no breakfast touched my hand that morning. The cold breeze grasped every inches of my skin, though a thick layer of winter jacket was put over them. The fog was everywhere, giving this city a nuance of late 18th century. The buildings were old but big, unlike the old and small buildings in Cambridge. If Cambridge took me back to 15th - 16th century, Oxford and its crowd only took me two centuries backward. It was gloomy, I recalled what Jody said about The Oxford Murder.

The city was quite big. For a person coming from Cambridge, Oxford is comparable to London. More and more people were walking on the street. Following the direction from my friend, I went down the Hythe Bridge Street, crossing the Oxford Canal. The wind blew fiercer, penetrating every possible pore on my fabric. So, I tightened up my scarf and continued walking. 'Twas in five minutes that I reached the flat. I was in time for lunch.

As my friend was a member of Green Templeton College, she took me there to have lunch. Along the way, she showed the The Eagle and The Child, a famous pub where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis gave birth to their masterpiece, The Lord of The Ring and The Chronicles of Narnia. A small and usual British pub. As we walked along the Woodstock Road, I saw St. Aloysius Catholic Church on my left hand side. I should pay a visit here, I thought. The thing is, my great grandaunt, who was a nun, told me that I am eligible to have three wishes everytime I visited a new church. And this time, I already knew what I have to ask.

We reached Green Templeton College in the end of the road. It happened to be a sister college to my Cambridge college. As mine was small yet cozy, I was not expecting a big college with several quadrangles. Well, at least my prejudice was true. Green Templeton was similar to St. Edmund, with an inside garden. In the centre of the garden, there was a nice tower hosting the dinning hall and Common Room. Interestingly, there were eight graving of Greek gods and goddesses on the top of the tower. I was told that they represented eight direction.

Entering the first room within the tower, the jade-coloured wall emanated warmth, contrary to the bluish sky of winter outside. The dinning hall itself was a small room. The tables were not arranged traditionally. Not something that you would expect out of common Oxbridge colleges. Even St. Ed still arranged the table traditionally (without the high table, of course). Further comparison with St. Ed came when I took the meal. There were only two meals! One meat and one vegetarian. Only one side dish, since the plate was quite small. I saw a pile of fried chicken, but my friend said that the pile was for salad. We went to the cashier and had to pay 4.80 for two persons! Yay! I loved that! Very cheaaaap! St. Ed, you have to go that way. Hehehe! It was just too bad that we had to pay in cash, even for the member of the college. How I miss card swiping in Eddies' dinning hall. :(

After finishing the lunch, we headed toward Common Room (as I typed this, I always wrote combination room first before common room. Cambridge had influenced me this far...). A nice one. The room was very cozy with couches everywhere. Pretty classy, I supposed. The ceiling was quite high, decorated with tall windows on the wall. You could see some part of Oxford since it was located on the second floor of the tower. With a sip of warm coffee, I lounged myself, accompanied by my friend and some other people she introduced me to. Again, the jade-coloured wall and thick curtain created a warm feeling inside. Later, I found out that the college atmosphere was actually pretty snob, since most of the residents were studying medical and business. Well, that might be the reason why their common room was executive-like. Ah, well, for once in a lifetime, let me be snobbish. ^_^

The tea break was done. It was time to explore the city on my own. Yet, as winter only allowed short exploration time, Ashmolean Museum was the only place I could go. But, that's a completely different story that I will not tell here. Not many people are into museum as I am.........