Studying abroad in Oxford, United Kingdom through Sarah Lawrence’s program (as many students from comparably principled institutions do along with the SLC students) begins – upon completion of the application process, acceptance, and an especially long summer – with a long international flight. If you’re lucky, you’ll be spread out over three seats on a mostly empty plane watching The Godfather on a miniature TV screen, ogling the sexy Brits similarly lounged around you. Chances are more likely that you’ll actually be crammed between a far-too-curious elderly couple with thick accents and poor dentistry, and the obnoxious child of a visiting academic. After touchdown in London, the visiting student has a wonderful 1.5 to 3 hour bus ride through the English countryside before reaching the small city of Oxfordshire.
The Sarah Lawrence Programme rents a row of flats quaintly located above a Volkswagon dealership. The location of the flats has its advantages and disadvantages. Though they are a thirty minute walk from campus, the Cowley Road area includes not only several delightful pubs and clubs (particularly the Zodiac with its fantastic “Boogie Basement” night on Thursdays), the dining options in this area are in some ways preferable to those of the city centre, with their broad selection of Indian, Thai, and Chinese food (unlike the nearly complete proliferation of pub grub and KFC), and, of course, there’s a Tesco. Tesco truly is the answer to all human dining needs. The building is also almost directly next door to a co-op (convenience store), bicycle repair shop, a fish and chips establishment, and The Local (a liquor store with the constant “3 for 2” deal on wine bottles). What more could a visiting Sarah Lawrence student need?
The city of Oxford is constructed around the incredibly old institution of Oxford University itself. The University has 38 colleges, each of which is special in its own way. Christ Church College is the fancy, expensive home of Eaton boys and the staircase used for the Harry Potter films. Magdalen College is equally wealthy, with its prominent bell tower, beautiful deer park, and extensive film collection open to the entire University. Wadham College, the home of the Sarah Lawrence Programme, is known for its liberal-minded student body, the infamous Queer Bop (the Facebook pictures say it all), and the amazing end-of-the-year music festival known as Wadstock. After a year as a visiting student, I’ve grown very fond of our Wadham – the lush, quiet quadrangle, the edible-enough meals in the beautiful hall, the wild, longhaired young men…
Speaking of attractive, intelligent Brits: the sex-life of the Oxford student is a constant topic of interest (at least, to Oxford students). Despite all the space the various University news publications devote to this speculation, the general consensus around town is that the demanding academics keep students alone in the library at all hours of the night… doing cocaine. As a visiting student, my fellow foreigners and I found little evidence of this supposedly rampant drug problem – and nearly as little action. The language barrier extends beyond “chips,” “bangers and mash,” “pull,” and “knackered” into the domain of body language. The distance of the Programme’s flats from the college abodes of the British students makes for a tightly knit bunch of Americans in a very rainy town. Though this might be considered a loss in terms of cultural experience, I can only think fondly of the American friendships I gained over homemade vegetarian meals and internet-television.
However, the academic demands should not be disregarded. All visiting students on Sarah Lawrence’s Oxford Programme are required to take two tutorials along with a weekly British culture and history lecture (which includes several field trips – last year, we were treated, for example, to Ian McKellan’s performance in the title role of King Lear). Each tutorial is composed of a weekly meeting with an Oxford professor and reading aloud a full-length essay based on several literary works assigned the week before. Occasionally two students will share a tutorial. Visiting students are treated to the amazing benefits of an individualized Oxford education with brilliant academics without having to face the daunting exams required for an actual Oxford degree. The tutors employed by the Programme throughout the years have included such academic celebrities as Michael Inwood, Hermione Lee, and Valentine Cunningham. Some tutors – like Cunningham – simply let their brilliance rub onto students whose names they can’t even recall; some treat them to drinks at local pubs, developing lasting international relationships.
While the city of Oxford itself operates by the college’s very traditional hours – opening around 9am, closing around 5pm (Starbucks included) – the thriving London metropolis is only an hour and a half bus ride away. While London might seem strangely archaic with its 9pm-closing-Underground and organically arranged streets, a large variety of people and experiences are available to the adventurous tourist. Portabello Market in the Notting Hill’s Gate area always has a fantastic selection of antiques and vintage clothing. In terms of cultural offerings, the Tate Modern is free and contains an impressive array of traveling exhibitions at any time in the year; the Victoria and Albert Museum offers a fascinating hodgepodge of art and design, and a blues concert at the Shepherd’s Bush Emporium has a far rowdier and enthusiastic crowd than any of Brooklyn’s equivalents. The biggest setback to the temporary expatriate is the terrible exchange rate between the American dollar and the British pound, and the generally high cost of living. Anyone considering the program should take the economic aspect into serious consideration.
Conversely, perhaps one of the most exciting features of the Oxford exchange program is the cheap London airfare to nearly anywhere in Europe. For around twenty pounds a piece (forty American dollars), I flew from London’s Stansted airport to Geneva, Switzerland, then to Barcelona, Spain, and finally to Milan, Italy. Each of the American students took advantage of similar discount travel rates, cheap hostels, and six-week long vacations to travel the world. The Oxford program offers more than an intense academic education – it also provides the opportunity for serious self-discovery.