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Essay

A day in the life of an Oxford student

Only at Christ Church College do you get woken up by cows mooing and tourists' camera flashes leaking in through your dormitory room window. As I rolled out of bed, I heard a familiar knock on the door. It was my friend Jess, who had been up since 5 a.m. training on the freezing waters of the River Cherwell with the college rowing team.

As I sleepily opened the door, Jess skipped in with a healthy flush, to eat yoghurt out of my fridge. Living together in residence in college throughout our undergraduate years, my friends and I lived out of each other's pockets.

Thank goodness the cows and Jess had woken me up. Before long, the college cathedral bell tolled nine times — I was supposed to be in a tutorial with my Shakespeare professor! I quickly printed out my essay, which we were going to discuss in the next hour, pulled on my long, black coat over my pajamas, grabbed an apple to eat on the way, and rushed out into the drizzling rain.

Five minutes later, I was sitting opposite my professor in his room, desperately trying to defend my essay against his expert knowledge and peculiar ideas. If Oxford teaches you nothing else, it teaches you to have an opinion — preferably idiosyncratic — and to defend that opinion with your life.

For me, it usually involved leaning forward with a red face, flapping my arms around, and pointing to various pages of my Shakespeare anthology until the tutorial ended and my professor, with a wry smile, asked what absurd argument I was going to propose in next week's essay.

By the evening, I was tearing my hair out about a very different kind of problem — choosing which social event to attend. The social life at Oxford is as intense as the academic — on the same night, you could choose from events as varied as black-tie dinners, white-tie balls, listening to a famous politician speak at the Oxford Union (the world-famous debating society), drinking sherry with your tutor after dinner at High Table, going to illegally over-packed parties in someone's room with cheap alcohol, or heading to student night at the dodgiest club in town.

More often than not, these events involve copious amounts of alcohol that inspire students either to engage in pretentious debates on pseudo-academic topics, or to say or do something drastic to someone you've fancied since "freshers' week" (first week of university).

Certainly, Oxford students pack in as much obsessive enthusiasm and uncompromising pride into their social lives as they would writing their essay at 4 a.m. to hand in five hours later.

Shukan ST: March 21, 2008

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Essay A day in the life of an Oxford student By Mariko Kato Only at Christ Church College do you get woken up by cows mooing and tourists' camera flashes leaking in through your dormitory room window. As I rolled out of bed, I heard a familiar knock on the door. It was my friend Jess, who had been up since 5 a.m. training on the freezing waters of the River Cherwell with the college rowing team. As I sleepily opened the door, Jess skipped in with a healthy flush, to eat yoghurt out of my fridge. Living together in residence in college throughout our undergraduate years, my friends and I lived out of each other's pockets. Thank goodness the cows and Jess had woken me up. Before long, the college cathedral bell tolled nine times — I was supposed to be in a tutorial with my Shakespeare professor! I quickly printed out my essay, which we were going to discuss in the next hour, pulled on my long, black coat over my pajamas, grabbed an apple to eat on the way, and rushed out into the drizzling rain. Five minutes later, I was sitting opposite my professor in his room, desperately trying to defend my essay against his expert knowledge and peculiar ideas. If Oxford teaches you nothing else, it teaches you to have an opinion — preferably idiosyncratic — and to defend that opinion with your life. For me, it usually involved leaning forward with a red face, flapping my arms around, and pointing to various pages of my Shakespeare anthology until the tutorial ended and my professor, with a wry smile, asked what absurd argument I was going to propose in next week's essay. By the evening, I was tearing my hair out about a very different kind of problem — choosing which social event to attend. The social life at Oxford is as intense as the academic — on the same night, you could choose from events as varied as black-tie dinners, white-tie balls, listening to a famous politician speak at the Oxford Union (the world-famous debating society), drinking sherry with your tutor after dinner at High Table, going to illegally over-packed parties in someone's room with cheap alcohol, or heading to student night at the dodgiest club in town. More often than not, these events involve copious amounts of alcohol that inspire students either to engage in pretentious debates on pseudo-academic topics, or to say or do something drastic to someone you've fancied since "freshers' week" (first week of university). Certainly, Oxford students pack in as much obsessive enthusiasm and uncompromising pride into their social lives as they would writing their essay at 4 a.m. to hand in five hours later. Shukan ST: March 21, 2008 (C) All rights reserved