Day 6 - Back to the School
Looks like I had soaked up London within me or rather the spirit of London was running in my veins. This proved from the fact that I woke up early morning having realised that I had dreamt of London. The dream was about the similar trail we had been taking for the last few days. It brought an early morning grin to my face. The Jr. Cutlet though was still in deep sleep probably dreaming London just like me. With ginger tea in one hand and the London eveninger in the other , I lived that moment before the Jr. Cutlet could wake up and with her the distinctive chatter. Also followed was a ritual telephone call back home to check on everyone. Today the Jr. Cutlet had to be woken up several times. However once up , she is always the first one to be ready.
Today we were to set on another adventure , out of our comfort zone , all the way to Oxford. Nimish and I had browsed through several tours back in India that offered a package to the Oxford University and few other places around. The tour involved bus transport to and fro from London. However Nimish insisted that we didnt take that tour as he felt that those tours didnt do justice to the place at all. I trusted his experience and decided to take a call once I came to London. My freind Hardik reiterated the fact and recommended that we took a train to Oxford from London and look for tours when we reach there. So here we were today all set to go to The Oxford Univeristy via National Rail. When we boarded the train , I realised that this was also one of my bucket list items. To be honest , a lot of us have a secret desire to study in any of the prestigious universities. While that didnt happen , a visit to one of them always played on my mind. And here I was, on my way to get those items ticked. The feeling is something I won't be able to pen it down. Also I truly wished that my Jr. Cutlet got to see and experience this entire different world (although as a tourist) where students are completely independent , confident and determined.
Oxford is a typical University town with a mix of ancient as well as modern structure and culture. Talk about buildings, attractions, libraries , all of them depict the 11th century as well as the 21st century. It seems that various colleges came in first at Oxford and then the University was formed to govern these colleges and bring about a uniformity in the curriculum. Therefore the University Council has representative from each college. We were told that the town information centre conducts various tours like walking tours, hop in hop off bus tours , however all of them cover only the exterior of museums , buildings and libraries. And I was absolutely sure that I wanted to visit some of the places from inside. Therefore I purchased the city map, geared up our google maps, switched on the wikipedia and started our personal tour of the one of the oldest University towns. There was one thing left to do, incentivise the Jr. Cutlet so that she doesn't give up midway. Hence I treated her to one of her favourite Italian meals of Lasagne. Now we got set to go. I was never so proud of my decision to go on this personal tour. This way we got to spend time at places we liked more and pass the others which were of lesser interest. We visted a lot of places , however the best of them are National Science Museum , The Bodleian Library and The Christ Church . The Bodleian library was built in the 13th century , they started with 30 books and now have close to 20 million books with them. It is a no lending library (only open to the Oxford students) , which means the students have to come to the library during the given hours, read the books there itself . This way they have been able to preserve the books that are almost 400 years old. There is a separate guided tour at the Library itself that we took , they took us around the library and few other historic places. The Jr. Cutlet was mighty impressed with the entire student culture at the town. I feel that every student if possible should get one first hand experience of staying away from home to study and learn / unlearn things his/her way . After a long yet enriching trail , both the cutlets decided to call it a day. Fortunately , it was time to board our train. The next one hour train journey was done in a jiffy as we both dozed off not realising that we were back in London.
Back at the hotel , after a quick bite , the Jr. Cutlet is in deep slumber and here I am recollecting my experiences with you. Also realising that it is necessary that we as parents ought to be responsible and ambitious to provide good quality education to our children because "An Investment in Knowledge and Education Pays the Best Interests". I leave you with that thought and sign off for a brighter tomorrow.
Looks like I had soaked up London within me or rather the spirit of London was running in my veins. This proved from the fact that I woke up early morning having realised that I had dreamt of London. The dream was about the similar trail we had been taking for the last few days. It brought an early morning grin to my face. The Jr. Cutlet though was still in deep sleep probably dreaming London just like me. With ginger tea in one hand and the London eveninger in the other , I lived that moment before the Jr. Cutlet could wake up and with her the distinctive chatter. Also followed was a ritual telephone call back home to check on everyone. Today the Jr. Cutlet had to be woken up several times. However once up , she is always the first one to be ready.
Today we were to set on another adventure , out of our comfort zone , all the way to Oxford. Nimish and I had browsed through several tours back in India that offered a package to the Oxford University and few other places around. The tour involved bus transport to and fro from London. However Nimish insisted that we didnt take that tour as he felt that those tours didnt do justice to the place at all. I trusted his experience and decided to take a call once I came to London. My freind Hardik reiterated the fact and recommended that we took a train to Oxford from London and look for tours when we reach there. So here we were today all set to go to The Oxford Univeristy via National Rail. When we boarded the train , I realised that this was also one of my bucket list items. To be honest , a lot of us have a secret desire to study in any of the prestigious universities. While that didnt happen , a visit to one of them always played on my mind. And here I was, on my way to get those items ticked. The feeling is something I won't be able to pen it down. Also I truly wished that my Jr. Cutlet got to see and experience this entire different world (although as a tourist) where students are completely independent , confident and determined.
Oxford is a typical University town with a mix of ancient as well as modern structure and culture. Talk about buildings, attractions, libraries , all of them depict the 11th century as well as the 21st century. It seems that various colleges came in first at Oxford and then the University was formed to govern these colleges and bring about a uniformity in the curriculum. Therefore the University Council has representative from each college. We were told that the town information centre conducts various tours like walking tours, hop in hop off bus tours , however all of them cover only the exterior of museums , buildings and libraries. And I was absolutely sure that I wanted to visit some of the places from inside. Therefore I purchased the city map, geared up our google maps, switched on the wikipedia and started our personal tour of the one of the oldest University towns. There was one thing left to do, incentivise the Jr. Cutlet so that she doesn't give up midway. Hence I treated her to one of her favourite Italian meals of Lasagne. Now we got set to go. I was never so proud of my decision to go on this personal tour. This way we got to spend time at places we liked more and pass the others which were of lesser interest. We visted a lot of places , however the best of them are National Science Museum , The Bodleian Library and The Christ Church . The Bodleian library was built in the 13th century , they started with 30 books and now have close to 20 million books with them. It is a no lending library (only open to the Oxford students) , which means the students have to come to the library during the given hours, read the books there itself . This way they have been able to preserve the books that are almost 400 years old. There is a separate guided tour at the Library itself that we took , they took us around the library and few other historic places. The Jr. Cutlet was mighty impressed with the entire student culture at the town. I feel that every student if possible should get one first hand experience of staying away from home to study and learn / unlearn things his/her way . After a long yet enriching trail , both the cutlets decided to call it a day. Fortunately , it was time to board our train. The next one hour train journey was done in a jiffy as we both dozed off not realising that we were back in London.
Back at the hotel , after a quick bite , the Jr. Cutlet is in deep slumber and here I am recollecting my experiences with you. Also realising that it is necessary that we as parents ought to be responsible and ambitious to provide good quality education to our children because "An Investment in Knowledge and Education Pays the Best Interests". I leave you with that thought and sign off for a brighter tomorrow.
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