The Kelly Marie Memoirs: Oxford Schmoxford

I was quite ignorant in the matter of which university was better: Cambridge or Oxford. Now that I have explored both campuses and cities, I can now say without even a schmidgen of doubt that Oxford will always be the best. I could feel it in my bones as we walked into the very heart of Oxford, "Ah, this is more like it." I at once regretted buying my Cambridge sweatshirt. You see, I had planned on buying a sweatshirt at one university and a t-shirt at the other. It did not seem to matter at the time because in my mind Cambridge and Oxford were equal in terms of class and general awesomeness. Wrong. So very wrong. Oxford, Oxford, Oxford, Oxford, Oxford, Oxford. So I bought a t-shirt AND a sweater at Oxford, which are now two of my most prized possessions. {I still love you Cambridge sweatshirt}. They will be passed down from one generation to the next as THE original Oxford souvenirs of the Kelly-line. They are the emblems of my insistence that all of my children, and children's children, and children's children's children will be geniuses and they WILL go to Oxford. And that is final.

Now for the reasons why I loved Oxford so:

1. Our tour guide of Oxford University's campus was named Fred {whom we called "Dashing Fred" quite affectionately amongst ourselves}and is every girl's ideal British man in actuality.

2. All sorts of wonderful people studied at and/or taught at Oxford including: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Oscar Wilde, Joseph Addison, Dr. Samuel Johnson, John Locke, Adam Smith, Jonathan Swift, Sir Christopher Wren, Lewis Carroll, Percy Shelley, John Donne, William Tyndale, and so many more. Marvelous people, all of them.

3. Many parts of Oxford's campus was inspiration for the filming of the Harry Potter films.

4. The largest bookstore {Blackwells} in all of Great Britain is in Oxford. I spent an afternoon there drinking a veritable tumbler of hot chocolate and reading in the cafe.

5. The Eagle and Child pub! If you don't know about this place then well...I'm not sure if we're friends. This was the favorite "hang out" of the Inklings {aka C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and their chums}. Audrey and I went inside thinking we would order a couple of cokes, but really we sat there for a total of five minutes, basking in the glory...and then we got some coke at the Tesco.

6. Addison's Walk is a wonderful path that cuts right through the middle of the city. It is surrounded by meadows of wildflowers and the deer which are kept on campus. Also it is where C.S. Lewis was converted to Christianity.

7. The Ashmolean Museum was wonderful, and I need to take another trip just so I can see the other half of it.

8. Our hostel was MUCH better than our hostel in Cambridge. That place was a dump.

9. Hannah Wing, Audrey, and I were whistled at by some British guys whilst walking down the street.

10. Oxford was just one of those places, that one just instantly loves for some inexplicable reason.