One of the great things about studying abroad is the ability to visit your friends at other educational institution in diverse cultural environments. Spending even a weekend in another place infinitely adds to your semester or year experience abroad.

And as the constant hustle and bustle of central London can sometimes get a bit monotonous, every once in a while I like to escape to the relative quiet of Oxford University, where two of my closest friends are studying abroad for the year.

I love Oxford, and I would tell anyone who was going to be in the UK to take the 45 minute train ride from London to get there. It is an entirely different world from either GW or the LSE. Made up of 39 different colleges, Oxford is a mesh of modern stores and college buildings from the 1100s. You can see part of its famous skyline below:

The city is filled with so much history that it would take more then a lifetime to know everything there is to know about the University. A fact that is only aided by the family-like quality of all 39 individual colleges. Each college has quirks and traditions, and is essentially its own family within the Oxford University system (think houses in Harry Potter).

For instance, those of Christ Church College will know that you never walk on the two paths that run through the main quad, only the one that follows the edges (this same quad was the one used in the flying lesson scene in Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone).

GW has a fellowship program with Pembroke College, which is where my closest friend is studying this year. Pembroke has become my adopted Oxford college, and I feel at home when I walk through its door and into the seclusion and quiet of its walled in quads. Right, a picture of Christ Church’s Tom Tower with Pembroke on the right.

Connecting with the one institution you are actually studying abroad through is great, but being able to really experience those of your friends is even better.