Last stop of the trip was at Oxford. Most people were looking forward to this as we were going to see Christchurch college, which is famously used for the filming of the Harry Potter films (Hogwarts Dining Hall). I learnt quite a bit about Oxford during this trip... Oxford University is actually comprised of several Colleges (eg. Christchurch college). So Oxford University is actually like an umbrella organization of sorts, though internationally it is seen a one university, unlike the UC campuses in America where they are actually ranked individually. But the Oxford colleges are autonomous and vary in size though Christchurch is one of the biggests ones. Every year, many hopefuls apply to both Oxford and Cambridge. Students can only apply to one school. If they apply to both Oxford and Cambridge, their application gets thrown out. Students can choose to apply specifically to a college, or put in a blanket application where they'll be put into a college where space is available. It's super competitive and made harder by the fact that you have to make up your mind almost immediately about which specific college you want to enter and what you want to study. Little wonder Emma Watson chose to go to the States where the curriculum is much more general and you don't really have to declare your major till junior yr.

But walking around the campus, you can see why many people want to study here. It's a beautiful campus and you can feel immediately the centuries of history that have accompanied this place. Reminded me very much of my days in UCLA... which was a proper campus on its own wth the student village etc... as compared to Auckland Uni... which was fully blended into the city and you never really got a sense of belonging to the University per se or if you didn't look properly, you could miss the University totally.

Corridors and Courtyard where the Harry Potter movie was filmed...



Yah ok, I can so imagine Harry, Ron and Hermione having a discussion in the corner of the courtyard... The screencaps on my harry potter PS2 games even look similar to this....

Christchurch cathedral




Cathedral ceiling


Church Organ... the church has a professional choir which is supposedly very well known, though I confess that I have never heard them before.

Ceiling of the corridors prior to entering the Christchurch dining hall. Scenes from the Harry Potter films were filmed along these staircases too.



There you have it, the famous dining hall which was used as the Hogwarts dining hall in the Harry Potter films. The film crew took a picture of this hall and recreated the set as the original room is too small to supposedly fit all four houses of Hogwarts.

On the wall, you can see paintings of famous people of Christchurch college, one of them being Lewis Carroll who was a mathematics tutor in Christchurch and wrote the series, Alice's adventures in wonderland

It's not very clear, but at the bottom of the stain glass window, you can see characters from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.



What a dining service would look like...

College grounds... only students are allowed to walk on the path below... we tourists have to stick to only selected paths which are visible and known only to the tour guide....


Rowing is a very popular sport here in Oxford and there is INTENSE RIVALRY between Oxford and Cambridge. There is a rowing race between these two universities every year which draws alot of attention from the public. Rowing champions are actually scouted to these universities which prompted me to ask if students are allowed to enter if they are good in sports but not possibly very good in academics? The guide replied that it's only the rowers which are scouted and most of the time they are very bright students as well.... (ok...)

Below, students scribble rowing victories on the walls with chalk.








Another college of Oxford: Jesus College... like seriously....


Oxford memorabilia store... most pple actually want to buy an Oxford T shirt when they come here... heh... I'm happy with my UCLA jumper... haha...