Common Room

Oxford is cold, rainy, and despite this, delightful. The city centre is compact and it’s easy to run into friends just by walking down the street or looking through the window of a pub. On Monday night a number of us attended a debate on Cancel Culture. From outside, the Sheldonian Theatre glows like a lantern. Inside, the timber-tiered seats creak with history. There is a very fancy painted ceiling and the whole experience is somewhat overwhelming and an incredible venue for a debate. Oxford, it seems, loves to make even disagreement look majestic. 

The debate itself wasn’t fantastic- lots of squabbling and not enough listening and responding, but I loved the experience. We had dinner afterwards and dissected the whole thing, caught up on life in between modules, and generally reconnected. Inspired by the debate, I signed up for a life membership of the Oxford Union and hope to get to some of the debates in the future. There is a who’s-who of names that show up to debate and the buildings and grounds themselves have a private club vibe. Here’s a photo of the library in the Union. The wifi password made me laugh - Bhutto1977. Very Oxford. 

The first day of class was tiring but high quality and culminated in a guest spot by one of our cohort, Tim, who coaches the Australian Women’s rugby 7’s. His explanation of the game to the group was hilarious and involved live participants (I was a hooker) and we received merch for participation. Group drinks were followed by dinner (and then more drinks for the hardy). I’m exhausted but loving it. It’s a wildly diverse group of people but we all share an interest in questioning and understanding and growing that creates a strong connection.

I have written this post while sitting in the middle common room of my college, Pembroke. It’s quiet and comfortable, although littered with empty coffee cups and half a nutmeg cake on the sideboard. The cake looked good but I have no idea how long it’s been sitting out and whether there are mice, so I refrained.