Greetings, England- Day 10: Science Courses and the Paths of the Oxford Parks

This is my tenth day in England, and I have some tours to lead!

Being a new week, we are having the topic of science starting from today. Our new teacher, Steve, explained that he is more likely to focus on biology, and brought us to a nearby lake to obtain some samples of species for us to observe. With a net and an oblong container, I had never pictured that I would be doing such activity, but here I am, and as much as it was surprising, it was equally interesting. Then after we came back to our labs, we observed the physical differences of each of the samples we caught. It was a rally interactive course, comparing to Taiwan's textbooks and classrooms. Going out and catch samples of animals was something more middle school and elementary school. However, with interactive classes like this, students are more likely to engage in the knowledge they are supposed to absorb. Same with the experiments we did in critical thinking class, we make our own hypothesis, and then we test them out. Less verbal delivered lessons, more discussion. I think Taiwan is trying to work on this part already, but on the whole, there are a lot more we can do.
During lunchtime, an Italian classmate of mine asked if I was doing anything tomorrow. I said I was planning to do my homework (which is the blog, along with my French lessons, and German revising), but she refused the answer. She "requested" me to join her for volleyball tomorrow after class, so I think there will be some sweating then.
In the English class in the afternoon, we had a small descriptive writing about the landscapes of the Arctic, and as usual, I enjoyed it vastly, for the envisioning of the flurry white snow and the curtain-like Northen Lights.
Now, for the tour I promised yesterday. let's get it started!
Here is a simple illustration of my dorm and my surroundings:

First of all, I live on 4 Staverton Rd and walking out onto Banbury Rd. As the beginning of the tour, let us cross the street and lead a merry stroll down, where we can see identical red brick houses as schools and residence on both sides of the street. The scraped red brick,  the water-stained walls, and the half-rusted tarp of the roofs. Except for some newly placed windows or lately polished doors, they look almost the same. Another thing notable was how neatly the gardens are. There is nearly no weed anywhere, and that was really impressive.

On some points on the road, we can see the North Parade Avenue on the other side of the road, where I bought the two balls of yarn for my mother. And on our side, we can see the Regent English Language Training Center where you can see people still working inside.

North Parade Avenue

Going past Regent, we can see a larger and more aged building- It's the Wychwood School, a school for girls from 11 to 18 years old. This looks like the typical schools we have in Taiwan, an individual building (or with different buildings but with a designated enclosed building). St. Clare's, for instance, is a school with classrooms scattered around Banbury Rd.

With the moss on the walls, the building gave a more antiquated feeling.

Walking here means that we are about to get into park town, where buildings start to have some variations, also where shops start popping out. We have hotels, banks, restaurants, and flower shops and even violin shops!

Classy-looking restaurant called GEE'S

Buildings with variation

Some while later, we can see the St. Anne's University, and that is where we take a slight left into Parks Rd. and The Oxford University Parks is in front of us. Here is a simple map I got from the entrance:

Finally!

I got in from the north lodge entrance of this 70 acres of park and walked along the North Walk. It was a quiet, calm path, with different kinds of oak trees planted on both sides of the walk.

In the mottled and blotched shadows of the trees, I whistled some tunes from my childhood times, feeling content with the silence buzzing around my ears. until I ended up at the pond.

That was where people started to appear. Upon arriving at the Cherwell River, I saw a family of three children and their parents, punting themselves down the river. The father was paddling and guiding the boat and the others were sitting and relaxing. I plucked up my courage to ask them if I could take a picture of them:

This kind of interaction with people is also nice.

After the family, there were also many boats with chatting people sitting leisurely, enjoying the small summer sun. I went to the nearby High Bridge for a better view, and when the sun peeks down, the light was showered down on the river, sending diamond-like glitters, as if allowing the beauty to bloom before our eyes; no wonder this is a park, where people can cast their everyday nuisance aside and enjoy the view.

That was when the sun decided to shine.

After getting off the bridge, you can see people having a picnic along the grassy riverside, feet bared and laughter carefree.There I met two dogs and their own owners. The smaller on was playing fetch on the ground, and the larger one was in the water. Apparently, they have their own preferences. I was watching when I went near the smaller dog, and with the permission of the owner, I played fetch with him for a while. The size of the dog reminded me of the dogs we used to keep as pets when I was still in middle school. In Taiwan, you don't really have a nice big place for pet owners to play with their pets, so I believe that pets here live a life with more open space, and hence are happier in some way. I am not saying that pets in Taiwan are not happy, it was just a lot of them have no space to roam around and spending some of their overflowing energy.

The park is a nice, quiet place. It is a place for friendship.

A place for small adventures.

A place to spencd with your loved ones.

A place for furry friends to swim.

And also a place for love to bloom.

Still walking along the river, we can turn right onto Lucas walk, where a various color of flowers start to show up, while it was fully-bloomed at the south lodge. I was admiring the flowers as I moved along the South Walk, to the West Walk, and when I got back to the North Lodge, I realized that I had spent two hours in a park! I think I had spent too much time with the dogs (not that I am complaining)

Is this the end of the trip? NO.
We continue down Parks Rd until we meet the South Lodge of the Parks, and we can see from across lies the Keble College. It was big, and I'll walk over here today later, on my way back. (later)

Old but big Keble College.

Not long after, we can see on our side of the road is the grand and elegant Oxford University Museum of Natural History. It was around six in the evening, but it was closed already, and the people who usually sit on the grass field over there had left already.

After a matter of few minutes, we will then see the Wadham College, where we enjoyed the show Much Ado about Nothing. Seeing the building, the breaths catching song which Beatrice sang raised in my ears; what a night was it!

For the destination of this small tour, we stop at the Bodleian's Weston Library, which is also closed already.

I would not say that I went to Blackwell once more for some window shopping :D

Last picture before leaving.

I chose to go on the exact same paths I went through to get back to my dorm, but when I got to Wadham College, I was called to a halt by a woman, who was asking for direction to Keble College. I was also unsure, so I whipped out my phone and went for the Google Maps App and offered to go with her since it was the same direction. After asking, I knew that she came from Frace for a conference at the Keble College. She was supposed to arrive at the college at four o'clock (18:30 at the time) because the Eurostar train got delayed for two hours, and she had no Internet access over here. We did see the building, but we couldn't find the entrance on the two sides of the college, so we took a walk of three-quarters of the surrounding of Keble College. After we parted, I continued my way back home with my tired heavy feet (hey I walked for three and a half hours)
So, this is the tour for today, and I hoped that you enjoyed it somehow. If there is anything you think I can improve on, feel free to say all you want. I did think about going up to some traveling blog to get some ideas about writing about tours, but then I left it alone because I want to do this in my own way, in my own tone, and at my own pace. I'm open to any mistakes, though.
This is all for today.
07/10/2017