Oxford, England

In which I give Oxford a second chance, it embraces me with open arms and I go in search of Wonderland.

{Oxford, England}

I would like to tell you that I’ve wanted to visit Oxford since reading Matthew Arnold’s 19th-century descriptions of the city. I could open my letter with his quote,

“Beautiful city! so venerable, so lovely, so unravaged by the fierce intellectual life of our century, so serene!…whispering from her towers the last enchantments of the Middle Age…”

Or, the famous line from the poem Thyrsis, in which Arnold describes Oxford as “that sweet city with her dreaming spires…”. It’s from this poem that Oxford gets its nickname “City of Spires” from, after all.

I would sound so smart if I did that.

But the truth is, I’ve wanted to visit Oxford since I saw the 1984 movie Oxford Blues, starring Brat-Packer Rob Lowe as a Young American who hustles his way into the venerable university that is the heart of this city. Despite competing with 80s heartthrobs Lowe, Julian Sands, and Cary Elwes, for me it was Oxford itself that stole the show.

In my junior high school in the middle of America, it was fashionable to wear athletic apparel from local universities - universities that one day we hoped to attend. But after watching Oxford Blues, instead of a University of Iowa sweatshirt, I bought a University of Oxford sweatshirt - emblazoned with an ancient crest instead of a flashy Hawkeye mascot. I didn’t in a million years think I would ever attend Oxford, but goodness…how I wanted at least to visit, one day.