Reunion in Oxford

Here i am in one of Britain's most visited cities: Oxford. It's as beautiful in real life as it is in the films. Everywhere you turn, you are faced with a 16/17/18th century building, and every last detail of these monstrous masterpieces has been an obvious labour of love for the architect, builder, sculptor, etc. Besides being awed by the urban landscape, it seems that i've landed myself into an intense city where the majority of its population are students, all bright, keen, eager and itching to learn and swallow as much as possible in the world of academia.

I'm only here for several days but the people i've met in this short time all come from faraway places and have fascinating stories and diverse backgrounds. Most are extremely opinionated and relish the opportunity to engage in a debate of any sort, or as they call it, "an exchange of ideas." It puts me back into my uni days where we would stay up discussing, challenging and expressing our opinions, but here I get the sense that what you have to say is worth just as much as another's, or at least the respect of listening is given to every speaker. Afterall, active listening is an integral part of learning.

Let me back up. The flight from HK to London was extremely enjoyable and smooth. There were only about 40 people onboard and so we could lounge out and switch seats to our hearts content. Matt had a business class ticket but so lovingly gave it up to sit with me and the other commoners ;) It worked out well though because he was still given business class food, which i of course helped myself to!

We feasted on duck, shrimp, dim sum, cheeses, etc. We even got our own bottle of champagne - a delightful thirst quencher to pass the time at 9 in the morning.

We parted ways at Heathrow where he had to catch a connecting flight to Hamburg while i hopped on the bus to Oxford. It was only to be a few days but parting is never easy.

Meng met me at the bus stop and it was super to see her again, we did a little dance on the sidewalk when we saw each other. She took me to her flat at her college, Lincoln College, and then had to rush to her German class. Her flatmate, Katrin, from Berlin, took me to Hall where we met some other friends for dinner. I was not prepared for this dining experience at all. We had to leave our coats at the door and don a black cloak before entering the room. Inside, it was all dark wooden panels with a high arched ceiling. We sat on wide wooden benches by the enormous fireplace. I couldn't stop looking around and admiring the huge portraits of past deans and fellows of Lincoln. At 7pm sharp, the bells rung and in walks the present dean and his buddies, cloak and all. Before being allowed to sit down again, someone read a prayer in Latin. That done, dinner was served. And what a dinner! First it was bread, pate and crackers, then seafood lasagna with spinach and potatoes, and finally desert was a scrumptious apple crumble with cream. The whole meal was very filling and very rich and very delicious and totally English. Needless to say i slept like a baby that night.

Yesterday I visited Meng's lab at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology and she took me around the building and introduced me to her lab colleagues. Apparently 70% of the world's penicillin was invented in that building alone! We took lunch at the dining hall and i met some of her Chinese friends. They were very nice and were doing interesting work but, of course, the major complaint was the food here. Ah, it seems no matter where the Chinese go, nothing can ever compare to a steaming bowl of jiaozi.

In the afternoon, Meng took me around the whole of Oxford, visiting the many colleges such as Christ Church (saw the dining hall where Harry Potter was filmed!), Merton, St. John's, Oriel, Exeter, and others i can't recall the names to. She also took me to the boat houses where a team of rowers were practicing on the river. Each college has their own team and apparently during the summer the place is packed with students cheering their college on as they sit atop their boat house in the outdoor pub drinking sangria.

Later that evening, we went to her college common room for a cheese fondue party. Two Swiss guys had just returned from home bearing 3 kilos of cheese each. I couldn't believe it when i saw these guys chowing down a loaf of bread each, dipping each piece into the smouldering bubbly cheese in front of them. I could barely manage three pieces myself it was so filling. Still, it was delicious, especially with the white wine to wash it down. Afterwards we moved the party to their college pub and after some more intense "exchange of ideas", it was 11 o'clock and closing time.

I have to say it's been very amazing to see the transformation in Meng from when i first met her 9 years ago as an exchange student. A 15 year old naive Chinese girl from Beijing, pretty outgoing (for Chinese standards that is) and totally friendly and curious about everything in the outside world to a mature and sophisticated young lady on scholarship at a world-class school and still just as friendly and curious about people and places. It's one of those rare and precious relationships where circumstances and fate brought us together, but where constant communication and friendship has sustained it for years.

Today we took a walk and visited the Ashmolean Museum where one of their special exhibits is entitled "Pilgrimage, the Sacred Journey", a story of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hindiusm, Sikhism and Jainism, and how their followers have managed to preserve a religion in the face of history and time. It was pouring out when we left the museum and so we quickly made our way to a beautiful church-turned- restaurant for lunch. We sat right at the end with a good view of the ceiling and stained glass windows. Without needing to strain your imagination, one could envision how it must have looked a few hundred years ago when it was first built, magnificent and intimidating, and still in present day, it commands a sort of respect from visitors when they pass through the wide wooden doors and look up.

Well, must be off now. Going to check out Blackwell's (bookstore) for some road maps of Austria and Czech and then meet Meng for cream tea and biscuits. mmmmm...