Academic Disneyland

Everyone buddy up now...

Fall is nearly upon us and the university students have returned to Oxford. This summer, however, there were all kinds of students here… all under 18, all foreign, all here to practice and learn English. Groups of teenagers were either bussed in every day or were staying locally and you couldn’t walk 2 feet without running into them.

I spent my mornings walking to the bus stop in the city centre dodging masses of 16 year olds from Spain or Hong Kong. On Saturday afternoons, they milled around eating candy bars, clogging the stores, tossing frisbees back and forth on the pedestrian streets and basically doing all they could to block the flow of the traffic… not a care in the world. These kids were probably away from home for the first time and they were loving it. They’d stand (or sit) in the middle of the pedestrian streets in groups of 20-30 with everyone else forced to navigate around them.

Needless to say, the Oxford residents weren't thrilled, including me. I already felt like I live in this sort of academic Disneyland with these surreal, almost fake looking surroundings, but throw in the mass crowds and you’ve got the atmosphere as well.  

The Oxford citizens are quite fiesty about this, as evidenced by the scowling and scolding letters written to the Oxford Times ranting about the inundated streets. (Note - Letters to the editor are addressed "Sir -". What if the editor were a woman?)
Oxford Times Letter to the Editor - Hectic Scrum
Oxford Times Letter to the Editor - Pedestrian Overload
Oxford Times Letter to Editor - Theme Park Oxford

My life, in a theme park.