Through the Looking Glass: Sarah in Hogwarts

On Friday, the class took a field trip to Oxford. The point was probably to learn about Oxford and explore some of the historical sites and buildings to be found there, but what most of us took away from the experience was how important Oxford was to the creation of Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter.

You literally cannot go anywhere in Oxford without finding some reference or connection to one (or, more likely, both) of those famous works.

First stop of the day was the Bodleian Library. This building was built by a man named Bodley who was an Oxford graduate. The Divinity School, where theology was taught, is better known to the 21st century as the Hogwarts infirmary from the first Harry Potter film. It was also used in the fourth movie as the classroom where ballroom dancing lessons were held. Now, the room is used for parties and as a robing room for graduating students at Oxford.

Next stop was a visit to the Natural History Museum, which wasn't particularly big (two large rooms, essentially), but it had SO MUCH STUFF, it was absolutely amazing. Here, there is no shortage of dodo birds and references to Alice. The second room of the museum is basically full of odds and ends and curiosities. Less than a museum, this collection rather feels like the archives, and it just happens to be accessible to the public. In this room, you can find Native American masks, totem polls, shrunken heads, and Japanese lamps that look like puffer fish, among other discoveries. Small as the entire museum was, a person could spend all day in there and not see everything. It was genuinely incredible!

After a lunch break, the class joined up once more and went to Christ Church College. The Great Hall of Hogwarts was filmed here, using the Great Hall of Christ Church. The real Alice also lived here when her father was the dean of Oxford. The cathedral was pretty impressive as well.

We finished off the day with a visit to the Ashmolean museum, the oldest museum in existence that has been kept open continually. There are older museums in existence, but they have not been open as museums constantly since opening. The Ashmolean, however, has. Unfortunately, several of us were too tired to enjoy much of The Ashmolean, so after half an hour of exploring in there, we caught the bus back to London.

Oxford was a beautiful city, but it's really not very different from Cambridge, and I think I liked Cambridge better. However, it was still cool to go, and it was quite the experience!