As someone who has never left the United States, I was eager to travel as much as possible while in Europe. Something that really attracted me to the UA in Oxford program is the flexibility of the weekends. We have class Mondays through Thursdays, which allows a 3-day weekend every weekend. Oxford is conveniently located in the central part of the UK so it is a great jumping off point for weekend adventures. My friends have gone to Bristol, Canterbury, Bath and more. On the first weekend, we all took a group trip to London, which is just an hour train ride away.
I have really been taking advantages of these 3-day weekends. So far, I have taken weekend trips to London, Edinburgh, and most recently Paris. In Europe there is more accessibility to trains which are a convenient way to travel (if you know how to navigate them.) Edinburgh was a 5 hour train ride, where I saw the beautiful countryside of Scotland, got to explore Edinburgh castle, took a ghost tour around the city, and even went mountain climbing. Just this weekend I got to explore Paris, which is a 2 1/2 hour train ride from London under the English Channel. We spent three nights in a hostel and saw so much of the city in the two short days we were there. I went to the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, St. Chappelle, and Versailles. In just a 3 1/2 hour train ride, I was back in my home away from home, Oxford University.
