оксфорд

[zorgeo]

замшелые камни 11-14 веков. уклад и традиции, с того же времени. книги времен Гутенберга.

я не понимаю, как в таких условиях изучать современные науки.

Comments

No discord, welcome to the UK

[shkrobius.livejournal.com]

As an ex-Oxford man and a chemical physicist, I can explain it to you. Your basic premise is wrong. All non-humanitarian, experimental science pursued at Oxbridge is presently done in buildings (of considerable ugliness) erected shortly before or after WWII. The "ancient buildings" that you saw there were mostly built in the 19th century in the showy neo-Gothic style. Nobody is using these drafty Victorian digs to think about physics; this is done in crammed offices elsewhere. My lab at the Physics Chemistry Laboratory on South Park Rd. was built by Sir Cyril Hinshelwood around 1935 and had a very distinctive staircase that I passionately hated (it was almost impossible to use). It was so typical of the period that BBC used it in pretty much every single Agatha Cristie teleserial they ever produced. That's Oxford for you.

As for the cultural shock -- just wait. Mine came when I realized that my room did not have any heating because it is not needed (the British believe that England is a warm country, if you do not get it). Another one was the realization that wiring was made of lead insulated by linen cord wrapped around it (which has not been changed since 1890). The UK is some country, and I love it very much. Open your eyes and absorb.