Day Seven

Who said Sunday was relaxing?? This was a jam-packed day of activities! We started a little later in the day to give students a chance to recover from the fantastic neon bop - although it ended at 10pm and the students were all back in their colleges shortly after that, the two hours of non-stop dancing seemed to take it out of everyone...

Bop night! Copyright OxTrad

For those who needed to ease into the day, we began with yoga session led by one of the admin team. After an hour-long stretch and mindfulness exercises, the students were definitely ready to take on the day.

For those lucky enough to sign up in time, there was a chamber music concert - part of the Oxford Coffee Concert series - held in the historical Holywell Music Rooms, the oldest custom-built concert hall in Europe, which opened its doors to the public for the first time in 1748. These Coffee Concerts began in 1986 and have established themselves as one of the most successful chamber music series in the country. They have been described by British newspaper The Independent as one of the top 10 things to do in Oxford, hosting performances by the best musicians and ensembles from this country and from abroad. This week, we were fortunate enough to listen to Tamsin Waley-Cohen on violin and Huw Watkins on piano performing Mozart and Poulenc.

There was great excitement in each college at lunchtime today, as HARRY POTTER MOVIE TICKETS were available for pick up!! On Tuesday of the upcoming week, OxTrad is going en masse to the cinema to watch the newest Harry Potter movie, and each student gets a ticket to watch this hit movie. Look out for pictures of students dressed up as characters from the movie in the next week...

Over the early afternoon, a group of 30 students were taken on an undercover patrol by a current NYPD policeman, a former member of the OxTrad admin team who was visiting the UK. In addition to learning about how undercover cops tail suspicious persons and other tricks of the trade, students were made aware of how to act in crowds and take care of their belongings in crowded street situations - valuable life lessons!

A 6-a-side soccer tournament took up the late afternoon and evening. 9 mixed-sex teams competed in a highly contested set of heats, with the semi-finals and finals to be held next Sunday. There seemed to be a bit of a country theme going on, with Team Canada, Team USA, Team India and Team Africa competing against the likes of Team Blaugrana and Team K2.

Soccer tournamnet, Copyright OxTrad

The day closed with more soccer mania - the finals of the Women's World Cup, with USA taking on Japan. Even though women's soccer does not usually find a wide audience in the student body, there was a definite buzz in the lecture theatre as students piled in to support their chosen team!

A great conclusion to a full and fantastic Week 1 of classes, activities, and events - and we're all looking forward to a tremendous Week 2.