Part 2 of my work experience placement with That Oxford Girl:
Wednesday
Wednesday evening I was completely exhausted, so it must have been a busy day!
The morning started off with some more writing, this time about how I prepared for my interviews and expanded on my knowledge of my subject. I really enjoyed writing this, in particular, as I got to remember all of the fantastic things I read before interview, as well as other little things I did – writing this reminded me that a new episode of my favourite radio series was now out!
Soon enough it was time to visit St Benet’s, a permanent private hall (PPH), for lunch. I was looking forward to this, as I was really curious about what a PPH is (and a little confused by it, to be honest). St Benet’s was actually amazing: we nearly walked past it, because it seems like just a house on the side of the road, with an actual front door. On the inside, it is quite like a house, but a house which accommodates a huge family! We also looked around a house in Norham Gardens which is part of St Benet’s – it’s the place where most of their accommodation is. I got to spend some time talking to two current Second Year students, Natasha and Joe, about their time at St Benet’s, as an interview to feature on the blog. It was really interesting to hear about their different experiences, and so lovely to see how much they clearly love their hall. The tour also included having lunch in the hall, which was a really different experience to lunch in Jesus or Christ Church, as St Benet’s don’t have a High Table, just one common table.
After typing up part of the St Benet’s interview and having a break, it was time to visit Christ Church for a tour and interview with their Access Officer, Stephanie. Christ Church was a bit of a different place to be compared to St Benet’s earlier in the day! Each of the places were equally lovely, however, just in their own ways. I even got to see Christ Church’s library, which I hadn’t been in before: it really is incredibly beautiful and very magical. My interview with Stephanie was my third interview of the week, so by now I’d got much better at writing everything down really quickly!
Thursday
Thursday morning, I finished writing up the interviews I’d done the day before with Natasha and Joe from St Benet’s and Stephanie from Christ Church. After this, I got to go and visit the Botanic Garden for the first time. Luckily, I visited during a part of the day when it was really sunny and warm, and then as soon as I got back to the office it started to rain!
After writing a short piece about Oxford Botanic Garden, I went for lunch at Franco Manca to do a restaurant review! This was another completely new experience and it turned out to be really enjoyable, too!
Overall, I’ve had a really packed, varied and interesting week. This is one of the most fun work experience I’ve ever been on. I’ve done loads of new things, and done things which will hopefully prepare me for starting in a couple of weeks’ time! I’ve also learnt that it really doesn’t take very long to get anywhere in Oxford!