Life at Oxford

Community that stimulates and spurs

Mike Rivers-Bowerman (center) and friends hike near Chamonix in the French Alps during the 2007 University College Chalet Trip. From left: Andrew Munro, Mike’s fiancée Helen Rogers, Juliet Tompkins (New Zealand ’03), Jeeshan Chowdhury (Alberta '06).

When I arrived in Oxford with the other Canadian Scholars-Elect in late September 2005, I did what any other responsible graduate student would do, and started making plans to visit Munich for Oktoberfest 2006. After all, life in Oxford is busy, and preparation - no matter how far in advance - paramount to success.

An average day started with rowing practice on the Isis or basketball drills in the sports centre. A peasant's breakfast of oatmeal was followed by a mid-morning cycle to the hospital or library for academic work. Lunch in hall with friends provided a brief respite from study. After an afternoon amongst the medieval holdings of the Corpus Christi library, dinners involving suits, academic dress, and port carried into the night, with long discussions spilling over into the Rose and Crown and other local haunts. Interspersed throughout the days were lectures, basketball games, and various functions involving tea - most notably daily tea-time and a solitary visit to the inner sanctuary of Buckingham Palace. Weekends meant day-trips to London for gallery and museum visitations, pilgrimages to the exceptional works of the city's prior and current inhabitants. Holidays were spent catching up on studies and travelling to places from the British Lakes District to the French Alps. The two years went by too quickly, and my hiking boots saw considerable use.

Between the men's basketball team and the student communities at Rhodes House and Corpus Christi College, I met many close friends in Oxford. Through these acquaintances I found myself reel-dancing in Montrose, singing "Living Next Door to Alice" in a Tel Aviv karaoke club, and wandering the streets of Geneva in search of a reasonably priced roast chicken. Sometimes we even just enjoyed ourselves in the lovely town in which we were attending university. My beautiful and soon-to-be wife was ever tolerant of the many antics, having moved to Oxford at the end of my first year. I had a little more luck with the traditional Kazakh marriage sack than a certain British comedian and returned home to Vancouver with a bride after catching Helen on the muddy banks of the Isis River the day of our departure from Oxford. It was a fitting end to a memorable time in Oxford and a reminder that funny-looking men sometimes wind up with intelligent and remarkable women.

Hidden away amongst old files and personal mementos is a class photo of the 2005 Rhodes Scholars taken at the Annual Welcome Day on October 1, 2005. From Pakistan to South Africa and Australia to the Northwest Territories, the faces of old classmates and lifelong friends bring alive the diversity of the Rhodes and Oxford experience and acknowledge the extraordinary educational opportunity that was entrusted to me a few years ago. The Rhodes Scholarship promotes academic excellence and cultural understanding by strengthening common bonds and facilitating discussion of the global experience. Fellow scholars shared first-hand accounts of the devastation of Zimbabwe and described details of their training and overseas tours with the American military. Debates on climate change, the religious right, and Madonna's adoption practices not only highlighted the wit and intelligence of my colleagues but helped to broaden and direct my own learning. The international composition of Oxford's student community and the unique setting and storied history of its colleges create an incredibly vibrant learning environment, enabling us to reflect upon and pursue a life's work.