Posted on Tuesday, October 4, 2005
A group of thirty students from Westminster College traveled to historic York last weekend as part of their three-month study abroad program in Oxford, England.
York, which sits in the northern part of England, has many historic tourist attractions. One of the main sites we saw was York Minster, an extravagant cathedral that left the students with expressions of awe. Inside, its massive ceiling was decorated with artwork and figurines that truly gave the church its gothic appeal. The church has statues throughout its halls for fallen soldiers, past emperors, and donors.
The students also explored great fortress walls that protected the city from Romans, Spaniards, and various other potential invaders.
After a good nights sleep in the Quality Hotel, the students, lead by Dr.James Perkins and Dr. David Goldberg, ventured off to Castle Howard and Fountains Abbey in the York countryside.
The first stop, Castle Howard, was an extravagant castle the housed the earls of the Family Howard for centuries. Many of the students described the castle as, "something out of a fairytale," with its beautiful rose gardens and massive grounds.
The final stop of the trip was to Fountains Abbey, ruins of a great monastery that was taken over by the Church of England and eventually closed down and taken apart to build other cathedrals and places of worship. The students ran around the grounds playing hide and seek in the ruins, and exploring every untouched corner they could find.
Although the bus ride back to Oxford left everyone with an extreme sense of exhaustion, the trip was a great success and left a lasting impression.
The trip to York was the second of three that the group will be taking. Only a week ago they traveled to London to spend the day sight seeing and gathered in Shakespeare Globe Theatre for a showing of "The Tempest." The last and final trip will be a day trip to Bath in the second week of October. Many of the students have also been diligently planning trips of their own for future weekends and the upcoming ten-day break in October.
All in all this semester at Oxford is giving these students an incomparable experience.
Written by: Bethany Knicely, a junior English major from Sewickley
Ryan Kozlowski, a sophomore sociology/criminal justice major from Linesville
Matt Kurtz, a senior history major from DuBois
