Where better to learn something new than at England’s legendary Oxford University. Their Oxford Experience - a residential program of one-week courses – is open to all from July 1 to August 11, 2012. Thrillingly, there are no requirements, no exams and no papers to write. Summer students live and study at the venerable 500-year old Christ Church, one of the most prestigious and beautiful of the Oxford colleges.
Students of all ages pour in from the U.S., Canada, all over Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Europe, and Asia. Choose from a menu of more than 60 subjects: Virginia Woolf and her Circle; Castles in Britain; Anglo-American Relations and the Making of Modern Britain. The Celts in Britain; Tudor London; The Beatles, Popular Music and Sixties Britain. The Georgian Home; Oxfordshire Towns; The Brontës; Wagner’s Ring; A History of the BBC; English Country Houses; From the Blues to a Symphony; Page Fright—And How to Overcome It; and Warfare in the Modern World.
Feel an undeniable frisson entering Christ Church’s main gate beneath Christopher Wren’s Tom Tower and entering the great quadrangle known as Tom Quad. Loll about in the college gardens, and meander along the riverside in the Meadow.
These ultra-rich courses also include excursions to stately homes, cathedrals, museums, evening pub walks, a whisky tasting, a quirky performance, evensong in the college chapel, plays and concerts. And on the last night, all together, drinks in the flowering Cathedral Garden and a sumptuous farewell dinner in Harry Potter’s Great Hall. Cheers!
Bargain! The price of a one-week course—including tuition, accommodations, all meals (except those on excursions) and evening activities is ₤1,135 (about $1,775 U.S.)
And hey, slackers, a headsup: Sign up now and avoid the spring rush. The deadline for summer 2012 registration is May 1, 2012 and some courses have already sold out. For more info, or to register click: www.conted.ox.ac.uk/oxfordexperience.
Visiting any foreign country and speaking the language, even minimally, adds enormously to the experience. Of course! But how? Cactus Language Training, a globe-trotting language training company, teaches 30+ languages in 60 countries at 500 destinations worldwide. Each year new destinations are added, new immersive cultural experiences are added too.
Deep in the heart of the American desert, in Mesa, Arizona, Fighter Combat International School can zoom you to stratospheric learning heights. From their menu, for beginners, we’d select the Aerobatic lesson: get strapped in for a 20-minute mid-air lesson (they fly, you scream) in a state-of-the art plane. For the more adventurous or advanced, check out a combat half-day lesson that simulates the jet-fighter experience. Wheew. You and the pilot-instructor are up front in this two-seater with dual controls … so you can actually try out your lesson live at 250 mph. Should you have even extra reserves of adrenaline that require siphoning off, do consider their “intensive” five-day program. Hero photos available.
Looking to work, literally like a slave, in the hot sun for no or low pay some summer? If you join an archaeological dig in one of the ancient sites in Israel, you will sift soil where King David walked and Jesus trod. You will see and feel the past, alive in your own hands and on the soles of your feet. The thrill and incredible excitement of finding authentic treasures such as pottery, mosaics, glass, and gold that are thousands of years old and holding them is hard to describe.
What’s in store? Dust! Heat! Stones! Sunburns! Brains! Brawn! History! New friends. And sometimes even romance… (hey, you never know…) So shake out your shovel, grab a hat with a big visor, slather on the sun cream and join one of the many major archaeological excavations scattered throughout this modern-ancient land, some near cities, some on the shores of the Mediterranean, some in the mountains or deserts.
Small classes, great chefs, and almost everywhere around the world — Europe, the Caribbean, Asia, South America, India, and the U.S. – cooking schools make for delicious cultural immersions. Sign up for a cooking school and make friends, explore local markets, discover delicious and unique local produce: wines, cheeses, and antiques (of course). Explore tiny towns and neighborhoods… and even learn a culinary trick or two. The Shaw Guide to Cooking Schools is a dizzyingly encyclopedic treasure trove of precise and valuable information on who, what, where, and when, plus career ideas.
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