While Oxford students are spread far and wide for a remote Trinity Term, college life carries on, with the college porters continuing to do stellar work to keep Oxford running.
Porters teams at five Oxford colleges – Christ Church, Corpus Christi, Hertford, Trinity and Wadham – share photos from their daily lives, and what they’re doing while the students are away.
Christ Church
Trinity
“Dear students,
We miss you.
Our days are boring.
No students checking if their parcel has arrived. “But did you check your emails?” “No, why?” “…’cause we always send you one if something arrives for you…?”
No students taking our keys and running away with them; nobody to chase when those keys are needed elsewhere. “Whooops… sorry, I totally forgot!”
No students locked out of their rooms asking for keys. “I did it again. I’m so stupid.”
Don’t worry, we don’t keep score.
Yet.
No students ordering dozens of parcels and not collecting them-wait, they actually still do that.
But it’s not the same.
No students cheering for something nice in their pidgehole (yes, we like when it happens), no students feeling unpopular because they’ve received nothing (yes, we’re sad for you when it happens).
No students handing in their essays late at night or early in the morning, tired and worried.
No student smiling and waving at the gate.
No students stopping by for a chat, leaving amazing snacks from their country.
No students asking for advice.
No students coming back at the beginning of the term.
We want our students back.
Please stay safe and come back.
Sincerely
A lonely porter”
-A letter from Maria
Corpus Christi
“Hello – James here from Corpus Christi lodge – we’re up to our eyeballs in contractors rebuilding and repairing all kinds of things so it’s certainly not the quiet poetic silence we’d all hope for!
Here’s a couple of potential students enquiring, and Foxe, our gently malevolent tortoise has emerged from hibernating all ready to forage and bite again.”
Wadham
“In tea break, I do 1000 rotations with a 1.8kg hoop, and it takes 12 mins, so 3 mins left for that cup of tea! The College has agreed to buy College accommodated students a hoop, so more fun exercise to come!”
-Alan
Hertford
