Ooh Bazinga. I only ever experienced Oxford as an undergrad so never had to deal with the frustrations of Oxford shutting down during the vacations. What the above poster said about the Oxford Union, I also agree. Most people go in order to see Page 3 girls. But for people who are interested in debating, not celebrities, the Oxford Union has a good team to spar with and was second at the World Debating Championships last year.
The rest of Oxford I remember rather more kindly. Most restaurants in the heart of town are indeed pricey and the English would be the first to admit that their cuisine is absolutely shite. I never want to see another jacket potato or boiled cauliflower ever again. I do however miss the sandwich shops (Mortons), the cafes and tea rooms (Rose Cafe, Puccinos, G&Ds), the panini shops (Alternative Tuck Shop and the little stall in front of the entrance to St John's) and crazily enough, Ahmed's kebab van. His kebabs compared favourably to the ones I had in Spain, Portugal and France, but nowhere near the ones in Turkey. Indian food is hit and miss but tradition for crew dates. Chinese/Thai/Japanese food also not that great, although I did like the dim sum at Liaison (across from Westgate shopping centre). There's a plethora of Italian restaurants. I liked Gino's at Gloucester Green bus station and Branca at Walton Street. Sadly with Oxford, good food doesn't come cheap and you'd be better off cooking your own food.
College parks are private but you can usually get in with a student card. Trinity and Christchurch are annoying about outsiders but I've always been able to wander through New, Magdalen (with the deer park) and Worcester (with the mosquito-infested lake) colleges with impunity. Very few colleges allow you to walk on their carefully manicured lawns. Corpus Christi, St Annes and Trinity are amongst the few and Teddy Hall has a nice graveyard cum garden. I spent a lot of time in the park next to the Science area running and playing frisbee and in summer, during lunch breaks. My favourite part is the section called Mesopotamia because it lies between two branches of the river and it is a gorgeous place to cycle or walk through. However, it's almost completely deserted after sundown.
I had a 24 hour library in my college and most colleges have that. It's great if you live close to your college but not so much if you live out and chances are, graduate students will live out.
Its true that you shouldn't expect fantastic facilities at Oxford. It's very much poorer than the American universities mentioned in the same breath as it. I remember visiting Yale and Stanford and being astounded at how much prettier and modern their buildings were. With Oxford, you get modern buildings that are ugly, poorly heated/ventilated without the compensation of being historically valuable. They're always under some sort of reconstruction and technical capabilities like wireless access and audiovisual equipment are severely lacking. The only state of the art building there is probably the Said Business School.
I can't comment on the graduate teaching and admin. All I can say for the undergrad side was that they were equal parts good and bad. Anyhow, I very much enjoyed my time there and I had teachers who inspired me to do a D Phil. So there.
