JANE MESSINA is an American at an English pub with Galician music What do an accordion, a pint of beer, and a ball of wool all have in common? Well, absolutely nothing. But you could find all of those things in the James Street Tavern last Wednesday night, and they made for an oddly magical evening.

First, let me give you a bit of background. If you don’t know what Galicia is, well you’re not alone, because I didn’t. Galicia is a region in northern Spain that borders Portugal and gets its name from its Celtic heritage, with a strong sense of identity rooted in its music (which doesn’t sound too dissimilar from traditional Scottish music until everyone starts singing in an esoteric Spanish dialect).

Apparently the last Wednesday of every month is Galician folk night at the James Street Tavern, and now that I know that, there’s no looking back.

So little did you know that Oxford is home not only to a thriving knitting community, but apparently a large Galician diaspora as well, and there were about 30 of each of us crammed into a pub last Wednesday night, having one of those rare nights where worlds collide and it somehow all makes sense.

While some social groups might see this collision as a battle for table space at the pub, our mutual respect for each other’s public display of creativity made for a wonderfully unique and friendly atmosphere. Or maybe it was all the beer.

The evening’s festivity also reinforced my conviction that whether or not inebriation is your goal, the quintessentially English thing that is a pub provides a brilliant setting for social gatherings of all kinds that no other place can do quite as well.

The James Street Tavern is a perfect example of the type of pub that all others should aspire to be — one that appreciates the importance of facilitating community gatherings where people can celebrate in their common interests.

So as we swayed to the enchanting music, knitting away as usual, I couldn’t help but look around and think how extremely lucky I am to live in a place like Oxford. While some of its residents may never look far beyond their college-centered worlds, just past those daunting stone walls lies an entirely different, quite cosmopolitan world, where happenstances like last Wednesday’s can occur.

As you might imagine, the swaying and knitting quickly turned to an energetic cacophony of clapping, foot-tapping, and wool tangling as we danced in circles to some good ol’ Spanish jig (bet you didn’t know that existed).

Who’d have though that a pub full of knitters and a local folk band would be one of the liveliest places to be in Oxford?

Bottom line — Oxford has so much going on outside the confines of University life, and I feel like I’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg, so I encourage everyone in this city to get out there and discover something new. What is there to lose, and who knows? You might just find yourself singing in Galician...

Jane Messina is a postdoctoral researcher at Oxford University studying the geography of tropical diseases