Getting here was a bit of an adventure. Elyse and I had a pretty good flight, despite the bumpy parts where there was a lot of wind (I hate flying, so I put on my Lord of the Rings soundtrack and pretended that I was a Nazgûl... it made for some interesting dreams). We arrived about 20 minutes earlier than expected, and navigating the airport was a little stressful. We flew in to Terminal 5, which is where the busses are, but instead of getting off of the plane at the actual terminal, the airline bussed us from the plane to the terminal. And then, we had to go through customs. The customs lady gave me quite the scare because everyone else was moving through so quickly, but she kept asking me why I was coming into the UK. I think that I wouldn't have been so stressed out if she hadn't been questioning my attendance at Oxford ("Where are you studying?" "Oxford University." "But your paperwork says WISC." "Yes, they work with Oxford to get students to come in." "So you're really not studying at Oxford, so what are you doing?") and I'm so thankful that that's over. Once we got through customs, we picked up our luggage and tried to navigate to the bus (coach) stop through heavy wind. The bus arrived EXACTLY as we got there, and the driver threw our luggage underneath the bus, and we were off to Oxford! The bus ride was only about an hour and a half long, and then we had to drag our suitcases to the taxi lane (through an open market, where I, at least, was gawked at for my luggage...) and from there, we hailed a taxi to the Chester House around the corner where OSAP's offices are located. Included in the welcome packet that we picked up were keys and a 50-page guide to studying through OSAP. I have yet to finish reading the packet, honestly, but I'll probably end up reading it tonight.
The taxi dropped off Elyse at the guesthouse where she'll be staying for a few days until her house is ready, and then the taxi driver attempted to find my house. I say "attempted" because of something I mentioned earlier - there are four or five doors labeled "37" on St. Giles. Apparently, parts of the building are used as offices, which all have the same number above the door. So the taxi driver dropped me off at one of the doors which turned out to be a kind of sketchy alleyway. I was a little confused, but tried to press on, until a lady came through a door in the alley and told me that my house was actually next door. I finally found the right place, which is a beautiful three-story house, and walked inside. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the house, and we even have a backyard and deck area! The house also has a double kitchen, which just means an 8-burner stove, a full table for eating (seats 6), and lots of cupboard space. There is only one dorm-size fridge though, so sharing with nine other people is going to be interesting.
My room is on the third floor of the house, which means carrying my suitcases up a ton of stairs, but thankfully, there were some nice people in the house who were willing to help! So far, I think that there are six people living here, including myself. Two of them have been here since September, and one is the German grad student who has lived here for two years. Sarah and Chris, who both live downstairs, just moved in on the same day that I did, and we've been hanging out a lot. The first day basically consisted of drinking a lot of tea, mostly unpacking, and staying up until 6am. I wasn't trying to stay up so late, but being in a quiet room by myself made me start thinking a lot, which wasn't so great. I also blew an outlet with my adapter, which we think might have knocked out the internet and half of the house's power, so that was interesting. But we figured out that you can't leave a plug in the outlet for too long, or else it overheats.
Anyway, I've figured out that you have to fall asleep before 3am or else there's no hope at all. Around 2 or 3, the people who have gotten drunk at the various pubs on my street start walking (stumbling) down the street, "singing" (really just a nice way of saying "yelling with horrendous noise"). They quite down around 4 or 5, which is when the morning commute starts around here. As my house is located on a major road, it gets noisy.
So yesterday, my housemate Sarah and I, along with Elyse, went out for a little shopping and met with our academic advisor, Tim. Tim encouraged us to go on this boat ride on the Thames and promised us that we would get to see the city skyline lit up. The ride was meant for a group of 50 California students who had been here for a three-week visit. Unfortunately, the boat ride turned into a party boat, which was a really interesting experience. A lot of the guys came over and talked with us, and all of the people around us ended up getting really drunk. The three of us stayed upstairs as long as we could, before the cold drove us downstairs, but the behavior of the other students was quite appalling. I don't think that I've ever been so ashamed about being a US citizen as I was last night. I don't really care to go into details about the actions of these other students, but suffice to say, enough of them needed serious help getting off of the boat that I'm glad that they leave today. I know that other students who come to Oxford will be drinking, but I can honestly say that if I drink, it'll be moderate and not stupid. I don't understand why people would come to a world-renowned university and pay a ton of money to get drunk and complain about how tough the classes are. I was a little discouraged last night, but I'm hoping that today will make me feel better.
Steve arrived yesterday, so he came over and hung out for a bit at the house. Today, Steve, Elyse, Sarah, and I are all hanging out and exploring Oxford. Chris might come too, but I'm not sure. We're basically planning to just take a map and go, which will be so much fun! I also want to try to get a cell phone while I'm out, just so that if I needed to make a call, I could. We found this awesome cell phone place yesterday that has some really cheap plans, so I'm excited.
Well, it's off to breakfast for me, and hopefully I can post some pictures this evening! Hope everyone stateside is doing well, and I really do miss everyone (I'm just trying not to dwell on it).
*EDIT* My house is on some historical tours, so here's a link to some of the historical information about my house: 37 St. Giles.
Glad you are doing well! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for keeping us up to date...Mom and Dad
ReplyDelete