New Shoes

The group flight from Atlanta to London-Gatwick airport was pretty pleasant. I met about 8 of the people on the trip--Gily had the excellent idea of wearing her UGA at Oxford shirt, so I had no excuse to not sit near them and I think we all enjoyed have people to talk to during the 2.5 hours we had to wait for the plane after getting to the airport 3 hours early to be on the safe side of the long security lines. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep on the flight anyway, after two tries at 8+ hour flights this May and June, so I had resigned myself to watching the crappy inflight movies, but I soon learned that the 767 we were on, though being more cramped than I remembered, had personal TVs so we could pick our own movies! I rushed through Meet the Robinsons and Shrek 3 in my excitement. I then tried to sleep, then tried to sleep with my iPod on since I was bored, then tried to watch The Office. The lights snapped on at 1 am Georgia time (6 am England time), and I enjoyed my pre-packaged but oddly fresh/warm croissant (ah, the miracle of science) while I watched our approach to the island. I first thought "Wow, check out Ireland!", but realizing that the landmass I saw was way too narrow to be its own island/country I checked the map to see that we were flying over a bay between Wales and south England. England looks a lot like Iowa since so much of it is still organized in neat little packets of pasture and farmland, so I felt at home. But then it looked like there were no roads between all of farms! Apparently every English road has to be surrounded with bushes and trees (for privacy?), so I imagined roads where all of the neat lines of trees were.

Navigating the airport was not so pleasant. It's laid out as crappily as JFK in New York where you have to walk around in a circle almost to get to baggage claim. My knee was killing me after the cramped flight, and my carry-ons full of books already felt too heavy. Thankfully customs was very quick (I bungled my departure date a few times, but the agent must have realized it was too early to be asking anyone anything more than a yes/no questions). Baggage claim tested me a bit since my bags came out on a different belt that some of my fellow flight members and when I found them the bigger (read: 72 pound) one's handle was broken. I can't roll it properly anymore, and I found this out when I rolled over my toe and removed the top half of my toenail. I bled all the 2 hour bus ride to Oxford, but since several people had helped me with the bag crisis and since I discovered some bandaids in my backpack I felt cheery enough listening to Seu Jorge and The Shins in traffic.

Driving up Banbury Road only just prepared me for our awesome new house. We're in, apparently, the rich part of residential Oxford, surrounded by huge houses with huge gardens that must belong to some of the colleges or some of the people who named the colleges. We could tell we were home by the flaming red double doors, and inside we were treated to that wonderful "new house" smell. I am in a triple room at the front of the house (the one at the first landing), which was great yesterday because I could hardly stand dragging my bags up any more stairs and will be good for the whole stay here because of the wonderful view. I have the top bunk and the center desk in front of five bay-style windows that overlook the road; try as I might to capture this glory in a photo (which, by the way, can be found on my new photo website picasaweb.google.com/elmorelt), it is impossible to recreate. You'll just have to imagine me looking at it as I write this post. My roommates, Carly and Ashley, are both really nice (very accomodating, like me--we took a long time deciding who got which cabinets since none of us wanted to step on any toes), and we mostly filled the room to storage capacity as we unpacked.

The afternoon is a bit of a sleep-deprived blur for me at the moment. I know I set out to Summerville (a few blocks up Banbury Road from the UGA house--Oxford to Summerville is like Atlanta to "Midtown", only Summerville is LESS expensive) to get some more bandaids (or "plasters" in Britspeak), and I ended up meeting Laura and Carlye to go to Co-op for groceries (including Empire magazine!) and to this Lebanese restaurant for a cheap lunch of falafel. I stayed back a bit to get the milk that was too heavy to carry the whole way, and the evening sprawled into a weird stretch of unpacking and sitting around after I looked around a lot of campus with Sarah. Somehow I missed the boat on going to dinner with a lot of the group, but then I had time to find the two incredibly nice girls from Florida, Sara and the third Carly, to eat cereal in the amazing main kitchen (where I will probably cook tonight as soon as I can muster the strength to walk to the grocery store!). I passed out at 10 and woke up only to the sounds of Kurt banging on a pot to tell us we only had 10 minutes before we left for the tour of the Bodleian Library.

To be continued--5:20 p.m. Oxford time

7:00 p.m. Oxford time--Had to take a break, but after the last walk I can manage for the day and an awesome dinner from the grocery store of the gods (Marks & Spencer) I feel awesome.

So yeah, totally thought they were joking about wake-up today. I hadn't set my phone correctly, so the alarm went off at 9 and not 8. I have never dressed that fast in my life! It was so nice and cool out this morning, so the 20 minute walk to Broad Street was not that bad. The library, like most buildings in the college, was set behind one entryway to a quad, and we were ushered into a really severe looking room by a really nice looking lady. She explained to us that the room has been used by University government as well as British government--Parliament would occasionally be held there when things like the plague drove the court out of London. The ceilings were high and super-intricate, and family crests dotted most of the building, commemorating the nobles who donated to build the University. We didn't get a tour of the library like I expected because it took so long for all of us to get our cards and recite the Bodleian oath (to obey library rules, to not damage any books, and, most importantly, to not kindle flame in the building), but after a quick coffee break up the street we returned to take a tour of the campus.

We met our tour guide, Debbie, in the middle of a spat with a University official--some hawkish lady snapped at the folks who brought food into the *outdoor* quad, and Debbie fought with her a bit, continuing a vendetta she later said began when that lady had tried to plow into her tour group on a bicycle (the #1 weapon in Oxford, I'd say). Debbie claimed early on that she was different from most Brits ("because I have a sense of humor"), and she led a really fun, spontaneous tour through the City Centre. We saw a 300-year old tree, the beautiful chapel of Exeter College (where J. R. R. Tolkien and Philip Pullman studied), the Radcliffe Camera, and the most-exclusive All Souls College. We didn't see anyone walking on the quad behind their fence, but we were assured that, when they do, they float.

Several groups broke off to go shopping. Most peeled off to get cell phones (which Sarah and I did yesterday! So smart!), but Sarah and my roommate Carly and I went in search of bigger game. We found Gloucester Green, which is surrounded by a lot of neat-looking coffee shops and pubs, and eventually we asked someone and found Primark, a really cheap clothing and home goods store. I got towels there (yay for having to do the laundry less often, which is good because right now we can't get into the laundry shed...?), and at Boots on Cornmarket Street I loaded up on essentials (it's like Target and Ulta in one cosmetic-shopper's heaven). We looked through the edge of the covered market to get really cheap and delicious sandwiches for lunch (the one I went to was playing Paolo Nutini--old hat for Brits, I suppose, but I was enchanted), and I agonizingly trundled off the quickest route, looking for the poster shop (lame for dorm decorating, but good for souvenirs), before getting home.

Even though my legs really hurt from walking so much the past two days, I was already planning where else I wanted to go when I was walking home (yoga and video store in Summerville, for starters). I'm looking forward to having a bit of free time on Sunday to check things out, find my favorite coffee shop, etc. In retrospect, the Cannes trip was definitely a great prep for this longer stay abroad--I've gotten so self-reliant that I'm ready and willing to find the things I want to find, when I want to find them, to have fun, and I don't feel as much of the need to travel in big packs. It'll be good to have excursions, like the one we're going on tomorrow, and big classes for the first few weeks, but I can tell I'm really going to enjoy my "me time" here.

The evening's been pretty tame. Carly and I both agreed that a bit of time just to sit down was heavenly, so I took my time uploading pictures on the super fast Picasa and updating a bit of this journal before heading back out for dinner. Summerville is cheaper and, more importantly, closer than City Centre, so I got a small group to walk over to M & S to get some prepared meals. I had this awesome stuffed chicken and got some cereal for later whose ingredient label rivals the delicious Casino granola that I would eat five times a day in France. I think I'm going to grab a shower now while the house is pretty quiet--need to be ready for another early morning since we're going to Stonehenge and Bath tomorrow!