Walking. Lots and lots of walking. I didn’t sleep very well last night. My bed is very hard and sleeping in a new country after such a long day didn’t help at all either. I kept waking up and then going back to sleep until I looked at my clock and it was 7:30! I rushed to get ready, deciding to skip the shower and walked to Rootes for breakfast where I was suppose to meet Charlotte and Nicola. I was a little wary that they had already gone in or weren’t going to show up but then I saw Charlotte breeze through the doors. We waiting a bit for Nicola but she didn’t show and both of us were super hungry.
Breakfast was very nice consisting of toast, a croissant, and tea. The yogurt was very sour and contained milk so I didn’t want to eat too much of it. After breakfast we decided to do a little shopping first going to costcutters which is right on campus but Charlotte was outraged at the prices. I should have got my internet cable there but thought I could check prices in other shops so we were off to Tesco armed with a map and my poor sense of direction but with Charlotte’s map reading skills which are quite good having grown up in Canada and required to read maps on camping trips as a child. It wasn’t very hard to find and not a terribly long walk, maybe about ten minutes or so. Tesco was pretty cool, I got some supplies that I needed like Shampoo and Conditioner and Laundry detergent. We poked around at the other stores but there really isn’t much there. Tesco reminds me a bit like a really small run down Walmart. Getting back to campus we went our separate ways in order to return our stuff to our rooms and agreed to meet back so Charlotte could open her bank account.
I got back to my room sweating, once again, tired and finding it hard to breath. I calmed myself down and organized my money, lightened my load, switched bags and went back hoping I hadn’t missed Charlotte. She was still in line and had been waiting only to be told she couldn’t open an account until she had her rental agreement which wouldn’t be printed until tomorrow. She was very angry and went and complained to one of the orientation people which I thought was completely uncalled for, myself being much more of a suffer alone and write a letter later type of person. And it was rather embarrassing standing next to her when the information she said wasn’t in the packet was she had just missed it but I wasn’t going to ruin her soap box.
We still had some time left on our hands because we didn’t need to do the walking tour since we had already done it ourselves so we went off in search of the library. Of course once we got there we realized we couldn’t get in without our university card which we weren’t getting until Friday. but not all was lost. We had lunch in the library cafe. I was particularly hungry but I knew that with the Oxford trip I would be hungry. I got a two cheese and onion sandwich and a banana. The register lady was very nice and helped me to figure out the money. Then it was time for Oxford.
Of course none of the orientation people know what’s going on and there is no organization whatsoever but some things never change. Walking to meet the coaches we started talking to the orientation helper and he mentioned the weather being bad and at this time it was nice a light breeze and overcast. I said the weather was amazing and he asked if I was English! It was great fun. We get on a bus and make the hour journey to Oxford with a tour guide making comments along the way about who have been students at Oxford including; President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Tony Blair, the current Prime Minister David Cameron and Chelsea Clinton. Oxford itself is a very old but large university. There are lots of colleges that all make up the University. It’s a little complicated to understand but the tour guide said it’s like the US all the states are self contained and independent but together the states forms the United States. I saw the dining hall they used as a model for the dining hall in Harry Potter and another building I saw was used as the infirmary. Went through a kissing gate and saw all the places that inspired Alice in Wonderland (Alice apparently is a real person or rather was a real girl, the daughter of the dean of Oxford.) Along the way we ran into a film crew! I was excited. Charlotte not so much which I found surprising because of her major but she’s just on the analytical side of things whereas I want to do it all I guess. And the tour guide said they had told her it was for the filming of X-Men so I’m doing so research, as soon as I get internet cords!
On the whole I wasn’t that impressed with Oxford. I felt like it was too spread out with too many modern shops in with the medieval architecture to make much of a profound statement. You always hear about Oxford but I guess they’re more famous for their alumni. : )
We went through more markets and ended the tour, all of us soaked from the onslaught of rain and puddles. We had about an hour to kill before we were scheduled to get back on the buses so Charlotte and I went back to the film site to go to a bookstore which was amazing. The Blackwell bookstore is two shops with several stories of just books oh and a cafe. It was a lot of books but I guess since I always buy my books used, offline or “borrow” from the library : ) I’m not all that amazed by bookstores. Of course when we went out the filming had started and so I stopped to watch. A woman stood by the gate and waited for a man to come up to her and they walked down the stairs and to the left. I do know that the man’s name was James because as we were leaving since Charlotte was not impressed at all I heard a voice on the radio of one of the film people to get James an umbrella to keep him dry. I’m wondering if it was James McAvoy who I’m pretty sure is in the film. He kinda had that look to him.
We made our way through the covered market place and back to the pickup spot, passing the Moscow Circus and waited in the rain and cold. Waiting, waiting and waiting for the coaches to come. They were about an hour late and when they got there all the people swarmed and then there was no more room until the next bus came. Charlotte was on her phone finding train times because she was pissed at standing in the rain. I kept repeating my new mantra: “keep calm and carry on.” We finally get in a line to get on a bus and Charlotte pushes her way up to the front leaving me and Nicola behind but we find a seat on the next bus and are able to warm up a bit. The bus ride back was uneventful but the driver dropped us off right at the student union which was nice so we didn’t have to walk to dinner. I ate a little bit more at dinner: pasta, beans and bread. The beans were actually really good, I was very surprised. I had a little bit of lemon cake but it was too sweet to eat much of it and finally at the end of dinner I was able to get tea which really helped me warm up. When we had first got there they were completely out of tea and hot water.
Today was a much better day for me nothing else I can really say about it except we’ll see what tomorrow brings…
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