Arrival in Oxford, Safe and Mostly Sound

Hey everyone,

I finally arrived in Oxford about an hour ago. Its been the trip from hell and probably a slightly expensive one in the end. Let's see...45 minute delay in Orlando due to weather, 3 hour delay in Phildelphia (including sitting on a plane for 90 minutes waiting to take off)and then a flight on the airplane with the narrowest leg room ever. My knees were in my chin for most of the flight, but I did manage to get about 3 hours of sleep, so I don't feel too bad. However, the 3 hour delay meant that today has been completely screwed up. I didn't get to Gatwick airport until 11:30 BST, and then airline baggage handlers broke the wheels on my luggage and trashed the zipper. That I discovered after waiting more than a hour for the luggage to arrive. Since the suitcase zipper is shot, I will end up having to buy new suitcases to take my stuff home. I was planning on buying one additional suitcase, but now it looks like I will have to buy two. However, my suitcase will still transport stuff, and I can get the zipper to sort of zip, but it takes a lot of work and the zipper itself is pulling away from the case. It will have to be replaced before I come home in six weeks time, and I will have to get a smaller suitcase for my trips around the country.

Other than that, I missed the tour around campus due to my late arrival in Oxford (at 4:30 instead of 1:30)and massive traffic in and around London due to the car bombing earlier this morning. The 2 hour trip from Gatwick to Oxford took more than 3 hours, so things have been snowballing all day long. I did manage to find Andrew Cudmore and Ralph Lucurcio, both of who will be staying and/or teaching here for a while. My dorm room is kind neat, a single lockable room with a shared bathroom, more modern than old, but with lots of space. Right now, I am sharing my little flat with Andrew Cudmore, but I don't know if I will get another flatmate once he leaves on Sunday I think to move to his house. I can tell I am going to have to pick up a fan because there isn't much in the way of air circulation, even though I do have a fairly large window. The weather is rainy so far, though there were spots of sun earlier today.

Time to get cleaned up, walk around for a bit, and then come back to find some people for dinner. Tomorrow will be exploration day, though it will take a day or two to get my bearings. However, the college is just a block from the Radcliffe Camera and the Bodelian Library (I found both of them earlier when I made a wrong turn). I am looking forward to exploring tomorrow and Sunday, especially once the very tired and cranky students get here. ::grin:: I also apologize if this blog seems kinda whiney, but I am working on just three hours of sleep and have had a lot of mishaps. None of which were my fault. I will take some pictures of the college tomorrow and try to get them posted here.

Write to me at my aol address, mattruane at aol.com. Hope to hear from you soon.

Note: For those of you who don't realize why I altered my email address above, its an anti-spam measure.

Mailing Address

Here is the mailing address for my summer stay, in case you need to mail me anything.


Professor Matthew Ruane, Florida Tech
Jesus College
Turl Street
Oxford, England
OX1 3DW
United Kingdom

Pre Trip Update #2

Saturday is usually a day to rest, but today has been one of those run around and get all the little things that need to be done before heading off on a trip. I think I was back and forth to the mall at least three times today, as well as Best Buy, Target, Circuit City and Barnes and Noble. It also includes doing a lot of not so little things: buying a digital camera was my big purchase today. I got a 7 megapixel Samsung S730 digital camera, but I had to go back and buy a SD memory card for the camera. The basic memory would have allowed me to store just 15 pictures at the worst resolution (and just 5 at the best) before the memory was full. I went to Best Buy to get a memory card, and they had a 2 gigabite card on sale for just 24.95! Now, suddenly, at the worst resolution I can shoot over 2000 pictures, but with the current acceptable middle resolution, I can store over 1000 digital photographs before I am full. I am sure that if push came to shove, I could store the extra pics on my laptop or my Ipod until I got home. The Ipod, even with the music and video on it currently, can still hold over 20,000 pictures and still function.

If I ever shoot more than 1,000 pictures you will know I have gone off the deep edge.

Let's see what else: ethernet cable, check; extra batteries and camera carrying case, check; some snacks for the airplane, check;, birthday gifts for a party tomorrow, check. I also managed to pay some bills ahead of time, trying to limit what I will still have to pay while in the UK. I did manage not to buy a guidebook to London. I am pretty sure the city has not changed all that much since my last extended visit in 2002. They also don't make guidebooks just for Oxford, at least not without being part of a larger guidebook I don't need.

Tonight was spent out with two of my best friends, Steve and Liz, having a little going away party. A few other people were supposed to show up, but they never did. At least we didn't reserve a huge table. It was odd eating "bangers and mash" at an Irish pub here in Melbourne, knowing that I probably would be eating the same thing in a little more than a week.

You know what I am looking forward to eating again? Branson Pickle and Cheese and Onion Crisps. Google them to find out what they are.

Tomorrow is spent going to brunch/birthday party, and then coming home to do some laundry and finish up on some school related work. Its going to be a long week...but I vowed on Wednesday afternoon I was going to go to the movies as a way to destress before the trip. The new Bruce Willis "Die Hard" movie opens, so I think I am going to go see a matinee before heading off to class, and then coming home to finish packing. I can already see Thursday being a whirlwind of class, grading a set of quizzes, and making sure I have everything from my office that I will need to teach in Oxford.

Wish me luck...I am sure chaos still awaits.

Pre Trip Thoughts #1

Less than a week to go. At this time next week, Friday June 29th, I will be in Oxford trying to settle down for the extended working vacation I am embarking on. It should prove to be a true adventuring experience. Six weeks in the UK, teaching at Oxford, along with some brief jaunts to Paris, Edinburgh, and now, hopefully with fingers crossed, a trip to Oslo for a long weekend at the begining of July. I should know over the weekend whether I can a) afford the trip time wise, and b) whether I really should go. The only thing keeping me from going at the moment is the responsibility of remaining in Oxford while the other programme leaders are off in Ireland. I was told that a number of students will be gone that first weekend, so my leaving shouldn't be a problem either, but I need to think about this endeavor.

Anyway, luggage has been taken care of, adaptors have been secured, banks and credit card companies have been notified. Now all I need to do is make sure that I actually do the packing sometime next week. I still have a week of summer classes to deal with (one of the reasons why being in the office over the weekend will probably be necessary) and a lab install that is only about 75% finished. However, the remaining bits should be done while I am gone. Hooray for planning!

This blog will be posted to hopefully on a regular basis once I am overseas. I'll use it both as a journal as well as way of keeping in touch with people. If you want to post to this blog, or make comments on it, let me know. I am also going to try and find a way to post some pictures from the trip. The last time I went I did this the old fashioned way, keeping a pen and paper journal of my trip and of my expenses. This time around, I think I am going to embark on the bold electronic experiment of keeping it online in a semi-public blog.

Thanks for reading...

Matt