Adventures in Oxford: Ups and Downs

Ah, I had intended to post everyday, at least something. I had even intended to take pictures by now, but I have been swamped with getting adjusted to life in Oxford and today, getting my teaching schedule sorted out. But to be honest, the reason I haven't posted since Friday/Saturday is that my computer went on the fritz on Sunday morning and I was without internet or my computer for the last 36 hours or so. I spent more than three hours this morning getting it fixed and luckily it cost only 29.99 GBP (about $60 US) to get fixed. The adventure of getting there, and the truth of a 10 minute walk are a whole other story.

The 10 minute walk: 40 minutes, in the pouring rain for 30 of it. Finally found the place, a store called PC World, and they were nice folks. They have an internal repair service called Tech Service, sort of like Geek Squad at Best Buy. They told me it would take about two hours or so for the computer to be checked out. So I decided to take the bus back to the city centre. Wouldn't you know it, the moment I stepped into my room, my mobile rings and they tell me the problem is fixed. I could have sat there and waited (and I did bring a book with me just in case.) Another 20 minute bus ride back this time, picked up the case, handed over the credit card, and another 20 minute bus ride home. Between start and finish, and finding out about PC World in the first place from a few other places I was asked about: 3 hours. Still, its good to have my computer back and a chance to post, check email, do work (including grading) and finally get my syllabi out to my students.

So what else has been happening? I am hoping that is the end of my bad luck, knock on wood. I found a local department store that sells luggage and not too unreasonably for some quality pieces. It may still take about 300 US to get the luggage, but it is right around the corner from the school. I may get away with half that amount of money if I just want luggage to get me home, but we shall see if paying more is worth it.

On Friday night, I finally got to sleep after a noisy night in the courtyard. I woke up around 7:30 and went for a brief walk before grabbing breakfast. Breakfast on both Saturday and Sunday was a traditional English breakfast, served cafeteria style: fried eggs, bacon (more like Canadian bacon), sausages, toast, other breads, kippers, tomatoes, mushrooms, cereal, fruit (so far it must be a special on grapefruit!), yogurt, coffee and tea. I don't think I can eat that every morning, but for the first two weeks I should have plenty of time to walk it off. I went back, got changed, and went for a walk with Andrew Cudmore about the streets of Oxford to explore and find where things are. It was a bit breezy and a slight rain on and off throughout the morning.

I then went out and got my cell phone turned on with a company called Orange. For 20 GBP I got a calling plan that would allow me to pay as I go, and calls to the US would be about 5p per minute (way cheaper than ATT/Cingular's 99 cents/mminute!). Internal calling is more expensive, but that is the price you pay for the overseas programme. Receiving calls in the UK is free, only dialing incurs a cost. I wandered around the Cornmarket afterwards, as this is the main pedestrian shopping district, and usually filled with tourists. I'll take pictures of the street one day when I am up and walking at 7:30 and at 5:30. Its a massive difference.

I went out to a pub with the provost and his party and had a late lunch. The pub, the King's Arms, is pretty close: the beer is reasonably priced and the food is pretty good. I had a steak and mushroom pie and a pint of summer beer, both of which were good and filling. After that, Andrew decided to take the provost and his party on the "supersized" version of our earlier walk: almost 2 hours of wandering the streets of Oxford. I was exhausted afterwards, and I suspect the others were bushed, and I walk regularly for 45 minutes a day! As I suspected when I lived in England, I walk everywhere here and often, and using today as an example, I am pretty sure from looking at a map, I walked close to 10 miles back and forth, up and down stairs, about town, to the pc store, to class, from class, to lunch, back from lunch, to class, from class, to the supermarket, from the supermarket, and the night still isn't over with. By the time we got back it was raining, around 7:30, and I was too exhausted to go back out and get dinner.

Sunday was again up and out at 7:30 for a walk. It started out sunny and ended up raining again. I went past the Eagle and Child (the Bird and the Baby as locals call it!), the pub where C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien hung out and read each other sections of their work. Some evening I am going to have to go there for a pint. I also discovered the location of the Oxford Ghost Tour, which I might take this weekend while others are off galivanting in Ireland. 5 GBP and a night of tales to tell. I'll just make sure I am not running about that day like a chicken without a head, since most walking tours are about 90 minutes to 2 hours and tend to cover a good distance in that time.

After breakfast, I discovered that my computer was no longer working, and in the UK, I knew there wasn't much I could do anyway on a Sunday. Students were arriving, and I was on duty to help them get settled. I took a bunch on a short walking tour before we all went on a bus tour in the afternoon. One of those guided bus tours where you sit and listen to headphones, or hear over speakers. What the driver didn't tell us is that on our bus, the speakers weren't working, so it wasn't until the bus got half way through the trip that we got headphones. I rode the bus tour around 1.5x to get the full story. After that it was galivanting around town seeing new places on a quiet Sunday night, met up with some of the students and ended up chatting with some locals until we had to leave to go to a meeting with Heather (she is the university tour programme director) at 8pm. It was interesting, the man and his wife were from London, visiting for the day in Oxford. I never figured out what he did for a living, but his wife was a lawyer and she was interviewing for a job in NYC. I think in the hour long conversation they learned a lot of positive things about America and the students learned a lot about Britain, especially since the couple were Brits of Pakistani descent (second or third generation at least), what are called Asians here in the British press. They were nice people, and I wish we didn't have to go back to the meeting.

After the meeting, Heather took some of the students on a brief tour (those who had come in from Italy earlier in the day) and I got to see where at Merton College the Shakespeare class was going to be held, as well as a pub, the Turf Tavern, that is one of the best and oldest pubs in Oxford, and rated the best small pub in Britain for 2007. I'll have to go back later and try out their food and drink. Today was a rinse and repeat of earlier mornings, though classes didn't start until 1 today for me. Tonight is the formal welcome dinner (and I need to go get my shirt and tie on) and then its back here to do some work.

Anyway, I will take some pictures soon and post them up. I'll bring my camera along to the formal dinner and have some pictures hopefully for tomorrow's blog.