Tuesday morning...longish

Well the long awaited update has arrived. Yesterday too proved to be a bit of a whirlwind and I didn't get much time to just sit down and relax. Not until the daunting prospect of writing this blog came about. By that point it was close to midnight, so I decided to put it off until the morning when I can think clearer and get my day going right. So what has been happening these past four days? I won't try to bore you too much with all the nitty gritty, but I will try to give you a bit of an overview.

Friday:
The day began as usual, waking, breakfast, make sure everyone knows we are headed off on Saturday quite early, and then back to my room to get some work done before classes. Class, run errands, a very fun class on Industrialization and Beer Making as the first modern industry, and then dinner. After class, I went back up to the new dorms and showed a few students from my History of Science class where things were and how they worked. I figured showing five of them might be a start to make things easier on Saturday morning when we were all in a rush. Remarkably, or perhaps better unsurprisingly, it really didn't help very much. Then I went back to campus after a brief stop for the best ice cream in Oxford (G&D homemade icecream). Then I packed my stuff to move myself early so I would have less to do on Saturday morning as I got the move organized. Heather gave me the task of making sure everyone was organized and ready to go and I think things came off with only the smallest of hitches. However, I wanted to be sure I wasn't worried about moving my own gear on Saturday morning. Let me also tell you, though I bought a new suitcase, it obviously is somewhat smaller than the ruined one, and thus it made it all the more clear I need a second suitcase. I haven't bought very much despite all the money I spent, and I am going to have to mail some books home to save weight and space (despite the cost!) but I will need a second suitcase, if nothing else for the trip to Paris this weekend, and Edinburgh the next. I rolled my suitcase to the bus stop and the expense of the suitcase paid off as I rolled it through the streets. I also had a second shoulder bag full of stuff, and took the bus to Stephen's Close. Unload and unpacked (and even changed rooms once to a different room since I have my choice of three at the moment) and finally made it back to the main campus around 10ish. I went to my room, and it was quiet as most of the students had decided to go out for the evening and I think almost all of them took advantage of the first night they were in Oxford as a group.

Saturday:
Last breakfast and then making sure everyone was at the Porter's Lodge by 8:20, to board the bus by 8:30, and then make sure we were on our way by 8:40. It didn't work all that well, but we were still on our way by 8:45. The bus' hold was full...I mean full to the brim even with expert packing as many of the other students had more than one bag or had one massively stuffed bag. We made the shift to Stephen's Close and almost everyone once again was on time and we were back on the bus by 9:15 and on our way. It worked out quite well, and we actually arrived at Saturday's first destination: Blenheim Palace by 9: 40 or so. We got let in early--our group was the first tour of the day--and we spent until 1:30 wandering the palace and the extensive grounds of the huge palace built for the Churchill family, the first Dukes of Marlborough. I will post up some pictures in a seperate post. There were also extensive gardens, a few special exhibits, the constantly played up connection with Winston Churchill who was born there in 1874, and some extensive gardens. They also had a special tour of a part of the house still lived in by the current 11th Duke, but it was full at the only time I could have gone with our schedule.

After Blenheim Palace we took a drive through the Cotswolds, the rustic country area to the northwest of Oxford. We stopped for an hour break or so in a small town called Burford. A very typical Cotswold town with one main high street, a fair number of tourists, and some very good food shops. I got an excellent sandwhich and a special almond tart made in the town for desert. I think about half the students managed to eat in the small restaurant/bakery/takeaway place. The bread, homemade, was excellent, and I still kick myself for not buying a loaf to take home. After that short break, we went to the Cotswold Wildlife Park, a kind of zoo set in a natural environment. It was an interesting change of pace, and since I used to work as a volunteer at the New York Zoological Park (ie the Bronx Zoo) when I was living in NYC after undergrad graduation so long ago, I have had my fair share of zoos. However, I did manage to wander around the zoo and take a lot more pictures than I thought I would, before taking a well deserved rest before boarding the bus once more. Our last stop was to head to a super large Sainsbury in Witney (a town about 20 miles from Oxford) where we did grocery shopping since all the students are cooking in their new flats. The shopping expedition, originally meant to take just 45 minutes, took a lot longer, close to 75 minutes as everyone and there mother found that trying to shop without a list and with the Saturday night crowds took much longer than we thought it would. The bus driver, Brent, put up with it all, and we managed to collect a tip from all the students (plus what Heather and I threw in) and gave him a rather substantial tip of 35 pounds for staying with us at the supermarket an hour past when he was supposed to be off duty and for helping with the loading and unloading. I managed to by 55 GBP of groceries, and then realized that while I had to buy a lot of basics (aluminum foil, plastic wrap, sponges, dish detergent, etc) that will probably not be used up by the time I left, I had managed not to buy very many groceries. So I went back out after we got back to Oxford and went to the local supermarket (the mini Sainsbury I have talked about before) and got some frozen vegetables to go along with the meat and pasta that made up the rest of my earlier shopping. So add another 10 GBP, and I spent 130 bucks for groceries. I should still have a lot of it next week...

BTW, remember I think I mentioned earlier that if you don't think about UK prices, they seem pretty comparable to US ones? You can buy a 2 litre Diet Coke, on sale, for 1.50, or bread for 65 pence a loaf, or milk for 3 pounds per gallon? But when you double it, you realize how much more expensive it all really is? Well here are two little tidbits to put the living expensive into perspective. One of the girls was stuck behind a woman in line (she was the last to get on the bus) who had a single trolley full of groceries, meant to last a week for her family of five, and the bill was more than 255 GBP! (about $520). The other was a T-bone steak, about 12 ounces or so of prime British beef. I thought, maybe I will treat myself to a steak one evening, instead of the chicken and pasta now dominating my cart. I looked at the price: 9.85 and thought, that's not too bad. About what you might...whoa, wait a second, that's 20 bucks for a single steak! It went back on the shelf once I realized that was more than I would pay for the same steak out in the average restaurant in the US. A lot more. So no steak at the moment...back to chicken, pasta and some other simplier fare. Dinner that night, after all the running around and it being so late, was at 11 and consisted, deliciously but not healthily, as scones, raspberry jam, and vanilla flavoured clotted cream. YUM!

Sunday:
Sunday was another fairly early morning. Up 8:45 ish, though the bus was late this morning as the driver had picked up a bus that had been out the night before and not been refueled before he picked us up. It was the grand day off to Stonehenge and Bath. We drove through the wet and cool morning to Stonehenge, seeing more people at Stonehenge when we arrived about an hour later than I have ever seen in my life. I have been to Stonehenge twice before, and both times it was relatively uncrowded. This time, not so much, and it was so crowded that they told several tour buses to come back later as the carpark was completely full! Anyway, after a brief 45 minute stay, it was back on the bus, through the countryside and to Bath. We passed by the Salisbury military barracks, through a bunch of small towns on the back roads, and finally arrived in Bath: the city famous as a spa town in the late 18th and early 19th century, setting of Jane Austen's novels and the city where she lived much of her life, and home to the famous Roman Baths. We arrived around 1pm, and had until 3:15 when our appointment was for entry to the Roman Baths. I went off and wandered a good portion of the city, heading off to the famous Royal Crescent, went into #1 Royal Crescent, set up as an 18th century townhouse during the heyday of spa Bath, but regretfully, you could not take pictures and I couldn't even sneak them as their were docents in every room. Oh well, then back out into the grey and overcast sky, out and about the city wandering through its hilly streets, in and out of a few bookstores, then grabbing some lunch from Marks and Sparks, dodging even more tourists, then into the very crowded Roman Baths at our appointed time. I always love the Roman Baths, and spending time there can really transport you back in time. I spent an hour and half going through the museum and the baths themselves, before stopping into the gift shop and buying my first real purchase for myself: a book on Roman London and southeastern England. They it was to the bus at 5:15 (we left promptly, hooray!) and the nearly two hour bus drive back to Oxford through the countryside.

It was an interesting ride home and then a quiet night dealing with students problems: one of the big ones was how did the hot water work, and that required dragging the caretaker Neal out of his bed and showing us how it worked in one of the flats. I went around to all the others and fixed them for the other students, except for those who went out immediately and cold showers still on Monday morning. We also had no internet all weekend, so it raised that interesting problem for many of them: what do we do? Even I thought to myself, I have been spending a lot of time on the computer since there is no tv, or other real distractions (movies are a maybe 1x only expensive here at nearly 25 bucks a person once you add in snacks and soda, or about 15 dollars without that expensive). I love to read, which is what I did, but when that is your only option, it does seem kinda hollow at times.

Monday:
Okay, back to school and work today. The morning was spent meeting the new scout, who doesn't speak a lot of English, but did a really good job in cleaning the bathroom, mopping the kitchen floor, empty the trash etc. I still haven't quiet figured out the shower yet myself: I have two settings, way too hot, hot enough to boil an egg, or cold enough to play a new game of find your missing testicles. ::laugh:: Actually its not that bad, but the shower is either way too hot or lukewarm at best. I'll take the lukewarm over the boiling hot. Then it was off to class in the new temporary class rooms, but the class was too big for the room, so from today onwards we are going to meet in the conservatory at Stephen's Close. Hopefully it won't be that warm. I do have to wander off this morning (Tuesday) and go get the fan from the porter's lodge, but I want to finish this blog first. After classes, it was stuck around my room, trying to get MAC addresses from all the students so their internet would work and sending them off to the IT people at Jesus college to register them. Then it was my afternoon History of Science class (which is going to be held in my living room most days), and then off to dinner at Heather's house. Heather made Indian style chicken and rice, and it was quite good. I am not that keen on most Indian food, but this was good. Then we sat around and chatted, getting to know each other better, until around 10:30 when I left to head home.

I got home, and I couldn't sleep. It was the first night I was up until late, like 1:00 o'clock or so, before heading off to bed. Got up my normal time of 7:30 and then signed on to the do the posting and read email. Now its off to the showers, run down to the porter's lodge before the exam starts (it was supposed to be on Monday, but with the computers down, and most of the exam questions were posted via internet, we gave an extension until today) and then give the exam. I have a few errands to do as well, but the whole trip down and back shouldn't take more than hour. Plenty of time before the test.

Tonight is a stay around and cook for the first time night. I haven't been exercising first thing in the morning, but most days I have been walking miles and miles. However, yesterday I didn't, so perhaps now that we are in residence and the classrooms are just a hopskipjump away, I think I need to get out and walk again. I do need to do laundry again, so that is another reason to head down to the main campus and get my laundry card refilled.

I'll post more tomorrow...and some pictures in just a few. I can't believe its week 3. Thursday its off to see the "scottish play" in Stratford (you aren't supposed to say the name aloud!) and then an early morning (6 am) start on Friday to Paris. We will be in France over the weekend, so I am not sure if I am going to bring my laptop or not with me, but I probably will.

Talk to you all later...