The Road to Oxford, Pt. II

 Weather: Clear, 52˚F/76˚F

Arrived at Heathrow Airport with my friend Khanh Nguyen and cleared Customs and Border Control in only 45 minutes.  We gathered our luggage and rode a train over to Terminal 5 to await the arrival of our other classmates.

Waiting for the Man:

Khanh and I settled into a booth at Costa Coffee where i made my first use of British Pounds in about ten years.  I had forgotten all the funny shapes and sizes of the small denomination coins. I couldn't understand a word the barrista said, but the coffee was strong and kept me going until our friends began to trickle through Customs.  We entertained ourselves for the next four hours by engaging in a lively debate about our surroundings and the program itinerary:

Q: Why is the British Pound so expensive?
A: Because if you fold a £10 note correctly, you can give the queen a beard.

Q: What language were the Costa barristas speaking?
A: Czech or something vaguely Eastern European.

Cameron and Khanh explore Heathrow's Terminal 5

 Our program leader and Shackouls Honors College dean Dr. Chris Snyder cleared customs around noon and herded us onto an Oxford-bound motorcoach with instructions to meet up with our Washington International Studies Council (WISC) liason(s): a person (or persons) named Tim-Bob-Rupert.  The ride was to last 75 minutes, so after vowing to one another to remain awake, most students took much-needed naps.


Down, Down to Oxford Town:


Outside the coach England passed by in browns and greens.  The lush, rolling countryside beyond the motorway dominated the view for the first 45 minutes before yielding to the stone row-houses and concrete car parks of suburban Oxford.  The coach meandered through the lanes and streets of the medieval inner city, the sidewalks crowded by smartly-dressed students as well as more-casually dressed locals and hundreds of tourists lured by the beginning of the summer season.    It is one thing to talk of traveling to Oxford and quite another to actually experience it.  We took in all the sights and sounds of this bustling modern city punctuated by the imposing, solemn buildings of the university's various colleges and their offices and libraries. (Pictures coming tomorrow.)

Also, everyone is on the wrong side of the road...

We disembarked at Gloucester Green, a bricked-over square and regional bus hub without a blade of anything green in sight.  We were quite unsure of how to proceed from there, but fortunately  Tim-Bob-Rupert (actually three persons) wandered over from the nearby WISC office and assisted us in hailing cabs to deliver us in groups through the alleyways and high streets of the old city to our various apartments scattered around its edges.

Concerning Dwellings...

My particular residence turned out to be a neat, late-19th century row house situated on the corner of a T-intersection halfway along quiet Juxton Street.  This three-story stone house lies on the farthest edges of our WISC city maps, but in actuality lies only a brisk 15 minute walk from the city center.  Still, a faster means of transport will likely need to be acquired before long.  Fortunately, the neighboring building is a small cycling shop and a quick visit assured us that a bike or two could be rented to us quite cheaply during our stay.  Also, we are close to a small canal which feeds into the Thames and rowboats are easily rented there.  Rowing to classes every morning?  One can dream...

 

The house itself has five bedrooms: four for MSU students and another for a longer-term student we have yet to meet.  Four of the bedrooms are located in the three-story section of the house facing Juxton Street; however, a fifth bedroom is located over the kitchen at the rear of the house. BTW, the kitchen has one of those mysterious European washer/dryer combos that always leaves clothes soaking wet.  We first mistook the fifth room for an attic, but upon exploring it, we discovered it had a large closet and a private washroom and shower.  I claimed super-senior privilege (actually now graduate privilege) and took it.  Unfortunately, the steep, curving staircase up to it may be my undoing. Within the first hour there I managed to slip on a very narrow step and slide halfway down to the kitchen.

"Don't be so hasty, Master Stroud."

Business Before Pleasure

At 5:00pm we walked back downtown to the WISC offices on George Street for a meet-and-greet.  Dr. Snyder introduced us to some visiting students from his previous university Merrymount University in Arlington, Virginia.  We also met students from Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  The WISC staff were very hospitable and will assist us however they can for the duration of our stay.

After introductions we all walked down the street to the nearby pub called The Red Lion for dinner.  Most pubs operate in the following fashion:  1. find table and remember table number. 2. order food and drinks at the bar using number.  3.  await food at table.  For anyone familiar with Starkville, MS locales, we decided The Red Lion was an equivalent of The Veranda in terms of price and offerings. We certainly can't afford to eat there everyday, buy we ought to celebrate our first night in Oxford, right?

Around 8:00pm some of the MSU students wandered over to another pub named The Four Candles for some cheaper fare before heading back to our residences for a well-earned night's sleep. Cheers!