Stumbling at the Starting Line

I made it! And boy was it a long Journey.

On Tuesday the 1st of October, I began my journey at the Indianapolis international airport. Due to my parents wanting to see me off, I was at the airport 3 hours early, where I took a nap and listened to some of the pod cast Night Vale. The plane to Chicago was one of the smallest planes I had ever ridden with a whopping 3 seats across. I sat near the aisle in one of the two seat sides. The man who sat next to me was ironically also headed to the UK. He was returning but would be on a later flight that departed at 6 pm central time and flying into Gatwick instead of Heathrow. The flight was uneventful and rather short (45 min).

I arrived at O'hare at about 3:50 pm and was lucky enough to ask at the help desk how to get to my gate, because the process involved taking a bus to one of the rather distant terminals. Arriving without a hitch, I found my two good friends Sara and Katie who were also journeying to Oxford with me and were my two neighbours on the flight. It didn't take long for us to get on the largest plane I have ever been on. The first class, buisness class and world traveler class cabins made me envious as we passed through to the economy cabin which had seats in the order of 3 5 and 3. Near the front, the three of us took our 3 seats on the right side of the plane. The airline provided a blanket pillow and travel pack which included headphones and toothbrush/toothpaste. The seats were comfortable enough and all three of us were pretty optimistic that it was going to be a good flight.

Well, at least it started off that way. We took off on time and were shortly given drinks and a hot meal for dinner. I got the Tex Mex which was actually quite delicious beef chunks and rice. They also gave us a salad, roll with butter, and strawberry cheese cake. Coffee or tea was provided following the meal. I got comfortable, watched Monster's University and was pretty psyched.  Kate went to sleep immediately but we quickly came to realize that sleep was not on the agenda. The three seats in the row behind us was occupied by a young family of a mother and two young children. One of which wouldn't stop crying and the both of which kicked the backs of Kate and my chair. I would have been fine if it weren't for the fact that the group of people in the row in front of us thought they were entitled to all my leg room, leaning their chairs back as far as possible. The woman even had the audacity to complain when I bumped into her seat as I tried desperately to find a comfortable position to sleep in. It soon became clear to me that I wasn't destined to sleep and so I watched movies until our flight landed.

Tired but still more than excited to land, the three of us arrived at Heathrow. Unfortunately, the machine which connects to the plane for disembarking the plane was malfunctioning and we waited an additional half hour on the tarmac until one was made available to us. I was still excited and optimistic. We went through customs with no trouble and arrived on the other side of the airport. There we met Heather, who was studying in London for her Masters and the London School of Economics. We grabbed some Krispy Kreme at the airport which made me laugh since Indianapolis has lost all of their Krispy Kreme shops but the first american thing I find in the UK is that very shop. The doughnuts were delicious and I painfully exchanged all my cash I was carrying for pounds. We collected our things and bought a bus ticket to London.

The Bus ride was calm but I did feel a bit queasy from all the travelling. It was also at this point that I realized that I had left my umbrella which I had bought specifically for England. It had been left on the trolley I had used to carry all of my luggage. I wasn't going to let this get me down, so I stayed chipper. The best part of the bus ride was that it had free wifi and it gave us our first sights and sounds of Oxford. Heather had given us some advice about which taxi service to use and we had ordered our taxis to meet us at the station. Sara and I were going to the same place, but Kate needed to go to Mansfield and she was unfortunately on her own. The taxi was relatively inexpensive and it turned out that Regent's Park College was just around the corner from the bus station anyway. We checked in and the woman at the front desk showed us our flats.

Regent's Park College is very pretty. The building looks very unassuming from the outside with only a crest adorning the wall to signify the entrance of the college. Once through, it opens up to a quad which is lined in cobblestone and grassy areas. Our flats were in the back and it soon became clear that Regent's was quite well protected behind lock and key. Most of the doors had codes that had to be in putted in to open and we were each given a key for our flat as well as our individual room in the flat. The path to get to the flats was quite beautiful and has a sort of secret garden feel as you sneak around all the structures to get to a little alcove area where the doors are. A short cut lies through a window, which one of the kind men at the front used to dump our luggage near our front doors.

We visited my flat first which was on the ground floor and houses two students, me and another Jewell student, Rebecca. We each have our own room with a bed, book shelf, desk, dresser and closet. Across the hall is a shared bathroom with a full bath and shower, shelving, a sink and toilet. At the end of the hall is a shared Kitchen which has a freezer, fridge, microwave, oven, stove top and sink. On a whole I was quite pleased with the space and the amenities. Everything has an older feel as it is clear that the rooms were not built any time recently. Sara's flat is across the alcove and three stories up, but if she  has her window open I can call to her from my kitchen, or I can walk over and ring the doorbell.

We took only a moment to settle in before attempting to find Kate. Keeping only our necessities, we grabbed a map at the front desk and travelled rather blindly to the street her flat was on. Now the walk was quite farther than we were expecting, but the journey took us right through the heart of Oxford. Not but 5 minutes away is Cornmarket St which is the centre of town. It has all kinds of shops, pubs, restaurants, malls and if you look close enough apartments and colleges. Street performers, mostly musicians, but also sand sculptors worked on the street and the streets were bustling with people. We took the moment to remark at the places we recognized (mostly fast food chains) and note places we needed to visit, but it wasn't until the following days that I got to actually explore some of the shops and side streets.

Kate lived in the location called East Oxford and it was about a 45 min walk from Regent's to her flat. Which we wouldn't have found had we not used a pay phone (a fun experience all in itself). Once at her flat we, took a picture outside her balcony (see below) to mark our first day here in Oxford and then promptly shared a taxi back to Regent's where we could finally begin to settle in.

This is when the bad luck continued. After unpacking all my things, I came to realize that my laptop was malfunctioning. It was turning on and the hard drive was humming and blinking happily, but the monitor refused to turn on. This is when I became good friends with IT. I went to them and we hypothesized that the video card had died given that even when hooked up to a second monitor via a VGA cable there was no visual communication. Holding back frustrated tears, I returned to my flat to find a way to communicate this to my parents, so that the next course of action could be taken. This is when I came to realize the two hardest things about being in England. 5 hour time differences and lack of phones. Over last couple days it has been difficult to coordinate with anyone. While on campus I do have wifi and am able to facebook message or email individuals, but a combination of the UK address and the having to remain in one spot made it difficult to meet up with a good friend Ben, who had been here for a few weeks, and even get in touch with Sara and Kate whom were just across the way (they don't check their phones when they are still sleeping). Secondly, the 5 hour time difference and my utter exhaustion on the first day meant that when all of this was happening to me, early afternoon, my parents were at work or still asleep. 

Fortunately there was a computer store in town, PC World, where I got the cheapest quad core laptop I could find, it was a floor model and it needed to be restored, so it took an entire day for them to restore and set up the software. Fortunately I have it now and that has made the trip much less nerve racking. It was hard to communicate with only my iPhone acting as a glorified iPod touch. I can't imagine what it would have been like without these things. I came to realize how desperately I needed the internet to keep in touch with home. Without the internet and a phone, I felt desperately alone, relying on shear luck to get me where I needed to go and find the people I needed. Similarly, one of the only ways my college was communicating to me was through email and attachment. Without a fully functional computer, I was unable to interact with my college which also made me feel under prepared and unable to prepare. 

Despite these annoyances, I have managed to acclimate to the time zone rather quickly and have begun exploring Oxford and even meeting some of my fellow visiting students. I sleep almost normally, which I think is pretty impressive. I have gotten groceries which has made me miss American freezer sections and have struggled to find what I need. Hopefully I will get more inclined to preparing food, but my oven is a bit of a foreign monster. I did try my first pot pie last night at the King's Arms pub (picture below) and it was delicious. Who knew Rabbit and Cider pie would be so good. The mashed potatoes were also delicious and obviously hand made. Today I had fish in Chips.

So to finish off this long post, I promise the rest wont be nearly this long, I want to remark on things that I noticed were different in England as opposed to the USA.

Quiche, quiches everywhere. 

Chicken Tikka Masala served at a Pub

Left Shift key is smaller and the back slash is next to it by the "Z"

Many of the secondary symbols on the keyboard have been moved around, @ is where the " should be

Lots of Bikers

Pay before you Eat

VAT (the price you see is the actual price, no taxes after the fact)

The babble of voices on the street includes at least 10 or 15 different languages that you have never heard before

Most restaurants or Cafes have a second floor with additional seating

Ketchup tastes different, Mayo is served everywhere

Custard also tastes different

Most places that are not stores, have little to no sign-age explaining what they are unless it is some place famous

Having a Swipe card means you have to sign everything and they will compare your signature to the one on the back of the card

Getting Carded and Still getting to buy alcohol, yay!