School and Rotary orientations and random observations...

The first week here (Sept 29 to Oct 4) was packed with events and discoveries. On Tuesday, the Education Department served tea and biscuits (yes, biscuits again - told you I'm in trouble) so that we could meet our fellow students. There are (only!) 10 people in my program - 3 Americans, 2 Greeks, 1 Pakistani, 1 Mongolian, 1 Canadian, and 2 Chinese. Although Oxford undergraduates are mainly British (only 10% are international students), Oxford grad students are mostly international (60%!) In fact, I've met more people from various different countries in two weeks here than I have in a lifetime. On Wednesday, Oxford held an Interntional Student Orientation for all of us foreigners. The orientation was held in the Examination Schools, which is an enormous building built in the 1800's that all students use to take their final exams. Being in the building is like sitting in a museum -- you are surrounded by ancient oil paintings and adorned ceilings. When the Vice Chancellor welcomed us to the University, we really felt like we were part of something extraordinary.

This week I also attended my first Rotary meeting. The Rotary Club of Bicester is my host club, so I traveled to Bicester for dinner to meet the club members. Everyone was incredibly nice (as are literally all rotarians that I have met) and made me feel welcome. Before the meal, we all toasted to the Queen, and then the UK head of Unicef, the guest speaker, gave an inspirational presentation. He talked about a charity race that he personally was getting involved in to fundraise. Hearing his speech definitely didn't make me nervous to give my own presentation to the club next week. (I hope you can sense the sarcasm in that last sentence. Seriously, I have to follow the head of Unicef?)

The weekend was spent meeting new people in our college. We played some darts, some Extreme Jenga, and some interesting Chinese clapping games (have Will tell you about this last one-- he was a natural!). We went to some wine and cheese parties -- you definitely know you're in college again when people flock to the events with free food. I've never seen people attack a plate of cheese like they did at the Linacre wine and cheese event; chunks of gouda were strewn about. And on Sunday, I went to Abingdon for a Rotary orientation for all the scholars in Oxford. All of the other students are really neat people with very different backgrounds and interests -- they are from all over the world and are studying everything from climate change to Latin. And they've all done amazing volunteer work serving their community and have plans to change the world in their own way once they graduate. Every time I'm around them, it makes me want to move to Africa and join the Peace Corps.

Other random discoveries made week one:

1. Every pub serves multiple types of cider - my absolute favorite drink. And my favorite type of cider, Strongbow, is on tap at every pub. Plus, they sell it in liter bottles (like we buy Coke) at Sainsbury, the grocery store. Plus, Linacre College is known for having the cheapest pints in town, so I literally have a pub, in my dorm, that sells pints for a pound. I'm in heaven.

2. For six days, I thought that every restroom I used just happened to have a broken toilet. "What a funny coincidence," I thought, "that I keep choosing a stall with a toilet that has a broken flusher mechanism!" On the seventh day, I finally learned how to flush a British toilet.

3. For six days, I also thought that there was an unusually large homosexual population in Oxford, because everyone would talk about "my partner" this, and "my partner" that. Day seven, after the 46th "gay" friend I met, it dawned on me that "partner" means boy/girlfriend here.

4. I stink at darts. I played for the first time in our Common Room (which is a room in the dorm where everyone hangs out -- it has darts, boardgames, couches, pool, table football, tea in the afternoons, and most importantly, the college bar) and actually hit the ceiling. And that was before my pint of cider.

5. It is really freaking cold here. On our first day here, I unpacked my tanktops, flippie floppies, open-toed high heels, and shorts (basically, the gear I wore as an undergrad at UF). On day two, I repacked all of that in my bag to ship home and went shopping for thermal underwear and a raincoat. Even on a "warm" day, it's still 50 degrees. And it does this kind-of misty rain thing, where it doesn't really seem like it's raining, so you don't bust out the umbrella, but after 5 minutes of walking in it, you're soaked and you have no idea how it happened. On the days that the sun does come out, I have forced myself to jog outside and wear a t-shirt, since I know soon that will not be an option (and since I can already tell my Vitamin D level has taken a nosedive). They assure me that very soon, the sun will disappear and the cloudy, frigid ice rain days will begin. Can't wait! On the upside, no one is going to notice that I'm so pale that I'm invisible while standing next to our cream-colored walls since the only area of skin that will be exposed when it starts frigid ice raining will be my face. (and that's assuming I don't get a ski-mask.)

6. We have a cafeteria in the dorm that sells English cuisine. And now I finally realize what people were telling me about English cuisine.

7. The English accent is beautiful to listen to, and now after a week, much easier to understand. Although, Will still had trouble understanding the train station ticket-seller the other day when the guy was explaining that the tickets are cheaper during the week, and more expensive on Fridays. "What is a Fly Day?" sayeth Will. The guy looked at Will like he rode the short bus.

8. National Healthcare is a beautiful thing. I went to the doctor to get a prescription. First of all, no copay. Second of all, my prescription was free. I had to get the pharmacist to repeat that a few times because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Some prescriptions are totally free, and everything else costs 7 pounds, no matter what it is. I'm speechless.