Stick the Landing

Today has been an extremely long day. I woke up at basically 6 a.m. on Wednesday morning and have yet to go to sleep officially. I’ve had a few short, kind of restful naps, but I will be so happy to lay down and sleep on an actual bed. From bus rides, to airports, to surveying our new surroundings, it’s just been one thing constant thing after another. Fortunately I haven’t felt very tired because, really, there’s been no time to be tired.

The flight was relatively uneventful. I didn’t sit by any ACU people, but I sat by a very nice British-Indian man who I chatted with when I wasn’t trying to squeeze in a few moments of shut eye. Plus, they served us dinner and breakfast, and I must say that British Airways treats their customers right. I was impressed by the food. Once we landed, it was pretty smooth sailing. Getting through passport check was simple, though it did take quite a while for the bus to Oxford to come pick us up. But nothing leads to bonding more than freezing in -5ᵒ weather!

Our bus driver, David, was very friendly and funny. I think my favourite thing he said was, “We had a beautiful sunrise this morning, which probably means it’ll chuck down raining or snowing later on today…” It’s cool when things you always hear about certain people actually turn out to be true!

House 10: the cool arch!

It's pretty, but boringly rectangular

For those who don’t know, ACU owns two houses in Oxford: house 9 and 10. Both have their pros and cons. I (some would say ‘fortunately’) am in house 9, the house with the pretty blue door. Honestly, though, while it is cool that the door is blue, I think house 10 has a cooler door. I have a thing for arches though.

I am on the top (3^rd) floor. Our room view is not anything spectacular since it simply faces the construction going on in our backyard, our kitchen view is gorgeous. As my roommate has already gone to bed, I am actually sitting in our kitchen by the window as I write this. In terms of architecture, it’s probably not the most interesting house, but I think the house across the street is adorable!

Our kitchen view!

We were discouraged from napping at all during the day. It would only make any jet lag we were experiencing that much harder to overcome. In an attempt to prevent this, we were shown around the city of Oxford this afternoon. There are a lot of really neat areas just a few streets from our houses, and City Centre is only about a mile and a half away, a really easy walk. We had our first sandwiches from On the Hoof today, though I don’t believe any of them were the Cole Bennett variety so that’s still on my list. As we toured the city, we passed by the Eagle and Child pub, famous for hosting J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis back in the day. The coolest thing though was when it started snowing as we walked around. It didn’t “chuck down” as David predicted, but a very light drizzle made the walk gorgeous. My friends, Natali, Morgan, Laura, and I went grocery shopping today. I’m still getting used to using the credits cards with chips that you don’t swipe, but I’m learning.

Along with learning how to navigate around town, I've almost met just about everyone studying abroad with me and know most of their names. They seem like a good group of people, but it’s definitely going to take some getting used to being around the same 34 people every day. It’ll be a good growing experience.

We have class orientation tomorrow (I believe we officially start classes on Monday), and I am ready to actually have things to do. I think having something productive to do will also help this place feel more like a temporary home, instead of vacation. Plus, it will help me to get to know people better.

For now, I’m going to crash. Cheers for now!

Of course I got in

P.S. I saw several phone boxes while wandering around! Still looking for that police box though…