Our first days

We arrived at Heathrow at few minutes before 7 on Thursday morning after a somewhat rough 6 ½ hour red-eye flight, and about three hours of sleep. The line to get through customs was like nothing either of us had ever seen. At least 300 people were queued up (bear with me as I attempt to switch over to British English), and likely many, many more. However, it only took us about 45 minutes to get through the queue, which wasn’t fun, but could have been far worse. It took nearly two hours for us to get through the airport and to the central bus terminal, where we caught our 8:50 bus to Oxford. I didn’t anticipate it would take quite so long to get through the airport process. Here we are, looking tired and ragged on the bus (as you can see, it was definitely a bright and sunny morning):




We got to the downtown Oxford bus terminal around 10am, and stumbled into a nearby coffeeshop with all five of our VERY heavy suitcases. We next caught a taxi to Linacre College (Nathan’s college), where we retrieved the keys to our room. The taxi took us to our room, which is in a large college flat (with six bedrooms, I believe, two large communal kitchens, and a few communal showers and toilets). We are essentially living in a dorm, which is an entirely new experience for both of us. It is relatively empty, however, and the nice couple currently living above us (a Brit and an American) is moving out in just over a week as they are graduating and relocating to London. Once we arrived, I spent over an hour unpacking almost everything in our suitcases, because I was just that sick of living out of our suitcases. Nathan crashed hard around noon, and I joined him about 30 minutes later. We woke up at about 2pm, and forced ourselves to get dressed and go explore the city on foot. Here is a sign on a pub called The Hobgoblin very near our flat, which we both cackled about (we have yet to pay it a visit):



Nathan will be moving again on the 30th, as I will be leaving for Kenya and we’ll no longer need the more expensive double room we’re presently occupying. He is moving into Linacre College’s main building, into a smaller room with a single bed.

Here's the front entrance to Linacre's main building (FAR less ostentatious than many of the older colleges):



He’ll have access to all the main college amenities, however, including a gym, library, an incredibly large communal kitchen (he’s sure to become popular by working his magic there), lots of common space for socializing, and the cafeteria. The business school is about a mile away – a short cycling distance. Linacre is one of the newer colleges in Oxford (formed in the 60s), and is much more egalitarian in nature and far less formal than many of the older colleges. Also, it is a college only for graduate students so the population tends to be more mature than many of the others. One of the reasons Nathan chose it is because the older colleges (such as Magdalen) only allow families of certain noble descent (or whatever) to occupy certain parts of the dining room, whilst at Linacre the faculty, students, AND staff (such as the cleaners) all eat in a main dining space together. Essentially Linacre is the hippy college of Oxford. They have a few certificates near their reception area declaring them a “Fair Trade College” as well as one stating that they have successfully reduced their carbon emissions by a certain amount in the last year. They also allegedly have the best vegetarian fare out of all the colleges. All in all I think it is a perfect choice.

In January, our cats will be joining Nathan. He’ll be looking for pet-friendly accommodation (which is much more difficult to find here than in the states… it is also legal here for a landlord to not allow children – I believe it is illegal to state that in the US) all throughout fall term to move into in late December/early January. He’ll need to look for a few months to find the right place, so the timing works out pretty well. Since both of us will be moving around a lot, we’ve decided to have all our mail sent directly to the college, so as not to utterly confound our friends, family, and bill collectors who wish to send us mail with lots of address changes.

Our first few days here have been all about running errands, obtaining essentials and sundries (we’ve had to pare down our belongings a great deal, and even more so in our travels throughout the US the past several weeks), and getting to know the town. Our current flat is located on Iffley Road, a few blocks from Cowley Road, which I’ve been lead to believe is the most happening part of town. And it is indeed bustling! There is a long row of shops, restaurants, and great take-away (what they call take out) food. Our first night here we found a fabulous Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi restaurant on Cowley just a few blocks from our flat, with vegetarian meals as cheap as £4.30 (nearly $9… but the cheapest I’ve ever seen in these parts). Even though our flat is a bit far in terms of walking distance from both Linacre College and the business school, I am happy with the location and all of the fabulous amenities. I almost feel like we live in a city (Oxford is only about 100,000, so more on the town side than the city side of the urban spectrum, in my opinion).

We got UK cell phones on Friday, and will hopefully be getting bicycles this weekend so that we can explore a much wider expanse of the town. (There is bus service, but we’re not familiar with it at all, and most people have told us to just cycle around town instead of relying on public transit.) In the meanwhile we’ve been walking everywhere, often with lots of bags and boxes in our hands from various shops (and thus have been receiving smug comments from sidewalk pub patrons).

The other night we cooked in the common kitchen in our flat in the presence of a Malaysian, a Dutch person, a Brit, and us two Americans. The diversity amazes me everywhere I go in this town.