So my first day in Oxford has been great but a bit of a blur. I really need to get a good nights sleep. But this city is fantastic and I look forward to the next few months here. Today we were given a tour and shown the city centre to get oriented. Tomorrow we have more orientation sessions. It’s a bit surreal being here (as cliché as that sounds). One thing is today has been a bit of a blur with trying to take everything in and being so tired after a pretty restless flight. It was easier to stay up all day than I thought it would be but I think that’s also a bit because of the excitement of being here. I can tell I’m fading though.
These next few months are going to have their challenges. For example learning my way around the city and figuring out how to live with several people, and basically being with them all the time, for four months. And on top of that there is balancing school work and fun, especially being in an environment like Oxford. I want to experience life here and not be stuck in my room doing homework all the time. I’m sure I’ll figure it all out. It just might take a bit and it will take a lot of hard work and might be stressful at times. But this is an experience that I am going to be so glad that I decided to do.
This morning we landed in Heathrow and then took a bus straight to our houses and got assigned our flatmates and rooms. I am on the top floor of one of the houses. There aren’t a lot of people in this house, the other house has more but this is the one with the classroom. The other one has a TV which will be really helpful Saturday nights. I bet there are enough people who want to watch Doctor Who that we can take over that room to watch it! I hope so at least! Anyway... After unloading we had some lunch and then had some time to unpack or rest before we went about town. We split up into two smaller groups and we walked around to main places we need to know where are such as the grocery stores, exchange places, and a tour of the city. After we finished the tour we were allowed to split up and explore ourselves. I went with a group to a coffee shop and I got a scone and it was so good! Afterwards we went walking in the University Parks. They were super pretty and it was a lot of fun to walk in there. After we went back to the houses for a bit and then decided to go get groceries at a nearby place. It was really small but we had just walked back from the city centre and didn’t want to make that whole walk again. Sometime we’ll go back and get more groceries. Then we all went back to the houses.
The food situation will be a bit interesting because with the Bean we didn’t have to worry about going to the grocery store in order to eat. We will have to here so that will be rather interesting having to provide all our own food. I’m sure we’ll eat out a bit but mostly we’re going to save money and buy our own food. I just got a couple things to hold me over for at least tomorrow morning and lunch so that I can go get more food later and maybe talk to my flatmate about how we’re going to do food. There in one small kitchen on the top floor but the floor under us has a larger one which I will probably be using a bit. In a way it’s good that there are only 4 of us on the top floor because if you have a lot of people sharing the bathroom and such would probably be a bit of a pain.
Well I think it’ll be a great semester but for now I think I need a good long rest so I can have as much fun and have as many experiences as possible these next few days before class.
