Monday, January 16, 2012

I was reminded recently by a good friend of mine that I haven't updated my blog recently, and as it is my solemn duty to those who are trying to live the Oxford life vicariously through me, here goes.
A lot has happened since I arrived here almost two weeks ago. These first weeks have been spent getting oriented to our program, getting ID cards and library access and going on tours of various building that we will be frequenting over these next few months. Also, I have gotten the chance to get to know the other (about 30) people who also came here with the OPUS program. I live with 6 people in a house next door to 7 other people from the OPUS program a very southern part of the town on Abingdon Road. It feels kinda like living in one of those MTV reality shows, but with considerably less drama.
To top of the end of this introduction to Oxford culture, most of the APU crowd went to London for a weekend where I personally got to see Wicked and Phantom of the Opera. One of my favorite parts about London is the awesome public transportation, and one of the best places in the world to people-watch. Especially so during the rush our when the subway is packed with more people than should reasonably be expected to be cramped in such a small space.
My favorite is when the train starts to pull into the station and everyone kinda looks around, wondering who is going to make it on and who isn't...
And that's when I saw her.
She was probably about 70, and the quintessential sweet old grandma type, except for one thing.
This woman had the most epic game face I have ever seen. It said "Well, I don't know if you're gonna make it, but I'M catching this subway."
Needless to say she beat me onboard.
Every ride after that, I made every single subway, after all, I had learned from the best.
I got back from London early Sunday afternoon, just in time to catch Hertford chapel choir practice, which was fun, but a lot different than in the States. The biggest adjustment was that there was no piano, all notes were given by the conductor who used a tuning fork, and that was it. Sight read the whole piece. If choirs had boot camp, it would look something like this. It was great fun though, and an hour later we were singing for the Evensong.
Also on Sunday night was the first Hertford college bop, a chance for us to get together and socialize in a less...academic setting.
We'll leave it at that.
Anyways, tutorials start in earnest this week so wish me luck!
Wes

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Hi from across the pond

So,
For those of you who didn't know, England is a real place. Like, ACTUALLY real, not just a place in books or movies.
I know, weird right?
They even do things that don't make sense like we do! My favorite so far: the toilets in the train have crowbars next to them. Yah, crowbars. Its like, here, just in case the stick fell out of your ass, HERES A CROWBAR!!! Now stick it up there and DONT lose it!
Anyways I am at a hotel for the night and go tomorrow morning to check in with OPUS and get moved into the new apartment!
Cheers,
Wes