/travel/oxford/Oxford
Hi everybody!
First, you're on my oxford-list. If you don't give a rats ass about me being out of the country, let me know and I'll stop bugging you about it.
So, we got here, and everything went reasonably well. Our collective luggage was heavier and more of a pain than expected, and London was more expensive than I was braced for, so the first couple days were interesting.
Got here, and my landlord seemed a bit of an ass. My room is half the size he said (although not intolerably small, and not really smaller than I expected), the kitchen is sorta filthy, the front door lock has broken, the two house managers (for four tenants...weird) seem to be grumpy asses, the kitchen is under equipped (not even a decent knife), the gas stove is underlabelled, the shower sometimes goes cold (think I've figured that one out.) Anyway, it's really not that bad (really!) but I'm hoping to weasle out of the lease and end up living with one of the guys that works here at DecisionSoft. He's having troubles buying his new place (buyer for his current place bailed at the last minute) but hopefully that will all go through, and then I'll tell my landlord where he can go. :-P
Food here has been interesting..it's not as expensive as I was expecting. There's a "Tesco" right behind my house, and they have a "Tesco" line that's about like a decent in-store brand like Safeway or Master's Choice, and "Tesco Value," which is the most phenomenally cheap stuff you'll ever find. 12p (that's about 30 cents) for a kilo of flour, that sort of thing. Produce is less available, and lots of things are only in stock sometimes.
Work is alright. The first day, the whole street with the office was flooded. Luckily, two decisionsoft people thought of us co-ops, and were waiting by the puddle. Office was flooded for the first week, basically, and we moved back in on Friday. In the meantime, I was working at Andy's place -- he's the guy I'll hopefully move in with.
Done a bit of walking around Oxford -- it's a really nice city. All the buildings and stuff are stone, and old-looking. There's a gaggle of boys in choir-boy outfits that I walk by every day -- kind of strange traditional garb you don't see a whole lot of. I kind of want to take a picture, but I don't want to make a big spectacle of them. :-)
I'm in the running to be a Student Councillor (not counsellor, mind you.) with the UW Federation of Students, our student union. The campaigning should be interesting, being across the big pond and all.
Things are going generally well. I miss some Canadian things already -- the grocery stores here leave something to be desired -- but there're lots of distinctly Oxford/England things that I'm quite enjoying. While it takes a bit of getting used to, pedestrians have fairly little right of way here, but they have pedestrian-protectors half-way across the street all over the place, so it's not that hard to cross. I've bought a bike, but no lights, so I haven't been able to take it to work (it's dark by like 5pm here, just like saskatoon)...I just bought it this week, so I haven't ridden it at all yet. But the point is, it will be very fun and interesting navigating the roundabouts. :-) (Yes mom, I've bought a helmet..:-))
Anyway, I need to go some Quake (it's an official rule that work stops and Quake starts at 5:30 here, and it's 5:42..ack!) and then go to Caro's for dinner.
Hope all's well with all of you!
Cheers, (In Britain, "cheers" means "thanks"...I'm floored by how many words they use differently..not slang, just different words. Like kitchen paper instead of paper towels...I'm sure I'll import some back with me, for all of your amusement.) Rob
