The Oxford Diaries: Arrival Week

On Thursday morning I arrived in Oxford, England to teach high schoolers "Medical Science" through the Oxbridge Programs. I will be here for the next month and have decided to chronicle my random-ness and first time teaching with photos through this blog. To those of you who are reading my travel diaries for the first time (as you are a follower or a new friend), welcome to my world and my random-ness....I hope you can follow and aren't too confused by my inner ponderings. To everyone else, I'm back and traveling...so you know what that means....

Getting to London was no short trip, but luckily it was over night. During the flight, I watched one movie (an indie flick that somehow my movie loving self had never seen or heard of, but that was actually quite entertaining. It was called Happy Thank You More Please---that is actually the title--and featured the guy from How I Met Your Mother who is not NPH or the guy from Forgetting Sarah Marshall), and spent the first hour or so of my flight having an odd conversation with my airplane row mate. He was convinced that I was old enough, but too young, to only order and drink Diet Coke on the plane and so he spent a good deal of our conversation coaxing me to order alcohol while he had 3 glasses of Champagne (in plastic cups), before we even took off. Then, after he got off his alcohol kick, he proceeded to tell me that I couldn't walk by him to go to the bathroom in only socks, and that it was gross to do so. He threatened to stop me if I tried to pass him anyway and make me put on shoes. Let's just say that I was quite happy to put the chair back and go to bed.

Once I finally found the right shuttle to the right terminal (Heathrow has like 5 terminals and is enormous), and I got on the bus to Oxford, I arrived in about an hour. Here at Oxford, I am staying in Pembroke College (in the picture below) and the only other person I knew before hand is staying in Oriel. Unlike in the U.S., you don't apply here to "Oxford" you apply to "Pembroke College". Apparently my college is one of the smaller ones, which isn't surprising, but they all have their own dining halls and meeting spaces/classrooms. We've been told that people choose their colleges for the amenities, the money, the connections, and, their major. Some, like the one where CS Lewis went, are more famous than others, but all, have lots of weird rules and regulations. For example, the faculty sit in the "high table"-which is sort of elevated like in Harry Potter and the meals commence with grace--signaled by a faculty member gaveling a table dressed in a robe and followed by all the students rising. Also, you cannot get seconds or a different size helping (smaller, included), and if, for example, you did not grab a salad the first time, you cannot go back and grab it...at least that is what I have been told.

Pembroke College

Within Pembroke, my room is in a specific stairway. This is basically like its own building, and isn't really how I would define a staircase by any means. My staircase is my room and floors of others, all together with one outside key, and one cleaning lady (yes, I said cleaning lady...and she actually comes in my room and empties the trash and checks the toilet paper. She even made my bed--which was awkward.). 

The way to my staircase

My staircase

If my bed was just a little more comfortable, if I didn't feel like a giant in my shower clearly made for hobbits where I have to make up some sort of dance to even get my hair out of the water (I am not complaining that I have one in my room, as that is definitely rare, but it'd be nice if my 5 ft 1 self could fit in it), and, if I was not on the ground floor woken up by cars and people at all hours of the night as the window must remain open in this air-conditioning-less place, my room would feel very bed and breafast-y. Another thing that is weird about the rooms is that we get no wireless internet and have to use an ethernet cable (that we had to buy). It feels very old school to be plugged in to the internet and just adds to the medieval, very Harry Potter feeling of this place.

Most of the other staff are from the UK and I have spent the majority of the first days just hanging out with my friend from medical school, who has spent the majority of his time moving rooms around. At first, they gave him one with no bathroom and then, he was in one with no ethernet jack. While his moving has been a disaster, his room now is way cooler than mine and I'm jealous. Anyway, we are unsure if they don't get us yet in our American-ness or if they are just lame people, but the staff seems quite cliquey and unapproachable a lot of the time. Randomly, however, a girl that I took a class with at Penn is working here as she goes to graduate school at Oxford. In fact, she actually gave a speech at my commencement (she was nominated or something) and because of that, I knew wayyyyy toooooo much about her life. It was SO RANDOM to see her and was definitely a mutual "didnt you go to Penn and take a class with me" sort of woaaaaaaaaah. 

The first night we were here we had free drinks at the bar in college (VERY COOL that they have bars in the colleges, because when you go to University everyone is of legal age to drink) and then from there we went to this divey, but super old school pub called The Bear (not to be confused with the Black Bear  in New Haven). It was my friend and I and a lot of the administration (which here is divided into people who are younger than me and think that they are cooler because they have a different role or are called Deans and much older people who rage a little hard for their age and want very much to still be young). While out, we met a whole group of people who go to SMU law school and we made American friends (typical.)...which was nice. It would've been nicer, however, if i carried my phone or if I could memorize all these crazy numbers (isn't 10 past the short term memory limit or something?), so who even knows if we will see them again. That night, I also found out that one of the Deans in my college went to school with Mr. Fitz from Pretty Little Liars and got to tour the set, etc...so clearly, I now know who I need to be best friends with by the end. Talk about friends with benefits...."bitches"(if you do not watch the show, ignore the reference).

On Friday, my friend and I went to this place called "The Covered Market" looking for a butcher. We wanted to order cow/sheep parts for our class's dissection (VERY odd as someone asked us if our order was for a "weird cooking class"...and both of us just laughed and wondered what sort of weird cooking involved eyes and kidneys and hearts and lungs). The Covered Market reminded me of Reading Terminal in Philly with lots of cool vendors and things to try and crazy looking fish and meat and cheese and fruits/veggies everywhere. We decided this was the place for cheap and healthy lunch on the go regularly, even though my chicken salad was actually chicken...with lettuce....and....not chicken salad. 

Isn't this a hamburger bun?

Self Explanatory

On Saturday, we continued our exploration of town (if only so when the high schoolers asked we could point them in the right direction). We walked down to Oxford Castle for Alice Day out of shear curiosity of what this could entail (well, first we asked a guy at the "American Clothing Thrift Shop" how to get there, only to be given directions by the highest person ever. He kept getting off topic and drawing things in the map on the wrong side of where he mentioned that they would be. He also kept referring to a food place as a landmark, which we decided had to be a pot-head place to eat, and we were totally worried that asking "where the castle was" was actually the code question in this shop for where to buy drugs. Luckily, he actually pointed us in the right direction and we found the castle). While we decided not to tour the actual castle that day because of the shear magnitude of children and annoying people there honoring Alice in Wonderland, this event, being mostly for children, was...quite entertaining to people watch and observe, as you can imagine.

I spent like 20 minutes deciding if pink girl's hair was her real hair. Verdict: YES...and isn't that scary?

There was an ENTIRELY bunny petting zoo, but this cute rabbit was too small to be pet by children

We then wandered around looking for Oxford gear to purchase in the future, only to find that they have dodo bird stuffed animals due to some rumor that they have dodo bones in the Natural History museum here. I wanted one, and still do, but I am afraid my dog will eat it and ruin it. But, honestly, I might get it anyway, as where else have you even SEEN a dodo bird stuffed animal before?! We also wandered into this random little shop that sold old books and art and spent a long time looking through their medical and anatomical drawings in search of some cheap, but actually valuable, drawings. We did not find any (that we know of), but we did find lots of pictures of genitalia and anuses. We decided this must be amusing to them....or well...we hoped thats why they had mostly images of that anatomy. In addition, to be honest, Oxford is A LOT more crowded than I would have thought (with crowds literally pushing you into the streets and impeding your quick walking and sightseeing), and perhaps that distinguishes it from an American college town, which would be much more deserted, much more underpopulated, in the summer.

We thought this looked like a house from the Hobbit

While looking for candy for our class--which they DO NOT sell in bulk--I was utterly amused by this

Today was "arrivals day" here, which meant that the faculty were assigned in the most poorly organized long blocks at the airport to pick up the kids (OK so its high school and they are international traveling, but I don't get why they need to be babied so much). For my shift, I left here at 10:00 am on a bus to Oxford. I arrived at Terminal 1 and was responsible for holding the sign at arrivals for a good 4 hours. During this time, I managed to meet the "weekend crew" who picks up kids weekly from airport arrivals and are all like BFF because of it. This included Kaplan International, which does not teach SATs or MCATs so I have no idea what their purpose is, and a swiss company of lots of German Swiss exchange student faculty that places young kids in houses here to practice English and travel. It was interesting, to say the least, but really it just made me thankful that besides maybe doing departures in a month, I will never have to do that again. Holding a sign is tiring and boring, and customs/baggage/flights are utterly unpredictable. After 6 kids arrived, I brought them to Terminal 3 (about a 20 minute hike under ground--with their baggage mind you--), only to an hour later, have to go back to Terminal 1 to grab another kid and bring him back to Terminal 3 (how to...get lots of exercise in an airport..for future reference). The buses were really delayed to pick up our kids (these are chartered ones, not the one I took in the morning), so even though my initial assignment was to pick up one kid after the 6 had left for the bus, and take him with me on the bus back to Oxford (This would have been the same one I took in the am), with the delay, this kid and I both got on the chartered bus. The poor kid, however, was so sure he would be alone that his parents sent him as a minor and I had to sign for him to come with me (they asked for ID but no proof of me being a part of the program, so that seemed creepy to me, in a did a child molester can easily steal your kid, sort of way. This only added to the fact that the pedophile background check to work with kids was only required of the Brits, so me and my friend were home free to do as we pleased--I can only hope you know I am being sarcastic here). The bus situation was interesting as we tried to stall them for other kids to arrive and the driver literally ended up driving away while one of our faculty members stood in the door stalling him. It was funny (but probably not funny for the faculty member who was left outside the moving bus), and, I was just happy that after 6 hours at the airport, I could finally go home. When we arrived, however, no one was here to meet the kids and give them their keys so I had a new job called finding the keys and figuring out how to hand them out. To say this place is disorganized, is an understatement....

While stapling syllabi for tomorrow, we also sat in the office and it figured out it was like the best reality show...ever. In just under 30 minutes, students came in trying to check in early so they could sneak out, a student asked where the bathroom in his staircase was only to find out it was IN HIS ROOM, a guy sat to change his room with the WRIGHT brothers, and, we found out students took the wrong bag from the airport, got no key or the wrong key, had to have locks picked, were complaining they had no internet, and needed to do laundry (already?). It was utterly amazing and if it was not so annoying, I would be a Dean here just to laugh at these student's ridiculousness.

Anyway, tomorrow we have a big assembly and the first day of classes and I have to knock on doors at 7:15 am (very reminiscent of high school for me)......so we have a BIG day ahead. We have been told to "turn a blind eye to the snogging", which can only mean this place is a people-watching dream soon. More to come on that....I can only hope. 


Oh, on a completely unrelated note, this will be a running list, but so far this is what we do differently than the Brits (as evidenced by the crazy reactions we get):

1. We drink beer out of the bottle and can

2. We buy our books and ANNOTATE IN THEM...yes..shocker...we highlight...while they still take out library books...curious.

3. We listen to music while we walk with headphones

4. We do not eat beans at every meal

5. We are "louder" and more "vulgar" (take that with a grain of salt)

And, the things I have so far learned about the Brits:

1. There is a difference between a pub, a bar, and a club...in the music and setting, of course, but ALSO in the times they close (11, 1, and 3/4, respectively)

2. They use the word "getting off" for hooking up...yes...I am not joking. The other term they use is "pull"...and that's not much better

3. They have cobblestones of real stones and they hurt your feet

4 They have food carts...but only for kababs

5. They do not drink wheat beer...and the idea of it is shocking to them

6. The buses do not stay in their lanes, nor do any cars, and you will get hit by a bus (a la Regina George) if you try to cross without a walk signal or looking every way like 15 times. 

7. Their diet cherry coke tastes like someone poured cough syrup into a soda and is actually the worst thing I have ever sipped

Cheers.