After flying to Chicago, taking a 7 hour flight to London, and then a 1 hour bus ride to Oxford, I have made it to my destination for the next 3 months. This morning I arrived at St. John's Street and was welcomed by Penelope and Francis, the directors (and a married couple) of the program I am doing through Hendrix. Penelope then drove me to my flat (thank goodness for a break from hauling luggage) where I met my flatmate. Britney and I live in a three bedroom, two bathroom flat on the third floor while the 3 other students in our program live on floor 1 below us. Yep, there are only 5 of us in the program which I think will be good because it means more individual attention will be given to us throughout the semester.
Before I had completely unpacked, Britney and Olivia (who lives on the first floor...I'm not talking in third person) invited me to go walk to the park with them. On our way we stopped at the Kings Arms, a pub, and had some lunch. After ordering a sandwich, the guy asked if I wanted chips, I thought he said tips, and I was pleasantly surprised when I was a brought a side of french fries. Seems like America was not quite ready to let go.
Later I met my dad (who traveled over with me) and I had a cornish pasty for dinner. I then bought some juice and cereal from the store to add to the milk, eggs, and bread that Penelope stocked in our fridge before my arrival. When I arrived back at the flat I found the rest of the group making a pasta feast in our kitchen. From the leftovers, we already have tomorrow's dinner planned.
After dinner the five of us decided to go on our own sort of pub crawl. We started at the Eagle and Child which is the pub famous for frequent customers: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Then we went to the White Horse which was underground and very small. Finally we ended at the King's Arms (the place we went to for lunch). We ended the night with some apple cider before walking back to the flat.
Tomorrow the introductory course begins and we have our first lecture at St. Peter's College.
My first day in Oxford has been a success. I'm already resisting the urge to talk in a British accent and I'm looking forward to buying an Oxford University sweatshirt from the bookstore. It is now well after midnight here and with the jet lag PLUS the amount of walking it requires to get around, I am exhausted. I look forward to tomorrow when I will explore the college and officially get underway with academics.
As I've been told many times today, "CHEERS!"
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