Right Then, Another Day

Went to breakfast this morning in the small version of the Harry Potter hall, very nice.  Bacon and mini hash brown waffle things with some coffee and orange juice and an orange!  

I definitely recommend that all students who come after me from Elmhurst to CMRS bring an Ethernet cord which can then be used to give access to the internet in each study room (I am off to get one today when we do the tour of town and find the shops).  There is no shortage of shops around, honestly there’s a shopping center right off the main entrance to St. Michael’s Hall with two coffee shops, a T-mobile, a few shoe shops, clothing, and all the other – but it is a matter of finding the shop you want or need and finding your way back.

After the fire drill that is scheduled in just a few minutes, a student who has been living here for a year (lucky ducky!) is going to help me and Jake (another first timer) find the public library so we can drop off our library card forms (provided by CMRS).

Found the library with the group and was the only one to get my card via the lady at the desk.  The others were asked to fill out online at the in library computers, so I feel particularly lucky J  I also bought some towels pretty cheap at the local “everything” store (sort of a Target but obviously not) because I forgot to pack mine.  Not a big deal though. 

Just got out of a briefing on the library here and its usage and some other general things.  Time for lunch before the medical lecture at 1:15 – strange to think that it is very early morning back home and not even breakfast time really yet!  My body clock did a hard reset with the  10+8+16 =  34 hours awake thing I did (with an hour cat nap around the 26 hour mark) so I am physically on local time more or less.  It feels like lunchtime, not 6am in other words.

Tomato soup and salad (still no dressing, though I did see some people had it so maybe I just missed the bottle or packets??) and what they would call chips but were really more of a potato wedge version of fries.  Off to the medical lecture – want to be early because I guess the doctor is on his way to surgery after and we don’t want to hold him up.  I’m hearing rumors about a nearby supermarket so I want to see if I can check that out on the tour and maybe make dinner in the kitchens tonight if I can find something suitable in a can or box as what’s on the menu at the hall doesn’t sound appealing (curried chicken). Still only early morning by the homefront so I hope to have this posted by afternoon perhaps. 

As some of you can tell already I am just typing through the day when I have a moment and will post to the Blog once I get a good amount on screen to put out. 

Well the tour was long and lots of walking but I finally saw some of Oxford that looked like Oxford is supposed to look in my mind: big schools, giant libaries, and old architecture.  Sadly, I had doffed my hoodie because it was mid-day heat and it had my camera in the pocket!  However, I am assured that I will be visiting these libraries and places rather often once the seminar and tutorial classes begin, so no worries, there will be pictures in time.  Also, since tomorrow is mostly a free day (minus a lecture about Sunday’s field trip destination) I may take a walk back over there to see if I can find them properly (and my way back) after having been shown once.

I did go do some shopping at the local super market for some snack items and beverages, and that was a very interesting experience to see what types of food the typical markets stock in this part of the world compared to our stores.  Mostly the difference is in the branding and the arrangement of items, but there is also a noted lack of “pre made” foods where our stores overflow with the abundance of meals in a can, bag, or box.  I did buy a can of soup in case the meal tonight is not to my liking as I feel it is very important to my continued ‘even keel’ – which is holding so far – to maintain good nutrition, better even than I do (which I know some of you reading this are rolling your eyes knowing I don’t really maintain that all too well) in the States where life is comfortable and normal.