Some of you may have noted, that we now live in Oxfordshire (that’s our county). Named, obviously after it’s biggest and most important city, Oxford. Last Saturday we went into our not-so-little county capital and took a tour of the Oxford University campus. Which turns out was prescient, as I’ll be headed back to campus next week for a job interview! (Eee! But, more on that later)

It’s about an hour by bus into Oxford from our little village, so after some great countryside views from our double decker bus windows, we arrived in Oxford and after a short getting lost we made it to our tour meeting place. Our tour was arranged through groupon and was a two hours walking tour, the ‘walk of fame’ tour of the campus. It was supposed to be a 10 person walking tour led by a University student. Instead it was a 35 person walking tour, still led by a totally intimidated and thunderstruck, adorably stereotypical-looking student… He wore a blazer and beige khakis and a cute little leather man bag. It was adorable. But, he also talked with the projection of a field mouse. So, yeah, it was nearly impossible to hear anything he said, or to get him to wait for the whole group to arrive before he started talking. But, we forbear(ed)… forbore? Eh, whatever.

Oxford University is maybe the oldest continuous educational facility/organization in the world, atleast they think it is, but the records aren’t totally there to support it. The parts of the campus we saw, as well as the incredibly bustling area around it, was absolutely beautiful. Lots of older buildings, but built large and with money for upkeep, everything was pretty bright and shiny. The place was also crawling with tourists. I wonder if it settles at all when classes are in session (we were there during a university break), but I kind of doubt it. Much like every tourist destination I’ve ever been to, largely the most obvious (i.e. obnoxious tourists) were the Asians. Speaking of, whoever invented the selfie stick or put a camera on an ipad/tablet should be shot. But, less racistly, surprisingly we were the only American tourists in our group. I guess it was mostly Brits from other parts of the kingdom. And, in fairness I talked during the tour and royally pissed of the teenaged redheaded girl in our tour group, so I too am an annoying tourist I suppose. Though really, unless she has super ears it’s not like she was gonna hear the tour guide from where we were standing anyway… But, I digress.

We were fortunate enough to see into one of the colleges (without paying), which I guess is pretty rare, as most don’t let you in unless you’re someone’s guest or you stand in a really long line and pay (an option to see into a couple of the more famous colleges). We viewed the courtyard of Wadham College, which sounds more exciting than it really was. The courtyard is just some grass that you’re not really supposed to step on with the building wrapped around it. Oxford, like London, suffers from LA syndrome, it is completely paved over and green is hard to find. I think if I went to school in a place like that I’d go nuts missing green. I’d never be able to resist the temptation of those grassy courtyards… We also walked past the Radcliffe Camera, the Bodelian Library, All Souls, Christ Church, and the Bridge of Sighs, which is thusly nicknamed because it is similar to the one in Venice, but has also earned the name given it’s placement between where you take exams and where you hang out after… Get it, sigh of relief/resignation? Apparently there are quite a few little theories like that as to it’s nickname. Unfortunately, most of the buildings in Oxford are closed to those who don’t belong there, or who aren’t paying (more) for their tours, so the inside of the Camera, the Bodelian and a few others were not an option for us to see. I am hoping we’ll make it back at some point to see more, I’d love to walk the underground passage between the Bodelian and the Camera…

After our tour, we grabbed some food and then tried to head home. However, that proved somewhat impossible. We’d heard from our tour guide that it was a difficult day to be in Oxford because a EDL protest was expected that afternoon (and so, naturally, also an anti-EDL protest was also to be expected), and we saw enough of a police presence all over the place to know it was a big deal. But, what we didn’t know is that all of this protesting was going to stage at the end of the street that also served as the main transit thoroughfare for Oxford, effectively shutting down all bus traffic for a good couple of hours… For those who’re curious, the EDL is some sort of anti-islam group that is ridiculous and horribly racist and very bad news. So, that’s all we’ll say about that. Anyway, once we realized that nobody was going anywhere for a while, we hoofed it back to campus and split up – Matt went to visit on of the Science-y museums, where he saw one of Einstein’s blackboards! And, I went into Blackwell’s which must be the Louvre of the bookstores. It was incredible. Huge, and beautiful, and whatever the book store equivalent of sparkly is. Here’s your wiki trivia for it: in 1966, the Norrington Room was opened in the shops basement. It boasts three miles of shelving and at 10,000 square feet which makes it the largest single room selling books in the world. I’m not gonna lie. I enjoyed this shop almost more than the whole historical/education tour… After Matt came to fetch me from Blackwell’s we wandered a bunch of the touristy garbage shops which all love the ‘keep calm and carry on’ propaganda as much as I do. I.E. A LOT. They also love Harry Potter and, oddly enough, the Big Bang Theory quite a bit as well… Even after killing another couple hours it still took us 25 minutes to catch a bus, and we were lucky to get on, it entire bus filled up with people, some of whom may have been queuing up even longer than we had… But, it was hard to tell, and it’s not like we meant to cut. :/

On the homefront, our grass is finally sprouting in the backyard and I’m terribly excited about it. Also, my gorgeous Easter tulips are brightening up our little flat and all is pretty well here. And today, I was offered an interview for a position with a research organization at Oxford. I’ll tell you more if anything come of it, but either way, at least it’s very encouraging to have gotten an interview so quickly… Of course, I also got a rejection notice, but we’re just going to ignore that part.

Observations: We got a notice demanding that we purchase a TV license for our home. After certifying to them that we don’t actually need one, we got a bunch of dire warnings about how we’re probably wrong and face serious penalties and also they’re going to come to our house and evaluate it. We’re not worried, the last time we watched broadcast television in our own home was like 2009… It’s just really weird how not afraid to threaten their citizenry here, it’s kind of a standard practice we’ve see all over the place here, in many forms.

Next, The British like things runny. It’s weird. Cream cheese, sour cream, custard, greek yogurt, etc. they’re all very runny here, not solid like we would expect in the US. But, their heavy cream is the consistency of thick sour cream, so go figure. Also, they are kind of obsessed with cake. And, meat pies, but that’s another discussion.

More to come.

• alaina