Oxford

8 Jun 2008

What a fantastic last few days! I’ve done so much fun stuff that I’m going to try to bullet point the last few days so this doesn’t become another mile-long post.

– Got off bus in (gorgeous) city centre and walked the 1.5 miles over to my B&B (a task made more difficult by the giant backpacking backpack I had – I must have looked ridiculous!) and checked in, cleaned up and ditched my bags.
– Headed back into the city proper to explore, ended up walking around for over five hours and wow, this city is beautiful! I wandered through the old Bodleian library area (the library itself was closed but we could go in the courtyard) and saw the iconic Radcliffe Camera:

– Walked to the Science Library which had tons of scientific equipment from as far back as the thirteenth century. There were astrolabes, compasses, map making tools, clocks, microscopes, and really cool old medical equipment among the collection. It was pretty daunting to be in a building full of these things, over half of which were probably older than my country.
– Continued my walk through the city and found myself at the Museum of Natural History and the Pitt-Rivers Museum. The MoNH was fairly standard – dinos, bird replicas, stuffed animals, and had a lot of cool specimens however the really fantastic bit was the Pitt-Rivers museum. It was arranged like a traditional Victorian era collection hall with rows and rows and rows of shelves of international “curiosities” from all over the globe. They had everything from sewing needles to string instruments to shrunken heads. It was impossible to even get an idea of a small part of the collection because there was so much there. Hopefully I’ll swing back today or tomorrow to continue looking.
– Started to make my way back towards my B&B and cut through the Oxford park where I saw the large cricket pitch. If there’s a match on today I might try to watch for a bit, although I don’t have the slightest idea how cricket is played.
– Had an early dinner at an Indian restaurant and then crashed at about 9:30 and slept for 10 hours after my busy day!

Yesterday was my birthday (22! Yikes!) and I was perfectly prepared to spend it the same way as the day before, sort of exploring on my own (seriously, this whole trip is like, the world’s biggest birthday present) but I had the treat of meeting with Mikki and Sophie, two girls that my friend Laura met while studying abroad at Oxford and who had come to Colby to visit. I had spent they day with them when they visited at Colby and I was going to have morning coffee with them. They ended up showing me all around their college (Worcester) which was great because it’s exam time and most of the colleges are closed to public viewing and taking me on a tour up the tall church tower which was approximately three thousand steps up (alright, so like, 150) but at the top looked out over the whole city. It was amazing! I have tons of pictures which I’ll be uploading soon. I mentioned that it was my birthday and they really generously offered to make me a cake and celebrate with me that night! I let them get back to their studies and spent the rest of the day as follows:
– Went to the Botanical Gardens, which were stunning. They were first created to house plants used for medical experiments but now have plant species from all over the world in really nice gardens.
– Headed over to Christ Church college, one of the filming sites and set inspirations for Harry Potter but the college was closed to visitors so I couldn’t get in. Instead, I went in the picture gallery, a site on Christ Church that houses dozens of really fantastic Renaissance art from some incredibly important artists.
– Made my way to the Oxford Museum of Modern Art but it was closed while they set up a new exhibit – guess I’ll just have to come back to Oxford in a few weeks!
– Checked out some of the shopping areas, specifically looking for something cute to wear that night when I met Sophie and Mikki’s friends but gave up as by the mid afternoon, the crowds had gotten overwhelming!
– Headed back to the B&B for some relaxation and to get away from the crowds.
– Got an early dinner at a well reviewed sea food restaurant. My first Fish and Chips in Britain!
– Went back to the B&B for something I’d been looking forward to all week – Doctor Who!! I finally got to watch my first episode live and it was fantastic :). Had way too much fun watching and am really disappointed there are only four more episodes this season!
– Walked over to Mikki and Sophie’s college where they had made me a cake, complete with candles and had gathered their friends (who can resist free cake?). It was so much fun spending time with them, they were all so nice and friendly and we got along really well. After cake and Pims (the Oxford drink of choice apparently – consumed with lemonade and strawberries), we went to a traditional English pub where I got hard cider (a traditional English drink) and continued to make fun of one another’s countries until I had to catch the last bus back to my B&B.

Wow, so much for keeping this shorter! I’ll just have to start updating more frequently or doing less.

I think I’ll updated more :).

Quick Update

6 Jun 2008

Just a quick update because I have to take advantage of internet access when I can get it!  I’m on the Oxford Tube, a bus that for L18 round trip will take me from London to Oxford and back again in a comfortable, coach bus with internet access.  Sweet.

I’m heading out of the city to view the college town of gleaming spires (that’s Oxford) and am really excited to see how I like it!

Day… what day are we on now?

5 Jun 2008

Wow – it’s been another whirlwind 36 hours and although I don’t have internet access at the moment, I’m going to write this down so I don’t miss anything.

Yesterday mid-day I headed out for an interview with the publishing company Profile Books. They publish nonfiction but not like, text books or anything, mostly fun stuff and good reads (they did 48 Laws of Power, 33 Strategies of War, Art of Seduction and, just to mix things up, Eats, Shoots and Leaves) and they recently acquired another small publisher, Serpents Tail, which does mystery and crime novels. Anyway, it was a really good interview, and fun to meet the people there and see the offices. I think it went well and they definitely gave me the impression I was still in the running but there were a couple of problems. One, they clearly wanted someone who was 100% going to go on in publishing which I don’t think I could commit too. Second, it’s minimum wage which is way above average for internships in the industry but not really enough to live on in London. We’ll see how it goes, I think I’ll probably write them this weekend and say no thanks, but it sort of depends what else comes up.

Then, I went to view some flats and what a disaster that turned out to be. I had one viewing at 6pm, and I literally walked the area for 45 minutes, enlisted eight people to help me, and finally gave up that the street didn’t exist (this is odd because it appeared on my map and the guy claimed he lived there. Weird.) So I didn’t get to see that flat and my second viewing was in the same general area but not until 8:30pm. I called to see if I could meet earlier but no luck so I basically sat in shopping area above a tube stop for two hours waiting for my appointment. I headed over a bit early only to discover that the potential flat was in the sketchiest area of London I’d seen so far and was not at all the sort of place I wanted to be living. I texted him to call off the viewing but had now spent about five hours to not see two flats.

I headed back to the hotel pretty bummed because housing has been the biggest concern (job stuff seems to be moving forward, it’s hosing that’s hard) and I had wasted a lot of time. I decided that this weekend I want to head out to Oxford, about 45 min northwest, to see if I like the smaller city, and college city, a bit better. With that as the plan, I went to bed.

This morning, I got a chance to meet with Alex Will who I’ve been chatting with over email for a few weeks. He started a tech company that does online listings for London events (http://www.spoonfed.com) and his colleague Henry and it was so great to talk to them. Alex knew about Colby because although he grew up in London and went to the LSE, his mom’s from Cape Cod and he spent summers there and knew people who ended up at Colby. Anyway, we chatted about how I might work with them and it sounds like it would be a lot of fun, I’m just a bit worried I wouldn’t have much direction, I’d be just as “senior” as anyone else in the office. Not a problem but I’d have to be super diligent. It was especially nice to meet with him as he offered to make some calls on my behalf to people who might be looking for flatmates and offered himself as a resource if I have any trouble in the city. I made a friend!

After that, I went to view another flat – a single studio apartment which was, no joke, smaller than my college single. It was a converted broom closet – I’m not kidding. They managed to fit a bathroom, stove range, fridge and microwave but must have forgotten the bed as it was built into the wall over the bathroom. But, you know, they only wanted the equivalent of $2200 per month. It’s cool.

You know? I think I’ll pass.

I went back to the hotel and arranged to stay in a B&B in Oxford for the next three nights and I’m catching the bus there tomorrow afternoon. I’m so excited to see Oxford, I’ve heard so much about it from Debbi and Laura and fictionalized in The Beekeeper’s Apprentice and His Dark Materials (okay, so, maybe it won’t be quite like that) and I am actually surprisingly excited to get out of the city – I think I’m less of a city person than I generally give myself credit for. But since it’s my birthday on Saturday and I’ll be closer to sheep than big celebrations, I on a whim bought half price tickets to Wicked for tonight!! I got to see it in NYC with Sarah and have been listening to the music for ages and was SO excited to see it again! I loved it so much, it’s such a fantastic story and the actors were great.

Before the show, I went to grab dinner at this cute Spanish tapas restaurant and since I was there by myself, I pretended I was a restaurant critic and took notes on the meal. Who knows, I might actually write up the article J (I still have an open offer from a travel website to publish any articles I write – no pay, but a byline).

I’m sure I have more to say but this took a lot longer than I expected to write and I’m exhausted! Tomorrow, I head out to Oxford!!

Getting Lost in London

4 Jun 2008

Another day and I’m still in limbo here – but having a really amazing time.  Yesterday, I got up early to make my bank appointment and open my bank account.  It ended up taking quite a bit longer than I expected – I experienced first hand the horror of the “minor delays” on the Tube which meant my seven-stop tube ride took a little over an hour, then I got a bit lost looking for the bank.  I got there just a minute before my appointment and was congratulated on being the first person that day to arrive early.  Go me!  A really nice guy opened my account and was incredibly helpful, including suggesting I go change my traveler’s cheques at a shop a few blocks away where the exchange rate was loads better than the banks (he saved me about $200 or 100L).  So I ran over there, did the transfer, brought it all back to the bank and deposited money into my account.

By that point, I was starving for lunch so grabbed a sandwich at a coffee shop and tried to figure out what I’d do for the rest of the day.  I was way on the opposite side of the city from Mimi’s flat (and all of my stuff which I needed to get to my hotel for the next few nights) but had about three hours before check-in and decided to walk back across London and drop off my CV at any place that looked like a good job fit.  I started to head back, and was completely stunned by the amazing architecture and views but got horribly lost  amid the maze of London streets (which make absolutely no sense).  I was coming up on a giant building with a bunch of people in front and figured this would be a good place to check my map and figure out where I was – much to my surprise, the big plaque told me I was standing in front of Buckingham Palace!!  Guards and all!  I wandered around a bit more, checking out Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Tate Modern and the general sites.  I thought I was heading in the right direction when I realized I had gone in a big circle so had to hop a traditional double-decker bus (sat on top of course) back to Mimi’s.

By the time I got back, it was nearly 3pm so I loaded up my backpack and left my suitcase with her and took the tube to my hotel.  It’s a great spot, a little too pricey to stay for very long but still very reasonably priced for my own room, bathroom and tea kettle.  Once settling in, I headed a ways outside the city to visit a flat that had an open room.  The woman I met with seemed very nice and I liked the neighborhood, but the other three housemates smoked so I guess that one’s out.  After that, I was starving and exhausted so grabbed an early dinner at a pricey but delicious Indian restaurant (SO good!) and went back to the hotel to indulge in some BBC1 and an early night, but not before sending out a number of emails to potential employers.

Allowed myself to sleep in late this morning, and now need to make some calls and prep for my interview this afternoon with a publishing house (it’s a minimum wage internship, but it’s only 2 months which might be a good fit) and another flat viewing this evening.  This weekend, I’m planning on heading out to Cambridge or Oxford to look at some flats and jobs there (I think I might like it a bit better than London which is just so big) and I can’t wait to see how it goes!

First Full Day in London

2 Jun 2008

Whew! I just had my first full day in London and I think I actually managed to be productive!  Here’s the basic run down:

– Left Mimi’s flat at about 8:30am to navigate my way through the London underground to the BUNAC offices.  BUNAC is the company sponsoring my student visa and they have a mandatory orientation before I am allowed to use my work visa.  It was a great orientation that touched on a lot of details about taxes and banking, including giving me a temporary tax ID number (required to get a job, and you need a job to get one – good thing they gave me a temp number!) and a letter of reference to open a bank account.  I also learned about the programme, including their info regarding housing and jobs.  They have a job board with open positions and I took a brief look over but found that they were mostly pub, waitressing and secretarial/typist jobs (which is fine but I wanted to look around a bit more first).  Then I found a job as a P.A. for a PR firm and wrote down the number to call later.  I also got some advice on my CV (what they call a resume) and edited it to make it more cuturally appropriate.

– Grabbed lunch at a too-pricy-but-quiet Italian restaurant where I could sit down, decompress after the two hour orrientation, and made some phone calls to potential flats (no longer available, shoot) and to the PR firm.  They asked if I could come by and drop of my CV later that afternoon.

– Bought a cell phone!  I got a pay-as-you-go phone which will allow me to spend lots of money on local calls (but lots and lots less money than I would make my parents spend if I used my current phone).  For all calls in the UK (that’s Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England) there’s a flat rate for calls out and no fee for calls in.  Should you be in the UK and looking to call me, my number is +44 (0) 752 298 2530.  Apparently the zero is mandatory regardless of where you call from but we’ll get to that in a bit.

– Made my way over to the PR firm and loved it! It was such a cute little setup in a really posh suburb-ish area of the city.  They’re a lot bigger than I thought they were (the listing said small PR firm – I figured startup size) and it’s called Gabrielle Shaw Communications.  I had a somewhat impromptu interview with one of the employees and they said they’d follow up.  I really liked it but I’m trying not to get too excited about the position because, although I think I’m a good fit, I’ll have to wait and see if I get a call back.

– Realized I was only about 3 or so miles from Mimi’s flat so decided to walk back and ended up dropping of my CV at a really cute bookstore and at a Starbucks so at least I’ve got some other places that know I’m looking for work.  Made it back to the flat at about 6pm with killer blisters and a really strong desire to go shoe shopping for something that doesn’t hate my feet.

– Spent about an hour setting up appointments to view flats in the area and booked three nights at a cheap hotel/B&B-type place.  This means I officially have a place to stay until Friday.  There was a bit of a panic when I called to confirm my booking and the number wouldn’t go through and I worried I’d been scammed by the online booking site – until I realized that I wasn’t dialing the required zero before the number.  Oops!

Whew! Bit of a crazy day and the only physical things I have to show for it are a cell phone, a booking confirmation for a hotel and a growing hole in my wallet.  Tomorrow, I open my bank account, do some more job hunting and visit flats in the evening.  I’m going to try to do something touristy and post some pictures but I may have limited internet access for the next few days while in the hotel.  Hope all is well back in the States!