The Candy Shop

It's Sunday night, although currently there's not distinction between the days of the week. I'm reasonably well settled in now, been grocery shopping, cooked my first meal, done my first load of laundry, walked enough of the Oxford city map to feel confident and most importantly, met both my tutors and been assigned my first batch of work. During a Wadham hosted welcome dinner one tutor brought along a couple books he thought his student might find of interest. As she held them out before her in rueful admiration, we crowded around for what the books represented: the first veritable Oxford homework (yes, we are excited about this!). I've found Oxford to be a candy shop of delights, both aesthetically and academically. For people interested in the exchange of ideas and who find learning riveting, not to mention history, this is a sweetshop galore. The hall of Wadham is older than our country. Getting our tutors' names was like Christmas morning, with rather cruel parents: the moment kept getting delayed!

I am an anglophile. Thus, I am delighted that it is entirely appropriate for me to have included "tea" in the title of this blog. We've had one afternoon tea at Wadham, a spread the likes of which will certainly spoil any but the lightest of dinners. While in London, my friend and I had cream tea in the conservatory of an ivy and brick hotel in a quiet area of Bloomsbury. The cream was the thickest I've ever seen it, much closer to the consistency of butter in actuality.

London. I've been there before, but not this late in the year, and we started the day at the Tower of London right by the river. I was right in my prediction: I am already freezing, and usually in twice the layers everyone else is wearing. I go to bed in fuzzy socks and a sweatshirt. The warmth of hot tea though is always a wonderful excuse to indulge.

London is unequivocally one of my favorite cities. I love its broad tree lined streets, row houses, and friendly squares as much as I do its narrow and quaint alleys, its bustle and quiet, the sheer history the lines the streets. We visited the British museum and the treasure room of the British Library, one of my favorite sites in London. I know, it's not on the list of the top attractions, but it does contain in its understated way manuscripts from the Beatles to Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy, and early printings and rare editions of Bibles, even the Magna Carta. And it's free! Thank the lord for the free museums (the British museum has been free since 1753). Can you believe a single ride on the subway is 4 pounds? Luckily this seems to include as many transfers as one wishes since this past weekend was full of planned repair work that closed two entire lines and several stations, forcing me to play any number of connect the "dots".

Among our many adventures in cultural adaptation: blowing the fuse and knocking the lights out for the night in our apartment. I'm not sure why, since the girl had a universal appliance and a plug adapter... Well, it forced me to bed early (I was reading when the lights went out).

Finally, I have been pleasantly taken aback by the exceedingly warm welcome Wadham has extended towards us. Please don't mistake this for me thinking we would not receive one at all. Rather, everyone I have met or who has been introduced to the program so far has gone quite far out of their way, in my opinion, to make us feel not only welcome, but a genuine and valued part of the community. While I did not sit down beforehand to ponder our reception, I suppose my surprise indicates that in retrospect I expected to feel akin to an extraneous limb. So far, this is not at all the case.