Weather is cloudy, 19 degrees Celsius with some showers.
This post would have happened sooner...but the internet (among other things) have been hard to come by. But lets start from the beginning.
Our first afternoon here was a blur. After nearly 22 hours of airports, flying, and no sleep we were a couple of zombies. We arrived in London around 11:00 a.m. and hopped onto a bus for an hour and a half- where we finally got to see the English countryside, through closed eyelids...
We arrived in Oxford and dragged ourselves and our luggage several blocks to our awaiting abode. After lugging 100 pounds of luggage to the second floor flat (that's the 3rd floor to us Yanks) we stayed awake long enough only to get our keys and sign our lease.
After a full hour of trying to sleep, we realized it was time to head out to the shops to buy some bed sheets, pillows, towels, and toilet paper....the essentials of life (shops here close between 5 and 5:30 pm).
Our second day was going to be like Christmas morning. This day we are getting phone service, internet, cell phones, and a UK bank account! Only we got coal...
First it stated with an hour and a half worth of three attempts to call BT to get phone service. Without much success, all we learned was that they wanted to charge us 125 pounds to convert our phone wires back into their line of service.
The Llyod's bank wasn't too keen to give us an account without a phone number, the phone company wants to do a credit check before giving us service (but alas still need a bank account for that...), and the cell phone company wants a credit check and a land line. This circular logic! No wonder everyone illegally immigrates to the US, it has to be easier than this!
But don't fret. By day three we learned that a letter from the University will get us a bank account and everything else can follow. Too bad the lady who writes the letter to the bank is our till Monday...hence my location of the rather cozy Jericho Tavern at 1 p.m. in the afternoon with a glass of Rose.
If you've read this far- I guess it is worth filling you in on all the good things. Oxford is no doubt beautiful. With loads of great shops and restaurants (all very vegetarian friendly I might add).
Ben has started work and discovered he will have a lot of flexibly in time and in what he researches. He is hoping to teach some courses after he is more settled in! Imagine, teaching classes at Oxford. I am so jealous (and proud).
We are planning to take a few tours this weekend- so I will be posting some pictures soon.
For now, we are happy and safe here in the UK at last!
Hope to hear from you all on how you are all doing. Miss everyone!!
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10 comments:
Make sure when you get pictures you get ben in his doctor who scarf!! We already miss you two soo much. I can't belive how quickly I got used to you two being around and how quickly the time went by. I was talkting to Lisa the other day about it at which time she had said the exact same thing. I look forward to hearing from you.
All our love
Tony, Lisa, Ian, AND BOOTS!!
Well, I'm still loving my job, hit some bumps along the way(as you have heard in my last phone call to you...fixed the picture by the way...guess curves is really a good friend after all! Ha ha)
Grandma's in town finally! My psychotic and controlling aunt actually set her free on a plane for two weeks in chicago so she can finally see her great grandchildren. Hasn;t been all that fun for her though, a week prior to her flight she fell and bruised her ribs. She's in a lot of pain but still happy to see everyone. We're taking her on Sunday to see her old friends at the retirement home she used to reside in when she lived here. We know that her one friend Mercedes is still alive, we're going to dinner with her. But as for the others we're not sure. It's funny how my grandmother says when you get older, rather than hoping they're not too busy to get together..you more or less pray they wake up the next morning, imagine that!
Steve is doing better, he's up and about. Aurelio is same ole same ole. Mom is good, going crazy with my grandmother of course....she's a hypocondriac! Ha Ha.
I'm glad you two made it there safely, despite the zombiness!! I'll miss you guys at the halloween party, and i can;t believe the phone booths give you your own personal spritzer.
Look forward to the pictures, give Ben a hug for us.
~Heath :)
Typical phone companies. So no home services till the letter on monday then, that really sux.
I am so happy that things are working themselves out. When Ben and I arrived in Japan we had similar problems. LOL, we traveled back from Japan with 6 suitcases, a car seat, an energetic toddler and 2 cats! I feel your pain! Lots of luck.
So great to hear from you! We are so excited to hear about everything. Miss you both!
Glad to hear you both made it over okay - and didn't lose any baggage along the way!! (Impressive)
It's good to hear you are doing well. Make sure when you take Pictures you get some with the Doc
in his Dr. Who scarf. Lisa and I were talking and we both realized that we had gotten used to you and Ben being here. We miss you both soo much and can't wait for Christmas.
All our Love
Tony, Lisa, Ian, and Boots
Amy, so happy to know that you are happy and safe in England, wish you a good luck in your new life.. waiting for more and more day stories..
I think you'll find the circular logic is in place in the US aswell - although it mainly centres around having a social security number - without that you're a nobody. There's also a credit history problem - the easiest way to get one is with a credit card, but of course, no-one will give you a credit card without a credit history...
Hey,
Glad to hear you made it to the UK safe and sound. Sorry to hear the difficulty of getting things in order. I concur with Claire with the circularity of establishing a presence in the USA, but the UK is so expensive! I looked at BT and was shocked to discover the 125GBP charge for flicking a switch at the phone interchange. So I boycotted them. I'll write to OFCOM.
Hope you're enjoying life in Oxford. It's a beautiful place, I'll have to visit.
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