First Few Days

This is a picture of my room.
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This is my third day at Oxford, so far the trip has been an exciting and completely new experience.  I have traveled on my own internationally, made my way around a foreign city, and begun to learn about a new culture.  Just within the first few days I feel like I have learned so much about how to get around.

The plane ride was very long.  Luckily the plane was fairly empty and I was able to secure two seats to myself which made sleeping much more comfortable.  Our plane unfortunately experienced some motor problems; the motor which ran the on ground air conditioning and air circulation was not functioning properly.  So we sat on the runway for an hour without air conditioning while the crew fixed the problem.  Needless to say, we were all very happy when we finally took off at 9:40pm, an hour after our scheduled departure time.

Just within the first few days I feel like I have learned so much about how to get around.

This is the view out my window. This is the examination builiding for Oxford where all students must come and take examinations. If you look closely, you may be able to see the results posted outside of the doorway.
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We arrived in Gatwick around 9am and quickly made our way through customs and to baggage claim where we met our program director Dr. Lynn Alvine.  We then took a coach to St. Edmund hall.  Upon arrival we had a buffet lunch and then unpacked our bags.  We were then given the rest of the night to explore Oxford.

On Sunday, we had a traditional British roast dinner which was delicious.  We then had an orientation to discuss some travel tips etc... That night I went to Turk's Tavern which was given the 2007 Perfect Pub Award in Oxford.  This was one of the first opportunites I had to immerse myself in the English cultures, and I began to notice many cultural differences...people are very friendly and generally more helpful.  I'm still getting the hang of their money, but people are always patient.  Unlike the United States, England uses the pound which has a coin 2pound, 1pound, 50p, 20p, 10p, 5p, 1p and bills for 5 pounds and up.  I always have to double check my coins to make sure I am giving the proper amount.

Where we tried to listen to blues music as an extracurricular activity for our class.
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Today was the first day of classes, I am enrolled in Dr. Mukasa's senior synthesis course, Rock and Roll and Society.  The class is designed to help us understand the impact of rock and roll through mass communication and popular culture.  This topic brings up several very interesting and controversial topics which we have already lightly talked about on the first day.  An example is the agenda setting theory versus the gratification theory.  The agenda setting theory argues that society is malleable so whoever controls mass media could change society; whereas, the gratification theory states that people use mass media to meet their needs and not the other way around.  My professor encourages discussion and I am looking forward to getting more involved in debates.

The fire brigade to the rescue.
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Outside of the classroom, I have begun to meet new people and to explore the city.  Oxford is full of history.  Today we went with our professor to see a blues musician, Larry Miller at a local pub, Bullingdon.  Unfortunately we were not able to see the band because the fire alarm went off.  So instead of watching a blues band, we got to watch a UK fire brigade at work.  It turns out that someone threw a cigarrette down into a vent on the floor which began to smoke and made the alarms go off.  This is also the reason it took so long for the firemen to figure out what and how the problem got started.

The court yard in St. Edmund Hall
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I'm still recovering from jet lag.  England is five hours ahead of the United States, but I'm sure that I'll get used to my new schedule soon.