Study Study Study Abroad

I apologize for the lapse in blog posts. Since last Thursday I have not had much to blog about besides my reading a lot and eating lazy man's grill cheese (As if grill cheese were not a sign of laziness already). I decided it was easier to just put the bread in the toaster then put the cheese on instead of grilling it on the stove. Like I said, not exactly blog worthy material.

Of course, I forgot to bring my camera to Monday night high table dinner, so no pictures of the food. We had chicken salad, steak with some awesome yellow sauce, and  Russian pavlova (look it up). Tuesday was spent in the library finishing my first Oxford paper.

Today the Terry group of students traveled to Birmingham to visit the Jaguar Cars production plant and Cadbury World. The Jaguar plant was a testament to the power of man. The factory, which was used to produce Spitfire fighter planes during World War II, can spit out a Jaguar sports car every 33 hours or so, which may not seem fast but Jaguar only makes the cars once they are ordered. Its amazing the coordination  that is required to efficiently run such a large operation. Jaguar has employed DHL to manage the factory's logistics. We were not allowed to take photographs of the factory but the visitors center was quite nice.

Following our visit to Jaguar we made our way to Cadbury world, where Cadbury eggs are made. We are doing a  study of Kraft Foods, which just acquired Cadbury Chocolate. Our visit was characterized by masses of young children losing their minds as the sugar rush from all the free chocolate kicked in. I ate some chocolate and learned about cocoa butter, so it was great day overall.

Before I leave you, I would love to explain my plans for the weekend. Tomorrow I will finish my first assignment for my international business class before dinner. Following dinner we will have a soccer practice, which will be followed by either drinking or sleep. My choice between beer and sleep will rely on my final decision on how to prepare for the weekend. You see, after I watch the premiere of the final Harry Potter movie at midnight, I and two other students are catching a 3am bus to London. From London we are taking a 5:18am high speed train ride to Sandwich where the British Open is being held. After the British open we are taking a train back to London, where I will probably party from 10pm to 12am Saturday. Then I catch a 12:05am bus to Oxford where at 7am that same morning I will be leaving for my excursion with my Oxford tutorial to Herfordshire. We will return Sunday afternoon. :)!! 

I will post again if I survive.

Love you all,

Michael

Pembroke College, Foosball, "Chequers", and Differences

Now that orientations are over and the jet lag subsided, I have begun settling into the daily life at Oxford. I usually take the bus in the mornings because I'm lazy, but the 1 mile walk back to the UGA center after class is quite nice in the afternoon. Yesterday I visited Pembroke college to meet with my tutor. Pembroke college is just south of Trinity college, and was the college of choice for many historical individuals. Past students include J.R.R. Tolkien, Roger Bannister (the first human to run a mile in under 4 minutes), and James Smithson (the man who began the Smithsonian Institute). The college was beautiful, like all the other Oxford Colleges.

After dinner yesterday, a few students and myself visited the Trinity College Pub, which is conveniently located directly beneath the dining hall (very cool). There we met an Oxford student named Pierre who had been giving tours of Trinity College. He is from Boston originally, as his mother was a professor at Boston University and his father a professor at MIT. Yes, these are the type of students attending Oxford. He was very nice and proceeded to kick our ass in foosball. He took us to another cool pub called "The Chequers" after we left Trinity. 

My plans to visit London are in question now that I received my course pack for my Oxford tutorial Environmental Economics. Please see the attached photo.

I'm very much looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. I have not had a class earlier than 9:30am during college so this first week has been "fun". 

Also, Dr. Trivedi, the director of UGA at Oxford asked me to organize a soccer team to compete in an annual game vs the GA Tech program that is over here as well. We have not won since 2006. Hopefully, we can turn the tides.

Finally, one of my fellow students told me how his mother blogged about some interesting differences between the place she was visiting and home. I thought that would be interesting so I'll list a few customs, traditions, and differences that accompany the British way of life:

1. You must wave down a bus at the bus stop or they will drive right by.

2. There are no fountain drink dispeners in the dining halls. Just tea, water with no ice, or coffee.

3. There are very few power outlets in the buildings. 

4. You do not usually have to tip at bars, which is great.

5. Under no circumstances joke about fire. The fire regulations here are extensive, and for good reason (see The Great Fire of London).

6.Once you enroll in college, you select a major and take classes only for that major during your time in school. There is no core curriculum. Also, you take final exams one time at the end of your schooling. If you do not pass then you do not graduate.

7.Vinegar is more popular with fries than ketchup

8. A chicken sandwich at KFC cost 8 dollars

Be well and I'll continue posting.

-Michael

First Couple of Days

I wasn't going to start a blog out of fear that it would be compared to Luke Mosley's, however, other students have been blogging and I would like to keep my family and friends back home informed.

The first days of the trip have been exhausting and fun all at the same time. I barely slept on the 8hr flight which turned out to be a terrible decision. Our charter from Gatwick to Oxford hit traffic that would make Atlanta look deserted. We were told not to nap to prevent jet lag so it was fun trying to stay awake. We arrived at The UGA at Oxford Center, where all Terry students will stay,  a few hours later.  We had three orientation sessions on the first day and then a 2 hour dinner to end the night. Having late night discussions over a beer with some professors and tutors was definitely my highlight of the night.

After the long day and late night, my first class started at 7:30am Tuesday (Thanks Dr. Laplante). Classes will be held in Trinity College. Oxford University is made up of 38 autonomous colleges, and Trinity is one of them. Next another orientation for the Bodleian library system which is incredible. 12 million books. Then Environmental Economics with my Oxford tutor. I gather that this class is going to be very difficult, as he covered most of ECON 4010 in 2 hours. Much reading is to be done.

I booked my flight to Turin to see my friend Alberto Geuna. Ill fly out July 22nd and return on the 24th.

Some students are talking about taking a trip to London, Brussels, and Amsterdam this weekend. I will probably travel to London on Friday and return Saturday to start my first paper.

I hope this reaches everyone well, and I will post more soon.

--Michael