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