Hello!

My technologically challenged self has been playing around with i-movie and finally managed to upload a clip to youtube about my life here in England! Check it out!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Ej1rVWJuI[/youtube]

6/4/4: Meeting a lot of people, classes getting underway, yet for some reason always feel very drained (perhaps the energy of a new place, perhaps a cold)

China, 8:30 am: four hour car ride from rural mountainous city to Kunming, province capital 

China, 3:20 pm: three hour plane to Hong Kong. six hour layover in Hong Kong, took the train half an hour into the city and shopped for three hours.

China, 11:55 pm: twelve hour plane, slept for ten and tailed off the flight with Twighlight (horrible movie). 

UK, 7:10 am: two hour bus from Heathrow Airport to Oxford, saw a huge “TO LET” sign, which I mistook for “TOILET”

UK, 9:00 am: arrive at Stanford house after 30 hours of travelling, finally get to take a shower and SLEEP in a bed

In Hong Kong and China, the customs officials are so friendly and inviting; you can even rate your experience with the official after you leave the station – I think the Chinese have the wisdom to know that customs is often the first encounter of a foreign visitor into your country, so hospitality at the border is extremely important in coloring a visitor’s impression. I arrive in England to the warm welcome of the customs agent lecturing me: 

- Why are you coming to the UK?

- I’m studying here

- When did you start to study here?

- I am just starting now

- Then you don’t say ‘I am studying here. That means that you already started and are continuing. You should say, ‘I will be studying here’

I didn’t realize this was immigration and grammar control. I suppose the British don’t like to let people with improper English past their border – too much dilution of their primly preserved language. But other than that first encounter, most of the other British I’ve met have been rather charming and at least decently nice folk. The biggest problem is that everything is obscenely expensive and I can’t seem to afford anything; combine that with not very delectable food, and I’ve come to two (positive) conclusions: 1) I’m going back to being vegetarian because meat is too expensive, and 2) I will probably eat less and have an easier time losing weight. Another stick in the side is the internet restrictions at Oxford: no peer-to-peer, no large media downloads, basically no use of the internet for anything non-academic. I suppose the Oxford IT services and the UK Border Control hire from the same pool?

Today is my first full day in England, and it’s off to a pretty good start. I woke up at 6 and jogged around the city for 45 minutes, exploring the meadow and streets surrounding the house. Came back to have a breakfast of peppermint tea and cheese while reading the news. I want to share these words of wisdom from an article in the New York Times: 

I would offer everyone the even less-palatable lesson that sometimes people make dumb decisions. Sometimes you decide to do something and then you wish you hadn’t done it, and that doesn’t necessarily make you bad or good, though it may make you sadder and wiser.