Sunshine in the sky
Things are getting better now at Oxford. On Monday, I went into the college offices straight away to get things sorted. I've got internet connection in my room! I am also on the waitlist for a better grade of room. I am actually coming to accept my room now. It is not the best, but I'll make the best out of it. The only thing though is that I won't be able to accommodate visitors staying... Here's a photo of it when I first arrived, and a photo of the exterior that I took this morning when the weather was surprisingly nice.
The door with an arch and half blocked by the car is the door to my house.
View from the door. I am standing as far as I could. There is a small closet befind where I was standing
my shabby desk.
There have been and will be lots of events going on throughout this week. I've already been to one afternoon tea and a buffet dinner at the MRC. It was quite awkward for me since I never know how to socialise with people. But I met this quite old Taiwanese guy who is doing a DPhil in social economic history. He went to St John's College for his undergraduate about 20 years ago (which is VERY rare for Taiwanese people back then. He was about the only Chinese person at Oxford according to him) and he has now retired. Well, his business (a motor part company in LA with 150 employees) is still run by his wife. He has been very generous and helpful with me. He showed me around SJC a bit, took me to a cheaper supermarket, treated me with dinner and
showed me his flat. It's a two bedroom flat owned by SJC too, but it's WAY WAY WAY better than mine - it's newly renovated. It would be nice to have my own kitchen, dining room, living room, toilet and shower. It's quite expensive though - 500 pounds a month excluding electricity. I guess it would be alright if you could sublet the other bedroom out to someone, but it's quite small... He actually knows all the seniors (the staff members) in SJC, so he pretty much gets what he wants, and he can afford it. I went into my lab today! My supervisor, Peter, is nice but not that talkative. He did check on whether everything was alright for me with settling down. The lab people are also quite friendly too, but when I was sitting down at my desk with nothing much to do, everyone seemed to have something to do so I didn't want to disturb them. Our desks are in the same room as the lab benches. It's not big, but I think enough space for the 8 or 9 people to work in. It's good that most people in the lab would go down to the cafe for morning tea at 10, lunch at 12 and afternoon tea at 3. It's so English, but it's good tradition! There were lots of form filling and lab tours for me today, so was rather tedious. There's also another DPhil student starting this year who looks like 15. He went into the lab yesterday, but he's had a meeting with Peter 2 weeks ago, so he knows his project and has started with some readings. It scares me a little since I have absolutely no clue about what I am going to do and have forgotten all about science... Peter wanted to have a chat about the project on Thursday morning, so I asked him to give me some readings to do for now so that I won't be stupid in the meeting. Well, he did give me readings, LOTS OF THEM. Many many chapters of a huge book! I hope he doesn't expect me to read all that before Thursday...
My nightmare with stagecoach continues... It was a prompt turn up of the bus on the way into the John Radcliffe Hospital this morning, but when I finished in the lab at about 5:40, the 5:50 bus never showed up and the 6:20 bus was late >< >< ><>
A $14 NZD wonton noodle soup. Yep, food (well, and everything else) is EXTREMELY expensive here. Apparently, one Domino pizza is 9 pound (27 NZD)
The door with an arch and half blocked by the car is the door to my house.
What you see as soon as you open the door. There's nothing but wall on the left.
View from the door. I am standing as far as I could. There is a small closet befind where I was standing
my shabby desk.
There have been and will be lots of events going on throughout this week. I've already been to one afternoon tea and a buffet dinner at the MRC. It was quite awkward for me since I never know how to socialise with people. But I met this quite old Taiwanese guy who is doing a DPhil in social economic history. He went to St John's College for his undergraduate about 20 years ago (which is VERY rare for Taiwanese people back then. He was about the only Chinese person at Oxford according to him) and he has now retired. Well, his business (a motor part company in LA with 150 employees) is still run by his wife. He has been very generous and helpful with me. He showed me around SJC a bit, took me to a cheaper supermarket, treated me with dinner and
showed me his flat. It's a two bedroom flat owned by SJC too, but it's WAY WAY WAY better than mine - it's newly renovated. It would be nice to have my own kitchen, dining room, living room, toilet and shower. It's quite expensive though - 500 pounds a month excluding electricity. I guess it would be alright if you could sublet the other bedroom out to someone, but it's quite small... He actually knows all the seniors (the staff members) in SJC, so he pretty much gets what he wants, and he can afford it. I went into my lab today! My supervisor, Peter, is nice but not that talkative. He did check on whether everything was alright for me with settling down. The lab people are also quite friendly too, but when I was sitting down at my desk with nothing much to do, everyone seemed to have something to do so I didn't want to disturb them. Our desks are in the same room as the lab benches. It's not big, but I think enough space for the 8 or 9 people to work in. It's good that most people in the lab would go down to the cafe for morning tea at 10, lunch at 12 and afternoon tea at 3. It's so English, but it's good tradition! There were lots of form filling and lab tours for me today, so was rather tedious. There's also another DPhil student starting this year who looks like 15. He went into the lab yesterday, but he's had a meeting with Peter 2 weeks ago, so he knows his project and has started with some readings. It scares me a little since I have absolutely no clue about what I am going to do and have forgotten all about science... Peter wanted to have a chat about the project on Thursday morning, so I asked him to give me some readings to do for now so that I won't be stupid in the meeting. Well, he did give me readings, LOTS OF THEM. Many many chapters of a huge book! I hope he doesn't expect me to read all that before Thursday...
My nightmare with stagecoach continues... It was a prompt turn up of the bus on the way into the John Radcliffe Hospital this morning, but when I finished in the lab at about 5:40, the 5:50 bus never showed up and the 6:20 bus was late >< >< ><>
A $14 NZD wonton noodle soup. Yep, food (well, and everything else) is EXTREMELY expensive here. Apparently, one Domino pizza is 9 pound (27 NZD)
posted by Anderson | 3:37 PM
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