At the beginning of our second week, I paused to take a look at how
our time in Oxford has been. I know, they speak the same language we do. We are
college students and we are at a university. How different can it be?
Well, let me tell you. It is a different culture. And though
I personally love it, today…we have been most definitely shocked.
Perhaps a surprising (a.k.a risqué) picture in the Sun which I
was reading in a pub in Stratford should’ve been a clue. I brushed it off as a
one-time occurrence…but now I’m second-guessing myself.
Reading in a bookstore this afternoon, my eye caught sight
of the Oxford student newspaper. I won’t go into detail, but the contents were
shocking to say the least. Pictures, of course, accompanied. I actually don’t
feel comfortable even repeating any of the article titles; it went a little farther than I can handle. Okay, more than a little. Obviously censorship is not
quite the same in the UK. But hey, after reading it, we all had a great laugh!
At don’t even get me started about the roads and traffic
here. Our tour guide at the beginning of our time here told us, “Yeah, we get a
lot of tourists that die crossing the streets.” We kinda laughed it off then, but
been careful despite the fact that the British jaywalk as a hobby. Streets are
almost made more for sidewalk overflow than vehicular traffic. And bicyclists?
Extremely intrepid. Nevertheless, Natalie and I are actually considering
joining their ranks. So watch out, Oxford.
Despite the crazy news topics and traffic and strange pub
names (perhaps that could be a blog post in and of itself?), I really do love
this place. Really love it. The differences are fun to discover. Oxford is wonderful and I am enjoying this
experience so much. Even the leave-nothing-unsaid newspapers. I’ll never forget
that afternoon at the bookstore.
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