Oxford Day 24

Ok, so I’m slightly dejected that I am able to write this blog right now, rather than being in some other amazing city somewhere. Before you laugh at my plight, let me just tell you that this is intentional. Tomorrow morning we are going to be heading to Scotland… or Ireland… or Wales… or somewhere else. Actually, we’re just going to go to the train station in the morning and take whatever we feel like and hope it turns out for the best.

Today the top group gave their presentation to Harte Hanks. Let me tell ya, I am so glad I didn’t have to present. The Harte Hanks execs tore that group apart. They tore into the details and totally caught them off guard with tons of questions, demanding that they get what they deserve as the customer. It was really intense, but fun to watch.

Most people took off mid-day to everywhere in Europe. A group went to Germany; one went to Spain; one went to Italy. My group of 5 stayed behind with no idea where we were headed. Haha. We ended up not going anywhere today. We’re definitely going somewhere tomorrow though.

I went on a hunt for deodorant today. Apparently it is not as prevalent in the UK as in the States. I went to a number of stores before I finally found some, and there was certainly not much of a selection. They even really have stick deodorant here. I couldn’t find any stick deodorant except some really expensive imported Gillette stuff. I ended up getting some Lynx spray deodorant. Lynx is exactly the same as Axe, just with a different name. I’m not sure why that is. Is Axe a bad word in England or something?

Tonight we played some 5-person Risk while watching the Italy – Ukraine game. It was a blast. Two of the players got knocked out after about an hour or two. Then Cody, Jonathan, and I ended up playing for three more hours. Our balances of power shifted quite a bit during that time, but we all managed to keep an even power over all. It was a really great game. Unfotunately, after about 5 hours of Risk, a couple people in the room started rough-housing and one of them threw a jacket at the other. Guess where it landed. That’s right. It knocked ever piece off the board. We were fairly displeased. Jonathan was downright livid. Haha, even now, 2 hours later, I can hear him ranting about it in the other room. It was such an amazing game. Quite a shame it had to be messed up. I wanted to prove my ability as a strategist once and for all. I guess I’ll have to wait for another day.

Oxford Day 23

Today was long. I woke up and stumbled into the office where my team was assembled, and we worked on our project for a few hours, finishing up our presentation which we gave to our professors at 3. It was so great to be done. I have nothing else to do for the remainder of this trip, except continuing this journal. I suppose I don’t really mind this though, since a few people actually read this and get to hear what I’m doing. I’m not very good at recalling events after the fact, so it helps to put down what I can remember at the end of each day, rather than trying to recall it all later on down the road.

I love it when professors get fatigued. Mr. Winegeart had a ton of assignments at the beginning of the trip that we had looming over our heads. We had a big book to read with a report or exam over it at the end. We had two papers to write, and a final exam covering everything. Today we had a meeting though, and he said that we didn’t have to read the book, we didn’t have to write the papers, and we aren’t having a final exam. So basically, we already have our grades based on what we did in class a couple weeks ago, and we get a completion grade for this journal. So basically I get a fairly easy A in one of my upper level major’s courses. Score! I’m really glad he did it though, because it probably would have been quite a bit too much to ask, since we’ve worked ourselves nearly to death during the past couple weeks. It’s been a blast, but we’re all really worn out.

Now I’m faced with my final weekend in Europe, and my group of 5 guys has no destination. We have no idea where we’re going to go tomorrow. We were planning on Dublin, but when I checked the forecast, it said rain for the next ten days. Poo. We may end up going there, or Scotland, or Wales, or even the Netherlands. I have no idea though. Hopefully we’ll come up with something awesome to do before it’s too late.

Tonight I went out with a few guys to watch Thank You For Smoking. It was a really funny and awesome movie. I love intelligent comedies. I wish I could be a master of words like that fella. Quite impressive.

After the movie, we came back here and sat around in my room for a couple hours, playing guitar and talking about random stuff. It was fun. That’s all I have to say about that. Tomorrow, I depart for the unknown. Wish us luck.

Oxford Day 22

The walls and floors in this house are so incredibly thin and porous when it comes to sound. I woke up this morning bright and early to the sounds of an earthquake above my head. The commons room in our house is directly over my room, so I can clearly hear everything that takes place within it. Today the cleaning lady was in there vacuuming and moving furniture. I have no idea how she managed to make as much noise as she did. I tried to go to sleep for another hour or so, but after she got done in the commons room she came down to the bottom floor and started vacuuming there. I have no idea what she was doing, but she hit my door with the vacuum about 68 times. It really sounded like there was an elephant cleaning our house. Oh well, I finally got up and grumpily poured a bowl of "Jordan’s Country Crisp" and headed to our morning meeting. No, on second thought, I was only grumpy until I read my morning message from Mallory. That always makes the day better.

We worked the whole day on our project, tabulating data and starting our Powerpoint. We present tomorrow afternoon, so I certainly hope we’re ready. We’re pretty lazy at this point in the trip, so we’re all pretty lethargic about the whole thing. We’ll do a decent job, but we’re all too tired to make it an absolutely stellar project.

I’m not gonna lie; I actually ended up being fairly useless today. I mostly just gave moral support and backrubs and guitar accompaniment. Shaylee and I worked up another bout of songs for the devo tonight. It was really fun. She also made me learn a Nickel Creek song for her since it was her birthday. I love guitar. My fingers are really hurting because of the amount I’ve been playing in the past few days. I love the pain though. It’s much the same as the deep muscle pain after a good workout. Good pain.

Oxford Day 21

Dr. Lytle’s class had to meet at 9 this morning, but Winegeart let his class sleep in, so I didn’t have to meet my group until 11. Oddly enough though, I don’t feel any more rested. We basically spent the whole day compiling data from surveys into usable formats. It was tons of fun.

At one point Cody, Daniel, and I went to the grocery store about a mile away to grab some groceries. I know it sounds strange, but I’m going to miss walking that far all the time when I get back to the States. People are so lazy in America. People would rather drive across the ACU campus than walk. It’s pretty ridiculous. It’s funny to me that Americans can drive every single place they go, eat tons of unhealthy food, and then curse their genetics for their problems with weight. People are just lazy. Face it.

I love how worked up the Brits get over soccer. Every single person in the country knows all about the England team and is rooting for them in the cup. Every bar and restaurant and establishment of any kind shows every England game. I kinda wish America had some sort of unifying bond occasionally. It would be nice to have that sort of camaraderie with everyone, even if only occasionally.

One thing I do find interesting in traveling is the automatic bond that origin can give you with people. When traveling around to other states within the US, it gives me an instant bond with someone to find that they’re from Texas… or Canada I suppose. Within Texas, if I find that they’re from the 903 there is an instant openness there that wouldn’t exist otherwise. The farther you travel from home the wider that geographical bond. Over here, when I find someone from anywhere in the States we have that bond instantly. I think it’s pretty interesting. Somebody that I would never have any reason to talk to within the US becomes very interesting when I encounter them here. I have had tons of conversations with people over here, simply because our accents are the same. I find it rather odd that the scope of that bond becomes so much greater the farther you travel.

This weekend we were planning on going to Italy, but we waited too long to get tickets, so now it would cost us hundreds to fly there. I suppose we’ll be doing something much closer now. Sigh. I guess I am pretty intrigued by Ireland. Hopefully we can find an inexpensive route to get there.

Oxford Day 20

We went to London today to get briefed by Harte Hanks on our next project. It was a bummer that we had to wake up so early, but I suppose it was a good enough day to merit the drive.

As soon as we arrived at Harte Hanks they ushered us into a boardroom with a long table COVERED in food. It was incredible. We gorged ourselves on donuts and croissants and grapes and strawberries and cookies and brownies and pastries and all sorts of things. It was absolutely amazing. They told us about the company for a couple hours then they told us we had to finish what was left in the room. We had hardly dented it earlier, but when we went back in this second time they had added enormous piles of candy bars and such. They stood behind us urging us to eat as much as possible and to stick the rest in our pockets and bags. I had a hayday and filled my pockets with chocolate and candy while munching pastries and grapes. I love food.

So a little after noon they drove us to the center of London and let us go for the rest of the day. I couldn’t think of anything to do, having seen pretty much all the sights in London already, so Cody, Grant, and I decided to go to the London Dungeon. It’s basically a walking tour with actors that play out a sort of haunted house scenario while giving information about past acts and practices of torture and executions and disasters and such. They had a segment on the Bubonic Plague and the London Fire and Jack the Ripper and stuff. It was pretty entertaining, but not worth the 15 quid (about $30) I had to throw down to get in.

It was raining all day in London so we just scampered about, trying to avoid it for the rest of the afternoon until we caught the bus back at 7. We ended up spending quite a bit of time in and around Piccadilly Circus, which is the UK equivalent of Times Square. There was a lot to see, so we managed to stay pretty entertained for the most part.

I think I’m just going to work on homework and other projects for another hour or so and head to bed. I’m fairly tired. Unfortunately I’m fresh out of all groceries, so I didn’t really have any considerable supper and I likely won’t get breakfast. I’ll have to run to the grocery store as soon as possible. Ok, farewell.

Oxford Day 19

Today I didn’t do very much, and it was great. I got up and read a few chapters of the book for my class. Then I wandered around the houses and marveled at the fact that pretty much everybody was out of town except me and a few others. I felt a bit lonely, but realized that it would be a good opportunity to get stuff done.

After a while I got hungry and stuck some wonderful Edam cheese in a couple yummy rolls and put them in the oven while I played guitar. After a few minutes I went to check on the rolls and saw that the cheese hadn’t melted very much at all, so I decided to wait a couple more minutes. I went back to my room and started smelling smoke about 30 seconds later. I ran into the kitchen, turned off the oven, and opened the window, fanning frantically to keep the alarm system from going off. I still have no idea how that bread managed to completely char itself in under 30 seconds after having been barely warm for about 5 minutes. Oh well. I ended up eating crackers for lunch. They were yummy, but not quite as satisfying as cheesy bread.

I ended up playing guitar for another couple hours until a few of us went to a pub to watch the England – Ecuador game. It was pretty awesome being in a tiny room full of tons of screaming Brits watching a great soccer match. We got hungry during halftime and left to get a burger across the street. It took a while and England scored before we could get back, bringing it to 1-0. We decided to go get ice cream instead of finishing the game. Then we just came back to the house.

Tonight we had a devo, and I led singing. It was actually pretty fun, and they really appreciated the guitar accompaniment. Tomorrow we head to London to start our final challenge. That’ll be a blast.

Windsor Castle

Today six of us decided to go to Windsor Castle. That’s the castle where the queen lives on weekends and many of the English monarchs have resided for hundreds of years. It’s a pretty impressive place and full of rich history.

“The original construction, a motte and bailey (an artificial hill with with a fenced area at the top), was built for William the Conqueror around the year 1080. Originally part of a ring of defences around London, Windsor Castle gradually became a popular Royal residence because of the good hunting in the nearby forest. The Round Tower, along with the original outer wall, was erected for King Henry II.

Further improvements and enlargements took place over the centuries until the magnificent castle we see today finally emerged in 1830. A favourite of Queen Victoria, the castle survived for most of the last century with few changes.”

I really like the town of Windsor. People bustle about in the walkways between the quaint shops and restaurants. It somehow has a small-town feel despite most of the people being tourists. The castle lies at the center. It is quite hard to miss as it towers above everything as if saying “I still command this area and all within it.” We wandered into a really pretty Victorian restaurant, and I got fish and chips for the first time since coming to England. It was pretty good. We felt fairly inadequate in the restaurant, however, because we were the only people under the age of 50 in the place. It was a nice meal though.

Eventually we worked our way to the entrance of the castle. I forgot my school ID, so I didn’t get the student discount. Sigh. I suppose my heightened rate was worth it though. It is definitely an amazing castle. Throughout most of the inner rooms we weren’t allowed to take pictures, but there were some amazing rooms with armor and weapons and such. I was very impressed. It is pretty amazing to see the luxury that some people get to live in.

Windsor castle is the Queen’s weekend getaway so the same guards that watch Buckingham Palace are also at the castle. Cody and I managed to get a picture with one of them, but it didn’t turn out all that great because of the sun.

I am pretty tired now. I’m debating just staying here tomorrow and not doing much, but I’ll probably end up going to Bath with a few people. Oh well, it’s not like I’m going to have too many opportunities to do things like this. I’d better take advantage of every opportunity to experience something new.

Oxford Day 17

So today we finally finished with our second project. The last three days have seemed like over a week in themselves. We have worked our tails off, and as it turns out we didn’t actually do enough. My team wasn’t one of the two teams selected to present to Oxford Analytica. I suppose I should be bummed about that, but I’m definitely not. I’m done with that challenge, whereas the two top teams now have to work on perfecting their presentations before they do them again.

As soon as we found out the results of our presentations, a few of us went downtown to a neat Lebanese restaurant. I had some of the best lamb steaks I’ve ever had and some really good spiced potatoes, as well as the best sweet mint hot tea ever. Then we ate some baklava and finished it off with a bit of hooka. It was fun.

I really don’t remember what I did the rest of the day. I took a nap for a while, then I went outside and played guitar with Cody for a bit. Then a bunch of us cooked some salmon and chicken and potatoes and corn on the grill. It was really good. We just chilled outside eating and playing guitar and loving the weather for a few hours. It was quite nice after freaking out all week.

Later on last night about five of us ended up playing Monopoly: Oxford Edition. It had been a long time since I’d played Monopoly, but it was a blast. Some stupid deals were made, so I was scared for a while, but I ended up pulling ahead by the end. I love that game. I think we’re going to play Risk Saturday night. I'm pumped.

Oxford Day 15

Well, today we had to get back to classwork. Yuck! We got our newest project which is going to be analyzing a survey from a bunch of the employees within Oxford Analytica and telling them how to best grow a service mindset within their company. That’s right, us lowly college students will be giving advice to some of the smartest people in the world. Should be fun.

We worked on our projects most of the day, compiling and analyzing data from the surveys. Nothing particularly noteworthy happened most of the day. I called a few people using the Skype minutes I paid for. That was awesome. It’s pretty neat to be able to call anyone in the world from anywhere in the world for 2 cents a minute. I love it.

Tonight after the devo Shaylee Busch and Krystina Hickl came down to my room to play guitar and sing for a while. A while ended up turning into a few hours. It was really fun. I normally hate singing, and will certainly never sing for other people, but singing with them really helped me to push aside some of those feelings. I ended up really just letting loose and singing with them.

The three of us played a number of random songs. Then we played some praise songs for a while. Then we got into some Nickel Creek. We learned Out of the Woods with perfect harmonies and stuff. I’m not gonna lie, it sounded pretty darn amazing after a while. We couldn’t stop singing it after a while because it sounded so good and we enjoyed singing it so much. I’m naturally a bass, but somehow I ended up sounding pretty good singing the tenor part. It was neat.

That’s all I really have to say for now.

Oxford Day 14

I woke up today and did laundry for the first time since I’ve been here. I was pretty amazed that I have made it this far on what I packed. I guess that means I packed too much…

We all met for a while to discuss the details of the next few days and our upcoming challenge for the week. Then we gave the Lytles a royal sendoff as they headed off for their 25^th anniversary trip. We all got in two lines and yelled as Mrs. Lytle ran down the middle to the pretty and decorated convertible Rick was waiting in. As they drove off we laughed at the sign he had on the back of the car. “Just Married… 25 years ago.” I hope they have a fun time.

Man, it was really great today to just not be going anywhere. I’ve done way too much traveling lately. I guess I’ve been walking my tail off too, because the mile and a half or so walk to Sainsbury’s grocery seemed like absolutely nothing.

Cody bought a guitar in a little music shop in downtown Oxford last week. I personally thought he was crazy for doing so, but it was great to have someone to play guitar with today. We worked up a Stephen Speaks song which actually sounds pretty decent. I want to write a song for us to play together. That would be neat.

Wow, it’s pretty tough to get caught up on journals. I guess I’m finally caught up now. It took me quite a while to write 5 days worth. I get distracted really easily, so writing anything is an accomplishment for me.

It’s good to be back to Oxford. It’s weird how quickly my brain adapts to new “homes.” It really felt like returning to home when we got back here. I just wish the people I miss from home were here. That would make it far more pleasant. I think this is close to the midpoint of the trip. It’s taking forever, but I hope I can enjoy the rest of it. This weekend I’ll be going to Wales and Ireland if things turn out as planned. That should be really awesome.

France Day 4

I let myself sleep in yesterday and got up around 10. Everybody was out and about already except Grant, whom I ran across in the lobby. We decided to go look at Notre Dame as we had only seen it from the outside at night. It is really quite an impressive structure. It has been around for a very long time, but still looks incredible. I have no idea how they managed to put such things together a thousand years ago. Inside it may be even more impressive. The design draws your eyes upward to the expansive ceiling and stained glass windows. As we were walking through the cathedral Grant saw a hundred Euro bill on the ground. That’s roughly $130. He made an exclamation of joy and reached down to grab it. As he picked it up a group of French teens cackled with glee and snapped his picture. It was an obvious fake, and I laughed at him for having fallen for it.

We walked back to the hotel to see if anyone else had woken later than us. Alas, Brad and Daniel were chilling in the lobby. The joined us as we went to get lunch in the main square close to the hotel. As Brad and Grant chatted about how much they appreciated the fact that half the girls in Paris don’t wear bras, I looked at my menu and tried to find something worth paying twenty bucks for. I finally decided on the “Burger done Our way.” I was really excited when I got it, as it looked pretty awesome. It had some really good looking sauce and sautéed mushrooms and onions. I took a big bite and marveled at the wondrous flavor. When I looked down at the place the bite had come from, however, I realized that the burger was not cooked, just lightly browned on the outside. I was eating raw beef. Oh well, I polished it off (I wasn’t about to waste a $15 burger) and worked on containing my nausea as we headed back towards the hotel to meet up with everyone before departure. On the way to the hotel I grabbed a Coke Blak. I’ve heard they’re not so good in the States but much better in Europe. It must be true, because it was amazing. What better combination than Coke and espresso?

The trip back was neat but long. I am pretty amazed, really, that we managed to keep 50 people together the whole way through subway, train, and bus. It is quite an operation to keep that many people together. We made it back last night at around 9, at which time I got something to eat and unpacked, then started chronicling the events of the weekend.

France Day 3

I was not too eager to wake up Sunday after having gone to sleep at around 3 the night before. My roommate got up at about 7:30, so I decided I would do the same since I was meeting my group at 8:30. I sat up in bed and reached for my pants. I guess I fell asleep sitting up with my eyes open, because the next thing I knew, somebody was knocking on my door and telling me to get up. It was a pretty strange sensation.

After eating some wonderful French breakfast in the café of our Paris hotel, a group of us headed across town to the Louvre. Let me tell you, walking across Paris is no small ordeal. It is a monstrous city. I probably put in at least 15-20 miles a day this weekend. Anyway, the Louvre is a pretty spectacular building. It is enormous. It would take about 5 days to see everything. We did the compulsory things, like see the Mona Lisa and a few other key paintings, but there was no way to see very much. I think even if one was to go at it in a full sprint the entire day, they still wouldn’t see everything there. Honestly, I was much more impressed by the building itself than the paintings within. It seemed like every hall had a different architectural type and décor. There were amazing murals and paintings on the walls and ceilings everywhere. There is also the bottom of an entire castle beneath the Louvre. It must be a very old castle, considering that the Louvre is about a thousand years old itself.

After the Louvre we got some crepes at a little restaurant nearby and headed for Napoleon’s tomb, which was quite a distance. When we finally got there I just stayed outside with a few people while the others went in. I was really tired of spending money by that point, so I enjoyed just sitting in the warm sun for a little while.

After the group got out of the tomb we decided to split up so the girls could go shopping and whatnot and a few of us could go relax in the hotel for a few hours since we hadn’t had an opportunity to relax in about a week. It was nice to sit and play cards and watch the world cup for a while.

A few hours later we all went out for dinner. We went to a pretty good restaurant with a really mean waiter. It is incredible how much food costs in France. Every meal is about $20 and drinks are around 5 or 6. Alas, it was great food though. We watched it get darker as we ate and finally headed towards the Eiffel Tower once it got dark. You have to understand, it gets dark in Paris at around 11-11:30 at night. So we ended up staying up much later than intended all three nights, simply because the timing of the sunset threw us off so much.

The Eiffel Tower is beautiful. I have seen many pictures of it in my life, but none really did it justice. Its immensity is incredible. It dominates the sky. You can’t help but look at it in awe. At night it is lit up and occasionally sparkles with really intense lights all over it. I really wanted to call people from it, but had no means to do so. It was amazing though.

Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to rotate a picture in blogger.

France Day 2

Upon waking, I said my farewells to the three little pigs and big bad wolf that had looked over me during the night, and I headed downstairs to breakfast. Let me tell ya, breakfast is one thing the French do right. Pastries are awesome in France. I ate a couple amazing croissants with a few delectable varieties of cheese I cut from random wheels and a really awesome chocolate-filled pastry. Then I downed some good yogurt and coffee. It was quite satisfactory. There was a huge bag of 3 foot baguettes, so I grabbed one of those, wrapped it in my shirt, and put it sticking out of my backpack.

After having spent 11 hours in transit the day before, I was not too excited about getting back on the bus for the whole day, but at the same time I was excited about learning about WWII locations first hand. We picked up our British tour guide a few miles down the road and headed for our first destination.

I don’t want to bore you with all the details of our day. It was absolutely amazing, but I’m pretty sure you can’t get the same effect with words that you can in person. It was very moving to be walking around places, knowing that thousands of my countrymen had bled and died there. Things always seem so much more real when you are standing in the place that they took place.

A side note to anyone who likes videogames. Sorry, I’m a nerd. We visited Point Du Pont, which was a German outpost overlooking the ocean and strategically placed between Utah and Omaha beaches with 12 inch guns that could wipe out the assaulting forces on both. A US Ranger division had to scale the hundred foot cliff to take Point Du Pont prior to the invasion to ensure that their troops wouldn’t get blasted from afar. As I walked around the German bunkers and pitted out field I realized that I had played the Point Du Pont mission on Call of Duty 2 and had taken those exact bunkers, killing countless Nazis as they tried to stop me. It was incredible to see it in real life and how similar it really is. Game makers are really becoming awesome at portraying real life.

The pinnacle of our day was our stop at Omaha beach. It was pretty moving to stand there and imagine the sheer magnitude of the assault and the slaughter. I imagined the 40 thousand or so bullets streaming over our guys every minute as they struggled over the bodies of their comrades and through the rivulets of red water heading back to the sea. It was pretty incredible, but somewhat offset by the fact that there were now people sunbathing where thousands of Americans had died.

We finished off by going to the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha beach. It was beautiful, but a bit dreadful to realize that about 9 thousand people my age were buried there. Ok, that’s well over a page, and I have 3 more journals to write, so I’ve gotta end this. I could go on for a hundred pages, but I don’t feel like it.

France Trip

Friday we awoke at 3:30 am to get ready to depart for France. After having gone to sleep at 2:30, I was pretty groggy and unhappy about getting up. Our massive group of around 45 got on the bus at 4:15 and rode 2 hours to the London train station. It was pretty odd to see the sun rise at about 4:45. There really isn’t much darkness here. When we got to the train station, Candi discovered that she had left her passport in Oxford. Bad deal. She had to stay behind and figure out a way to catch a train the next day after going back to Oxford to get it. I was pretty worried about her, but she managed to make it to Paris the next day, which was pretty remarkable really. After saying goodbye and good luck to Candi we boarded the train at around 7 and headed towards Paris.

I have never been on a train before, and riding a European train for a first experience was pretty incredible. I’m pretty sure we were going over 200 mph at times. It is neat to watch things fly by at that rate. We went in the Chunnel under the English Channel, but I was asleep by the time we reached it, so I didn’t get to experience it until the return trip.

We arrived in the Paris station after around 3 hours and boarded a bus to head for northern Normandy, a few hours away. A few blocks from the train station we stopped for a couple minutes at a light. I was watching some little old French lady walk around. After a couple minutes a bus stopped near her and she decided she wanted to get on it. It looked like she wasn’t going to make it in time, so this 70+ year old lady started sprinting towards the bus. It was really funny to watch. Suddenly, her foot hit the curb and she totally faceplanted on the concrete. It was pretty much the most comical and intense faceplant ever, so I instantly burst into laughter. Apparently it’s wrong to laugh at old ladies falling though, because everybody in my area of the bus got mad at me for doing so. I was officially dubbed the meanest person on the trip, and for the rest of the weekend any time anybody did something mean, someone said “that’s so Jordan Williams of you.” Oh well. I suppose I should study up on my faceplant laughing etiquette.

Paris is a fairly dirty place. Most of it reeks of bodily fluids and whatnot and the people haven’t discovered the many benefits of regular bathing. I was eager to get out of the city and into the country after an hour-long stop in the middle of the city for lunch. After a 3 hour bus ride and an hour or so looking around Utah beach, we headed for our hostel in whatever obscure town we were in. Our hostel was more like some sort of strange orphanage. There were tons of Disney cartooney pictures painted on the walls. It was an interesting place to sleep. I have a lot more to say, but in the interest of moving on to my next mandatory journal I will end this now.

Oxford Day 9

Today was too much. Some people get really into the whole competition thing. I’m all about winning, but I don't really care enough to put the project before any of my friendships. However, some of the groups would flip out if I approached them or had a chance of seeing their Powerpoints or gleaning any information. Of course I couldn’t really care less about any of the other teams. Friendliness was definitely out of the question today though, I guess.

My team spent the entire day working on our presentation, from about 10 until 6 when we presented to the professors. It was a really snazzy presentation with some great solutions for the company. Unfortunately, we were not one of the two teams chosen to present to the company tomorrow. Really though, that’s fine with me. The two selected teams ended up spending the rest of the night working on their projects. Meanwhile, I went out with four fabulous ladies to a couple of awesome locales in Oxford to hang out. It was a simply delightful evening.

We ended up not doing the devo tonight. Initially I was pretty pumped about this development, but after psyching myself up all day, it actually ended up being a letdown. Ah well, I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up doing it before long. Lytle’s got me in his sights now.

Does anybody have any good insights for what may be awesome to do in Italy? I believe I’m going to be going there in a couple weeks, and I don’t really know what I should do besides see Rome and the coast. Any ideas? Same goes for Ireland. I’ll be going there next weekend. I suppose we’ll go to Dublin, but I’m not sure where else is good.

Oxford Day 8

Well, we’re finally getting some good English weather here. Everything around here looks a little more natural in the rain for some reason. The countryside is certainly used to a good dousing.

Today my group split into two groups of three to visit two Oxfam locations and interview employees and volunteers. My group went to a second-hand Oxfam bookstore. I spent about two hours interviewing some of the older ladies who worked there. They had been volunteering at the bookstore for about 20 years. That’s quite a while to be working at a place without any pay. Let me tell you, old British ladies are a blast to talk to. All three of the ladies I talked to were so exuberant and excited to talk to somebody that I had a blast interviewing them. I would ask them a question, and their answers would go on forever. They really just love talking. I really wish I could have gotten a picture with them. They were simply a delight.

I’m watching the Brazil-Croatia game right now. I am amazed at how well Croatia is holding off Brazil. Brazil is such an amazing team, yet they only have 1 point against Croatia. The Croats have done a splendid job of holding their formation and composure against the Brazilians. I’m impressed, and you don’t care.

The beds are weird in Europe. You get a sheet for the mattress. Then you get a thing called a duvet for the top. It’s basically just a big sheet bag with a comforter in it. It’s really tough to put the comforter in the bag, but it’s an effective system for keeping you warm. It’s a top sheet and blanket in one. Neat.

Anyway, I suppose tomorrow the entire day will be spent with my group, preparing for our presentation for Oxfam on Thursday. I am really hoping we do well on this project, but I’m not nearly as hardcore as some members of some groups. Some people are getting freaked out about information leaks and diversifying themselves from other groups. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about doing well, but I’m here more for the overall experience than the success of my small group on these random projects.

Our Dean, Rick Lytle walked by my room earlier and heard my playing my guitar. After talking to me for a while he asked me to lead worship tomorrow night. I’m not so pumped about that. I’m not really the song-leading type, but I suppose I’m all about expanding my borders, so it’ll do me good.

Oxford Day 7

Today we began the Global Apprentice segment of our trip. We are to be given challenges by international corporations which we must solve in teams, sorta like the show “The Apprentice.” The winning team at the end of the 3 challenges will receive a scholarship and the top individual performer will receive an internship with an international fortune 500 company. It’s pretty neat.

So today we went to our first company to learn about them and receive our challenge for the week. The company is called Oxfam. It’s a nonprofit company whose mission it is to eliminate poverty and social injustice throughout the world. No small task. They do this by selling things in retail outlets which they receive as donations. They raise about 200 million pounds a year through their retail outlets and fair-trade sales and fundraising, so it’s a pretty large company. They want our groups to help them evaluate their communications between corporate headquarters and the various shops they have scattered about, and then we are supposed to give them solutions to enhance their communications and try to increase their market share while we’re at it. It’s fairly daunting but should be a ton of fun. We are going to start in the morning by visiting some of the locations and interviewing the managers, volunteers, workers, and customers. Should be a blast.

I don’t really have much to add for the day. All we really did was work on our project, and I’m sure you don’t really care much about that. A big thank you to Mr. Dean McFarland for actually reading my blog. Miss ya bud.

I’m getting pretty excited about going to France this weekend. It should be very neat to see some of the key locations from WWII as well as the Eiffel Tower and such. Me and Cody are thinking about going to Italy the next weekend. Should be gorgeous this time of year.

Oxford Day 5: London Trip

I woke up at 7 this morning and donned my England soccer jersey as I headed for the bus station. About 10 of us boarded a really neat double-decker bus and rode an hour and a half to London. London is quite different from Oxford. There are lots of old buildings, but not every building like Oxford. There are about 7 to 10 million people, so it looks a lot more like a city.

Upon arrival we paid about $30 each for a ticket on the “Big Bus Tour” and rode around London looking at the sights. There are a lot of neat things to see in London. One neighborhood we went by had a bunch of apartments lined up. Each apartment sold for around 30 million pounds, which is $60 million. They didn’t look like anything special. It’s pretty amazing really. We saw all the normal sites you see in London, then we went by Buckingham Palace at one point and watched some sort of parade with all the cavalry decked out in their full regalia and whatnot. It was boring for me, but I guess I’m not really the parade type. We all sorta split off after that, so me and a few guys went to Trafalgar Square and ate at the Texas Embassy. We ate in the top bar room so we could watch the first England game in the world cup. It was so awesome. Those guys are so amazing at soccer. England won with 1 to 0. We were pretty pumped and went outside to watch the people get excited about it.

As soon as we went outside a huge line of naked people on bikes came around the corner. Hundreds and hundreds of naked people rode by on their bicycles. It was quite a sight. Apparently, they were protesting vehicles and pollution or something like that. It certainly got people’s attention. It certainly well exceeded my penis-viewing quota for the year. I think I’ll puke if I see any more. I got some pictures, but I’m pretty sure there’s some rule against me posting them on here or Facebook, so you’ll have to ask me if you want to see them. Haha.

The rest of the day involved a ton of encounters with drunk British people. They really love a good win in Football over here. We got back to Oxford at around midnight. I probably walked 15 miles yesterday. I’m surprised that I’m not very sore.

Oxford Day 4

This morning was amazing. I had the opportunity to sit in on a meeting of some of the very most intelligent people in the world as they debated and discussed world issues. Oxford Analytica is basically an editorial board and think-tank comprised of a number of the smartest professors from Oxford University

along with a full-time editorial staff. Each person on the board is a specialist in a different region or topic. They meet daily to discuss topics facing the world, especially the developments within the previous 24 hours. They argue their different sides on issues and work out problems. Then they write up a briefing which is distributed to heads of state and large corporations and such. Memberships to the briefing cost about a hundred thousand bucks a year and have a huge impact on the world. Countries write laws and corporations change policies based upon the writings of these people. It was an amazing experience listening to them talk about some of these issues. They are quite literally the smartest people in the world. Quite a thing to listen to.

Four of us went to sit in on this meeting. It was a few miles away, on the southern side of town in a big castle which is now apparently a church or something. I’m not really sure actually. It was very pretty though.

Anyway, we got done there and stopped by a sports store so I could buy an England soccer jersey to wear tomorrow. Then we went to Krispy Kreme and on to class. Class lasted until about 5:30, when some of us tuned into the World Cup to watch Germany play Costa Rica. It was awesome. Germany won 4 to 2 with some absolutely amazing plays. I loved it. Tomorrow England plays their first game. It is going to be pretty much the greatest thing ever. Me and a bunch of people are going to London to hang out and to watch the game in a huge pub place. I just love drunk, screaming Brits. I’m excited. I’ll be sure to post some updates tomorrow or Sunday about my London trip. I have to wake up a little before 7 in the morning to make it there though, so I am going to do a few things then head for bed. Have a great weekend everyone, or the two people who read this blog, whoever those may be.

Oxford Day 3

One of the most backward things here that I just don’t understand is the faucet system in sinks. They have a hot spigot and a cold spigot. There’s no warm water. If you want warm you have to fill something with water out of each. It’s fairly ridiculous. You’d think by now that they would realize they could save money and infinite bother by combining the two into one faucet system. Oh well, the Brits do like some things to be more difficult than necessary out of principle I guess.

Apparently nobody is reading my blog, or nobody cares. I was hoping someone would ask me some questions. I’m trying to fill up space here folks. I need help. I’m not good at remembering and recording things that go on. Hmmm. The peanut butter here is quite different. It’s basically just crushed up peanuts. There isn’t nearly enough sugar. I bought some Nutella to make it better. Nutella is awesome stuff. It’s hazelnut chocolate spread from the same people who make the Ferrero Rochets. It’s so awesome. Does anyone know if it’s in the States? If not I’m going to have to bring some home.

Today for part of our class we were sent out into the town to interview people and chemists (pharmacists) about the healthcare system in the UK. Ya know, I’ve always been a strong supporter of our system for a free market, capitalistic system of healthcare, but I really think they have something going for them here. Nobody has to pay for healthcare. Of course, they pay about 12% of their income to enable this. Originally this seemed to me like a good justification for not having this system, yet as I started thinking about it, I realized that we probably pay about that in the States or even more for our medical insurance. Of course normally it’s part of your work package, but this comes out of your paycheck in one way or another quite often. Then you have co-pays and tons of problems getting your money out of your insurance people. There is none of that here. It’s all covered. You don’t have to spend 68 hours filling out paperwork before you can be helped. You just have to be a citizen. Unfortunately, the country has already lost about ₤600 million this year through this system, so it’s not quite as efficient as it could be. People tend to get sick a bit more often when there’s someone else to pay the tab. If the family wants to take off on vacation but don’t know what to do with gramps they’ll just make up an illness to store him in the hospital until they get back. There will always be tons of abuse in a free system. I’m not really sure what’s better.

The weather’s beautiful. Mid to upper seventies every day. I’m loving it. I’m sure I have more to talk about, but that’s a page and enough for me. Please comment and ask me questions to answer tomorrow. Thanks and have a great day!

Oxford Day 2

Ah, Blogger was down for a long time yesterday. Finally it's back up and I can post.

So we started classes today. It is such a neat feeling to be sitting around casually in a living room of a Victorian house taking an international business course. I love it. It is really neat to have a professor with such extensive experience in international business. I’m sure I will learn a ton in the next month. Both of the professors here are from ACU and are staying with their families with us in the houses.

Today in my international business class we discussed a bunch of things which I won’t discuss since I’m sure you’re not interested. We got to sit outside in the soft grass and 70 degree weather for part of it. Then we broke for four hours to eat and do our project which entailed going to a bunch of restaurants and shops to research differences between England and the States in business. While we were out I bought a really nice soccer ball for ₤2.39 which is less than $5. Hopefully I’ll get to play a ton in the next few weeks. England is getting very excited about the world cup coming up. Everywhere you go you see pendants and shirts and flags with the England colors and logos and such. I’m pretty pumped myself. I’m really looking forward to going to some of the pubs during the games and watching the Brits go wild about the games. The cup starts the 9^th. I’m excited.

On the way back to the house my group stopped by a market. I simply could not resist buying fruit. Fruit seems like an expensive commodity to me in the States, but here it’s extremely cheap. I got two crates of plums, a big bag of those small good oranges, and a tray of fresh raspberries for ₤3. I guess I got a little too excited. I’m not sure how I’m going to eat it all. I guess I won’t have any trouble staying regular…

Oh yeah, the rooming situation. I think there are about 40 of us here, staying in two 19^th century Victorian houses. Each house has 4 stories. The professors and their families have a floor of each house and the owners have a floor of one of the houses. We are split up between the remaining 5 floors. Most of us are crammed into the smallish rooms with 2 to 5 people each. Normally, when it comes to dolling out rooms by alphabetical order, I get the short end of the stick. However, this time, since there were so many of us they had to open a spare one-bed room. I was the one selected to stay in it because my name was last in the alphabet. Score. Sorry it's messy. I'm still in the process of unpacking.

Anyway, I am supposed to be keeping a journal every day that I’m here, so I am going to turn in my blog as that. I suppose I’ll be updating my blog pretty much every day, so feel free to check it out. Also, please ask me questions. Ask me about what I’ve been doing or what I see or something I can find out. It’ll help me use up more space (every entry has to be a page) and it’ll give me something to do. Thanks and have a great day.

Oxford is awesome

So, England is amazing. The first thing I noticed on the drive from London to Oxford (besides the fact that everyone was driving on the wrong side) was how earthy everything seems. Lush greenery covers everything. Rather than there being huge expanses of stores and gas stations crowding the roadside, small quaint buildings blend into the overgrowth. As we wound our way through the beautiful countryside we passed through a number of small villages. It amazed me how close the villages are to each other. It seemed as though every time we reached the end of a village we’d be on the outskirts of the next. But I suppose after hundreds and hundreds of years of people populating England, there has been plenty of time to space them out all over the place.

It doesn’t take long to realize that Europeans think about things differently than Americans. Take buildings for example. In America buildings are built to serve a purpose. The builders rarely see the lifespan of a house or whatnot as something which matters beyond the lifespan of the owner. In England and other European countries, however, when someone builds a house, they build it to last. They build it with an integrity of its own and the capability to live through many generations. It is very rare to see a house built within the past twenty years here. Many of the homes date back to the 17^th and 18^th centuries and before. Generation after generation may dwell within an old house. The structures live far beyond their makers. It seems to add a sense of calm and confidence to the small villages dotting the landscape. As Americans, I think we have become so very disposable-minded that even our homes are throw-away. I think things would mean a lot more to us if we made them with the attitude that we are providing them for our grandchildren as well as ourselves.

Anyway… enough of that tangent. The trip’s been great so far. The flight went well, but it was very long and of course I couldn’t get a wink of sleep. We landed at 7am in the London Gatwick airport and rode the bus 2 hours to Oxford. We’re staying in two 150-year-old houses. We haven’t done much except explore a bit as we are all extremely tired. It’s about 11:30pm now and I’m very tired after having been up since 8 yesterday morning, so I think I’m going to head for bed shortly. My laptop is not connected to the internet yet, so I am typing this in a Word document. I think I’ll post it sometime tomorrow.

I’m going to try to keep adding posts and Facebook pictures, but be patient. Also, come up with something to do when I get home from Oxford. I’ll only have from the 6^th to the 11^th of July to do whatever, and I haven’t seen nearly enough of anybody this summer. Ok, everyone have a wonderful day.