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!