Westernly Wanderings

The fog crept in on little cat feet

Carl Sandberg

In spite the 5,000 miles that currently separate me from my hometowns, this morning’s battleship skies and crisp, fresh air made me feel right at home! 

Today’s litany of orientations, including explanations of collegial academia, library voyages, coterie trips and other such events of significance, gave way to an afternoon of arctic sunshine and city-wide reconnaissance.

If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.

Lewis Carroll

Bundled as Mallory might have been, but with far better odds of survival, a flipped coin directed us west down High Street. (for future note- a British 50 pence coin works best… pound coins are too heavy for a proper flip, while the pennies are entirely useless due to their featherweight nature)

The heavenly scents of warm pastries and oven-fresh bread from our next door neighbor’s ovens (Café Crème just moved in) promised spoonfuls of early morning happiness as we proceeded to pass dozens of patisseries and bakeries, in addition to designer clothing shops, countless shoe stores, carts selling flowers and kabobs, signs declaring the “best beer in Oxford,” and even a few colleges, although no gowns will be seen on the streets for another week.

Ultimately, the mile walk west (which truthfully took us about an hour due to the constant window peering and people watching) led us to Sainsbury’s, the equivalent of Trader Joes in aesthetic and both product quantity and quality.

Had the Queen’s head of the 50 pence seen the sun, (rather than Britannia and her shaft of wheat), we would have turned right down High Street, heading East ad ultimately reached Tesco (Britain’s Safeway equivalent). But that adventure will have to wait for another day.

After an hour spent joyfully wandering the store, finding “totally British” brands (hello Mcvities Digestives, Pimms, HP, Cadbury Flakes and Double Deckers, Nestle Yorkie, Frosties (by Kellogg), Walker’s (by Lay’s), as well as comforts of home, (hello Cadbury, Kellogg, Lay’s, Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, and Philadelphia Cream Cheese), we departed, laden with bright orange bags as well as shopping bags from the trip to Sainsbury’s that included a bag of desk-y items from Ryman’s the Stationer, a new phone from Vodaphone, my first Oxford Rugby, an Oxford Sweatshirt, three new scarves, and one very fetching, very British, very hounds tooth flatcap. With drastically less sightseeing, and far more weight to carry, the brisk walk home took less than 20 minutes.

Our evening revolved around our first formal dinner as part of the Stanford-Oxford program. We headed to Corpus Christi (an easy 15 minutes walk, in the relative direction of Sainsbury’s) for our official Welcome Dinner, a beautiful four course evening that began with a choice of dry or sweet sherry and ended, as all meals should, with coffee and chocolates.

In between, we dined upon Roast Tomato and Basil Soup with Garlic Croutons, Chargrilled contre-filet of Scotch beef, red wine and tarragon sauce with fine beans and duchesse potatoes, and a banofee pie (yes, that was Banofee, banana + toffee= banofee) pie for dessert.

And when the last drips of coffee were drained and the final bites of chocolates consumed, full of laughter and good food, we wandered back to our home on High Street, crossing the cobblestones still drenched in fog, ready for another day. 

The game’s afoot,

ej

Tuesday, April 13,

High St, Oxford, UK