OXFORD - DAY 15

It has been really easy not to blog lately.  Not because I've been busy, although I have.  I got used to blogging before bed, but James, Brittany and I have settled into a routine of hanging out for hours in our kitchen before bed-  making fun of the British, debating philosophy, and generally making all sorts of nerdy jokes.  I'm trying to blog here now with them, but it's impossible to get a train of thought going.  Brittany's playing Sinatra and French music, we're all eating chocolate, and James is reading The Mockingjay.  Too many great things.

Speaking of great things-  I need to introduce you to the Bod.

The big building in the middle is The Radcliffe camera, one of the 3 main buildings in the Bodelian Library.  The second, the "old library" is connected to The Radcliffe Cam, it's the wide building beneath it on the picture above.  The third, the "new library" (which is currently under construction and closed) is just under the old library and just cut off in the picture above.  It looks like it has a green roof.  

You can also see my college, Hertford College in the picture.  It's directly across from the old library, and extends off the bottom of the picture.  Here's a picture of Hertford's famous archway:

I finally got to walk across that thing today during my hunt for the college bar.  Each college has their own bar, by the way, which is one HUGE pro for the British college system.  

Back to the library system though.  Anyway, the Bodleian library (for a number of longwinded reasons) owns at least one copy of every book published in the past 400 years.  This is wonderful, because virtually any book anyone could need while at Uni is totally accessible-  but also because of this, you can't just walk into the library and pick it off a shelf.  All these books are housed in a number of storage facilities in nearby cities, and are transported back through tunnels under the city.  So to get these books, we have to order them, and they'll become available in 1-3 days.  The first thing I did after my tutorial was order the reading list so I could get started the next day.  

That's not even the weird part though-  once the books are in one of the 3 main library buildings, they can't leave.  It is a reference only library.  You need a "Bod Card" in order to get in or out of any building, and your bag is checked for books on your way out.  I ordered my books to be delivered to the Old Bod Library, but today my friends were in the Rad Cam Library, so I had to walk 10 min through the libraries and in a tunnel underground connecting the two in order to get myself and the books there.  Before any of us could even go into the library, we had to attend a "library orientation" and listen to a 1 hr lecture.  That was before we had to recite a pledge not to take books out of the library, or start a fire in the library, and sign a contract promising the same thing.   

The library system here is such a pain in the ass.  Once I get used to it though, I'm sure it won't be so annoying.  Plus, you get these views:

Yeah, I'm gonna quit my bitching.  

It's a big contrast to what I'm used to-  studying alone in the library.  Seriously, if I ever really wanted to be alone at Chapman, I could always count on the library as a safe haven, nobody ever went there.  The library at the Bod is packed!  (Because we can't take books out, plus we're all nerds.)   It's nice.  

Oh, and here's a weird tidbit about those Brits.  NEVER ASK THEM FOR DIRECTIONS!  I've been learning this the hard way for weeks (think my 4 hour walk to Highclere Castle) and I just recently heard that it's an actual "thing"  James heard a British woman give somebody directions on the street and she literally said, "Well it's down that way.  And then, well, it's all just kind of a mess.  You kind of have to figure it out.  Okay bye!"

At another point, we saw two British men were waiting to cross the street, when gave up waiting and just started walking.  His friend immediately started yelling (read in a British accent)  "What?!  You're not going to wait for the little green man?!?"  Then he hesitantly tried to cross the street after his friend. 

I feel like I'm beginning to understand the frustration/amusement many people feel towards the British.  On one hand, they're adorable.  On the other, you sort of want to hit them on the head with their own rulebook.  I'm not a fan of all the rules and protocol.  Too much to remember.  Plus, if you break one of their rules, they get really upset.  Not just upset like mad, but like personally upset.  They literally think it's the end of the world.  I don't know why.  They've never broken a rule and liked it?  I don't understand these people...