The City of Dreaming Spires

I love the title; that's the real sub-name for Oxford. It sounds so dreamy and romantic; I feel like I'm twelve years old again, and convinced I'm Anne of Green Gables, where everything has a romantic name.

I've started looking at information about Oxford and college life in the UK. I've found some different sorts of things about living in England.

1.One must buy a TV license for a TV. It costs 131 pounds sterling - about 262 American Dollars. If one gets caught without a license, there is a 1000 pound sterling fine! Good thing Avram and I don't even own a TV in America, because a TV is definitely not worth that much to me.

2. In reading a guide for saving money for college students, they tell you to only take 20 pounds out for drinking, and to leave the cards at home, to avoid a drunken visit to the ATM for more money. Although I'm sure this wouldn't be that weird of advice to most Americans, to me it's funny. It's nice how much money Avram and I save by being LDS.

3. We can go on day tours from Oxford to Stratford-upon-Avon (where Shakespeare's from), Bath, Stonehenge, the Welsh Border, London (of course; it's only an hour away), and just about anywhere else in England. Day tours from Provo could just mainly take one to the desert.

4. I don't personally care about this one, but some scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed in Oxford, and I can even take a tour of them. For example, the outside of one of the colleges that Avram applied to (one has to apply to college inside the university, after admittance to the univesity of Oxford), Christchurch is the outside of some building at Hogwarts.

5. In looking at Hotels to find the cost of accomodations in Britain, I came across a room description which included a colour telivision (do some places still offer black and white?) and a trouser press (I don't even use my normal iron). Also, this hotel was in the cheapest set of hotels; it only cost up to 60 pounds - 120 dollars. Ouch!

6. There are speciality used clothing stores that only sell used Graduation gowns, because at Oxford the students not only wear them for Graduation, but also for Matriculation (starting school), formal dinners in their college, and taking tests. There are many different kinds for each person, with formal regulations dictating what one wears; Avram's has lace on it!

7. In America Banks are notorious for their holidays in remembrance of everything. In Britain that is so much so, that Holidays are referred to as Bank Holidays.

That's everything odd I can think of right now. Except that everything is twice as expensive as in America. At least their minimum wage is twice as much; it's 5.35 pounds/hour, or $10.70/hour (Avram's planning on obtaining a part time job to help decrease the cost).