₤5 a Day

Mark Eaton, our APU Resident Faculty member for this Oxford term, told me across the pizza table tonight that he had a book idea for me: “₤5 a Day: a Clinically Poor Person’s Guide to Oxford.”

The idea tickled me. While I don’t think I have enough material for an entire book about Oxford (gosh, I don’t even think I’d want to read that), I do believe I will title the beginning of my blog…titles…with that.

Orientation today took 9 hours. We arrived at 9:20 (rant warning), sat in a room with a leaking roof, and listened until 11:15 when we broke for tea and coffee and biscuits (which were, I must say, delicious). Then more talking until 1, then we broke again and they fed us lunch in the St. Catz dining hall (which is my college). At 2, we began again. Our tea break was 40 minutes late. We were supposed to end at 4, but didn’t break until 4. Then we began again at 4:30 and went another half hour.

All of that to say it was a case of “too much information too quickly,” mixed with, “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” with a dash of, “My brain is shortly going to explode.” We covered everything from British politics to where you can buy the best organic tomatoes.

Luckily, I did figure a few key things out:

• We can get internet in our house for ₤48 for the term—split among 4 people, that’s a one-time payment of ₤12 a person, which is way less than I thought it was going to be. AND, we can have it set up Monday, if I heard him correctly, although I may not have, which means we can request it on Monday it’ll come sometime in the next century.
• I did a little calculating.
• If I combine the money I have left (staying in London for a week severely bit into my money—4 nights at a hostel for ₤16 a night, plus ₤25 for a Tube Oyster card to get around the city, plus roughly ₤6 worth of food per day, plus an ₤11 ticket to Oxford, plus a ₤10 taxi ride from the bus station to the porter’s lodge to our flat (we had no choice, we were instructed by APU to take a taxi)—so roughly ₤150—wiped out almost half what I brought with me in cash.
• There’s a lovely little ₤170 fee for our upgraded housing due Monday.
• If I convert almost everything I have in my checking account and get exactly the current exchange rate, I can add ₤125 to my current ₤120, making ₤245. Minus ₤182 for housing and internet, that leaves me about ₤63 to eat, buy regular supplies like toilet paper and detergent, travel, and lodge in other countries, for the rest of the semester.

This is obviously a pickle. I am in Oxford from now until April 8^th. Roughly 90 days. Even if I ate for less than a pound a day, I…well, you get the picture. Not only that, but there are 20 days after I am kicked out of my house here in Oxford before I head home to LA on the 28^th of April. I have to pay for travel, lodging, food, and miscellaneous expenses for almost 3 weeks.

Why they let someone with as poor math skills as I have go to Oxford is beyond me.

I am rather desperately seeking work back in the US. Photoshop design work for small companies (brochures, logos, general artwork), cover art for bands, or even menus or concert tickets or posters or fliers. Also, writing. Scripts, short stories, articles, essays, whatever. The professor here at Oxford, Mark Eaton, has graciously offered to let me babysit his two boys every now and again, but I have no idea how often they go out or what they pay. Certainly it would help, but…let’s just say it may bump my food budget up to just evenly a pound a day. Maybe.

The general consensus seems to be, “If I don’t have money, I’ll just ask my parents for some.” While I hate that option anyway, I especially hate it since the humble wallets of the family closest to me has already shelled out the majority of the cash I brought with me in the first place. Since I bought the round-trip ticket over here, that completely wiped out the pitiful savings I’d been able to set aside on my college-student-status-jobs.

So in addition to praying for my lost camera (still haven’t been able to e-mail or call them), if you could add “help stupid, stupid, stupid Emily Womelsduff find work back in the US,” to your daily, weekly, or monthly religious or spiritual meditations, I would greatly appreciate it.

I am so used to working 2-3 jobs every semester that I didn’t realize just how difficult it would be to travel without having a steady income. I am legally not allowed to work in the UK. Hence hoping for jobs back in the States that I could do here (hence the writing and design work, which I can do from my laptop and e-mail back or send by dropbox, etc.). for which a check could be written to me, sent to my mum, and deposited by her since (thank God) she is still a signer on my account.

That’s the plan so far. Pathetic. But currently the only one I’ve got. If anyone has an incredibly rich uncle who would like to be a patron of academia to a poor girl they absolutely don’t know, well then…nah, let’s not even raise the fairy tale hopes.

Aside from financial woes (which I always seem to be in the midst of), I am rather excited. I received an e-mail from my Oxford academic advisor stating that my secondary tutorial subject had been approved, and my first one, while not approved, had also not been rejected. I am going in on Monday to speak with him.

Speaking of meetings, we have a million of them. A tour tomorrow, academic advising on Monday as well as internet set-up, weekly check-ins where we have to verify with the government that we are actually studying so as to prove that we are not terrorists, tutorials meetings, faith and learning colloquium, library tours (several; there are literally 9 million books in catacombs underneath the Bodleian library, the surface of which is covered by four separate gigantic buildings), college tours, and probably a half dozen other things I’ve already totally forgotten about (yay for notes).

Ah, and yes, here is the Daily Rant: Walking.

Nicole and I got quite used to walking everywhere while we were in London. But this walking was usually coupled with some sitting and some getting on an off the Tube, which moves roughly a billion times faster than we do.

My college, St. Catherine’s, is at a direct diagonal from my flat, across town. It took 35 minutes speedwalking to get there this morning. Since there’s only 8 hours of daylight, between about 8am and 4:30pm, and since half the books I will need are reference only, I will be spending many post-dark days a half-hour’s walk from my flat. While Oxford is not a dangerous city, walking that far while tired and less aware is just not my idea of a good or safe time.

Also, I hate speed-walking. I’m the leisurely walker, which means it’ll probably take 45 minutes for me to get there. Add the weight of a loaded backpack and an empty stomach, and we’re looking at the ugly side of an hour’s walk.

While you can get a bus pass, it’s expense, and don’t even think about a taxi. You can rent a bike, but it’s not cheap (plus, ha! I don’t have the money anyway), and even if it was cheap, the road’s are so illogical with such insane drivers that I promise you I would be dead within the week.

So this is what the next few months look like. Luckily, there are some things you can simply borrow from the OPUS office, including hair dryers, curling irons, umbrellas, amid a myriad of other small but needed items that you needn’t buy because you can borrow. I do like that.

We begin term on the 19^th. Until then, pray that God smiles favorably upon those with great intentions, and poor math skills.

Sincerely yours,

E.R. Womelsduff