He's dead Jim...

Week of September 14th, 2003
by King Kashue
Saturday, the 20th of September

Realized I never described my living accomodations. Well, I'm living in the graduate hostel for the college...My room is 9ft. x 13ft. (which for someone who has never lived in a dorm-like setting, i.e., me, is a fine little coffin of a room)...The place is rather nice though and as long as it's clean I really don't much care what else is going on...though when I examine rent to square footage (with the exchange rate), I'm pretty much paying Central Park West kind of rent...

Friday, the 19th of September

Actually got out into the town of Oxford...It's so odd for an American the first time that you see European cities...There are buildings here that are older than my country (by a long shot)...My college, Exeter, was founded in 1314, 300 years before a permanent European colony existed in North America...Exeter is also where Tolkein got his degree (which is undeniably cool)...So I went out, bought a bike and rode into City Centre (riding around a town is a new experience for a Detroit-boy...we drive to the end of the block)...So at this point, after seeing some of this beautiful town and it's scenery and history all I can think about is...my butt hurts...oh man does it hurt... haven't ridden a bike in 10 years and I can barely sit down...

Thursday, the 18th of September

I am officially in England...and I smell...My flight left Detroit at 21:00-ish, and landed at Gatwick airport at 10:00-ish local time (8 hour flight, 5 hour time difference) The flight wasn't all bad, except for that I couldn't bribe my way into First Class. Now, I'm all for following the rules, and often a bribe is wrong, but with the airlines, not really. You see, gate agents have the authority to arbitrarily upgrade passengers, so people on their honeymoon, people who have never flown, little kids, etc. often get bumped to first class if the gate agent is feeling good that day...I usually applies to people with C-notes in their passports ...just not today...The desk agent didn't even realize I was trying to bribe her, and evidently she was new up there (so it's understandable)...She actually called someone to ask if I could upgrade with $100 cash or not (at which point I was hoping the person on the other line would say "he's offering a bribe, take it")..The gate agent knew what was going on, he just didn't take it... So I sat in coach next to an Icelanding fellow name Gudmundur, a really nice guy who is also doing his masters degree in the UK (engineering) and since he had been there a while, he gave me some advice...Really interesting guy, born in Iceland, grew up in Cyprus. I'm not sure if there are two more different places in the world...I guess they're both islands...The in flight movie was X2, which was sweet (you always hear stories about crappy in-flight films)...And when everyone dozed off, the woman next to me, who was (not to focus only on the physical) rather attractive, basically snuggled into my shoulder...Now, I'm a pretty big guy, shoulder-wise, and I always worry about invading personal space on an airplane... not an issue on this flight, so sleeping was good...It's not like we did anything inappropriate (or that I even would), but as coach flying goes, there are far less comfortable situations than the pretty girl next falling asleep on your shoulder...just saying...

Tuesday, the 16th of September

Got my Loan check today, and have my housing confirmed, so all systems are go... Did some last minute shopping, bought a new acoustic guitar and some new tennis shoes (for playing on the lush green grass courts of England)...Exactly why I spent that money when I know I'm going to be strapped for cash in the UK, I don't know...I don't resist good deals well...Anyhoo, the guitar I bought is a Samick Worthington OM 5 CE... It's actually a wonderful guitar. I was looking for something inexpensive and portable that played well (so I don't have to take my more expensive guitars travelling) This thing is really nice, and the coolest part is it's got a built in tuner, which makes life so much easier...A note on Samick. Between Samick and Cort, they make about 80% of the world's factory built guitars, i.e., those guitars out of the orient that say Gibson or Fender or Ibanez, are often made in the factories owned by Samick or Cort (and those factories make their guitars)...Which is why Samick and Cort are good at the low end, and for the high end, I suggest going to a proper luthier who will make the guitar by hand (which is what I plan to do... once I can afford it)...

Monday, the 15th of September

Final countdown to travel kind of stuff...as of the moment, I leave in two days, travelling to a foreign country 4,000 miles from home, and as of yet do not have my Stafford Loan check, nor do I have confirmed housing when I get there...I've really got my bases covered, don't I? Actually, the check will be here tomorrow, becuase I had to deal with Sallie Mae today. Bit of history: I futzed about with the loan process for a month before anything actually got done, with everyone telling me vastly different steps to take...Finally got it applied for, certified by the school, and approved on the 2nd, and they said it would be disbursed by the 5th. When it wasn't disbursed on the 5th, I called and found out the disbursement date had been set by the school for the 1st of October, bit of a problem considering my September 17th departure date. So, I contacted the school (which is difficult due to the time difference, by the time I found this out on Monday, the offices had closed at Oxford for the day, so nothing happened until Tuesday). Tuesday, the school asks me if the change is actually necessary, and by the time they get my response it's too late to do anything, so now we're on to Wednesday. Wednesday they contact Sallie Mae, and tell them to set the disbursement date ASAP, which Sallie Mae assures me is no later than Friday the 12th...Friday comes and goes, no check...I call them today, and they entered the disbursement date as the 22nd for some reason (the service rep originally said it was because disbursement dates couldn't be moved up more than 9 days...*pause*...yeah, made that much sense to me also...) I told them it needed to be to me by tomorrow so I could get it in the bank, and was told that I would need to contact FedEx to arrange for a pick up at their office (to fix their mistake mind you)...At that point I appealed to a higher authority; her supervisor...When you have as much credit card debt as I do you learn something about Customer Service departments, the representatives have absolutely no power to get anything done, where as their supervisors can usually bend all sorts of rules if you ask in the right manner...So I get put on hold, and the supervisor picks up, and before I even ask her to bend the rules, she informs me that the check has been disbursed (I was on hold maybe 2 minutes) and the check will be to me tomorrow morning...Now that's what I call customer service...

Sunday, the 14th of Sepember

I'm at D-day minus-3 before my departure from the States to do my Master's at Oxford University. I'm obviously excited about it, but the whole "another continent for a year" thing is a bit nerve-wracking. My whole family lives in South Eastern Michigan, so I've never really been far from them, so that will definitely be weird for me. Luckily my cousin and her new husband live in London, so they're about an hour away or so by train, instead of 8 by plane as Detroit is (man, I really need to learn how to teleport)...Last Sunday in Detroit for 6 months, also means last service at my church for 6 months. Church and Family are hug in my life, so missing both will be a little hard to take, thank you Cold War for planting the seeds of the internet...Easier to feel close to home with email, IRC, etc...yeah, that's about it...