Finally Set Up

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Trip Start Aug 06, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Sep 20, 2008

  Oxford, England, United Kingdom
Saturday, September 20, 2008

     The day has finally come that all the pieces have fallen into place. We now all have bank accounts setup, bills have been transferred into our names, we got our cards, and life is finally becoming normal. The phone was hooked up on the 16th and we got a smoking international package as I mentioned earlier so we can finally make some calls home and hear the voices of our family again. The internet is now booked and scheduled to be hooked up on the 24th so that will be nice to have back again in a few days. The only things we really have left to do now is I need to find a job ;) and possibly purchase a TV. I have watched every movie I brought with me three or four times now and need some new material. No internet means no reading either so it has gotten difficult to fill our time again and stresses are rising slightly. Hopefully that will all die off once the internet is back up and we can make some long awaited phone calls back home though.
 
     I got to ride my first double decker bus last Friday. Apparently they put double decker buses out on our main bus route on Fridays to help handle the increased load. So the bus we normally take to get downtown was suddenly a double decker pulling up. I was pretty excited when I got on and headed straight up top and sat at the front. Lame experience I'm sure to most but for me it was awesome. Not to mention you finally got a really good view of what it's like to drive the bus down here as when riding it you can't really see out the front windows. Because of the extra height you also got a really good view of the streets and I quite enjoyed my journey. I was alone at the time but I was sure to tell Aimee and Scott when I got home. Aimee was also all giggly as she got to ride one to as they put double deckers on her work bus route that day as well so we were both very excited to finally ride one. Scott on the other hand rides one every day to work so the novelty wore off for him but Aimee and I were excited. And I know at some point Scott was too no matter what he tells you cause one of the first things he said when we got here was I want to ride a double decker bus.
 
     We also had a bug the size of a ping pong ball fly into my room the one night. I don't know what the hell the thing was but it was big and ugly, mostly leg and wing but still huge. Aimee and Scott were both in here as we were using the laptops at the time so Scott and I went on the hunt. We grabbed some socks and began trying to hammer him against the wall. Scott on the other hand tried to pick him off mid air and in turn nailed my lamp shade and light bulb exploding it. Suddenly darkness fell and we got the thing eventually but had to pick up the glass from the mess as we don't have a vacuum yet. Now under normal circumstances this wouldn't be an issue, buy a new light bulb, one night of dark no big deal, boy were we wrong. Apparently the lights in our room use a special light bulb which we soon learned. To save you the long windiness of this adventure we have been to probably around 20 stores now some being home hardware type stores and have yet to locate this bulb. I don't know if it's some sort of foreign light or what but the thing does not exist and I have been living with no light in my room for over two weeks now. Really sucks at night time as the laptop screen is my only real source of illumination. Aimee however finally did succeed in finding the right plug type end on it at the smallest store ever the one day that she happened to be passing on the way home from work. It was the first time we had finally found the right end and both her and I were ecstatic that I would finally have a light again. But it failed. It was the right plug but the wrong wattage and they have guide tabs on the side to make sure you plug the right wattage in so it wouldn't fit. So close and yet no luck, we returned the light but unfortunately they only had the one wattage so the hunt is one again to find this stupid light bulb. It went from being frustrating to just outright hilarious that we can't find this bulb anywhere.
 
      For a change however we have had sun all week now and it has been blue skies and warm weather. Finally the rain has left us for a while and left behind some gorgeous days. I posted earlier about the rising waters and flood watch and those have both now dropped off. Due to the heat and sun and lack of rain the canals have finally caught up and the water has dropped back down. Good news for us as we I noticed the boats were back on the waters when I passed them downtown this week. So tomorrow we shall attempt our gondola ride again. Scott has learned that they are not called gondolas however and are actually called Punts. So tomorrow we shall take our Punt ride and see if we can't steer and propel a boat with a stick. I'm sure it will make for a good entry and hopefully the weather will hold and we will have another nice sunny day. We are told there is a pub half way down the river that you can stop at too so it should be a fun day.
 
     I think that's about all new that has happened for the most part. I will probably start a new chapter soon and draw this one to a close as we are finally settled and living and this entry was really only our journey to get settled. So keep an eye out for a new Chapter to start.

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