Escape From London

Well, London isn't the city for me. I am leaving that loud, busy, noisy, gray city and heading towards the oasis of John in Oxford. After staying in a hostel for the first time in my life, and wandering the streets virtually homeless in search of an affordable hotel, I am finally taking a bus to one of the many inexpensive B&Bs in Oxford. After a night there, I will stay with John, whom you may recognize from the Woodside party photos.

There is something about the university towns in England that are very calming. Maybe it is the feeling of permanence from the buildings in which students have been learning for a thousand years. Maybe it is the general air of distraction that chronic academia lends to it’s people.
There is a bus, the Oxford Tube, that travels between London and Oxford many times per hour during the day, and the bus, a double-decker luxury coach, has power outlets at each seat. One can imagine, then, how many people have their laptops booted up for the trip. There is also a surprising number of iPods and Powerbooks. These Brits obviously have style and class when it comes to electronics.
Normally when I use my Powerbook on a bus, particularly on the top deck of a bus, I get miserably motion sick. This time, however, I planned ahead and dug out of my luggage some lozenges that I bought while in Zug, Switzerland with my friend Jared. The lozenges contain ginger and mint, and sure enough they have done away with my motion sickness. Hence I am able to write this story.
The sun is setting over the London suburbs, our coach (bus to us Americans) is driving slowly past a group of kids and a dad playing football (soccer) on a patch of grass between apartments. What they don’t seem to realize is that at the front of the grass there is a sign saying “No ball games”. Football takes precedence over rules in this land.