Now that eighth week of Michaelmas Term is upon us — each term consists of eight weeks, and, as an Oxford student, I learned very quickly how to tell time by (1) what week it is and (2) when my tutorials were, i.e., when my essays were due — it feels like I gazed up at Oxford’s famous spires for the first time just yesterday. Of course, “yesterday” was actually quite some time ago, and I have many adventures to recount just from the last few weeks. Those entries will have to come later, though, for I am in the midst of reading about the effect of remittances on investment decisions in Philippine households during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Er, yes.
Very briefly, then, I offer to readers a quick observation about daily life in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom. When I told people that I would be studying abroad in the UK, I often got some comment about the weather in return. The stereotype, of course, is that it rains all the bleeding time in this fair isle, and, as is the case with most stereotypes, I can say that it is generally but not entirely wrong. It does rain quite often here, it is true, and it is also liable to rain any and every day. That being the case, though, Oxford is rarely subject to the prolonged and heavy rain that can, say, make getting from one’s dorm room to Lau a thoroughly miserable experience. Rain thus becomes a very dull affair, hardly worthy of a thought (except when the weather gods decide that the best time for a downpour with winds strong enough to render an umbrella useless is during the twenty-minute walk from college to the Social Sciences Library, but that is neither here nor there).
What is terribly depressing, though, is the fact that, ever since the UK went back to Greenwich Mean Time, the sun has been setting at a progressively earlier time, starting with 4:30pm. My little desktop widget informs me that, today, this part of the world was devoid of sunlight at exactly 3:59pm, which really means that it had been getting dark by 3pm or so. Factor in a late wake-up time and the clouds that usually obscure the sun anyway, and you are left with precious little sunlight; everyone knows what that can lead to. While things have hardly been that bad on this end, I never knew how much I would miss daylight until it became a rare occurrence. It is a daily reminder of how far north this country actually is — it lies on the same line of latitude as Edmonton, Canada — and how fortunate all residents of the British Isles should be for the existence of the Gulf Stream; otherwise, England truly would be a cold, dark place.
