Days six and seven: other activities.

Day six:
Went to register with the college doctor, really very easy.  Explored a bit more.

Programme for nought week (i.e. the week before term starts*) is up, which is absolutely packed with activities.

Then went to have dinner, tea & conversation in the upper common room after that, bar in the college basement after that. Really easy way to spend all the time from 18:30-24:00+ and a lot of fun.
Know now who my "old hand" is thanks to a fellow CS student who knows the system a bit. Apparently it's someone who is not very active. :(

* Yes this means this week is "-1"st week. And they do indeed refer to it as such.

Day seven:
Went to the introduction for new international students. Which had some interesting parts but mostly repeated info I already knew. Still met a couple of interesting people, exchanged email adresses and such, so was still useful.

Days 5-7: some assembly required

PC arrived on monday morning, borrowed a trolley to take the packages to my room, and left them there to attend the library introduction. Then started building my PC around 11:00.


Boxes

Installing the processor (Intel Core i5 750)

 Installing the RAM (4GB DDR3 Corsair) and installing the motherboard in the case

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTS 250






Done!

Overall, several runs to the computer room to look things up.
Booting up for the first time: beeeeeepbipbip. Which is apparently motherboard-speak for GRAPHICS CARD FAIL.
To the computer room to chat with tech support who told me:

[16:37:17] Ahh if you have two 6 pin sockets then both must be utilised ... many high-end/quality PSUs have dedicated 6 pins - one or two.

Great, that's why there were two connectors but only one cable. Ordered a new and much better PSU which arrived on wednesday.

Wednesday: installed the new PSU, which worked perfectly.

Booting up:

Yay successful boot!
Screen is an Acer P223W 22". Really nice, and quite reflective. ;)



PC also came with a voucher for a free world of warcraft download. Sell or burn?

Day four: I learned something today..

Visited the natural history museum today. Really good, lots of interesting exhibits.

There are also little info signs for the kids, all titled "YUCK!"

Also found a multi-plug socket: on amazon. Free shipping too (on anything >£5), so I guess I'll be ordering there more often.

One more pic of the college: this is part of the "marble hall", which connects to the main hall and common room.

Also, the camera in my phone just seems to be getting worse, unable to focus on anything. Sorry for the awful quality. :(

Third day: the quest for the unfindable multiplug socket

My PC will arrive on monday and I don't have enough sockets, so went looking for a short (1m) multi-plug socket today which complies with the electrical appliances regulations here. Biked all over town to find it, but they all started at 2m. Still useful though as I now know of a lot more shops. :) Will try to ask the accomodation office or something about whether or not that's okay, and if not where to find one instead.
Then bought a book (with the 20% discount for all students on all books at borders), still a few pence cheaper here though.



Also made dinner myself for the first time here. Some pics of the large kitchen which is shared between about 12 people:

My specialty: frozen stuff heated until edible ;)

Second day: less walking, more biking. Now with extra pictures!

Got up around the same time, put an "FMF" sticker on my bike so it's easier to recognize, and biked to the city centre. Tried to go to some museums but those were all closed. Explored the city a bit more, lot of construction works going on.


Bought some new clothes for next to nothing. Less than 7 pound for these:

Walked to Summertown (nearer to my college, in the north of Oxford) and explored there for a bit before going to the supermarket and bought some extra pans as I don't think the single wok in the welcome pack will be enough.
Also found out that apparently my debit card only works twice per day or so, as it kept failing after that.

Just been here for two days, but after all the exploring it seems like weeks.

First day: lots of forms, lots of walking

Got up around 8:15, showered, went to the general office to pick up my university and college card. There I got some booklets, info sheets and a huge 1100 page book "Examination regulations". :o
Registered the card to let me have access to computer rooms, library, laundry room etc. No computer yet as the one I ordered still hasn't shipped as theyre waiting for one of the parts.
After that walked to the HSBC bank in Summertown with my acceptance letter. Took well over an hour to get everything set up.

Got back around 11:30, then walked to the city center, explored a bit. Some nice buildings and incredibly huge book stores. Had lunch in a tourist trap, of which there are lots.Then walked to botley road which is a bit outside the city center. There I bought a bike at warland's, which came recommended in the google maps reviews.  £100 for a second hand bike, and they changed the rather huge handlebars to smaller ones for free.

Got back around 14:00, parked my bike, dropped off some stuff and walked(!) back to the city center to find an electric shaver and look around some more. Found a lot of shops which will be useful, bought some fruit and breakfast for tomorrow at Sainsbury's. Could not find a shaver at first but the Sony shop suggested I try Argos. Argos is a very strange store which just has rows and rows of the same huge catalog. After finding a shaver (philips 7360 at £49 including free travel kit with nail clippers and such), I had to write down the catalog number and go to customer service, where they took my ticket. I then had to pick up and pay for the item, which was delivered from their underground storage within a few minutes. Very strange, but quite efficient way of having a store with a huge number of items.

Walked back again, wrote down the shaver in the electric equipment form, and handed in the whole stack of forms (emergency contact, fire notice, tenancy agreement, etc) at the accommodation office. Then went to the computer room to write this, obviously. :)

 ... to be continued

Arrival

Arrived safely, and the trip to Oxford was nicely uneventful. Room seems fine, in the Annexe building.
Dinner and tea afterwards were slightly problematic, since I don't have a university/college card yet with which I can pay, though all worked out thanks to some nice students and staff here.
Tired though...

ETA: pictures.
Packing:

Travel:

 Room: