My Travel Adventures

A few days in bright and hot California made my return to Britain very pleasant. No longer would I have to put on sunscreen just to go outside, nor would I have to strategise how to stay in the shade on my walks. It occurs to me, however, that for a country that constantly has to deal with rain, the UK does not do so very well. My bus to Oxford was delayed by a quarter of an hour, and it arrived at least half an hour later than it should have. It reminded me of my arrival in Oxford two months ago, when major delays had been caused by a heatwave. Clearly, the dysfunctionality of UK traffic is chronic, and the weather is just an excuse. Whether it be heat, rain, or snow, there is always some (usually only slightly) inclement weather condition that throws a wrench into theoretically perfect timetables.

There is not much to write about the final day of our road trip except that we have finally made it. At noon, we arrived in Stanford, where Kelly will soon begin her PhD program. Nevertheless, we could not begin her move-in today, as she had to undergo a test for tuberculosis at the university’s clinic. The justification for this requirement continues to baffle me, as the vaccination rate in East Asia is way higher than what America could ever dream of, and Kelly has not even left the country since taking a TB test for her last program. Coupled with some bureaucratic miscommunication, the whole episode threatened to cut our trip short, but things turned out well in the end.

The penultimate day of our journey was more chaotic than we expected. Our use of the words “cursed,” “janky,” and “unhinged” had been high from the beginning but today, it shot through the roof.