I have taken up residence in room 1-074 at the Arthur Sanctuary House, a sizeable dormitory on the hospital campus built in the 1950s as a nurses' (not nursing) home. With several single rooms sharing each kitchen and communal area, I was expecting a dorm-style suite-like arrangement. Unfortunately, every room opens directly onto the hallway, and each has its own lock, so as far as I've seen, there's no real sense of community. The kitchen also leaves much to be desired; I spent most of Saturday acquiring a sad little hodgepodge of the most basic cookware, and I dearly miss the array of accoutrements stashed in my parents' basement. Still, the commute can't be beat - perhaps a three-minute walk from the dorm to the hospital door - and, really, I didn't move to England to spend a whole lot of time in housing.
So the hospital and dorm are actually located in Headington, a small suburb of Oxford about two miles east of the city centre. It sits at the top of Headington Hill, and I've heard tell that it actually has quite good views of the dreaming spires, although I haven't yet found a tree-less vantage point to prove this theory.
Looking west
Further along towards Oxford, there is lovely parkland that opens up on each side of the road, which will be very nice to explore on a day that is not quite as blustery as this day was.
This was taken from East Oxford at the foot of the hill and is a terrible photo, but if you look closely you can see the road, behind those nearest trees, sloping gently back up towards Headington
Headington consists of a handful of shops along a short section of the A420, also called the London Road (coaches to London stop in the middle of Headington every 10-15 minutes or so - brilliant), with neighbourhoods of modest but nice-looking houses clustered north and south of this main road. "Modest but nice-looking" could really describe most of what I've seen of Headington, honestly - the high street is essentially a gas station, a few restaurants, a few pubs, and seven or eight charity/thrift shops (seriously, it's head-scratchingly disproportionate). There is, however, a Waitrose and a Co-op Food, elevating the town decidedly into the middle class. The populace, too, seems to be a reasonable demographical cross-section, despite the proximity to Oxford and the smaller Oxford Brookes universities.
Huh. I swear I did have other, coherent things to report to you, but either the fact that it's nearly midnight is finally catching up to me, or I'm managing to put myself to sleep with this post (and if that's the case, I apologize to you, who must be finding it even worse). Either way, bed is calling, and I had better not ignore it. Wish me luck for tomorrow!
P.S. If you want my address over here, let me know via some private medium (email, Facebook, Skype, etc.).
