Going to the Market

The small things in my daily life make my life, in general, an adventure, for which I am grateful. Today I went to the market. “Going to the market” has a very different definition than it did when I lived in Los Angeles. No cars – just walking and hopping buses is all that is entailed in my day-to-day activities and errands.

We live on a road that is semi-parallel street to Cowley Road and Headington Street. The road grids in Oxford are circular, as opposed to the north-south/east-west standard roads I am accustomed to in the States. Sometimes in the circular grids, it is easy to think you're going to take a short-cut and end up walking in a much bigger circle and losing time. This forced me to find the most direct or least deviating paths to the places I go.

For the longest time, I was quite afraid of violating jaywalking rules and of crossing the streets without proper crosswalks. Towards June and July (a few months since I had been in Oxford during the previous study abroad program), I started understanding the pedestrian road rules – there are places one can cross without having to go all the way to the street light. Since the roads are semi-single lanes, there are islands in the centre of the road between the two directions of traffic. If the cars are backed up, you can simply cross to the middle. Once in the middle, it's just a matter of waiting for the opposing traffic to pass before finishing the crossing. If no crossing island or streetlight are present, one just crosses (at one's peril) and employs jaywalking.

Today, I only went down the street to the Cooperative Market which is only a few blocks from where I live. The Cooperative is the first of a string of small stores and venues. It is probably the size of a large 7/11 convenience store but has pretty much the basic items one needs from day-to-day. Grocery stores are generally much smaller than even our smaller chain stores in the States. Nearby the Cooperative, is a post office/convenience store, a liquor store, and finally, and fish and chips shop.

It is a beautiful day today – there are few clouds out, the warmth of the sun feels good against the light and cool breezes. Skies here are blue, and we have clouds (and, of course, rain). Towering green trees populate the yard spaces of various buildings and houses, and everywhere you look, you see old and quaint houses, schools, and other places. The greens of spring and summer are pervasive. Soon the autumnal colours will begin to appear – as the leaves already show signs of darkening or changing shades. I didn't have to wear a jacket either – something that is unusual for me as I'm still acclimating to the cooler temperatures.

It only took about ten minutes to walk over to the Cooperative. It wasn't crowded; there were probably only five shoppers there when I was there. However, for the size of the aisles, people have to negotiate their way with other customers. There are no shopping carts (for obvious reasons just stated) – just baskets. I've noticed that people here favour the baskets to the carts; this is probably a function of proximity wherein people can go to the market more frequently and tend to walk or take buses which would make it a futile venture to buy too much at any given time. This necessity draws people out of their homes and out to the shops. It is very common to see people coming and going from shops, from buses, and into town; cars are superfluous except that they create congestion on the roads.

So ends my day of minor errands. I wish I could transport people I love over for a day to give a guided tour of this quaint, old, modern place - Oxford. Maybe one day you’ll see this all for yourselves; it is definitely worth investing in - trying on different places and spaces. Godspeed.