Oxford Applicants for 2012 Entry

Hi Mrs -----,

You're probably quite surprised that I'm emailing you as technically I should be in Ealing right now. However, today has been a total disaster; nothing but problem after problem.

First of all, Naomi's parents expressly forbade her to travel on the Tube at night (the journey is an hour from Farnborough to Waterloo, and then forty minutes on the tube from Waterloo to Ealing, and then a walk to the university), and after many phone calls to her and to the organiser, Caroline, it was agreed that Naomi's mother would accompany us for the whole journey tonight. Naomi admitted that that was her fault as she should have planned in advance, but the organisers didn't seem to have realised that there would be two seventeen year old girls walking around West London alone, in the dark, at 10 at night. We will have to do the same next Friday, which will be worse as all the party-goers will be around, and Caroline suggested that we check into the nearby YMCA and travel back on Saturday instead of Friday at 11pm, but I have to start work at 7am on Saturday morning.

When we got to the station to buy the tickets, it turned out that each ticket cost £78 so I had to put about £5 on top. That wasn't too bad, but these season tickets do not include Underground. We have to take the tube from Waterloo to a Zone 6 station, which costs £4 per single fare. Two journeys a day for five days will come to £40, not including transport to the Natural History Museum, so altogether we each have to pay about £50 of our own money simply to get to the university and back every day. I don't have that kind of money to spend on Tube tickets. If we had known a month ago that the money we would be given from the school would not cover Underground transport, we could have applied for 16-18 Oystercards which would cut the cost in half, but each application takes three weeks and so it looks quite unlikely that we will be able to get one. We were under the impression that everything would be covered by the school, and I especially probably would not have signed up if I had known that I would be expected to contribute £50 or more just for transport.

Then, the 1808 train which we were supposed to take to Waterloo was delayed and then cancelled at the last moment. I rang Caroline to explain that we wouldn't be coming that evening because we had received no information about why it was cancelled and whether there would be a replacement service, and therefore it would be pointless to wait half an hour only to see the next train cancelled- even if we took the 1838 train, by the time we would arrive in Waterloo it would be 1938, after the tube journey it would be 2020, and after walking to the coffee shop it would be about 2045: we would have to leave at 2130 anyway in order to catch the right train home from Waterloo, and therefore it wouldn't really be a good idea to travel for two hours in the rain simply to spend forty five minutes there. Of course, I was really really upset because I was so looking forward to it and really wanted to meet everyone; I hate being the newcomer the next day when everyone has already met each other, but there had just been sign after sign and we were too frustrated and upset, and decided between us that it would be better to go home, go to bed and be there early the next day instead. Caroline had been so nice and helpful up till that phone call, when she started saying that people had flown in from Europe, and that some flights had been cancelled and that somehow they managed to fly in today instead of yesterday, and therefore she found it astounding that we couldn't manage to get into London from Farnborough, even though when she had been on the phone with Naomi earlier she was quite surprised at how far we had to travel so early in the morning. I tried to explain that it wasn't quite the same, as the people flying in had a whole two-day window of when they could arrive, whereas we had to be there within 8-9pm, and still had to travel home again at night unlike the others who had host families waiting for them and responsible for their safety, while we would be on the Tube at twenty to eleven at night, and that we really had tried, but everything had gone horribly wrong, but she really wasn't very understanding and actually left me feeling very upset, even though it was out of my control what had happened. I keep looking at the clock wondering what they're all doing and I feel absolutely dreadful, but I suppose all we can do is arrive early tomorrow (we're getting the 7am train) and hope that we're still included in the group.

I'm very worried about the ticket issue and don't know if I will have enough money to participate throughout the entire week, and I've been made to feel very guilty about missing this evening. Hopefully you have some advice or suggestions.