Today

It's raining. This morning I woke up to the sound of rain on the window.

I Live Here

It really hit me today, that I am going to be living here for the next 4 months. Maybe it was when we went and bought groceries, and on the way took back streets to avoid the carnival with all the people. Or maybe it was when we walked by the Bodleian Library and saw the crowd of people out front (who are not allowed to go in) and I realized that I could say "excuse me" as I made my way through the crowd, swipe my card and walk in to browse till my hearts content. Or maybe it was coming home to our house, making dinner, and eating in the garden out back, after a game of bocce ball.

My Address.

Ashley Wells
SCIO
2 Frewin Court
Oxford, OX1 3HZ
United Kingdom

SEND ME THINGS!!

High Church

This morning a few girls and I got up and went to an anglican church. I dont really know what that means.. but it was high church. (So, order of service, incence, hyms, responce readings, super traditional). This is something I've never experienced before and coming from Rock Harbor it was rather interesting, but I actually loved it.

Mostly about this stained glass windowed, incence filled church I love being around the wise old men that attend there. There was one, who sat across the isle from me, who helped me with the order of service and showed me what to do during communion. Later I learned that he had been attending the church since 1949. Sheesh. After service the people were so nice, super welcoming and so excited that we were there. It was fun too, to leave from there and go thrift store shopping in Oxford.

Tomorrow we officially start. But for right now I'm sitting in our wonderful kitchen surrounded by a tun of people who love to read and talk about books as much as I do. And there's talk of going to Paris in the air...

Walking to Mesopotamia

This afternoon we, as in our whole house, so 24 of us, journeyed over to the other house. Jonathan, our junior dean lead us there. First we went through the park, and then we went over a bridge into a meadow. The meadow, until about 15 years ago, was a known sunbathing place for Oxford professors. Nude sunbathing as you would have it. It is right next to a river and when men would punt women up the river the ladies, approaching this certain meadow, would have to get out, walk around it, and then rejoin the punt further up the river. Anyway, after the meadow you maneuver through an iron gate and proceed up the path. On each side of you there are two rivers, on is higher than the other but they and both slow and peaceful. Along the path are blackberries and unlike in Tuolumne county right now they are ripe and ready to eat.

On our way home, a smaller group this time, it started to rain a little (big surprise) and we watched the ducks, swim on the calm river, as the rain was making rings on the water. We also walked through a field with narnian lamposts...and I caught this picture of a little girl and her mother.

Breakfast By the Bay Window

This morning I woke up around 6:30 (I blame jetlag for this godforsaken hour) and read for a little bit. Then my stomach insisted that I go down and get something to eat. I tiptoed down the stairs into the most beautiful kitchen ever and started some hot water for tea. I had that and some bread with cream cheese, definately a breakfast that I learned to love in Poland.

After about 20 minutes of me sitting next to the window looking out at the garden one of the guys came in from a run. We started talking and by the time other people started trickling in we were on the topic of racial/class tensions in GB and the US. The differences between the two and then moved on to postcolonial culture and some other good stuff. Its so different, the conversation here. Mostly authors, politics, economics, current events...with some amazingness mixed in.

In Which I Move to Oxford

This is a dream come true...times ten. Right now I am sitting at my window desk. Looking out at the front of number 8 Crick Road, Oxford, England. There are little brick cottages and trees and green grass and raindrops on the window. Its overcast..because when is England not overcast? My shoes (Catherine, this is where you come in) are muddy and wet because a group of us went walking in the Oxford park this afternoon. Its less than a block away. :) I have a stack of Shakespeare on my desk, along with some Browning, Goethe (for when I go to Germany), Lewis and Dickinson. Next to the stack of books is the most wonderful pictureframe I've ever owned. :)

The trip here was fun, yet nerveracking at the same time. The plane was turbulent and bumpy almost the whole way. However the people sitting around me were amazing. We went through costoms and the baggage claim together even. I have to say the border patrol man that stamped my passport was definately a big sour puss.

Then the bus. I was most nervous about this part. Mostly because all my life my biggest pet peeve has been looking like a tourist. There was one point where I had to squeeze my bags through a little hole in a railing while wearing a backpack larger than my body. Lets just say I got one through, then turned around and nocked it over with my backpack, got the other one through, and then it fell over while I was righting the first. All this is happening while I am trying to not fall over myself. (please, stop judging me)

I caught the bus at 8:30, which was fun because there were about 5 other students from the same program traveling on it. We talked and met each other and watched the countryside go by. We got into Oxford and I just about died. My words cant do justice so I will save it for later.

I am the first, and only, one in my room right now. I just got my (or should I say, Catherine and Chris') laptop connected to the internet. I went downstairs earlier to find the most adorable kitchen with bay windows and teapots all around, and everyone in it eating and talking. It has a wonderful view of an english garden in the back.

Then we went on our walk. This is a very long post but sheesh there is a lot to write about (Catherine, start vicariously livin cause this is soooo amazing. Ive been thinking about you all day :) )

I love you all. Thank you for your prayers.

The U.S. Should Switch to Metric

This morning my mom looked online for baggage restrictions for the airline I am flying with. Turns out, I am only allowed 44 lbs..total for checked luggage. For 4 months abroad. Total. So I looked at my two, almost completely packed bags and said "Welp, I have to say goodbye to one of you." Just when I thought I was almost done packing, I had to dump everything out and start all over. Lets just say that my new packing list is much shorter than the last one.

Troublemaking Teeth Lovers

One of my biggest pet peeves? When the girl cleaning your teeth at the dentist office starts telling stories and asking you questions..do they honestly want you to respond? Do they actually think one is physically capable of holding a conversation with pokey things and sucker tubes in ones mouth?

Today I went to the dentist for the third time in about two weeks. (Long story short: Rebekah hit my left front tooth when we were in the ocean. It died, consequently I had to have a root canal..yeeecchh). So the receptionist has gone from a friendly sort of hello to slight giggle and a "hey you're firmiliar" sort of comment. Im to the point where I'm rubbin' elbows with the staff and asking them how their kids are and how their dates went last night (well, almost anyway).

But after my teeth are back to their pearly-whiteness state the dentist comes in, checks for cavities and asks me about school (again, am I supposed to reply?). Of course I tell him about Oxford and he gets excited. I guess a couple of summers ago he went and did a class on C.S. Lewis there. So he starts telling me about all these great pubs and stuff he did...fun guy, cool conversation. Well, we get home and my mom gets a call from him and he starts apologizing for going on about pubs and fun they had drinking (as I'm dying laughing). I guess he felt bad and wanted to apologize. Oh dentists—gotta keep an eye on those ones.

Baby Quilts

Quilting. Its something I just started doing. I didn't take any classes or read a book...just decided to make one one day, and did. They started out super simple, huge squares, no design, that sorta thing. But now I see something I like and adapt the idea into my own. Today I started on my seventh quilt.

I have a friend who is having a baby and when I asked what colors she was painting the baby's room she said that they painted the walls slate grey, and decided to accent with sage green and white. Sounds wonderful huh? Well this is the front of the quilt, not sewn together just cut out, and the back is going to be soft grey flannel. It's a little more than three feet long. I'm so excited.