Sunday evening, 7/13

General Update:

Okay, it has been a long, long weekend, and quite a busy one. Friday was moving day, which went off largely without a hitch, though one student remained behind because he was not able to be woken up. It seems he had been out a bit late, until 4:30 in the morning, and had a bit much to drink. Anyway, the bus was late leaving Jesus College, thus we were late getting to Steven's Close, but we still made it in time (10 minutes early to be exact) for our appointment at Blenheim Palace. After about three hours there, we went off to Burford, a small Cotswold town for a brief lunch, then on to the Cotswold Wildlife Park. While our stay at Blenheim and Burford was largely a dry one, it became a blistery, blustery cold and wet stay at the wildlife park. It certainly put a damper on many people's activities and enthusiasm. We then went grocery shopping, and returned back to Steven's Close around 8 pm.

At that point, it took over an hour for me to unpack my groceries. Since this was the first night there, and it was cold and wet, I was constantly answering questions. "Where is the laundry room?" "Do you have extra blankets?" "How do I turn on the heat?" "I lost my key already, can you let me in?" etc. The last happened the first day when one the girls lost her key to her room and I still need to check up and find out what happened with that situation. We also found out that more than half the student's electronic passcards don't work for the entry and exit gates to the complex, so they are going to have to get them reprogrammed tomorrow at the Porter's Lodge. Also, do to the extremely large size of my Western Civ class, we can not hold class at Steven's Close as we did last year, which means I need to take a trek into town every day for two hours. That is a good thing: it gets me exercising, allows me to run errands, and I get into central Oxford on a regular basis. Which reminds me I need to visit the Central Market and the butchers to pick up some meat pies (homemade) and some sausages for dinner this week.

Saturday was another early morning, this time off to Bath and Stonehenge. We left Steven's Close around 9 am and returned about 8. Our return was delayed by one of the student's needing an emergency rest break. Bath was fun as usual and I managed to pick up my first gift for myself: a Bath Rugby Club polo shirt for 30 pounds. It looks nice, its a unique souvenir, and its something I wouldn't ever find anyplace else. I thought about getting one last year, but I didn't. I am glad I did this year. Stonehenge this time was under pleasant weather, with a slightly cloudy sky, so it should result in some fairly nice pictures I will post later. Then it was a quiet night back in my flat before going to bed fairly early. However, there were another dozen or so constant interruptions and a small review session with some of the students last night who are taking my Civ midterm on Monday morning.

Sunday, today, was another early morning. This time I went off to Warwick Castle with General Ralph Locurcio and his lovely wife Ingrid. I hadn't spent a lot of time with them this year and I had gotten to know them quite well last year during the Scotland expedition. Today was a good, warm and extremely crowded day visiting Warwick Castle. Run by Madame Tussaud's, the restored medieval castle has a bunch of interpretive events including a ghost tour, a falconry expedition (jousting is in May and June), a trebuchet firing demonstration, and a recreated 1897 weekend party held by the Countess of Warwick. It was good, but one day I would like to go back when there are less crowds. While they learned the trick from Disney of having a gift shop at the end of every "special exhibit" they need some serious lessons about crowd control and crowd management. Four windows to buy tickets meant that there was a 30 minute queue to get in, and the ghost story, by ticket entry, was another 30 minute queue. For a nice Sunday, the train journey there was fine (the train back I stood while the older Locurcio's sat for the 30 minute ride from Banbury to Oxford) and went through beautiful countryside.

Anyway, tonight I have some work to do. I may still head off to a trivia contest at 8:30 at a nearby pub, but I am pretty beat. I am going to post some pictures for you all to see. Hopefully you will enjoy them second hand as much as I enjoyed shooting them.

Tomorrow its back to the usual grind. My Civ students have a midterm and my History of Science students have a pub trip to discuss brewing in the Industrial Revolution. I also need to get a haircut in the afternoon, which is not necessarily something I am looking forward to doing. But it is becoming necessary.

Talk to you all soon...