Wednesday, July 16th

Okay, there hasn't been a lot going on of late. Monday through today have pretty much been classes, grading papers and midterms, and more classes. Monday I did manage to get a haircut here in Oxford, but that is something I will try to have happen next year. It was 12.50 for the haircut, 7.50 for the beard and mustache trim and 3.00 tip. Make that all in pounds and double it, and its about $46 US. Hell, in Melbourne I have been going to the same barber for the last 10 years (remember I moved here in 1998!) and I haven't paid more than 20 dollars for the same thing, with tip included. Okay, at Xmas time I might leave a bigger tip, but that's about it. Just another case of sticker shock.

The one hassle has been the students and their locking themselves out of their apartments or bedrooms within the flats. I have so far been woken or asked to open doors (I have a master key) 16 times since we moved into the flats on Friday. The record was 7 times on Monday. Heather suggested I start charging 3 gbp to do so, and I said in class that I would start charging 2 and 5 pounds if it was after midnight. What do you all think?

I am trying to arrange for a field trip for my 7 History of Science students to head to London to go to the Science Museum so they can do some work for their final projects. However, I would need to leave at 1pm to make it work and that means taking four students from one class (and one from another) that are before my History of Science class at 3:15. If we leave at 1, we would make to London by 2:30 and hopefully make it to the Science Museum by 3, giving us about 2 hours before it closed. Not much time, but because the bus takes so long to get there (and the train is so expensive) its the only way it can be done.

The weather so far this week has been nice, in the low to mid 70s, though a front is coming through to cool things off once more. It will be in the mid to upper 60s for much of the weekend, and unlike in Paris, it will remain around the same temperature rather than be in the 80s as it was last year.

I will try to write more, but other than chores and limiting some money expenditures, its not been much different from what I would do in Florida when I am not teaching.