Oxford Flooding

So far, although I could be jinxing it, everyone comments about how aweful the weather is in the UK. Weather is relative, and when you come from the Northwest, after living in both the Willamette Valley and The Gorge, the winter weather here in England has actually been really nice. It's the middle of winter and we are still running outside in t-shirt and shorts, ok maybe that's just Tyler, but either way, the temperature is very mild year round. This is caused by the warm Gulf stream coming over from Mexico, brings warm water, the westerly winds blow over this warm water, and therefore blows warm air across the country, there you have it. "Does it rain all the time?" This also has not been true, as most days are grey in the morning, sunny in the afternoon, and grey in the evening. We did have a week long spell of a 'little' rain in January. This was truly very little rain in comparison to The Gorge, and everything flooded. As you can see in the picture above, our running activities were rerouted during this week.

This picture was taken earlier in the year, shown here as a comparison, Oxford was one big lake. For a country that 'gets so much rain' you would think they would be more prepared for it. Flooding has become more popular in the last couple years, must be that 'Global Warming".

These are communal gardens that are all two feet under water.

Besides that week when it rained, any of you who want to escape the winter in the Northwest, come visit us in England, where the weather is 'nice'.

Worcester

We made it up to Worcester in January for a Saturday night getaway from the books and working world. Yes, this is the town where Worcestershire Sauce was first brewed, in case any of you were wondering.




This is an environment that isn't difficult to find on any block in England, an English pub. They always have a great atmosphere, cozy, good English ales (warm and flat), deep fried food, with very friendly locals. Pubs are a huge part of the English culture, so don't miss them.
The beautiful 'Fish N Chips' always good after a couple pints.

I think Tyler may have found the church that was in his guide book.

Quick, one hour train ride back to Oxford, reading books and soaking up the countryside views...... public transportation is really great.

ok ok ok ..... back to blogging

Now that I am four months behind I will try to catch up in the next couple of days.
After Lindsay's exams were finished, Lindsay had a week of downtime hanging around Oxford and sleeping in, while Tyler finished some things up at work before the holiday traveling began.
We had a wonderful trip meeting up with the Wrights in Spain
http://picasaweb.google.com/millerbtyler/SpainWithWrightFamily?authkey=cEgFcExJd24
Then Lindsay and Tyler continued on down south to Morocco
http://picasaweb.google.com/millerbtyler/Morocco?authkey=GyQW_wvDURE
Morocco was one of those adventure trips, great cultural experience, glad we had the experience, but maybe next time stay a little more on the tourist route, as we had a few too many 'deep' cultural experiences.

Exams are done!

Yeah, exams are over! It was a busy week, filled with flashcards, teeth grinding, and weird dreams about normal distributions and standard deviations, but it's over! I was looking forward to testing in the old Examination Schools, but unfortunately, we had to instead take a bus out to Summertown, where we took the exams in a big, ugly, brown brick building probably built in the 70's. I'm told that next term we'll get to be in the exam schools, so there's that to look forward to for next terms exams : )
This is Whitney our roommate and me all dressed up in our sub fusc outfits for exams:


Cramming in a few more bits of information between exams--I think that flash card says "Return on Investment":

Covered Market

The Covered Market is kind of a trendy and expensive but very cool shopping venue in the City Center. We got a special treat today, as all of the butchers were gearing up for the holidays. We saw hanging rabbits, deer, boar, turkeys, pheasants, and other unidentifiable critters all ready for Christmas dinner.

After passing through all the fresh meat, you arrive at Ben's Cookies. If you still have an appetite, which never seems to be an issue, these are the best cookies in Oxford. They are only $3.00 a cookie, what a deal, soft and gooey, always fresh from the oven. They even sell a glass of milk with that cookie, good idea Ben!!

Weekend in the Cotswolds

Lindsay finally managed to get away for the weekend before "revision" week (like dead week back home--no classes and lots of cramming). We rented a car and drove out to the Cotswolds, an area just northwest of Oxford that is known for its quintessentially British towns and rolling hills. This is a shot of Burford, below Morton-on-the-Water and Herford.

We stayed in a very cute little bed and breakfast. The portion of the building that we stayed in dated back to the 16th century! We hid inside when it was raining, walked around when it wasn't, and Lindsay studied statistics while Tyler read his book...It was great.

Valencia, Spain with the Germans

For those of you who don't know, this is Matthias Fuhrmann, a good old friend from the Mountain View High School days. Tyler hadn't seen Matthias for over ten years, and he still is a great friend. Matthias recognized Tyler on the street, evidently Tyler hasn't changed a bit. This weekend trip was one of the Germans three 'literature book club' trips for the year, and this one landed in Valencia, Spain.
Left to right, Matthias, Verner, Robert, Axel, Dennis, and Carlos

Dennis and Robert loving every bit of that McDonalds

Matthias overlooking Valencia

The latest 'Modern Art' in Valencia

Dennis enjoying that cigarette

One of the questions that came up in a conversation about these vendors on the streets, 'Do they need a permit for that?' At one point in the evening, we heard a bunch comotion coming from down the alley, and literally less than five seconds all vendors had gathered their items and were walking away. That answered that question, cool that they work together, and look out for eachother. This lady here had a two year old daughter, where is she, ohh, just wandering around freely. She wanders up and down the street interacting with the other vendors, it was obvious they all knew her. Dang cute little girl, sorry there's no picture.

The crew doing what they did best that weekend, not a whole lot of discussions about literature, but we made up for it with beer drinking.