Wow, it’s nice to be away. We arrived at Heathrow two mornings ago and have made the most of our time so far. I couldn’t believe how smooth our journey was. We hit zero traffic on our way to Dulles, got bumped to Economy Plus, left and arrived on time, and faced no line entering the country and merely had to scan our passports.
We took the wrong shuttle bus to the car rental agency, which actually worked in our favor. We had to walk about 50 yards down a footpath along the road to Enterprise, but that put us there just before a bus load of passengers, so we got our car in no time. Chris drove us safely (on the other side of the road!) to Oxford to stay with an old friend for the first night.
After catching up with Christoph and Liz, both archaeology professors at Oxford, we dropped our bags and rested for a bit before having some lunch in the garden and catching a ride with them to town to explore while they went into work for the afternoon.
We shook off the jet lag as best we could as we wandered through the covered market, along the River Thames, and through the city. Christoph had told us to be on the lookout for Oxford students who were in the process of taking their exams. Per tradition, they wore black and white and a carnation whose color signified where they were in the process: white for the beginning of exams, then pink, and deeper and deeper until they reached a ruby red, the idea being that you’ve poured all your blood into the process. Sure enough, we saw multiple clusters of black and white clad students wearing various shades of carnations on their lapels.
Later that evening, we had Nepalese takeout in the garden and sipped wine late into the night as their two rescued black cats reemerged from their day of stalking and lounging in the fields to join us by candlelight. Despite my jet lag, it was a beautiful start to our adventure.
My Corner of the Village 