Wow, we've been here less than a week...

and we have done a TON!! I'm not going to post every picture I've taken... those of you who have traveled with me know that I take after my mom, and your eyes would be bleeding. Although, in my defense, I've only taken 336 so far. In any case, the highlights will be on the blog, and then after the trip I'll post the shutterfly link to ALL of them if you're interested.

So, you'll probably notice that in many of these pictures (actually everything not taken right after our arrival) my hair is curly. I thought about buying a straightener when I got here, because apparently Chi irons will overheat even with a converter. Well, turns out it rains EVERY DAY and it's super humid and cloudy the rest of the time, so for now I'm saving myself the 20 pounds and wearing it curly. Apparently everyone else thinks it's cool, so we'll go with it. We'll see how soon I cave. :)

When a southern gal has a layover in Georgia, she MUST have sweet tea! Yum!!

The obligatory plane ride picture. Do you think we might be a little bit excited?

Jeremy watching Wimbledon on the BBC in our super fancy upgraded room at the Millennium Gloucester.

The London Eye and a red double decker bus. Almost looks like a postcard or something, huh?

One of the views from the London Eye. Big Ben is in the middle of the shot, with Parliament to the left and St. Paul's Cathedral (where Princess Di's funeral was held) behind. The River Thames is in front.

Jeremy at the ORIGINAL Hard Rock Cafe. Pretty cool. We didn't eat there but we got the shot glass and guitar pin. He collects them, so it's pretty neat to have one from the original.

The Tower Bridge. Betcha thought it was London Bridge, because I did at first and you are all stupid Yanks like me, haha. The actual London Bridge is pretty boring (although, yes, I took a pic of it, of course!), and it's not currently falling down, falling down, falling down - thank goodness since we crossed it twice!

Jeremy in the 'hood. Ok, in the Wimbledon area, but we still found this sign hysterical.

Wait, do I see Roger Federer? or Andy Roddick? Maybe if I squint really hard and use a little imagination... but this is really the Wimbledon stadium, as close as us commoners could get on the day of the final.

I didn't take many pictures on the first day at Cambridge (gasp!), so for now... on to Oxford. We visited there yesterday. It's about three hours drive to get there, which seems a little crazy since both Oxford and Cambridge are about an hour-ish from London, just in different directions. Cambridge was actually founded by disgruntled Oxford students, so it really seems crazy how far apart they are when you consider this happened hundreds of years before trains and buses.

The first thing we did there was visit Oxfam, which is an awesomely cool international organization dedicated to the ending of poverty around the world. I was already thinking how cool it would be to work there when the presenter (a KU alum) mentioned that she is currently on month 7 of maternity leave. They apparently get a whole year off here! So, be prepared for our moving announcement as soon as I apply. And yes, you can come visit. In the meantime though, learn more about Oxfam here: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/

So, the rest of the day we spent touring the city of Oxford. It's a lot bigger than Cambridge and has a different feel to it, but in some ways it's similar - University city, old buildings, and general English brilliance.

The Covered Market was a really neat shopping area that dates back to the 15th century or so.

Jeremy and I in the Sheldonian Theatre, where they hold Oxford's matriculation and commencement ceremonies. It definitely puts the Ferrell Center at Baylor and the Memorial Stadium at KU to shame. Of course, the really good pic of the whole thing is on Jeremy's camera, so you'll see it soon.

View from the cupola of the Sheldonian Theatre. As you can see, well worth the pound 50 it cost to go up!

Jeremy's all ready to go for work at the Bodleian Library as soon as I get my job at Oxfam. Not sure if you can see the sign well, but this is the entrance for the school of grammar and history.




This is Radcliffe Camera. Apparently, it's been in the Harry Potter movies - neither of us have seen them so we don't know whether it was the outside or if they used the inside. But in any case, hopefully this is exciting for those of you who love those movies (Julie!).


This is the interior of the University Church of St. Mary, which faces Radcliffe Camera. We kind of wandered in by accident, not really expecting anything but another old church (and there's so many in Oxford that some have been changed into restaurants and banks, no kidding). Turns out, however, that this particular church has great historical significance. John Wesley (founder of Methodism), Lewis Carroll (of Alice in Wonderland fame), and C.S. Lewis (great writer, theologian, and Chronicles of Narnia author) all preached here during their time at Oxford, and in more recent years, Desmond Tutu did as well. This picture does no justice to how awesome this space was. Not only was it breathtakingly beautiful, but you can really get a sense of how important this place has been in Christian history. There was also a plaque recognizing all of those who died for their beliefs during the Oxford movement when branches were splitting from both Catholicism and the Anglican church in 1556. Wow.



Now, back to Cambridge, for some shots of our current surroundings.

Trinity Hall College. Don't walk on the grass here. Ever.

Jeremy and I went to the Cambridge University Press this afternoon. Talk about kids in a candy store. Jeremy is already making plans to go back.

Finally, punting on the river. We're not in this picture - we didn't take our cameras because apparently, it's very easy to get dumped in the river if your punter is a novice. We were able to take Trinity Hall's punts out for free tonight because the porter wanted them gone for an event - we were happy to oblige! So so so much fun. We're planning on doing a punting tour with a professional guide too so they can tell us what we actually were seeing.

That's all for now - it's about 10:45 p.m. here but you'll be seeing this post as you come home from work in the States (it's 4:45 in Kansas right now). Hope you're having a great evening! Feel free to comment on the blog and say hello!