Settling In

Two weeks have passed since my last blog post. Our tourist experiences are decreasing as we settle into our new day-to-day life as temporary Brits. Our days are become more routine and we feel quite at home here now.

Last weekend, we visited nearby Witney (10 miles west of our flat) to run some errands. We looked in Next and H&M for a winter coat for Matthew. Neither store carried clothes in his size. The largest boys sizes were age 8 (yes, kid's sizes are by age). He is big enough to wear a men's small but the prices were extremely high for a coat he may only wear one winter. Witney is a quaint village with shops on the streets and in several markets (that look like alleys to me). We window shopped, had lunch, and made reservations for a Christmas holiday. We found a fabric shop on High Street and Lori bought some Irish wool yarn to crochet a hat  to complement her coat.

http://www.witneyshopping.co.uk/witney-map

The cinema (movie theatre) next to Debenham's was showing the new film, Tin Tin. The stories were written in the 1930's in Belgium and Matthew has the complete set. Since the only showing was only 45 minutes later, we stayed to see it. What a great adventure (especially for a 10 year old boy) and the animation was so realistic that I often felt as if I were watching live actors.

Tin Tin as he appears in the books.

Tin Tin from the movie.

On Sunday morning, we went to Oxford Bible Church and afterward headed to Woodstock. The Oxfordshire Museum has a new exhibit named Children and War. Since we saw the Churchill's Britain at War Museum in London, we thought that this may be a good follow-up learning activity. We wanted pasties for lunch and the museum cafe had only 3 left; just for us. I had never tried a pork pasty before but it was pretty good. The museum exhibit was small so we looked at the Roman artifact exhibit too. The museum has several floors so we will need to make a return trip (it's free, too).

http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/public-site/oxfordshire-museum

The week was relatively routine. My workdays here are typically 12 hours long so our evenings are short. Matthew is working hard on his 5th grade (year 6 here) curriculum. He is also learning some basic french. On Fridays, Lori and Matthew walk to a local bookstore, Barefoot Books, where the Oxford Rhythm Centre teaches African drumming classes. Matthew is the oldest student and has some natural ability, so he gets the more complicated rhythms of the arrangements.

Barefoot Books - 1/2 mile from the flat.

http://www.rhythmcentre.co.uk/Percussion_and_African_drumming_workshops/Welcome.html

An unfortunate part of our week was the breakdown of the washing machine on Wednesday. Since the capacity is so small, we need to wash daily. Without the machine, our dirty clothes are piling up and it will take 2 weeks to catch up! Fortunately, the engineer (repairman; everyone who handles a tool is called an engineer here) will be on site Monday morning. We are praying that he can fix it without having to order (and wait) for parts.

This Saturday, we set out to Bicester (pronounced Bister) Village which is a large "chic" (think expensive) outlet mall only 10 miles from home. When we arrived, the traffic was so bad that we parked in the overflow lot and took the shuttle bus. The place was packed with shoppers from all over the world. There were many coaches (buses) that shuttled people from central London to shop here. We walked through the stores pretending that we were really thinking of buying the over-priced designer products from Gucci, Prada, Thomas Pink, Brooks Brothers, Tag Heuer, etc... All three of us bought shoes from the Clarks store. Even with the exchange rate, the deals were too good to pass up. Lori bought some black leather boots so she fits in here (all the women wear boots). Lori also picked up a LeCreuset pie plate so we can have home made desserts.

http://www.bicestervillage.com/

Saturday was Guy Fawkes day so we have had fireworks every night this weekend in celebration of his failed plot to kill King James I. I think it's a little odd to have a day to remember a criminal. I would have given the memorial of the event a more positive twist. Now I know why men are sometimes referred to as "guys" (it was originally a derogatory term).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes

At church on Sunday, Matthew was invited to visit Lego Land with a home-schooled boy and to a birthday party next weekend for one of the girl's who is turning 12. His social diary (calendar) is filling up. After church, we drove to Oxford City centre and window shopped. We thought that the colder weather (only 10 degrees C) would keep people at home, but we were wrong. We found gloves at Debenham's (my new favorite store; similar to Macy's). We had cream tea at the Ashmolean Museum's rooftop restaurant. Later, we walked to Mamma Mia's Pizzeria in Summertown for an authentic Italian meal - yum. I like living in Oxford. There are so many things to do within walking distance of home.

We like our cream tea (tea, scones, clotted cream, and jam)

http://www.ashmolean.org/

That'sa good pizza! (spicy too)

I think we are now set for another routine week in Oxford followed by an authentic Indian wedding next Saturday. God bless you for joining us on this part of our adventure...