Lessons from moving

This is a comic I made for Mary after moving from our 1 bedroom apartment to a bedroom. Wisdom gained from the experience of moving that I hope to remember in the future. 

What I have learned from two moves in the last 3 months that necessitated downsizing.
(You may need to click on it to open it in a new window so you can read it.)

As for Mary's nickname of "Bobby", I used to refer to her as baby incessantly to the point where we would be shopping aisles away from each other and I would be shouting "Baby" across the store. To ease the awkwardness, the pet name was transformed from "Baby" to "Bobby". Linguistically you could say that it is a corruption of the original name but it has stuck around and continues to be my pet name for her. 

Tigers Advance to the American League Chanpionship

Since I last posted the Tigers have vanquished the Yankees. They won game 3 behind a great pitching performance from Justin Verlander. Game 4 was competitive until the later innings but the Tigers ended up losing. Game five was close throughout with solid pitching from the combined efforts of Fister, Scherzer, Benoit and Valverde. The only thing better than watching the Tigers win a playoff series is watching the Tigers do it against the Yankees as they won in a nail-biter 3-2. Don Kelly and Victor Martinez played hero at the plate on Thursday along with Delmon Young who has hit 3 homeruns in the 5 game series.

Tiger Excitement Picture again because they are moving on. 

Verlander is back on the mound tonight and looking to give the Tigers a good start in the American League Championship Series in Texas as they face-off against the Rangers in a best of seven. A strong performance tonight could be huge in setting the tone for the rest of this series. 

GO TIGERS

Inductions, Pub Crawls, and Rowing

Hi All,

I know its been a couple days since I last posted but I have been very busy. Inductions or probably as we would call them Welcoming Meetings to departments and your college. Like in the States most of these have been minorly informative and majorly boring. Especially as I had to listen to the same inefficient person (every department has one) give a talk on Weblearn (Oxford's version of WebCT/Blackboard) twice in one day. *Shudders* 
After these particularly painful experiences, a Pub Crawl was in order, so the Mansfield MCR organized one. We went to four different bars, including the Eagle and Child (Inklings' meeting place). I tried a bitter, a cider, and an Oxford Gold, all of which I enjoyed. We ended at a bar called the Half Moon, which is one of the few pubs opened past midnight and, luckily for me, only about five minutes from my house.
 Friday was spent ironing really wrinkled clothes, figuring out Endnote with Jakebob's help, and going to a drinks reception to welcome new Medievalists. I also played a game called "Articulate" which is an interesting combination of Trivial Pursuit and Taboo with a another American, a Brit, and a Spaniard. You had to get your teammate to say a word in a specific category (Nature, Person, Action, etc.) It was fun to try sometimes to think outside the clues that you would normally use if you playing with someone strictly from the exact same culture.
Today, I did some searching through online catalogues for books and journals and went to Rowing tryouts. I'm not actually sure, how strict they are about cutting people. It was a lot of fun and a good workout. I will try and keep you posted on this new sport as I progress. On a final note, here are some random pictures of British coinage because I have no other pictures to show you.

Blue= 2pence, Black= 1 pound, Yellow= 50 pence, Brown= 1pence. Pink= 5pence, Purple=10pence, Green=20pence. And of course the cat looking thing is my change purse which is very useful for countries that have 1 and 2 pound coins!

My attempt at an artistic picture.

Hope you all are having a great weekend.


Cheers!

Laundry and "Diaries"

Hello Friends and Family!

 Here are some pictures I took yesterday but couldn't post due to internet malfunctions.

This is what my desk looked like yesterday morning as I ate breakfast and prepared for my first meeting with Dr Foot, who, since she has given me permission, will hereafter be referred to as Sarah.

 Sarah is great by the way and I think we will get along very well.

Also, here is the view I can see from the desk in my room. The road outside is called St Clements Street and is one of three major roads in East Oxford. The buses and other traffic are sometimes noisy but otherwise it is a relatively quiet street.

Welcome to Europe! Here is my first batch of laundry drying. I met with my landlord today for another reason but he also showed me how to use the washing machine. I didn't ruin anything yesterday however and the clothes dried relatively fast. You can see my little couch in the background!

Finally, I enjoy learning the differences in the language between the Brits and Americans. Some are very interesting, some make more sense in the long run, some I just go "okay" and move on but the following one constantly makes me laugh. Below is pictured my weekly planner (as we Americans would say), however, the Brits call it a diary. So for us students from the States we are constantly being told to write meetings and appointments in our diary. I'm not actually quite sure what they call the book we think of as "diary", perhaps journal? I will try and investigate this further. Never fear, however, this blog will not turn into a "diary" in the British sense but will continue to record my experiences and sometimes perhaps feelings. To the couches! Love you all!

Cheers!

Pictures of Mansfield

Hello Family and Friends,
Here are a few pictures of my lovely college.


The quad and the main building which houses our caf, libraries and meeting rooms

The top of this tower houses the MCR, or room dedicated to the graduate students

The left wing, where our lovely main library is housed and some of the admin. offices

Our chapel

Another view of our chapel

I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of the outside of my college. No worries, I have explored the inside as well. Today, I was busy buying laundry stuff and getting registered at the college. In the evening there was a chance to go in small groups with more senior students to local restaurants. I chose Indian food and along with 8 other students enjoyed a wonderful meal while getting to know each other better.
Hope you all are well! Tomorrow I get to meet my supervisor (advisor) Dr Sarah Foot and also get a peak at Christ Church!


Cheers!

The Tigers Take 1 Game in New York

The Tigers won today 5-3 after a tense 9th inning. This leaves the best of 5 series tied at 1 game a piece with the next two games in Detroit and Justin Verlander, the soon to be AL Cy Young winner, going for the Tigers tomorrow in Game 3. Should be good. A Tigers win tomorrow would be huge. Go Tigers.

Mansfield

My college had a welcome tea this afternoon and welcome evening (with adult beverages). It was very nice to meet fellow new students or Freshers as they are called here. Everyone was very nice and as eager to start their courses as I am. My college is rather small which makes it easier to meet people. I have met a lot of Canadians over the past week, more Canadians then Americans actually which is somewhat surprising. :) 
Tomorrow I am off to get laundry detergent and a stand to dry clothes on. Should be fun carting that home. I also have registration with my college and College Induction tomorrow.
The Mansfield Middle Common Room (MCR) or graduate students is very active and they have lots of social events planned for the coming week (known as 0th Week, first week of school being 1 Week). I'm looking forward to attending more of these events and getting to know the Mansfield graduate students better. This week I will also be meeting my adviser, Dr Sarah Foot for the first time (on Tuesday), I am very excited to meet her and get a better idea of what she is expecting out of me this first term. Finally, I will also have department Induction. The History Department here is so big it breaks us into smaller groups, so I will get to meet my fellow medievalists and Late Antiquists (I think there may be some Byzantists thrown in there as well) on Thursday. Thursday will also be topped off with a Mansfield Pub Crawl which should be fun :)


Cheers!