Welcome to Oxford!

Well we all made it to Oxford safely! Me, Joseph, and the luggage (Remember the two suitcases Joe allowed me to bring - it all (mostly) fit!).  Our apartment is a lot bigger than we were expecting, and the front door opens up to a pond and leads to the college meadows. It's quite beautiful.

We are living at Wolfson College, which is about a 25-30 minute walk from the city center, and only about 10 minutes from Joe's school.  The way College's work around here is different from the states - there's not a college of nursing, or a business college. Just think "Harry Potter", but instead of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, there's Wolfson, Magdalen, Trinity, etc. The college we are living at is kind of neat because it is more modern. It was built in 1965, whereas other colleges have been around for hundreds, thousands, of years. It is only graduate students, and it's not focused on tradition as much as the other schools. Joe doesn't have to wear robes if he wants to go to dinner at the college, and the professors sit with the students during meals instead of sitting at the head of the room.

We did a lot of city exploring the first few days, so I'll share few pictures.

The first place we ate out at is called "The Eagle and Child". It was built about 1650, and is famous because C.S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkein, and others would visit the pub weekly as a group known as "The Inlkings" (an Oxford Writers group) from 1933-1949

The Ashmolean Museum. This is the first and oldest university museum in the world. The collection began in its original building down the street in the 1620's.

The Oxford Oratory - Catholic Church of Saint Aloysius, built in 1875.  This was built to help bring catholicism back to Oxford.

        
 To the left is the Carfax Tour, and above is a picture from the top. The Carfax Tour is known as the center of the city, and all that remains of a 12th century church.

Joe and I took a stroll behind Christ Church College last week around the meadows. I can't get over how picturesque it is in Oxford. The meadows are absolutely beautiful - cows grazing in the meadows, geese on the side. It feels like a children's book. And the meadows sit right next to the river that leads into the River Thames. It is so peaceful. 

    
 Christ Church College - Joe and I went to a service there on Sunday morning before conference started for us (conference didn't start until 5 pm).  This is where the great hall was filmed for Harry Potter. The cathedral on the left is where they held church service. The architecture inside is amazing. They had a boys choir that would sing during the service who could be professional. It was my first church service outside of the LDS church that I've ever been to, and it was a beautiful experience.

Walking down an alley-way after church which has the same idea as Diagon Alley from Harry Potter.

The British ways:
- There are in fact red, double-decker buses!
- Some people still use the red telephone booths around the city.
- We do not have a microwave, so we are learning how to make do and just heat things up on the stove!
- I may or may not have almost set the fire alarm off the first time I tried to use the oven... We've got it figured out now, don't worry.
- Buildings are deceiving. They often look very small on the outside, but are HUGE on the inside.
- You now get charged .05 pence for every plastic grocery bag you use.
- Fresh food does not last long, so you have to go shopping every 2-3 days.
- For about the first week I would convert pounds back into U.S. Dollars for everything we paid for, but that got old REALLY fast when I learned just how much  you actually spend on items here, and you can't do anything about it. Just don't convert.
- Ginger Bread Men are called "Tubby Men".