The Place We Call Home

Hello friends and family!

The last few months have been busy, with Joe finishing classes and final essays, traveling, Emily finishing up at both jobs, friends visiting, and finally a trip back to Utah for two weeks. Leaving Utah was bittersweet. We wish we had a few more days to visit with family and enjoy one of the places we love most because don't know when our next trip back to Utah will be, but we were excited to get back to our Oxford home.  Joe has been offered a few internships that will be taking us out of Oxford sooner than we expected - we will be leaving around the end of June most likely, and we are sad to say goodbye to our first "home away from home".

You can only learn so much about a place from reading and hearing about it until you actually go and experience it. I'll try and do my best at giving a little glimpse into what our life has been like here in Oxford.

Moving away from Utah has been one of the greatest blessings for our marriage. We were able to create a new lifestyle together and completely rely on each other. In fairness though, technology these days has made it extremely easy to communicate - we may have even communicated more with some family members since moving out of Utah than we would have if living there ;)  Before moving to Oxford, we were unsure if Joe would have much free time, if any. Fortunately (for Emily), his program did allow for some free time.

Yes, we have been crazy travelers. Joe is more of the driving force in that, but we both have loved seeing new places and getting to know different cultures. We have tried to visit a different country each month, as well as rent a car once a month to get to the temple and visit a little bit of England.  But besides traveling with the extra time, Joe was able to run the largest student-run conference in the UK called OXFID (Oxford Forum for International Development).

  

The conference was in March and went extremely well.   Joe was also able to work on a leadership curriculum during the last few months, and received permission to do internships while working on his dissertation. (It's ok to brag about him, because I'm his wife and he doesn't brag enough about himself).  I have been impressed with Joe's hard work and determination these last months, and am amazed at his desire to always learn more and dedicate himself to good causes. I am so lucky to be married to him.

While Joe has been working hard in his studies, Emily was working one day a week as a nanny for a family in the ward and working 3 days a week for a national charity called Age UK. The nursing degree did not transfer to the UK, but she was still able to work in the hospital, attend board rounds, and help elderly patients find the care they need at home. It also was very fascinating learning how another country's healthcare system is run; being a nurse is much nicer in the U.S. than it is in the UK.  Working was a great opportunity though because it provided us financial means to enjoy some sights, it allowed Emily to feel useful and productive with her time, especially by helping other people, and also become friends with some wonderful women.

The other area we have been spending our time in the church. We have LOVED our ward. Moving to Oxford reminded me that more involved we are in a ward, the more we come to not only love the gospel, but really love the people. It has been such a blessing being part of the Oxford ward. We have spent quite a bit of time with the YSA because we knew several of them before coming to Oxford. We loving having dinner with ward members and watching their kids. And even though we were in charge of the Ward Road Show and it was a LOT of work, we also loved getting to know a lot of ward members that way. Although I didn't serve a full-time mission (yet), my love for missionary work has grown. We have loved all of the Elders and Sisters serving in our area, and enjoyed helping on a few missionary discussions. We are the ones that have been truly blessed by this ward - by their kindness, service, friendship, love and concern towards us The church is safe and feels like home no matter where you go in the world.

Everyday life:

We did not have a car while living in Oxford, so our main form of transportation was our own two feet. Emily had a bus pass to get to work everyday, and our college has a free minibus service that runs at different hours throughout the day, but countless evenings were spent walking together to and from city center, about a 25 minute walk. Those are some of my most treasured times in Oxford, walking home and sharing our thoughts and feelings with each other about our current lives and what the future will bring. We weren't rushing in a car, had no radio to listen to, just each other.  I love the more active lifestyle found in Europe. Everyone in Oxford either walks or bikes, so more time is naturally spent outside. I hope we find a place to live where we don't have to rely on cars for everything, or I hope we choose to continue a more active lifestyle by walking or biking when a car is not needed.

Linton Road - the road we live on. This may or may not be the same road where the Linton Lodge is, where Joe was staying two summers ago when I sent an email saying I didn't want to date him the first time. Coincidence? I think not.

University Parks in the fall, a few minutes from our home

 

 Some of the houses in the area where we live. We live 25 minutes from the city center, the farthest college from the center. North Oxford is considered to be the richer area of the city, so we tend to have some really nice homes.

Food shopping also gets fun here. Because we live in Oxford, there are no large supermarkets within walking distance, so all of our shopping is done at smaller grocery stores.  There are no Costco-size items to buy here, and there is no way we could buy a full weeks worth of shopping and carry it home. So I end up going shopping almost every other day. I used to dislike cooking, but now I love trying new recipes and I love going to the grocery store! Weird,  I know. I'm sure that would change once we have kids. The food in the UK has less preservatives, so it doesn't last quite as long, but I think it's better quality. We love the produce. Right now, the British strawberries are to die for. There is a covered market here where we like to buy fresh bread sometimes, and on Wednesdays they have an open market in the big square where you can buy produce for great prices!  Going out to eat is another thing. We've found a few restaurants we enjoy, but it is so expensive to have dinner just for two.  After the first month of living in the UK, I stopped converting everything back to US dollars because it just gets depressing.

Accents. British accents are beautiful. Especially when British children talk! Even when they're upset, they sound adorable. Plus, if you haven't seen this video, you all need to:

NO. This is not a baby announcement. We just love how adorable this boy is.

You wouldn't be a real English fellow if you didn't talk about the weather.  If it's cloudy with a chance of rain, you've experienced about 95% of British days. Even in the summer! (so I'm told). The warmest day we've had in the last 9 months was about 72 degrees, which felt like heaven. But most days are in the 60's during the day, in the winter it would be upper 40's, low 50's. The winter's felt a bit colder here, probably because of the humidity and we spent so much more time outside just getting to and from places, instead of hopping in a car.  This is Joe's ideal weather, but I told him I couldn't live here the rest of my life - I am a sun kind of gal. The sun energizes me and literally makes me happy.  We may just have to stick to visiting England in the summer.

But the beautiful English countryside makes up for the weather, especially the countryside between April - October. It is so green and lush here, and the flowers are amazing. Not to mention the fields - I could drive through the countryside every day and not get sick of it. For the last month we've had these bright yellow fields of Rapeseed flowers, which they use for oil. The yellow contrasted with the different shaded green fields is beautiful.  Although the lawns are not perfectly trimmed and neat like you would find in Utah, the British know how to let nature takes it course and be magnificent all on it's own. Our college owns a pond and some meadows right in back, which is such a refreshing start to every day. There are ducks, geese, and swans everywhere. You can catch the occasional fox at night. Rabbits and squirrels in the meadows, along with horses and cows. England is just beautiful.

There's nowhere in the world quite like Oxford. The history alone is outstanding. Many of the world's great men lived and studied at Oxford - multiple prime ministers and US presidents, the Methodist faith was started here, great authors such as JRR Tolkein and CS Lewis, and much of the bible was translated in Oxford. This may sound silly, but you can feel a bit of spirit walking through the streets of Oxford.  Not only are some of the most brilliant people teaching at Oxford right now, but there are incredibly intelligent students. You can have a discussion about almost anything with anyone. There are lectures daily about any intellectual subject you could imagine. The architecture and colleges only add to the unique feel of the University. Many of the colleges, paintings, and books are older than the United States of America.  How many people in the US can say they have an ancient castle in the middle of town?

Inside All Souls College

The Radcliffe Camera

University Church of St. Mary's

To sum it up, we love Oxford, England. We feel so grateful to have lived in such a beautiful place and especially grateful for the education and opportunities Joe has been able to receive by attending the University. We don't know where we'll be a year from now, but we look forward to upcoming adventures and thankfully, the Lord is in charge.