Days in the UK: 29
Amazing students: 16
Wonderful assistants: 1
Books finished: 13
Hugo ballots cast: 1
Nandos meals: 4 (6 total this year in the UK)
Colds: 1
Lamb servings: 9 (11 total this year in the UK)
Catch ups with friends: 4
Essays evaluated for a journal: 1
Essays approved for publication: 0
Atwood meetings: 1
Vaults and Gardens meals: 3
New spaces explored in Oxford: 2 (St. Mary Magdalene Church; New College)
Oxford Comedy Events attended: 2 (The Loremen; Annie McGrath)
Oxford Comedy Events I had tickets for that I was too tired to attend: 2
Oxford Comedy Events I had tickets for that I too sick to attend: 2
Oxford Comedy Events I had tickets for that got cancelled: 2
Museum exhibits in Oxford: 1 (Treasures of the Bodlein)
Museum exhibits that included a Lisa Simpson figurine: 1
Actual ranch dressing servings (homemade, at Dirty Bones): 1
Books ordered from Blackwells: 1
Purses I bought for this trip that fell apart right away: 1
New, superior purses acquired: 1
Movies: 18 (Julie, Julie; Lawrence of Arabia; Persuasion; Shaun of the Dead; Shaun the Sheep; The Third Man; They Shall Not Grow Old + its documentary about making it; About a Boy; Jurassic World (twice, but not because it was good); 28 Years Later (aka Naked Lunch); A Fish Called Wanda; Hard Truths; Ex-Husbands; Paddington 2; Much Ado About Nothing; About a Boy; Ahir Shah: Ends)
Times it turned out to be a good thing I’d already seen Jurassic World, so I could help a water-phobic student get through it: 1
UDCE meetings: 1
Pizzas: 3
(Winner for best pizza: White Rabbit)
Guest Lectures for my class by Dr. Liam: 1
Wine Tastings: 1
Mulberries from a tree in London: 3 (the ripest one burst)
Meh pastas: 3
Times I discovered I don’t like authentic carbonara: 1
Times I realized I shouldn’t have expected to like authentic carbonara, since I don’t like runny egg yolks in any form: 1
Plays: 1 (Intimate Apparel, with Samira Wiley)
Dishoom meals: 2 (4 total this year in the UK)
Threading appointments: 1
Roasts: 2
Ben’s Cookies: 3
Books signed for my niece by their author: 2
Extended discussions of how awful America is with Brits: 3
Fish and Chips: 5 (7 total this year in the UK)
(Winner for the best Fish and Chips: Tas Pide, surprisingly)
Falls: 1
Bruises: so many
Times I became an accidental tour guide to other tourists: 3
Paddington hats sought: 1
Times a shopkeeper told me he didn’t have a Paddington hat for me: 1
Times I left the shop, only to be chased down by a guy on a bicycle a few blocks away, who explained that he was a fellow shopper tasked with finding me, as the shopkeeper realized he had something that would indeed work: 1
Oxford Daleks encountered: 1 (2 total for the year in the UK)
Irish Whiskeys available at the local Oxford pub I can’t get at Safeway at home: 0
Meals from the George St. Market: 2
New spaces in London explored: 2 (Temple Church & the Embankment Gardens)
Osteo appointments: 2
Massages: 2
Tequila days celebrated: 1
Ice cream days celebrated: 1
Pistachio-based desserts: 3
Meals at Chutneys: 4
Duck servings: 5 (7 total while in the UK)
Trips to Abingdon: 1 (Explored: The Nag’s Head; The Abbey Gardens (with ruins); the local museum; the grounds of the oldest remaining church; the few Abbey buildings that survived Henry VIII; the Unicorn Theatre)
Days my IBS made life difficult: 31
Times I had diarrhea in a building Henry VIII was once in: 1
Letters of rec written: 3
Cotswolds trips planned: 1
Cotswolds trips cancelled by the agency the afternoon before: 1
Excursions with the students: 5 (Botanic Gardens; Magdalen College; Stonehenge; The Wilton House; Oxford Castle)
Pubs: 7 (Head of the River; The Oxford Retreat; Turf (3x); The Lighthouse (2x); The Wine Cellar (3x); The Plough Inn (4x); The Castle)
Times I was mistaken for a manager of The Head of the River: 1
Summer puddings: 1
Times I realized the St. Brice Day Massacre’s episode involving burning down a church with Danes inside happened in Oxford: 1
High Teas: 1
Servings of Eton Mess: 2 (3 total this year)
Pimms Cups: 8
New recipes made: 1
Times I realized I lost even more files than previously thought in last month’s computer debacle: 1
Planned outings with friends that my body wouldn’t let me go to: 2
Times Hannah and I met a woman who happened to be from Hannah’s hometown and discovered they’d graduated in the same year: 1
Times the woman and her boyfriend ran into me again: 1
Days I did “smokey eye”: 0
Guys who thought they could chat me up by talking about crypto: 1
Times I was telling an Oxfordian that I was taking my students to the castle, only for him to remark it was really small, before I had to remind him my students and I are from a country with no castles at all: 1
Favorite thing a student said: “He really puts the Florida into Florida Tech.”
What I’m watching: Funny Woman; The Bear; Miss Austen; Q; Bridgerton; Too Much; Zero Day; Stephen Colbert; The Daily Show; MurderBot; Seth Meyers; John Oliver; Queen Charlotte; Acapulco; Resident Alien
What I’m listening to: This is History; Savage Love; This American Life; Morning Edition; All Things Considered; Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me; Working it Out; Side Door
