Visitors galore

We've just finished up a visit from D's aunt and uncle from North Carolina. (The photo is Dave actually CLEANING the bathtub! in preparation for their coming). It was a really good visit. She's a retired 5th grade teacher, and he's got a security business like D's dad. The weather was fantastic, and we walked until our feet felt like they were going to fall off. They arrived Friday, and we spent the afternoon wandering around town, breezing through D's college (Somerville) and ending up at an art show put on by a couple of my students from Spain and France and eating dinner in Summertown at Luna Caprese on South Parade, which was a big hit. Saturday was Blenheim Palace day. I'd never been, but it was a lovely day, and we all got some sun wandering around the grounds. We also got to catch a carnival parade in Woodstock before catching the hourly bus back to Oxford with only a minute to spare. Sunday was the standard Oxford tour: Christ Church, New College, The Rose for cream tea, etc. Monday, I worked in the morning and met the crew for lunch at Blackwell's. Then I had a haircut (more layers! new and stylish! wow!) and met my private student at 5pm. Gayle cooked us dinner in the evening, and we had a nice long chat. Then they left this morning for London. We had a lovely time, and it was nice to get to know them better... we've b een overseas for most of our marriage, so we don't know each other's families as well as we'd like to. This was a really great opportunity to catch up at last.

Back to work, back to work... three days to Spain. The garden is bustling... hope Jeremy will water the tomatoes and cucmber and beans while we're away! They're all doing well. The summer teaching season starts at the beginning of July, and I'm doing some admin work to help our principal prep for that. I've given up on moving up within the school where I do most of my work. I've gotten the pretty clear message in the last few weeks that I've got the wrong nationality to advance too far professionally here. I'm planning on applying for a regular job at Oxford Univ Press as an online course developer. It'd be a good opportunity, and the pay is good, and it'd be neat to work for OUP.

That's it from my side of things. Here are another photo to liven things up.I bought a new bike a couple of weeks ago... I love it! It's old and clunky and marvelous.

¡Vamos a España!

We're going to Spain! Two reasons... one, we've been studying Spanish for about 6 months, and we're looking for some practice. And two, we're celebrating our fifth anniversary next week, and we wanted to celebrate. So we're headed to Madrid for three days, on the train via London and Paris. Then we'll go from Madrid to Barcelona, where we'll stay for five days.

I'm SO looking forward to it. Warm weather, sun, beach, beautiful architecture, Goya paintings, tapas, and siestas. It's our first real holiday since 2002, when we went to Ireland and Orkney and slept in a tent in the rain for a month. Hmph. Por lo tanto, nosotros vamos prácticar nuestros habilidades de lengua español en la pobre gente de españa.

The weather here in Oxford has actually warmed up a bit. I got a sunburn last week on Saturday, if you can believe it. The plants are perking up, growing tall. We've got a tiny little tomato. It's been in the high 20s (Celsius... not sure about the F conversion... let me check... 80-85 degrees F?). Forecast isn't so great for the coming week, though. Rainy and 65-70 degrees F. Sigh.

D's Aunt Gayle and Uncle Jerry are coming on Friday. They're staying for three or four days, and we're planning on going to Blenheim Palace on Saturday. I've never been, but I hear that the gardens are really nice.

Wookie has dug himself a little den underneath one of the chairs in the back yard.


He scratches into the dirt to get the cool stuff to the surface and then curls up underneath. He likes to hang out here when it's hot and I'm working in the garden or sitting in the back yard. Isn't the baby boy adorable? I'm biased, though.

Barbecue

The weather was so nice that we were able to have some friends (Rick and Liesbeth) over for a cookout in the back yard. Wookie wanted a veggie burger for himself, and he vigilantly guarded the grill for nearly half an hour, but in the end, he was sadly disappointed and ended up with nothing more than dry kibble yet again. Liesbeth is my aerobics friend, and Rick is a fellow computer geek like D (in his past life--although he still keeps his hands in programming in the background). After dinner, we got a demo of D's new geekalicious computer toy, the XGL plugin for his Linux OS.

Poor burgerless Wookie.

So much work for so little payoff.

Work continues as normal. I'm teaching at my first school only in the mornings, and then I've got a university job two nights a week, plus a private student. I'm going to try to get more private students, since I make more money with them. I might also try to set up some relationships with some American schools to send over high school juniors or seniors for a semester or a few weeks during the school year. That would be commission work, again.

None of it is what I wanted to do ideally, but I've come to the conclusion that doing what I want to do is difficult when I'm not living in a place where I'm going to be for a while. The stuff I want to do requires investment, in terms of time and effort. I'd love to work in a community center, maybe start one in a community that doesn't have one already. If I'm going to do something like that, I'm going to need to settle somewhere. And that won't happen (ahem) until someone (ahem) finished school and (ahem) gets a job. So that'll have to go onto the back burner for the time being.

Learning Spanish is another step toward returning to the States and finding a job in a community. I think that Spanish speakers are the future of America. I think America needs their energy and work ethic. They're a shot in the arm, and I'd like to work in that community whenever I get back to the States.