THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

1:29 a.m., Sunday, April 13, 2008
Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, England

Had a lovely bus ride from Heathrow to Oxford. At age 60 in England, one is considered a "senior": therefore, I get half price bus tickets. Not bad. I spent the entire trip on my phone with Auvry from Sprint trying to get my "data services" to work, i.e., email and Internet. No luck. She called me back in the evening after I'd gone to bed. I couldn't get the long voice mail she'd left because my "data services" weren't working. Not feeling very good about Sprint right about now.

So. . .This is what I've done in the 30 hours or so since I've been in Oxford:

Got settled in my room in Wycliffe Hall. See photo. I have a view of University Park. Very charming.

Ate a pretty decent Wycliffe Hall meal of a little chicken and lots of potatoes

Slept about 13 hours

Rode on a "coach" with 50 students to Portsmouth to visit the shipyards with Trevor, our bus driver

Ate a pretty bad Wycliffe Hall meal with a little ham and lots of potatoes

Attended a concert by an Irish harpist and a Scottish guitarist (Chris Newman and Maire Ni Chathasaigh) who played in a concert hall built for Haydn to practice in. Their Website is at www.oldbridgemusic.com. They were pretty amazing.

Had a Guinness at the Lamb and Child Pub

Had fish and chips served by a Portuguese immigrant who told us the fish was from Russia (yikes!)

Tomorrow? More concerts (there's a music festival in town), visiting museums (the Pitt Rivers is open again!), browsing through bookstores and exploring Oxford again.

Tuesday and Wednesday: visiting the University of Hertfordshire

Thursday: leaving for Paris at 6:30 a.m.

See photo of John Sobieck, Henry VIII and me. John (Nik's friend and Eurospringer) is recovering from bronchitis, brought on, he admits, from burning the preverbial candle at both ends. But he still says coming on Eurospring was the best decision he ever made.

I'll write more tomorrow. Pretty tired. Miss everyone terribly, but it's kind of hard not to enjoy this.

Friday, April 11, 2008
Heathrow Airport

The Good:

1. I'm alive after two of the worst flights I've ever experienced. We left in the midst of a blizzard after three de-icings. I said my "Act of Contrition" more than once.

2. I'm at a Starbuck's in Heathrow Airport drinking a fine depth charge (or red-eye, as they call it) and about to buy a bus ticket to Oxford.

3. My luggage made it on the same plane, even though i was warned it may not be because my connecting flight from bemidji had arrived so late.

4. Customs was a breeze, unlike the last time I came here.

The Bad:

1. This Internet is costing me $8 (or £4) for 45 minutes.

2. The flights from hell

The Ugly:

My high-class Blackberry World Phone does NOT work, even though I spent a half-hour on the phone yesterday before I left and they assured me it would be just fine.

All in all, not a bad start. After some sleep, I'll report again.