Weekend in the Cotswolds Jan 25-Jan 27

Wow! What an absolutely amazing weekend... this weekend made our entire journey to Enlgand! We had high expectations and they were all fulfilled! We rented a car, which was more than a little hairy in London- other side of the road, horrible signage, night time, crazy drivers, no map. Yikes! We finally made it to our amazing Bed & Breakfast, Nineveh Farm, http://www.ninevehfarm.co.uk/ . It was simply amazing and in the morning we awoke to fantastic views!

On Saturday, we had a very big, English Breakfast at the B&B, went to Chipping Campden (where we previously got lost), Broadway and Winchcombe. They are amazing, quaint villages and we absolutely loved Broadway, where we enjoyed tea in a tea room. In the late afternoon we went through Stratford Upon Avon to Warwick. We then had one of the most amazing experiences- after dinner, we went to a play at Warwick Castle in the Great Room! Being in a castle with about 40 other people in the evening was definitely spectacularly spooky! We toured the castle and dungeon, enjoyed drinks and appetizers and watched Marlow's Edward II, which took place around us in the Great Room. It was chilling to know that Edward II was killed on the grounds.

After another full breakfast on Sunday, we got to enjoy yet more! We went to an antique shop, Stow-on-the-Wold (whose church bells rang throughout our time there), took a hike between upper and lower Slaughter (definitely a highlight), Bourton-on-the-Water, Northleach, and then the amazing town of Bibury, whose large trout farm and river really made the journey. Then we ventured home for more driving adventures and gulp, paid over $120 for a tank of gas!!! Large props to Nate for his amazing driving skills!

London, Sunday Jan 20

On Sunday we walked through Regents Park, went to the ultra funky Camden Lock Market, went to Tate Britian, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery. We also saw Big Ben and Westminster Cathedral. Our legs were very, very tired after the weekend!

Oxford

On Saturday, Jan 19, we headed via train to Oxford (we always love checking out Universities around the world). What an amazing place! We loved walking around and seeing all of the seperate colleges, however, we still are a bit puzzled at what the various colleges study! We really enjoyed ourselves and even found the "Stanford House".

Week of January 14

A quick recap on our week: Amy met Yiannis and Christina, two PhD's at UCL that share an office space. Yiannis has been great at answering questions and getting Amy set up. PhD students don't take classes here, and don't typically have sharing sessions, so it is a bit hard for the talkative and social side of Amy to be content... hmmm... is academia a right fit?

On Thursday, we saw probably 1/32 of the British Museum- we toured the 'round the world medicine exhibitions and the Africa floor. I (Amy) particularly liked the "Tree of Life", a tree made from guns and other ammunition, which was made from a project called "Transforming Arms into Tools". This project has collected more than 600,000 weapons in nine years. It gets people to hand in old guns in exchange for goods such as sewing machines, building materials and tools (info from "Mozabique: Tree of Life Website).

On Friday night we headed for Tate Modern, the ultra-funky museum of modern art. Really cool, some things were really out there. We had amazing Turkish food down by the museum, walked across Arup's Millenium Bridge (also known as the wiggly-wobbly bridge), checked out St Paul's Cathedral at night and saw the blending of the old with the new (new financial commercial buildings next to a walk way exhbiting the old wall from ancient times).

Museums & Harrods

Today we headed to the Science Museum and Museum of Natural History. It is great to have so many free museums in the city! We also saw a glimpse of Hyde Park and wandered through about 1/30 of Harrod's! My goodness that store is big! Tomorrow Amy hopes to see where her desk space is at the University of London.

London Apartment

Our apartment is small, but doable! Our kitchen is definitely a "one butt" kitchen- it has a stove, microwave oven, toaster and hot water heater (no oven). It will keep us nourished though:)!

London Tour

Today we took "The Original" double decker bus tour. It was sunny, but we still froze! The tour took us around the entire city hitting all the highlights from Buckingham Pallace to the London Tower and over Tower Bridge. We then took to the Thames on a river cruise to Greenwich. We Strolled through the Royal Navy College and up the hill to the Observatory where we had splendid views of Canary Wharf and downtown London from the Prime Meridian. Tomorrow supposes to rain, so off to some of the numerous museums!

The Miniature Earth

A friend posted this on facebook. I had seen it before, and although I didn't realize it when I first set out to get my PhD, this video is a perfect response to why I now want to get my PhD.

Happy Holidays!!!

What happened to 2007? We celebrated Christmas with Tobias (classmate of Amy) and his girlfriend Silke. We had a nice dinner, assembled ginger bread houses and watched the "kitsch" movie Christmas Vacation. For New Years Eve we had Stephan and Elsa over for dinner and games.

We celebrated the New Year by heading to Point Lobos, a spectacular state reserve a few miles South of Carmel. We hiked, had Starbucks, took photos, and hiked some more!