UltraFast Christmas Dinner

The annual Ultrafast Physics Christmas party was held this past Tuesday in one of the lovely Oxford colleges called Sommerville College. It's a black tie affair, with a drinks reception and three-course meal. Then the physicists do their best to entertain their colleagues and significant others with some "fun" presentations and reviews of the past year.

The menu was quite interesting (even for the meat lover than I am). (Brian obviously ordered the vegetarian!)

Starter: Pan-fried pigeon breast with sauteed wild mushrooms

Main: Haunch of venison with a chocolate and rasberry jus

Dessert: Chocolate truffle cake with clotted cream

 

 

Can't resist a bunch of cute British nerds in their tuxes!!

December Update on Brian's Dad

This update from Brian's dad's gf Karen is a bit dated already, but for those of you who are following Tom's progress, here is an update from 1 December:

Once again, Tom is making great strides!  This past Sunday, we gave him a "field trip" to come home for 4 hours.  I built a ramp on our front porch on Sunday morning, and picked him up at noon.  He came out for the afternoon, taking him back in time for his 4:00 pain meds.  He didn't even make any wise cracks about my carpentry skills being "agricultural"! 

 He was really excited to see "his dawgs" - Jaz and Buster wouldn't leave his side!  River was torn between having access to the basement where a cat we are fostering stays when I am not there to supervise, and visiting with Tom. 

He was in great spirits!  He found some goofy old time country station on the stereo and called me into the living room to "polka" with him in his wheelchair!  If you know Tom, you know the man can't polka for $@&# on his feet - but he was having fun! 

On Monday, he started re-learning to walk through the use of parallel bars.  The PT gave him the order to move - light touch of the weak leg, move >hands forward, then move the strong leg - - before she finished talking, he was zooming off to the end of the parallel bars and she was calling him to slow down!  

His muscles are really weak, and he says his ability to >balance is really off.  I reminded him after looking back at our journal, that one month ago, his big accomplishment was sitting on the side of the bed for 20minutes!  That is BIG progress! 

He is very anxious to master this parallel bars stage and to move on to a walker, as that translates into his being able to come home.  After 50 days, we are both ready for that! 

Thanks for your continued prayers and thoughts.  They mean so much! 

We are looking forward to visits from his sons and their families in the next couple weeks - - coming back to check on the ol' guy!  :)

Rick & Kate are here!

Having a great time with Brian's bro Rick and his wife Kate! Visiting London, Blenheim Palace and the changing of the guard at the Queen's Windsor Castle. Museums and theatre tomorrow in London!

Update on Brian's Dad

Overall, things are progressing as well as they can be in Tom's current state. The best news is that he's been transferred now from St Mary's Trauma hospital in Duluth, down to a regional hospital in River Falls, WI. So closer to home for him, which is really great for both him and Karen. Probably best if I just pass along the words from Karen for the update:


Hello all! It has been a while since I updated everyone on Tom's progress - - they really keep us hopping with all the physical therapy, respiratory therapy, tests, x-rays, etc.

Tom is doing well. He had a bit of a scare with pneumonia, but the doctors at St. Mary's were watching for it and jumped on it right away. His breathing is doing much better these days.

On Monday, he was stabilized enough to be moved from Duluth to River Falls - a bit closer to home! Yeah! He is excited at the prospect of being able to go outside to the patio area and have me bring the dogs to visit him!

St. Mary's is a leading trauma hospital in the midwest and they provided excellent care and got him through some very touch-and-go moments. We are excited at the prospect of a smaller, home-town hospital, with less staff turnover, and a less hectic pace, however. We have learned the importance of continuity of care - - it will be nice to have the same nurses each day, and the same physical therapists, who already know his case, and what he is capable of doing.

In the River Falls hospital, he is in what they call a swing bed. Basically, they take care of him and teach him how to function independently in spite of his vast injuries. Once he can transfer himself from bed to wheelchair, dress himself and get himself into/out of his TSLO (a hard plastic brace that he has to wear whenever he is not in bed) by himself, he will be sent home to finish his recovery. And here I thought the days of a having a hospital bed in my living room ended when he quit racing! WRONG!

We are seeing daily improvements in his condition and his ability to move around. He has his cell phone with him, but honestly, they don't give him much time to hang out and chat.

Thanks for all the prayers, cards, texts, voice mails, etc. It is comforting to hear how many people are worried about him!

Attempt at Halloween

Well Halloween just isn't quite the big deal in the UK as in the US. The little kids do put on fancy dress (costumes), and kinda trick or treat. But commercially, it's hardly noticeable as a holiday amongst all of the Christmas stuff already out in the surpermarkets and shops! I'm not even such what people would hand out for candy on Halloween, I've never seen bags of mini-candy bars in the supermarkets. So not really sure what the kids get!

I asked my English girlfriends, if they ever trick or treated when they were little, and none of them had. It's only a recent thing, but they do remember carving turnips! Folklore has it that some Irish guy did something bad, and was stuck in-between heaven and hell, and so had to roam the earth at night. So he carved a face in a turnip and stole a light of fire from the devil, and used it as a "lantern" to light his way. So that is where we ended up getting the "jack o' lanterne" carving idea from (they say).

Brian and I weren't much in a large celebratory mood, but did want to enjoy the nice autumn weather and hang out with our friend Jo for the day. So we took a short drive to Millets Farm, where we figured it might be the closest thing to a UK pumpkin patch. It was a far stretch, but there were a few bales of hay where they were selling some pumpkins. So there we go! The largest pumpkin I've seen in this country is the one behind Brian on his right.

They also had a corn maze with scary monster actors, which the older kids could go to when it got dark.

We settled for afternoon tea looking over the farm land and lake!

News on Brian's Dad, Tom Smith

If you are family, you have probably already heard that Brian's dad Tom was in a bad car accident two weeks ago. He is now on the road to recovery, but it's going to be a long one. Long story short, you all in MN received some unseasonably cold/wintery weather at that time, which left icy roads up in Northern MN. Tom was driving home from his cabin in CA, so just north of Duluth, and his truck flipped on ice. There are no life threatening injuries at this point, but many broken bones and lots of rehabilitation to come after 4 surgeries.

Bri and I went to MN right away, and spent the time up at St Luke's Hospital in Duluth with Tom's partner Karen, Rick & Kate, and Tom's sisters, Anne and Beth. It was a scary time and Tom was incapacitated over that entire first week/weekend. I was there from Wed through Sunday. Brian stayed on until just today (the following Sunday) while Tom was weened off his breathing tube, and other drugs that kept him "out". Sounds like there has been many small drastic changes for the better for Tom, in this last week. So we are very happy and fortunate to have him with us and already the entire fam is pitching in and taking turns spending time with Tom and help keeping him company, encouraging him, serving as advocates at the hospital, etc. Within the week or so, he should be moved to another hospital that can help with rehabilitation and take him closer to home in Wisconsin. He has been talking with everyone since last weekend, and he's got a good determination and is being as positive as he can. He's doing well and making great strides.

It's sure been an eye-opening experience dealing with the insurance world for such a situation. I don't care whether people are republicans or democrats. I don't think which side of politics one is on, should have anything to do with the obvious need that something drastically needs to change the American health care/insurance system. No one needs to be worrying about costs, or who can take care of what, or where insurance will cover this versus this - when a loved one is in a serious state of health. Insurance coverage should be the last thing people should have to worry about. It really puts things into perspective when it's your own family that is experiencing the entire system. I couldn't even imagine what a family would have to do if this happened to them, and didn't have health insurance in America.

Brian turns 3-2!

Well Brian definitely celebrated in style for his B-day this year - or I should say, in Brian style! There should be no surprise to hear we were at the pub. But we did do a few more things to help him celebrate . . .

The wife got up early to bake the B-day boy fresh blueberry muffins



Went to the pub for pre-dinner pints, then all 18 of us enjoyed mezes, beer and ouzo at the Greek Taverna


Back to the pub for more post-dinner pints

The remaining few (still standing!) at our flat for late night celebrating

Summer Visitors 2: The Bjork family!

Our good friend's Elin & Magnus and their two kids, Rebecka and Lukas came back to Oxford for visit in September. We had just gotten to see then in July/August when we went on our trip to Norway. If you recall, we became great friends in 2007, the first year we lived in Oxford. We were neighbors from across the hall, and it was a fantastic year we will all never forget. Now we live in a different flat of course, but it was just big enough to add a family of 4 for a visit! Good thing kids are little!


The weather wasn't so great, but they remembered typical English summer weather and were well prepared. The great thing for us was that E&M already know Oxford very well and didn't need us to show them around. So Brian and I could carry on with work during the day, and the Bjorks could visit their favorite Oxford places. We would then all meet up for dinner at the flat - and play with the kids! Good practice . . . :)


We did take a weekend trip to the southern coast (well north part of the southern tip of the UK). We drove through the small city of Wells and visited the gorgeous cathedral. (A place is the UK isn't called a city unless it has a cathedral. Wells is the smallest city in the UK.) We then drove to Weston-super-mare and stayed in a B&B right across from the coast. There wasn't much for super warm, summery weather, but we just enjoyed visiting a new place.

On the drive back, we drove through the Cheddar Gorge. It's a beautiful natural gorge carved out of the Sommerset hills. It's also where cheddar cheese was first made. There is a lot of farmland and pastures in the area as well. And the caves within the gorge, was the perfect dark, damp place to store the cheddar cheese rounds while it matured.

We had a great time with the Bjorks visiting and we hope to see them again next year, probably in Sweden - especially with their expanding family and new house! :)

Summer Visitors: Nelson & Amanda!

I need to wrap up our summer events on the blog so I can move on to the autumn! BTW, the Brits don't use the word fall to describe a season, so I'm using consciously using autumn.


Anywho, already way back in August, our good friend Nelson from GAC and his fiance Amanda came to visit. They lucked out with great weather and great friends as tour guides of course!


Mainly, the goal was to enjoy catching up, touring around Oxford and taking it easy. Many pub stops were of course on the agenda as well.

We did get out for a day trip to to beautiful Georgian town of Bath and another trip to the must-see Windsor Castle. I think I could speak for all of us by saying the best afternoon was punting on Oxford's Cherwell river. There is always great entertainment along the river - this time - pirates!

We had a blast with N&A visiting and we look forward to seeing them again soon!

Here is what we are facing with US Academic jobs

Stanford University endowment loses big
San Francisco Chronicle, 03/09/209, Nanette Asimov
Stanford, the nation's third-wealthiest university, is feeling poor. The school has laid off 412 employees this year, with dozens more lay-offs to come. It has also frozen salaries and shuttered its physics library as it tries to counter the largest loss to its endowment in 120 years. "The academic program has been protected," spokeswoman Lisa Lapin said, meaning that Stanford is not laying off its faculty. But there are 50 open faculty positions that will not be filled in the near future.

So, job outlook for Brian is not very healthy in the US this year. We are glad we have great (even though short-term) positions in the UK right now. Looks like we'll need more patience with returning home to the US anytime soon. . .

Bergen, Norway

Well good thing we had prepared for rain, because it rained a lot in Bergen! I believe it's the rainiest city in Norway, and probably one of the rainiest cities in Europe. But it's also very quaint and beautiful; the city was the European Capital of Culture in 2000 and it's water front, Bryggen, is an UNESCO World Heritage site.

We took the most amazing train ride from Oslo to the West coast and traveled through incredible Norwegian landscape. We stayed at a typical chain hotel, but it did the job just fine and had a nice large Norwegian breakfast buffet in the morning. The size of Bergen is just perfect. Large enough for some good exploring, but doesn't feel very large and quite easy to get your bearings quickly.

Our main plan in Bergen was to enjoy the outdoors. In a short furnicular ride or walk from Bergen's city centre, you can reach mountainous hiking trails in the Mount Floyen or Mount Ulriken areas. So we started off the first morning with a hike up through Mount Floyen. It was warm and almost sunny when we took off, but by the afternoon, it was raining fairly good. Didn't stop us - although we looked like drowned rats! But we hiked around the top of Floyen and explored. Interesting to see how there are all of these mountain cabins scattered about. Not sure how they workk - if they belong to a family, or if you can rent one. The key thing of course is getting there! Not like there is an easy road to drive your car up! So they are mainly for hikers to use. And Norwegians like to hike! And in the rain!

In our exploring we found this tiny little old hut, which has been turned into a small art gallery. It's in the middle of nowhere on the tip of ledge on the mountain. But I think the cool thing is for those of us who stumble upon it, receive quite a nice culture surprise! Whoever runs it, changes out the works every few months and runs a blog. Pretty cool!

As food is so expensive as I mentioned in the Oslo post, we took on the typical European tourist habits, and ate mainly bread and cheese (and salami for me) for our lunches and even some dinners. It was much easier to shop in a supermarket and buy picnic type stuff. Plus that is so much fun anyway in a different country.

The next day after our open face breakfast sandwiches and coffee/tea, we took one of the "Norway in a Nutshell" tours on the fjords. We traveled by train, bus, boat, bus in a circular fashion from Bergen and back to Bergen in about 12 hours. The main highlights were some amazing waterfalls and of course the boat tour on the fjords. Our photos don't do the fjords justice, even though we took hundreds. We travelled along the Hardangerfjord and past all of the steep sloping fruit farms on the banks. Another wet and cold day, but obviously we found ways to enjoy a hot cup of coffee/tea and experience the Norwegian life! Here we are in a cafe in Eidfjord (on the end of the fjord), waiting for the rain to let up so we can explore the town.

Our last day, we didn't fly out until later at night, so still had some time to hike a bit in the morning. We took the cable car this time up Mount Ulriken. The weather was also somewhat sunny, so that was nice for our last day. We hiked a bit together, and then I was pretty shot from all of our activities, so went back to the cafe on the top and enjoyed a Norwegian boller (sweet baked bun) and a latte while overlooking the city. Brian hiked over to the next mountain and of course loved having his alone manly time to be one with the outdoors. :)

We flew from Bergen to Oslo, and then Oslo home to London. Got home late in the evening, but luckily had a day at home to recoup before heading back to work.

We'd love to return again sometime and explore our families roots, since we both have such a strong Norwegian presence in our lives. Will just have to live off of more bread and cheese!

Oslo, Norway

Brian and I spent the last week in July visiting Norway. If it's not apparent, we both have strong Norwegian heritage in our families and thought this was a good opportunity to explore our roots. It especially worked out perfectly, because our good Swedish friends, Elin & Magnus, were going to drive from Sweden to Norway, to visit our Norwegian friends in Oslo. And they all kindly invited the Americans to join in! Oyvind and Kristine were also neighbors with us when we first moved to Oxford. We only lived in Oxford for about 4 months together, where we lived across from Elin & Magnus for about 11 months or so. This was such a special experience - to reconnect with our Scandinavian friends in Norway!

After the athletics meet Saturday, Brian and I stayed in a hotel by the Heathrow airport, and flew to Oslo on Sunday. On the airplane we sat next to this attractive older blonde Norwegian woman. Brian offered put her bag up for her and asked in English of course. She first answered in excellent English and then immediately continued talking to him in Norwegian. I ended up saying to her, "I'm sorry but we don't understand". And she said, "Oh I though you were both Norwegian, you look like you are. Then she said, "Especially him, but not you as much." (!) Well at least I don't obviously look British - yikes!

Kristine and her 4-year-old daughter, Stella, collected us from the Oslo train station. The Swedes were not arriving until Monday, so we had a chance to catch up with Kristine, Oyvind, Stella (hiding in the pic) and meet their new little boy Jostein. We had indicated how we were looking forward to trying local Norwegian foods - and right away we were treated to some fun and typical Norwegian treats! Not sure that I'm going to remember their Norwegian names, but after our veggie tarts for dinner, we tried some yummy baked sweet rolls, this brown and carmel-tasting goat cheese slices (was yummy!) and their Xmas spirit - aquavit.

Monday started off with a great breakfast. I would say it's a bit different than our sweet breakfast (cereal, baked goods) or heavy greasy breakfast (English breakfast, bacon, scrambled eggs). I know this is similar in Sweden too, when we visit E&M last summer. But basically the main part is proper baked bread, sliced, buttered (so that is where we get buttering our sandwiches!) served open faced with a selection on cheese slices, cold meat slices, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and boiled egg. You could also add a kaviar paste or smoked mackerel if that is your thing! There was also more goats cheese (spreadable or the brown caramel kind again) and some berry jam from berries they had just picked. And lots of coffee! My travel guide said that the most coffee consumed in the world is in Norway! Found that a bit surprising - thinking of the Italians and espresso and French and lattes. But Norwegians like it filtered and black in a mug and pretty much just drink it throughout the day. So it all adds up!

After breakfast we headed for a walk in the nearby countryside. It was so beautiful to see the farmland amongst rocky hills and small cliffs. And we discovered the Norwegian troll eggs! (Bales of hay with the white plastic coverings.) Here is Bri and I in front of a barn - red with white trim, looks familiar!!

The Bjork family arrived for lunch - so we had lunch at the house and then loaded up everyone for a trip to the Vigeland Sculpture Park just outside of Oslo. We hadn't seen Rebecka (3) or Lukas (now 1+) since last August and so fun to see how much they had grown! By now, the weather decided to be really wet and rainy, but good thing everyone was prepared with rain gear!

Dinner back at the house was this concoction called Bacalao (think I spelled it correctly). It's made from klippfisk (dried salted cod), potatoes and veggies, all cooked together in a big pot. Now the fish gets soaked in water overnight, so it's not dried nor at all as salty as when it's purchased. But it's the old school way to preserve fish for long periods of time. Funny enough, that the dish is a combination of Norwegian and Brazilian influences. Norway used to import loads of klippfisk to Brazil - who in turned made their own South American twist to the dish.

Tuesday we traveled into Oslo again (and the sun was shining!) to visit the Norwegian Folk Museum. Kristine was a good sport since she's been there like a million times! It was an outdoor museum divided into the various regions of the country and showing the different styles of homes/farms from various time periods. Of course we saw some traditional folk dancing and then Brian got his requisite photo with the local girls!


I would say Tuesday night was probably Brians' fave meal of all times - an absolutely enormous baked whole trout! Served with steamed potatoes, hollandaise sauce and cucumber salad (with vinegar and sugar just like at home). He had died and gone to heaven!

First impressions of Norway - friendly, worldly, expensive and family oriented. Also extremely tall, blonde and gorgeous women. The stereotype is totally true! But not everyone is blonde really - gorgeous and tall though! They all speak English very well and it's taught for many years in school. They also learn more American English than British English and there is heavy American pop culture influence in TV/movies/music. Fashion however isn't influenced too much by Americans, but more the British and continental Europe (so they do care about what they wear versus flip flops and sweatpants!). Insanely expensive. I had heard this, but assumed it was Americans saying this (with a weaker dollar) and since I live practically in London, how could anywhere be more expensive? OMG! A pint of standard lager was 8 GBP, which is currently like $15! We ate a lot of bread and cheese . . .

More to report on our second half of our trip to Bergen and traveling through the Norwegian Fjords on the next post!

UK Athletics and the Berlin Championships

We just finished watching last week's Berlin World Championships on the BBC. For those of you who don't follow Track and Field (or Athletics as they call it in the UK) the biggest t&f event in the world, outside of the Olympics, was held in Berlin all last week. The big name, as I sure most everyone has heard of, is Usain Bolt - the 6 foot 5 sprinter from Jamaica. He is absolutely amazing! Just broke a bunch of his own World Records and especially slammed the 200m sprint.

Why I'm mentioning all this is because we got to see him in live action in London, the Saturday before we left for Norway! A few weeks back now, we attended the AVIVA London Athletics meet, which was a UK qualifier for the Worlds. It was as last ditch place for teams to qualify for the Worlds and served as a great point to start the build up to the big 100m showdown in Berlin between Bolt and American Tyson Gay and others. The pic here is of the British broadcast woman interviewing Bolt on the track's big screen.

Attending the meet made us miss Eugene sooo much as we went to every single U of O and Prefontaine Classic track meet at historic Hayward field. It's the one sport that we both love and can enjoy together!

Back Online!

Hello lovely blog followers!

Good news is that my extremely intelligent (and handsome I must say), hubby has saved our old files off the dead hard drive and upgraded our Mac - so I'm back online! I did always have access to email, etc, at work or on Brian's laptop. But I enjoy blogging on our home desk top Mac and obviously need access to our photos to help tell you what we're up to.

Now I should be able to upload video clips and the process for me with the blogging should go smoother and quicker (fingers crossed)!

Lots have been happening for us since the crash to update you on. In a nutshell (and I'll post longer updates soon) - Mom and Dad enjoyed Scotland (a bit cool and rainy but what else is new over here) and then we enjoyed a weekend trip to London to for a British-inspired 4th of July for dinner and a West End show - Billy Elliot. Mom and I loved it, I think the boys weren't too sure about a boy doing ballet in a tutu. :)

Then, we took a week trip to Norway to visit friends we had made when we first moved to Oxford. Our Norwegian friends Kristine and Oyvind live in Oslo, and our Swedish friends, Elin and Magnus also drove over from Gothenburg. It was such a special week to visit and reconnect with our international friends.

And last week, Brian's good buddy from Gustavus, Nelson and his fiance Amanda, came over for a visit. Nelson was physics grad, and now works as an accoustic engineer at Apple in California. Amanda is in law school and also a midwest gal. They came over for 4 days in Oxford to see us, and are currently now traveling around Belgium and Paris for the rest of their holiday.

We have a little down time right now in August, and have to admit, the weather has been pretty nice for an English summer. In few weeks, Elin and Magnus are coming back over to Oxford with their kids, to visit us and the city again.

In the meantime, we are just enjoying the sun, the pubs, and our life and friends here in the UK. Just today, we took a bike ride in the sun to the neighboring village, Eynsham. And guess how our day ended? Cheers!!

Computer Crash!!!

Bad news - our home computer's hard drive just died on us. So access to the internet is pretty limited for me at the moment. Mainly I'm worried about losing all of our photos as we've been lax lately on backing them up. Good thing I've been blogging at least . . . But Dr Brian the physicist is all over it. (A good nerdy problem to solve.) So hopefully we'll save the photos and files and be back up and running soon.

John & Marcy are here again!

My folks are visiting us for two weeks this summer and arrived this past Wednesday. They know the drill now, on how to travel from the airport in London to Oxford. The first day and a half are pretty chill for them, as they adjust to the time change. Then Mum and I went to the Cotswolds Friday for a girls day of shopping and tea rooms. Was lovely! Visited the villages of Burford and Whitney. Friday night was our regular trip to the pub with the Physics group, and they were all out, so many pints were consumed.

Saturday the four of us went punting on the Cherwell River and unbelievably we are having hot summer weather!! We punted (well Brian did the actual punting) up to the Victoria Arms pub, where we sat outside in the large garden along the river and enjoyed the sun and some pints. Went to our fave Greek restaurant for dinner and Mum and Dad really enjoyed that.

Sunday was another day of just hanging in Oxford. Mum and I went to one of the local Church of England's churches for their morning service. It was family focused, so all the little kids helped with the service. We then headed to Marston village, just a walk away, for my Canadian friend Lindsay's baby shower. Was fun for Ma to meet my NAG friends (North American Girls)! Had a relaxing dinner at the flat to allow Mom and Dad time to pack for their week trip to Scotland. They woke up really early this morning to catch the plane to Edinburgh. Looks like they are going to St Andrews tomorrow and on a bus tour through the highlands Wednesday. I warned them about trying Scottish food faves such as haggis or "neeps and tatties"!

Brian's Conference in Poland

My own husband doesn't even read our blog, but since he's living it all with me, I guess he is off the hook! I'm posting one of his latest emails, so you can hear more about his conference in Poland he recently returned home from.

From Bri guy:

"I just wanted to let you know that I made it back safe and sound from all my travels over the last month. I got in late Thursday night, and went straight to work yesterday morning. No rest for the wicked. . . Anyway, I just wanted to share a little of my trip to Poland with you. It was a fantastic trek. I was there for 10 days. Five of those, I spent at a conference in the southern mountain town of Zakopane, located at the edge of the Tatra mountains. The conference was called Quantum Optics VII (it's been ongoing since 1985 - before Poland was set free from the Iron Curtain). My grad school advisor, Mike Raymer, was there and has been attending since the early days. It was funny to "run into" him (and a former colleague of mine at Oregon, a current student of Mike's, Cody Leary). I met a lot of people whom I had known of, but not had the pleasure of meeting before. So that was fun. There was a birthday banquet for a longtime friend and collaborator of Mike's - Jan Mostowski (note, w's are pronounced like v's in Polish), which was good fun.

At the end of the conference I stuck around for an additional half-day to get up early (4AM) to hike from the town, to the top of Poland and climb a few of the highest peaks there. It snow, rained, and shined on my ascent and descent. I hiked for about 8 hours before arriving back to the hotel to pack up and head via taxi-bus-taxi to Krakow, Poland on the Vistula river. It's probably the largest city in southern Poland, and most visited. I spent two and a half days there. It was largely untouched by WWII, so there are many old buildings and historic sites still around. I really enjoyed seeing all the markets, squares, and having tea (herbata) at the cafes! I walked all over the city visiting its major sites (Wawel Hill, on which Wawel castle sits, which used to be the thrown of Poland back in the day), Market Square, and the Kazimier district (the old Jewish section of town). It was great to see so many people just enjoying themselves! I also came upon a Jewish wedding ceremony, which was great to see, since after WWII the population dropped to only 5000 in Krakow (from hundreds of thousands!) The second day in Krakow, I actually spent going to the Auschwitz-Birkenau site. It was something I will never forget.


I then made my way by train (8 hours!) to Torun, Poland located in the north central part of Poland also located on the Vistula river. This is the home to the Nicholas Copernicus (the guy who said the Earth goes around the sun, and not the other way around) University. It is rumored that Copernicus was born in Torun and lived there, although my hosts at the University say that it was in a small town nearby that this actually occurred. In any case, it was a delightful town with similar architecture to that of Krakow. Again, this city survived WWII with little damage. I visited the Quantum Optics groups there in Torun for a day and a half, with my evenings free to walk around the city and explore. I was able to enjoy several new foods. I must say I was scared at first having been told by a Polish colleague here in Oxford that Zakopane was famous in Poland for having good "man food," as she described it - lots of potatoes, sausages, and good meats and cheeses. Well I had no trouble finding plenty of good "vegetarian" options - like fish or chicken (apparently these are not considered meat there). Anyway, I found the perogies to be excellent (filled pasta), and they did a great breakfast spread - bread, cheeses, (and meat for those who like), tomato-cucumber-onion salad, and some kind of pickled vegetable (carrots, kraut, etc...).

Anyway, as I said, I made it back to Ox with no major issues. Kelly and I are enjoying a nice weekend together (first in a while) and are just doing our "regular" chores. I hope this note finds you all well and everything good in your lives. Take care and keep in touch!"

Rome!

We went to Rome in April - it was a bit of a last minute trip. Brian had to go for work, and I thought I'd tag along! It's actually our second time being over there, but can't complain about visiting one of the most amazing Italian cities again!








The first two days we had together over the weekend, and we were pretty lucky that the weather held out. We toured around the centuries-old Roman Forum, Palantine and the Colosseum. Had our early evening beer in front of the Pantheon and ate yummy Roman food for dinner outside by candlelight in a cobblestoned alleyway.










We also had to visit the Vatican (hi to the Pope!) and the beautiful Spanish Steps.






The second two days, Brian had to work, so I was on my own for the daytime. Of course, shopping was on the order, and I did enjoy finding some Italian boutiques. I also had some pizza and wine at an outdoor cafe while reading a good book. Not too shabby! It did start to rain though, so I had to trek back in the pouring rain - taking my sandals off and running the streets of Rome in my bare feet!

The coolest and yet most disturbing place we discovered this trip was the capucin crypt in the bottom of one of the Catholic churches. The monks who used to live there, decorated the 6 rooms with the bones of their own dead, and made these decorative designs out of the human bones. Totally freaky!