London to Dublin

Our weekend trip to Ireland started on Saturday with a bus ride to London Gatwick airport at about noon, and then a hour and half flight delay. We were flying on one of the European budget airlines for the first time, Ryan Air, and wasn't quite sure what to expect. Besides the delay in leaving, it was a pretty decent airline for a quick trip. It's one of those no frills airlines and even drinks cost money on the plane, and checking even one piece of baggage costs extra money. But that's their point of being really cheap. Also, you don't get assigned seats, so you want to que early enough to get a seat sitting together. With only the two of us, it wasn't too big of a deal.

We arrived in Dublin later than expected, but luckily hadn't planned to meet up with Andrea and Ruairi until later the next day. We arrived to our accommodations by 9 p.m. and were staying at Dublin City University. It was a cheap way to stay in the city, and found the room to be one step up from a typical dorm room. So it basically had everything we needed including an ensuite bathroom and comfy bed. It wasn't in the city center, but we could catch the city bus close by in the morning.

Because we arrived late, we just looked for the closest food source which ended up being Chinese take out! Not quite the Irish food experience, but at least we knew what were getting in to! Then we found a corner pub and enjoy a pint or two with the locals. We were surprised to see some popular American beers on tap there - mainly Bud Light. England won't touch American beers with a ten-foot pole, let alone have them on tap. Maybe you can get a Bud heavy (regular Budweiser) in a bottle at a few pubs or even the supermarket. But so far that's all I've seen here.

Was a long day of travel to get to our destination, but it all worked out great and we were excited for time to explore and visit with our friends.

The pics here are of DCU where we stayed for our accommodations.

Trip to Ireland

Last week we took a long weekend trip to Ireland to visit with my good college friend Andrea and her Irish husband Ruairi. They live in Chicago, and I was a reader in their wedding last summer. Ruairi's family lives in Tullamore, Ireland, and Andrea and Ruairi were taking their summer holiday to visit his friends and family and attend a wedding. Brian and I figured we should pop over there since we live pretty close and take advantage of having them show us around. Overall it was a great trip and I'll blog about each day in separate entries.

Brian's new BBQ Grill

The American in us just can't stand it any longer - we had to find a BBQ grill! Charcoal grills are the preferred version here in the UK (it's the "proper" way to grill we've heard) but we still like the easy 'ol gas grill. So we found one at a decent price - mainly because it's a self assembly. But Brian liked facing a new manly project and put it together last weekend. We've already had grilled chicken almost every night since! We'll plan to have grill outs with the Swedish neighbors and some new neighbors in our building. Talk about a small world, they are American and Brian already knows the husband! He was a grad student at Oregon and had the same advisor as Brian. Graduated a few years before Brian, so they didn't cross paths then, but have met at conferences and such. And here we are all living in Oxford in the same building! So will be fun to have some American neighbors to hang out with too.

I think what I'm missing the most right now during the summer (well other than the sun since it hasn't been warm or sunny lately) is having a bit of grass or a deck or something of our own to enjoy the evenings outside. The closest park is about a 20 minute walk from here and we only have a gravel parking lot outside our flat. There is plenty of room in the parking lot to grill and set up a chair, but it's just not a nice green sunny place to hang out for grilling dinner and having a beer, or lounging outside in the sun during the day. I guess we've been spoiled by living in the midwest and in Oregon where there is plenty of green grass and trees to go around!

Gina in the hospital!

I introduced Gina a few entries ago, but a quick reminder. . . Gina is an American postdoc in Brian's office from Colorado. She arrived a few weeks after we did and I went on a fun shopping trip with her to London a few weeks ago. She had the unfortunate experience of falling off her bike on her way into work last week and ended up in the hospital with a shattered elbow! She had to spend five days in there and had surgery to repair the bone. I went and picked up some necessities for her and she had a good steady stream of visitors from Brian's lab. We've decided we better warn the next American postdoc joining their lab, since they end up visiting the hospital! (Brian stabbing himself and now Gina.) And it seems to get worse each time! :) But Gina's back home and has about 60% mobility of her arm, so she's hanging in there. She's already off to a conference in Germany and glad to have about four of the guys from the lab here going so they can carry her briefcase and papers!

Cotswold Wildlife Park

Looks like I have some catching up to do! We've been busy, busy, so I finally have time to fill you in on our latest happenings. I'll start with last Friday's trip to the Cotswold Wildlife Park. Brian didn't go, but I went with our Swedish neighbors. It was a trip put on by the newcomer's club, and tailored towards young families and little kids. But Kelly tagged along anyway! I wanted to see the animals and hopefully some new baby animals since it's spring. It was an easy trip by coach bus, less than an hour away. We had fun checking out the variety of animals surrounding the old castle in the middle of the grounds. Everyone had brought a picnic lunch (which is a very British thing) and ate together. We were off towards home again by 3ish, so it was quick but enjoyable day!

Punting

We went on Saturday from 17:00 - 20:00 from Wolfson College. (Got that time?) The punters included Brian and myself, Adam and Maggie (the couple who hosted the BBQ) and Offir (another guy in Brian's lab from Israel). We all took turns punting the boat down the river (although I tried to avoid it as long as possible as it looked hard only using one long pole)! Also the most important thing involved with punting is making sure you have plenty of liquid refreshments (mainly wine or Pimms) and light snacks. Of course the guys preferred beer, but I brought along these yummy mango/orange fruity wine cooler things I've discovered. Everyone did a pretty good job punting but there are few hazards to be aware of. One is that it's quite easy to lose the pole if you push too hard. The boat will cruise down the river faster than you can pull the pole out of the bottom. So either you have to let go or fall in! (Offir demonstrated this for us, and luckily we had paddle to go back up and pick up the pole.) Also it's easy to run into the bank and get caught under some tree branches so you have to be on the lookout so you don't get knocked in the head! But punting in Oxford on the Cherwell river on a sunny day is absolutely beautiful and such an Oxford experience. So make sure we take you punting when you visit!

First Weekend in June Activities

Finally we're getting nice weather again. April was so beautiful and sunny, and May has been dreadful and rainy. But June is off to a good start. Sunny and low to mid 70s. Or in metric that is about 20-22 degrees Celsius. We've had to adjust to the metric system here for temperatures and also to military time. So instead of it being 10:33 p.m. right now, it's 22:33 (so you don't have to designate the a.m. or p.m.) These have been pretty easy to adjust too, but I still have a harder time with weight and distances. And in cooking some of the changes I've gotten used to, but good thing I brought along my own measuring utensils as some measurements I still don't have figured out yet.

Tonight we had Brian's colleague and my shopping partner from last weekend, Gina over for dinner. She's a new postdoc like Brian in the Ultrafast lab, and is also American. She's from Colorado and really great. It's fun to meet a Dr. in physics who also likes to go shopping and read Glamour! So she's great to get to know for both of us! Brian cooked a really great shrimp and veg pasta primavera and Gina brought over a really nice strawberry tiramisu for dessert (or pudding as they call all desserts). Besides my parents, Gina is the first person we've had at our flat for dinner. I just feel that our flat isn't great for hosting guests for dinner, since we have a small kitchen table and it's hard to fit four people in the kitchen.

Last night, or yesterday late afternoon/early evening we went punting! I was excited as it was my first time. Brian has been at least three times and I've probably blogged about punting before. I'll blog in a new post with pics about yesterday's punting. But to explain what it is again, think of Gondolas in Italy on the water where the guy is standing on the boat and pushing the gondola down the water with a pole. So that is the same concept for punting. The punts (which are the boats) are similar to canoes, but they are flatter and you sit on the bottom of the boat and stretch your legs forward. You can have up to six people on a punt. The punter (person who pushes the punt down the water with the pole) stands on the back of the punt and has to maneuver the punt with a really long pole. It's pretty tricky to get used to, and it's really easy to lose the pole! The water is pretty shallow, so that is what you push the pole against to move the punt forward. Well I'll show you pics and tell you how our leisure punt down the Cherwell River went for us!