Keble Ball 2011

Well, we had to try one of the biggest Oxford University collegiate event of the year - the college black tie spring ball. Brian's college, Keble College, hosted their annual event last night. Most of the 28 colleges have their own ball - so there can be many to choose from to attend. The Balls are student-planned events, and the college Fellows (a.k.a. the academics) and guests are invited by the students.

It's not a Ball in the sense of a ballroom with a band and long dresses. It's mainly a more modern day prom like affair, but much bigger and a wilder! The Ball is set up over most of the grounds of the college - many marquee tents set up to house 2 stages of live music, many food stalls, games, and plenty of drink options. Recall that the drinking age is 18 here and Oxford is by no means a "dry campus". So any kind of drink is flowing all night long. The Ball is not cheap to attend, tickets were 80 GBP, which is $120 per person. It starts at 8pm and lasts until 4am.

Luckly, as Brian is now a Fellow, we received more perks, which made going all the more attractive. We could purchase 1/2 price tickets, and we were able to retire to the Senior Common Room at any point to warm up, rest, enjoy a very good glass of wine and much better quality food. The Senior Common Room is only for the Fellows to use in college at anytime. The students have a Junior Common Room which is more like a bar with pool tables. Yes, it is just like this in Harry Potter (well minus the bar and pool tables).

We also went with one of Brian's physics colleagues Uwe who is also a Fellow, and his girlfriend Evette. I thought it might be a little weird if just Brian and I went and roamed around the students on our own. It was fun to get to know Uwe (German) and Evette (English) better - they were tons of fun. Unfortunately it was difficult to remember to get the camera out and it got dark quite quickly so we don't have many photos. But hopefully there will be some up on the Ball website.



Check out the Keble Ball website so you can get an idea of what it's all about.

Holy Moly where have I been?!

Obviously I've let my blogging slip a bit  . . . or a long bit! It was a 2011 New Year's resolution to get back into it - and here I am in early May!  Well it's better late than never. I don't want to give up the blogging because it's great for a number of reasons, 1) it's an online diary for Brian and I about our lives abroad 2) great way to share with friends and family with what we are up to and 3) gives me a good extracurricular activity to do!

I think the lack of blogging has to do with a number of things as well 1) shocker of getting over the fact that we'll be living abroad longer term now (not just a fun two years of being tourists, but realising this is our true life reality now) 2) after four years already in Oxford, amazingly I can say that the novelty starts to wear off (see point 1 - it's now our normal reality) and 3) I don't think we're doing as much interesting stuff (again point 1 - we're just working, cooking, cleaning like everyone else)!

But that last point isn't completely fair to say, looking back at our iPhoto library since August 2010 - there are a ton of fun things we've been up to. So I'm going to go through a quick recap of each month with some favorite highlights.

Going forward, my aim is to blog at least once a month. I know it's not as much as I used to when we first moved here - but it's what I think can be a sustainable amount at this point, and if there are more posts than one a month - then bonus!

I'm glad to be back!

Palace, Picnic and Punting

We've just had a lovely British summer day with our friend Carrie Ginder and her friend Rupa. Ginder is a good friend from Gustavus - Brian knew her from physics and I knew her from my roomies.

We visiting Blenheim Palace, had a tasty picnic in the gardens for lunch and then went punting for the evening activity. (Which of course included a mandatory stop at the Victoria Arms pub.)

Topped off the evening with some Indian food from Spice Lounge and then we dropped into the Dew Drop Inn (our local).

Off to London today!

Summertime in Oxford

It's been a pretty relaxed July here in Oxford. The weather this month started out sunny and warm and actually summery. Lately, it's been really grey, but the rain has been minimal and the temperature and humidity still up. Before August hits, I just thought I'd touch on a few things we've been up to this month.

This photo of the Thames River in London, is after the OBA London Ball I attended in June. Such a great example of the amazing place we live and work in right now in our lives!

Went to London on a Friday afternoon for Brian's favorite band at a summer festival at Hyde Park - Pearl Jam!

There was a perfect Friday afternoon of punting down the Cherwell River - one of the best things to do in Oxford ever. Of course it was with multiple punts of physicists, but means I can just sit back and enjoy!

We took a couple of picnics with friends in the University Park, which is a favorite British summer past time.

For the first time, we went bowling in the UK. Pretty much exactly the same over here as it is back home. But they don't call air hockey, air hockey - it's called air football (soccer)!

Dr Smith's new webpage

Check out Brian's new official webpage on the Keble College website. Great pic of Brian from our trip to Snowdonia Mountain in Wales 2007.

June Black Tie Work Do

One of the most fun things about living in Oxford and working for the University is that we get to dress up and attend posh dinners!

On Saturday 12 June, I had a work event in London - the Oxford Business Alumni London annual Ball. It was held at a great venue called Middle Temple Hall (Middle Temple is where the British law society is housed in London). The event included; drinks reception in the garden, 3-course dinner, live band, casino tables and a huge chocolate fountain. Since it was the same evening of the US vs England world cup game, a huge screen TV was also on for the fans.

I didn't get a chance for any pictures of myself, but one of me on the dancefloor with some new friends can be found here.

GAC Alumni Award Ceremony & Reunion Banquet

Last weekend was a blast - Brian and I were home in Minnesota to see family and celebrate Brian's receipt of the Gustavus male Alumni Decade Award. I am a very proud wife!

We arrived on Thursday evening and spent a relaxing night with Brian's dad Tom and Karen in Ellesworth, WI. It was beautiful weather and we were excited to grill out and sit out on the back porch. The jet lag was hitting fast though, so we couldn't stay up too late! It was great to see how well Tom is doing after his car accident.

Friday we drove into St Peter so we could have some time to meet up with the physics profs, check in with the alumni office, and have a little down time to ourselves. We stayed on campus in the Guest House, and it's a lovely home with 7 guest rooms and a shared living area and kitchen, all decorated in a Swedish style. We hit our our old favorite watering hole, Patrick's and enjoyed in the bar's culinary delights - burger basket for Kelly and chicken strips for Brian! Yum!

Saturday is when the excitement began. We were still waking up early, so we went down to Oodles cafe for a good 'ol American greasy spoon breakfast and it was heaven. Then Kelly checked out the Swedish Kontur shop (fabulous!) while Brian went to the coffee shop to finish writing up his speech. Well lo and behold we run into cousin Ben and brother Charlie! John and Marcy were not too far behind and we all went for lunch back up on the hill in the caf. A couple more hours to get ready, and check into the hotel in Mankato.

Afternoon tea began at 2:30 and family and physics professors began to roll in. It was a hot day, so everyone thought we were a bit crazy for serving hot tea and coffee! I was just thrilled to have the tray of Gustavus bars to snack on! It was fun to have some group pics taken with all of our families in attendance. And especially the photo of our big family of Gustie alumni!

Then on to the banquet in the President's Dining Room at 5pm. Our group took up 5 tables and were close to the front for Brian. They served a GAC meal I can remember - chicken breast with cream of mushroom, wild rice and veggies. So Minnesotan/Scandinavian! I loved it . . .

We were celebrating the alumni reunions of classes of 1960, 1955, 1950, and further out. We were also recognizing 5 alumni award winners (2 Decade Award winners, 2 Alumni Achievement winners, and the Greater Gustavus award). It was a great event of Gustavus pride!

Brian's Gustavus Physics Advisor, Paul Saulnier, gave a great introduction to Brian for his award. They had a great relationship when Brian was Paul's student, and they've maintained a friendship throughout Brian's career.

You can watch the video of both Paul's and Brian's speeches here.

And you can see more photos from this weekend here.

After the banquet dinner, the award winners and guests were kindly invited to the President's home for a drinks reception. President Ohle and his wife Kris, have a beautiful home on the ring road of campus. It was a nice chance to visit with Gustavus administrators and take some more fun pics!

Then our party could finally put our hair down and relax at Patrick's for some local brews and  visit with our Gustie buddies that came to see us, Laura, Jacob (well a Johnny) and Meghan.

The night was not complete without late night pizza's from our fave pizza joint in Mankato - Pagliai's - which we enjoyed at the Best Western in Mankato, where many of us stayed for the one night.

Still waking up early due to jet lag and excitement, Kelly went down to the pool area of the hotel to visit with cousins Patty/Scott and their girlie girls. Aunt & Uncle Cal & Dorothy were down as well as Grandma Pat and Grandpa Dick. So was nice to visit with them all before things got busy again!

We all headed back to St Peter for brunch at Whiskey River and were able to be joined by some family members whom couldn't make Saturday night. So it was a great chance to catch up with Colvin's and Schlauderaff's!

Brunch was the official end of the celebrating excitement - a mere 24 hours of fun!

Sunday afternoon was spent with a little more shopping with John, Marcy and Charlie, and then to Mapleton with just Al & Jackie, Gram, Marit and Tom. The weather cooled a bit, but we still had a fab BBQ and a good night's sleep! Monday was sunny again and we just enjoyed Memorial Day lounging around relaxing.

The weekend went by quickly, but it's amazing how much we can pack in, in four days! We flew out Monday night and were so so thankful for such a great time, such a great family and such a great alma mater!