Fragments of the day

There are vast paths, meadows, rivers, hills, and forests embedded within this city to the point that I got lost on my run today for awhile with no road in sight when I wanted one to be...and, I assure you, I was in the middle of the city.

An Oxford library card is now in my wallet.  Though the town library is smaller than the one in Whitefish, the shelves are teeming with things a town library usually overlooks.  In a few days I'll secure a Bodleian card & then what?!

Things that are cheaper in Oxford (in $):
-You can buy a heavy jug of port (ruby or tawny, vintage or no) for six bucks at the grocery
-Fancy soap like the sort from 17th century France for 75c.
-Running shoes with the sort of bounce that's best for pavement--notable brand, way too cheap
-Beautiful loaves of bread for 75c.
-Hummus that tastes like the kind from home & not the usual playdough at the store--heaps of it for very cheap
-Almond croissants--the sort with marzipan in the middle--perhaps 40c.
-Butter from the Queen's own cows (kidding, sort of...the Queen does seem to endorse certain products and not others though with elaborate descriptions)
-Organic, green, fair-trade, sustainable, recyclable, local, British & Euro-made products...they are quite a bit more far along on demanding these things and making them available at rates that are often less than the alternative.

Things that are not cheaper in Oxford:  everything else.

Naya's first day at New Hinksey Primary today (see her blog for photos http://nayasphotojourney.blogspot.com ):  She's up on a top floor in this gloriously sunny room of windows in an ancient, pretty building.  Her new friends are Freya and Maple.  They have "school dinner" when speaking of hot lunch.  Naya had packed lunch.  At the morning roll call her teacher, Mrs. Christensen says each student's name and they respond, "Good Morning, Mrs. Christensen, school dinner (or packed lunch,) please!"  And she says, "Well done" so and so.  They begin with a school wide assembly everyday at 9...meeting in the school "hall."  Naya said that they recited poetry to them about ways to bring about newness into life, etc.  I'm totally happy to forego the pledge of allegiance for poetry!  Also, Naya already got some sort of main part in a play...she's a chicken in a chicken play.  &They are going swimming on Mondays...French club on Tuesdays...   It was quite key that this aspect (Naya's school) worked well and made her happy for my endeavor to have a go whatsoever.
& I think we have luck yet again.

For those of you that made mention of it...there are still cows in the middle of town...in the Christ Church meadows...happily munching and wearing warm coats.

130,000 can feel like 3,000 people when they are either used to, wanting to, or confined to low-consumption, heavy recycling, little parking/roads available, walking everywhere, having only a few options at the grocery store, working with small living/retail spaces in favor of meadows and hills in the middle of town, etc.  (Oh, someone had asked me to note whether London to Oxford was continuous, sorry I've forgotten who--not continuous.  It's the same style as in Germany & France.  Super smart planning whereby the towns have strict limits of where they end.  Even when they are London.  Paris.  Frankfurt.  And when you leave the limit you are in the country and it is green and open and beautiful.)

Going running with the Oxford cross-country team on Wednesday at 1p--we meet outside the Bodleian library.  I get to wear some sort of team clothing...&no doubt i'll be running all around Whitefish in that this summer being annoyingly sentimental and happy.

Ate salmon from a Scotland loch, broccoli, wild rice, eclairs, and madeira for dinner in our kitchen & then watched a unique rendition of Snowwhite on dvd in bed with Naya.

It takes me one day to get from the mountains of Whitefish to Virginia Woolf's favorite park.  It takes me four days to be able to control which of the British accents I'm using.  It takes me five days to recover from jet lag and a time change.  It takes me one week to unweave love enough to weave fluidly with that part of my mind/emotions again &notice all the pretty threads without concern.