England, Saturday (day 12 of our trip)

Well, it really came to us Saturday that things weren't looking so good for our flights. We were hoping to leave Sunday or Monday, but then the news reports were throwing around Wednesday or Thursday, which seemed to be code for "we have no idea." In addition, Ben read that people coming back into Britain were being told that it could take up to 9 days for their flights to be sorted out and to actually arrive back here. That seemed a little extreme to me, but goes to show what a big mess has occurred. We had breakfast with Cole - made up of noodles from the night before and rice pudding that Cole shared (it was delicious). Ben's mind was heavy that morning with the knowledge that 2 of his hockey games would probably be played without him as goalie, and his birthday was the next day. He was even supposed to attend a birthday barbecue that day at his mother's house, that he would miss. So when Cole offered to let us come feed the ducks with some friends of his, he wasn't feeling up to it.

I agreed to go, deciding to try and stay busy (plus it sounded fun). But in a group of strangers I started feeling pretty sorry for myself and missed Ben. Still, Cole's friends were super nice as usual. We got into Magdelen college (pronounced "Maudlin" around here), and went for a walk along a trail in their huge grounds. I had left my camera in our room because I was downloading pictures onto our computer, and one of our companions, Jen, offered to let me use hers. What's funny is, I made special mental note that the wrist strap didn't tighten, so I tried to wind it a little to make it tighter on my wrist. Then as we walked, I started getting all sad about our predicament, and guess what? My hand went slack, and that camera slipped right off my wrist and onto the ground, sending a spider crack through the screen. Feeling like a total idiot, I showed Jen the damage. The camera wasn't working anymore, and everyone was nice about it, but jeeze I felt awful.

Still, it was a beautiful day and I did my best to clear my mind and enjoy myself. The Magdelen grounds were truly beautiful. They actually raise deer, and have beautiful flowers everywhere, with a river running through. We learned that the balls of green in the trees were actually mistle toe, and laughed that the punters had it so easy this high on the river (note: I realized I had my iphone with me and took a few pictures with that, trying to be sneaky so as not to point out Jen's lack of camera).

After our walk along the path, we headed towards the exit, then further into town to view the Oxford castle. I hadn't realized that some sort of festival was going on, and we actually saw various groups of dancers. Some did dances with handkerchiefs, sticks, and bells. They were performed by groups of older women, or young people who had more energetic dances. We reached the castle and planned to go up a hill to get a view of the city and dancers. I'm pretty sure we all thought that there would be some sort of castle remains on the top of the hill, because we paid a pound to walk up it, and then at the top realized that it was just a hill, with not a great view. Pretty strange. Then we walked into the entrance to the castle, which was basically a souvenir shop, and were told that we could pay 6 pounds to go to the top of the tower for a great view. This time we weren't taken in. I bought Ben a birthday card, and we headed on our way.

Cole mentioned that we had planned to get tea with Alice in a bit, and the group suggested what turned out to be an excellent alternative: to get the makings for tea and eat on the lawn of St. Hilda, their college. We went to the store and Jen became a whirlwind, getting all the necessary ingredients. She decided we would have Pimm's instead of tea (Pimms is some sort of liqueur), and got strawberries, scones, and jam. I went ahead to meet Ben, who was waiting for us near the shops. When I saw him, all my emotions came bubbling up - I started crying because of our situation, and told him my idiot story with the broken camera. We walked sadly towards St. Hilda's, and since we were ahead of the rest of the group, sat huddled on the curb feeling sad. We were pretty much the most pathetic thing you've ever seen.

But Cole's group caught up with us, and we went to sit on the lawn. It was hard to stay in a bad mood after that, and the group brought us in with their chit chat and delicious "tea" (without tea). The Pimms (mixed with bubbly lemonade, strawberries, and mint) was tasty and unusual, and the scones with clotted cream and jam were heavenly, and we began to really enjoy ourselves. The sun was out, the lawn was green, the punters were punting…it was nice.

Back at home we ended up falling asleep, then woke up at 9:30, in time to go meet Cole and other friends (he has a lot!) for drinks. It was actually another guy's birthday (Aaron) the next day, same as Ben, and he and the other people in the group were very welcoming. They introduced us to the sport of "penny-ing," in which you throw a 1 pence coin in someone's glass, and say "save the drowning queen!!" The recipient then has to down their drink, and then usually saved the penny to inflict damage on someone else. Brook, Ben, and Cole all got pennied. Our friend Paul (who played cricket with us early in the trip) avoided the fate, but since he's icelandic he got harassed quite a bit about "his volcano." I asked him how to pronounce it about a dozen times, and honestly I have no memory of even a CLUE of how to pronounce it today. (below, the guy in the foreground of the 3rd photo is the Icelandic dude, Paul).

So as you can guess, many drinks were consumed, and we were feeling good. Then, Aaron made the night even better. Everyone sang him happy birthday, then shouted "speech, speech!" Aaron thanked everyone for coming, and then selflessly turned the spotlight towards Ben, saying that he was stranded here from the volcano, but it was his birthday tomorrow as well. We all sang happy birthday to Ben, and shouted "speech speech" again. Ben said "I guess if I had to be stranded somewhere, this is the place to be." Everyone said "aww," and I shed a small tear at the kindness of this group, that had showed us just a little compassion, to get us past our depression.

After that bar, we headed to another bar that stayed open late - a chinese restaurant. On our way we picked up gyros at a kabob van (kabob vans don't appear to actually serve kabobs), and enjoyed them while we walked. Then we consumed more drinks, joked around, and went home feeling good.

England, Friday (day 11 of our trip)

I'm not up-to-date on the other days of our trip, but thought I'd skip to the present given the circumstances with the volcano-------

It's so crazy that this volcano thing is keeping us stuck in England. It sounds like a bad excuse, like "my dog ate my boarding pass." We checked the internet first thing this morning, and saw an email from Marti that all flights today were cancelled. It was pretty much what we'd expected, but still a bit disappointing. We had really enjoyed our trip, but towards the end of vacation you always look forward to going home! We then had to consider what we would do with our day. We're definitely not as "go getting" as at the beginning of the trip, so we started out slow, sending a bunch of emails (including one to my work telling them I might be delayed coming home), then some journaling and reading. Cole needed to get back to his studies, counting down to exams in a week, so Ben and I went out exploring.

We walked along "old-ass building road" (Ben named it just now), and checked a few menus posted outside restaurants. That's another tradition we enjoy in Europe, menus are always posted. Strangely, Ben told me he was willing to walk around until we found the right place to eat (previously this thought had made him cranky - he's matured so much as a traveler!). We found a place that served gourmet burgers and walked inside. One of the guys working there tried talking to us, and had suck a thick British accent that I didn't understand a single word. I think I was concentrating so much on understanding that I didn't just let it flow. Fortunately Ben caught on.

We asked for directions to the museum, didn't understand a word, and headed on our way. We found it fairly easily based on Cole's directions that it was on the same street as the Kings Arms (funny that our big landmarks are pubs we've visited). It was the Natural Science and Pit Rivers museum, and was such an amazing place! The building itself was huge and open, with a glass ceiling, and inside were all sorts of animals in strange groupings. I never really understood the organization of the place, but there was some great stuff to see. A few items that said "please touch," and then a sort of back room with glass cases with drums, tobacco smoking implements, shrunken heads, etc. In other words, they were organized by subject matter rather than country of origin, it was crazy and amazing.

At one point, Ben was struck with tiredness and insisted we go out to the lawn for a nap. While walking, we noticed the museum inserted giant dinosaur tracks into the earth with concrete - so creative! Ben slept on my lap while I read Harry Potter (sorry if there are a million references to those books in these blogs :)). Then we walked back inside to view a few more animals. Ben and I spent a little time deciding which of the marsupial animals we would allow to come live with us. We chose all but 2.

We headed home and then it was my turn for a nap (this blog is so riveting right?). Then we headed out for Chinese noodle bowls. Joshua Radin was playing across the street but sold out, so we walked towards home, stopping at the grocery store for fun. We learned that grocery stores here are cheap (possibly cheaper than the US), have fun British food options, and their baskets have extending handles like rolley suitcases. We picked up some treacle tart, 10p sparkling water, and clementines that turned out to be terrible. Now we're watching Community (streaming tv on the internet) again.

You know what, a boring night can be nice in real life :)