The first thing is a little exciting, I suppose. Before we moved into our new place, some maintenance men came around to all the apartments and were flushing the water system. While they were in our place, one of them warned us against using our shower attachment because it is "unhygienic." I wasn't sure what that meant, but I told him we were moving out in a few days and wouldn't need it anymore after that. He said, "Okay, well, it's up to you, but it's not very healthy." So we used it anyway.
We heard nothing more of it until last week, when the college sent out letters informing us that the Legionella bacteria had been found in the water system! Yes, the one that causes Legionaire's disease (severe pneumonia that is sometimes fatal), which you get from inhaling water droplets. It doesn't seem that "unhygienic" covers it! In another letter I got today, they explained they didn't want to mention Legionella in order to avoid "unnecessary anxiety." Well, I certainly would have liked to know, because we would have taken baths instead for the few days before the move! In any case, all is well. We didn't catch it (no one did, as far as I know) and it doesn't affect our new building. I knew this place was better!
On Saturday, David and I walked into town with no particular goal in mind. We had a delicious lunch from Pret a Manger ("Ready to Eat"), which has such good soups that that's all David gets for a meal! They have unique varieties like Thai Chicken Curry, Root Vegetable and Spaghetti Bolognese, and they're all very hearty. I had a tuna baguette sandwich with a drink called "Detox Yoga Bunny," and we ate on a bench at the end of Cornmarket and people-watched for awhile. There are definitely more students and less tourists now than in the summer.
After lunch we wandered through the Covered Market. We got a few small chocolate bars from a lovely shop called "Chocology," including one called Maya Gold - dark chocolate with orange and Mexican spices. We bought a giant sweet potato from a produce stand for super cheap, and bought a vegetarian haggis (yay, they sell them year round!) from a butcher. I wandered in a boot shop that was all decorated in wood and with a wild-west theme, and it gave me happy thoughts of wandering the shops in Sisters, Oregon. When we emerged from the market, it was pouring rain. We decided to split up for 15 minutes so David could look at mobile phones and such without me being bored to tears, and I browsed the clothing shops in the mall off Cornmarket. I got a very cute red T-shirt with Japanese writing on it for £9. I was very "chuffed." (That's your British vocab of the day.)
As we were heading back down the Cornmarket for home, we came across well over two dozen police officers, who are hard to miss in their flourescent-green vests and big black helmets. A few of them were on horseback, and the horses were so huge and so beautiful. David asked one of them (the officers, not the horses) what they were doing, and it seems there was about to be another animal-rights protest. The protestors were marching from the animal lab and were expected to arrive in about 10 minutes. There is a protest at least weekly at the lab, but it only seems to come into town every month or two. On our walk home, we saw a police helicopter circling above the lab. In the evening we watched the movie Lucky Number Sleven, which was interesting.
Sunday morning, David "ran to the grocery store." That's the expression we're used to using, but it doesn't really apply here! He drove up the road to Summertown around 11am with plans to go to Marks & Spencer if he could find a place to park, but as it turned out he needn't have worried, since it doesn't open until noon on Sundays! Wow. So he drove even further out of town to a Sainsbury's, where he battled everyone else in Oxford doing their weekly shopping. But he was successful in the end, and he even found my beloved Coco-Shreddies - a cereal that is basically chocolate-flavored Wheat Chex. They are SO GOOD and sometimes hard to find. They aren't overly sweet at all, so it very easy to eat a whole lot of them (I have them as a snack, not with milk).
The main event of Sunday was Formula One. It was the Brazilian Grand Prix, which was the last race of the season and the last race of Michael Shumacher's career before he retires. It was really very exciting to watch, even for me! The result was great, too: First place went to Felipe Massa, who is Brazilian so he was overjoyed to win in his home country. He is on the Ferrari team with Schumacher and is often overshadowed by him, so it was also good for him to win before Schumacher retired. Second place was Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard who lives in Oxford and we always root for (pictured right). He won the World Championship (i.e. the whole season) for the second time in a row, yay. And third was Jenson Button, the British driver whose car always seems to blow up, so we were very happy for him. Michael Shumacher got a tire puncture early on, but he drove like a maniac and came in fifth.
Last night we decided to be good and go for a walk, which was really enjoyable. It turned out we weren't all that good, however, as our walk somehow led us to Posh Fish for dinner! Oops. It was really fun though, being out and about among student life. We ate in, and it was all cozy in the chip shop with the dark and windy weather outside. They had a flat-screen TV with BBC South news playing on it, and we were the only non-Brits in there. I had a "mini cod" (which is the size of a normal fish fillet anywhere else), and shared David's chips (they give you a truckload). It was delish.When we got home, we sat on our little couch and watched a travel show about the 20 best hotels in the world, followed by two fun quiz shows: Mastermind and University Challenge. Mastermind is an individual game and ridiculously hard, and we congratulated ourselves for knowing about two answers each the whole time. University Challenge is easier, and fun because there is usually an Oxford college on it. This time it was Wadham College from Oxford against Robinson College from Cambridge, and the Oxford team (who were a pub quiz team) blew them away.
And today was my second German class. I greatly enjoyed my walk there this morning, which was cloudy, crisp and very fall-like, but not bitter cold yet. Today we learned about definite and indefinite articles (a/the = ein/der) and cases and genders of nouns. We revisited "The Summer Day" story and had to translate it more exactly now that we could tell the direct object from the indirect object and such. I really like German - I love the way it sounds, it seems pretty straightforward, and it is fun to speak. And it's my heritage (50%) - Grandma said she was pleased to hear I'm studying it. :)
Before class started, I chatted with a guy who is studying Latin and Greek and needs German for the same reason I do. He happens to be from Wadham College, so I told him I saw them on University Challenge last night. He said they did terrible last time they were on. After class, I picked up some coffee beans from Starbucks for David then caught the Wolfson bus home. By then, the weather had turned gloriously sunny and beautiful, but the clouds are starting to return again now.
And that's pretty much all I can think of to report for now. Hope you're still awake!
No comments:
Post a Comment