Dark at 4:30?

Well, I've officially survived the first month of my program as well as life in Oxfordshire. Some of the highlights of my life north of the 51st parallel:

Tea Time - Tea time in England seems every bit as prevalent as the stereotype would imply:

I've adapted quickly to some of the tea culture -- odds are very low that you'll ever be able to spot me without a mug of tea sitting next to me, regardless of whether you're checking while I'm home or at the office.

Other bits I'm struggling more to adapt to.  My department takes a tea break at 11:00 every day (just a social gathering over tea in the kitchen or the roof if the weather is nice) as well as at 4:00.  Call me a work-a-holic American, but I am having trouble reconciling two daily 30-minute breaks on top of a 30-45 minute lunch break.  Add to that lectures, seminars, and research group meetings to attend, and I'm not sure I'd ever get any work done.  I'd say I've settled into a routine of going to about 3 or 4 of the 8 official tea breaks a week.  Plus, as I mentioned earlier, probably 15 trips per week to the kitchen to grab hot water and refill my office mug....

And other bits still, I've probably adopted with a bit too much ease.  Tea (excepting of course High Tea, which is like the tea you might go to in America with sandwiches and scones and desserts) is generally accompanied by nothing more than simple 'biscuits.'  But there's a catch.  'Biscuits,' you see, are actually cookies.  Partially because the kitchen is directly next door to my office, partially because I like cookies, and partially because 'biscuits' are clearly healthier than cookies, I'm among the top 3 or 4 consumers (according to the spreadsheet on the kitchen wall where we log our biscuit consumption for future billing by the departmental coffee club) in the department.  60 cookies in the first month would be absurd, but 60 biscuits isn't nearly as silly.  They are healthier, right?

British Wildlife
Living in the British countryside has been eye opening as far as seeing a range of different animals than I'm used to seeing around CA, both in and out of town.  For those of you that know me well, it's probably no surprise that I've been reading up on British flora and fauna in preparation for hopefully some great hikes and camping trips.  Among the three species of hare and rabbit that live on the island, I've seen at least two of the types running across our driveway as I bike to and from work.  Also seen deer on occasion in the field in front of the house, and am eagerly awaiting the first sighting of a badger or hedgehog.

I've also started to think about what animals will be wise to consider when letting our pets outside here.  There is a species of poisonous snake, the adder, though it's not nearly as poisonous as the rattlesnake is, and since Nissa has been trained to avoid rattlesnakes, I think there's minimal concern there.  I am a little concerned about the badger population, whom I'm pretty sure Nissa will want to befriend, and am equally confident will want nothing to do with her.  They're reputed to be pretty feisty little guys.  Also of slight concern is the hedgehog, and while probably no permanent damage could be done, I'd prefer Nissa not find out the hard way that hedgehogs are not plush toys for her amusement.

It was nice to see in my reading that the cats should be pretty safe outside at night (or so I thought -- read on).  The carnivores on the island are:

  - stoat (referred to as an ermine in the US -- about the size of a cat)

  - pine marten (very similar to the marten species that some of you may have seen in the US -- about the size of a cat)
  - otters (probably not going to mess with a cat, and probably not as far from the river as we live)
  - various smaller carnivores (inc. weasels, mink, polecats)
  - badgers (slight concern, but not really interested in eating animals the size of cats, so probably no concern)
  - european wildcat (apparently very rare and only remaining in Scotland today)
  - red fox
That last one was the big question mark in my mind when it came to the cats.  But in my reading, it sounded as if the foxes in Great Britain, though technically the same species as the foxes in the States, were generally much smaller, and this definitely set my mind at ease.  That is until I almost hit one when riding my bike up the driveway one night as one darted in front of me.  And this was not a small fox at all -- I'd say definitely 25 - 30 pounds, which is about the largest red foxes can get to be on any continent.  So apparently our little community in the country sits on top of a behemoth red fox's territory -- I think the cats will be coming in each night.

British Cuisine

I've been preparing meals for myself from supplies that I've purchased at one of two of the small markets in Eynsham near the house.  I am missing some things (the nut and trail mixes available at Trader Joe's, for example) but for the most part have been able to find lots of good fresh fruit and veggies, as well as lots of interesting ready-made meals for nights when I don't want to do something elaborate.  The variety of pies is overwhelming -- shepherd's pies, steak and kidney pies, cottage pies, mince pies, the list goes on.  Not that I mind -- though I do go for the gourmet foods every now and then, there are few comfort foods that I enjoy as much as a good meat pie with some mashed potatoes and veggies.  So that's been great.

I did take on the challenge last weekend, though, of preparing one of the meals that a British friend told me I wouldn't be able to find here: Mexican (the other being Japanese).  It took some searching through the small and limited "international" food section of both markets, but I was able to compile the fixings for soft tacos.  Some of it looked a little different than I was used to, but I figured I'd give it a shot.  I'd say the experiment was a success, and I'm sure I'll be able to improve upon it in the future.  The weaknesses in the endeavor were the salsa (very odd, full of beans) and tortilla chips (not really good Mexican tortilla chips at all -- plain Doritos is more like it), as well as the fact that I couldn't find refried beans anywhere.  So there is room to improve, to be sure, but the tacos came out just fine and kept me very happy for two dinners last week.

Of footpaths and countryside....

Took a few hours today to explore more thoroughly one of the public footpaths that takes off from close to the house.  This "circular walk" between Church Hanborough (that 'H' word is two syllables, by the way) and Eynsham is about a four mile loop that is on town streets for about a tenth of a mile, and for the rest of the trip is along bridle paths and footpaths that cut through the farmland that surrounds our house. It was about 105 minutes today, and will be a very nice jogging route with the dog.  The path was through rolling hills the whole way, and in addition to dedicated footpath with trees on both sides, cut through numerous cow pastures, sheep pastures, and local crops.  Check out the route here: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3306458  You can zoom out and in (with the plus and minus symbols) to see more or less of the route, and make sure you're in "hybrid' mode (upper right) to get a sense of the terrain.  Also, some photos:  

IKEA 

I survived another trip to IKEA, this time navigating by myself (only made one wrong turn) and now have a complete dresser, rather than the disaster they sold me last time (one missing drawer, one drawer with no bottom or front, and 4 more drawers with no bottoms.  It looks better now.

Vocabulary

Finally, a quick vocabulary primer of my favorite recent British and Oxford words:

   knackered - a personal favorite, just cause it's way more fun to say than "exhausted."

   DPhil - what an Oxford PhD is called -- see the last post about Oxford preferring to be a bit different

   ronnie - a northern British slang for "to damage beyond repair" which can apparently be used as any part of speech.  I'm not sure if I can pull this one off myself yet, but some examples would be: "Careful you don't ronnie yourself!"  "I stumbled and gave my ankle quite the ronnie!"  "That computer program I've been working on is completely ronnied!"