A Wonderful Weekend

We packed a lot of activity into this weekend. We left thursday after tutorial right away for Folkstone in the south of England. We got in around 5:30 PM after 4 hours of travel and because of day light savings it looked more like 9:00 PM. We checked into our hotel, which was wonderfully accommodating and hauntingly authentic. We walked around Folkstone and ate at The Chamber. The town was weird. We couldn’t really explain why, but their was just an odd feeling that you couldn’t help but to pick up on as you walked around. This complimented Halloween quite well though. On friday we travelled to Canterbury. It was wonderful to see the cathedral, but the town was much more commercialized than we anticipated. We left early for Rye. Rye was a refreshing place. Very authentic. We left late and headed back to Folkstone to spend another night. On saturday we travelled to Dover to hike the white cliffs and watch the wild ponies. It was amazing. Dover is a beautiful place. We left just in time as the weather quickly became ominous. We headed back to Oxford and were glad to be home for Halloween, which turned out to be another adventure.

Oxford A Walk in the Park Continued…

We had such a beautiful day in the park.. Here are some pictures of Autumn in Oxford…

We miss you and love you all. Next week we will hopefully make it to the Cotswolds!!! Tune in next week.

Oxford: A Walk In the Park

This weekend was relaxing. We were going to go to the Cotswolds, but things changed. We woke up and were trying to decide which section we wanted to go to most. Out of indecision we decided we would go jump on a bus, take it to a nearby town that looked promising and set out from there. We packed our gear and walked out the door only to face what seemed in the immediate moment like miserable conditions. Before we got out of the driveway we had to adjust our jackets, hoods and bags to make them weatherproof. So, on our walk to the bus station we decided we would just make a day of it in Oxford and try to see some things we hadn’t already as traveling seemed a bit arduous as we walked through the rain. Ironically, it turned out to be one of the most beautiful days I have been in oxford. It was surreal. We walked through the park near our college where Desi showed me the lake/river I had not yet seen. It was filled with ducks and seagulls. But the weather turned out wonderfully. It was still wet, but the sun started shining while it lightly rained and the temperature was pleasantly warm. There was a slight breeze and a break in the clouds that separated the sky down the middle at one point. Overall, we were both extremely delighted to have stayed in oxford before we even left the park. After which, we headed to the turf tavern where we each had a delightful lunch and crashed a beer festival filled with locally brewed beers. After that we walked around downtown for a bit, explored the covered market and headed home to watch Full Metal Jacket and The Cable Guy. It was definitely the quietest weekend we’ve had yet, but was much needed. Here are some pictures, more will be added later so check back. We miss you all!

My English Home Town

Hiya, 

      First term classes are over!!! Woo HOOOooo! This of course means that tutorials are right around the corner, bringing with them loads of reading. However, it is a beautiful sun-shiny day and I am going to get my bike fixed and go to the library : ) Jordan and I can’t wait to travel, but before that, I decided I would show you guys some more pictures of Oxford !!! Here they are… 

Thats all for now, I must go to lunch… 

Much Love, 
Desi

Oxfordshire Tales

Hello All,

Sorry its been so long since Ive posted photos. I have been so bogged down with reading and writing lately, that spare moments are few and far between. This should get better though once we start tutorials which we also be massive amounts of work, but will be a bit more spread out. So I am going to give you a tour of living in 104 Banbury Rd, Oxford, Oxfordshire UK

104 Banbury!!!

 

104 Banbury!!!

Banbury from the Back

Our Garden

This is one of our neighbors.

Autumn Colors

I will post more on the town of oxford later >>>

Where We Live…

Today we walked all over Oxford for the first time in a while as we have been busy. It was refreshing. We visited Christ Church, which was amazing. Not much eventful has happened over the course of this weekend because our teacher decided to make our weekly essays due on saturdays. I wrote mine on the philosophy John Milton and Desi on the politics of Edmund Spencer.Here are some photos of our day off.

The Art of Courtly Love

We just finished making this video for our presentation tomorrow on the medieval conception of Love. Our video is based off a book written in the 12th century by Andreas Capellanus. The Link is at the bottom. Just Click the green text where it says “The Art of Courtly Love.” Have fun!

The Art of Courtly Love from Jordan Warren on Vimeo.

Oxford, land of books

Good Marrow All, 

Jordan and I have been having a wonderful time here in Oxford. We have been spoiled with beautiful sunny fall weather. We have made many acquaintances and a few genuine friends. Our seminars give us plenty to do. We have the same seminars, which have proved to be extremely thought provoking. I will post pictures and give a better description of Oxford tomorrow. We are hoping to update the blog biweekly. Much Love, Desi.

Stratford Upon Avon

Our first English excursion outside of Oxford was to William Shakespeare’s hometown and resting place. It was beautiful. Rich with culture and history as well as nice people. As we were hanging out on the street at night taking pictures enjoying a beer, some locals stopped by to ask us why we were sitting outside of a christmas shop in the rain on a saturday night. They invited us to a bar where various English people bought us beer all night and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The day after we walked around and saw the beautiful town. It was unnervingly pleasant, the people were suspiciously welcoming and the food was glorious.

 

 

This is the street we stayed on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Christmas shop across from Shaksey’s Birthplace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saw a ghost in the graveyard.

Stratford Upon Avon at Night

Leone Swan. He sounded a lot like Leone while we fed him pocket toast.

Me

Shaksey’s Birthplace

A nice Church

We saw this band playing…Captain Dangerous. They were really amazing. Very cool music. We listened while we enjoyed a couple Tasty Pasties. There is way too much we could say about Pasties…

Sicily

These are some photos from our Sicilian Excursion. A photo from Beautiful Taoromina. You can see the tip of the boot of Italy from this spot!!! AMAZING. After Cortona we traveled to Palermo. Palermo was interesting. The city itself was rich with history and had extremely beautiful architecture. The city itself as unfortunately in a dilapidated state and unfortunately far from preserved. But good company and still yet good food made for a wonderful experience. After Palermo we drove all over Sicily. From Palermo we went to Taormina, which was probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. The scenery,the food, the hotel and the city were all absolutely amazing.  On our way to Ortigia we stopped by Mt. Etna. Etna was surreal. An active volcano with unbelievable scenery. From there we continued to Ortigia where we went to natural caves and ate local home made olive oil with local wine made by a farmer on the side of the road. It was wonderful. We continued to Trapini right outside of Favignana. There we traveled to Favignana by boat and saw some of the most beautiful water in the world. The company, food and scenery of Sicily were all so beautiful. The trip was all around lovely and memorable. Here are some moments we took home…

Cool plant that was on our balcony of our Hotel in Taromina

This is the waterfall of mountain river Jordan and I jumped in.

Momma conquering Mount Etna. We took a pilgrimage to this active volcano and it was well worth the drive. 

Funky little houses built in the garden. We never did figure out why they were built…

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The Colors of Favingana.

The parental unit standing on the remains of the Greek Ampitheater.

Daddy on the Balcony in Taromina. The most beautiful part of our lovely stay.

Church …

Lovely view of the coast in Taromina

Water in Favingnana

Ditto

Greek Ampitheater in Taromina

Morgan contemplating on coast of Favingana

Momma sitting on top of the world : )