July Happenings

July is a tough month for us. Paul left on the 6th for an 8 week internship in Munich. It's a great opportunity and Munich is a beautiful city. Of course we miss each other, but at least I am going to visit for a week around our anniversary. Since Paul can't take any vacation time, we're just doing 2 nights in Mittenwald near the Austrian border - it's just an hour from Munich by train!

Before Paul left, we went punting with our friends Karen and Richard. Richard is Paul's roommate in Munich during the internship.

I didn't get pictures in the boat for fear of dropping the camera, but I did get a snap of Paul in his punting hat at Magdalen College:


And here's me and Karen with our cool punting hats as well:


You may think that the 4th of July is not celebrated in England. Well, you're right, except that it's also our friend Mikki's birthday and the local pub owner in South Hinksey threw her a party - fireworks and all!

We brought some birthday balloons to the party - had one casualty on the way, but 2 of the balloons made it! Paul looked so funny biking around with balloons that I just had to take a picture! As we were biking through town, I noticed a lot of people looking at the balloons and smiling. Guess balloons just put people in a good mood!


Here's Mikki with John, the owner of the pub in the background:

The Enchanted Forest at St Cross College

This Thursday night we went to a ball at St Cross College. I don't know much about the college itself, but I do know that they throw a great party! Our friends Mikki and Brian went as well, and we all had a blast with dinner dancing and entertainment.

The thing with Oxford colleges is that they don't look like much from the outside, but on the inside they all (for the most part) have a gorgeous courtyard which is just perfect for parties, especially as the weather is getting warmer.

Here we are at the start of the party. They put these neat fairytale mushrooms all over the place. There's something I just love about little red mushrooms with white spots - in fact, I bought a little pottery one in a small village in France called Maury on our honeymoon.. you'll learn the connection later in this story...


After the cocktail reception in the courtyard, we went inside for dinner. The dining hall was actually pretty modern for Oxford, but nice and bright. Here's me and Mikki at the table:


Here's Paul with some of his Oxford school mates


The dinner consisted of a pureed vegetable soup for the starter, bacon-wrapped chicken with lentils and wild mushrooms for the main, and some kind of chocolate trifle for dessert. BUT - the highlight brings us back to France to that little village called Maury. Paul and I thought we'd never be able to find their sweet nectar outside of France, but much to our delight, it was served as a digestif after the meal! We had brought a bottle of it from our honeymoon to Mikki & Brian's murder mystery party last week, so it was really funny that they served it there! Anywhere, here's me with the wine after dinner (we may have had seconds and thirds of it!)


Us with some of the creatures roaming about...


And the night wouldn't be complete without another cute mushroom picture!


And for real bizarre-ness, a picture with the fantasy tree/vine/foliage people:

The last Templeton Ball - Bon Voyage

A couple weeks ago, we went to the last Templeton ball, not just our last, but the last ever. Templeton is merging with Green College, so Templeton Collegeas we know it will no longer exist after this year. The theme was 'bon voyage'

Here's me with Danalisa at the champagne reception, though she didn't have any champagne since she's expecting! I don't get to see my 'mommy' friends nearly enough since I'm on a work schedule and they're on kid schedule, but we're hoping to plan a girls night/afternoon before Danalisa and Jodi go back to the US in July!

Here's me and Paul at the dinner table. We got a table in the outside patio under the tent, which was really nice! We've had so little nice weather here it's great to take advantage whenever we can!And here's everyone at the table in the tent - from left to right, Kaori & Tetsuya, Vinita & Varun, Alina & Adrian, and I'm actually not sure who the other two are, but they're studying computer science and were very nice.




After the dinner they had dancing and cotton candy (here it's called candy floss). The cotton candy was really tempting, so Paul and I both had some, but it wasn't the best idea to eat that and then go dancing! But we had fun nonetheless!

Murder Mystery Party in South Hinksey

Last night our friends Mikki and Brian invited a group of us over for a murder mystery party. We'd never been to one, but it sounded like a ton of fun - and it was! The idea is that each guest is a character in a murder mystery story, and by the end of the night, you are supposed to guess who did it - and it could be you without even knowing it! You are given a brief description of your character and an idea of what kind of costume to wear, and when you show up, you're given a booklet with more information about your character.

For this party, the theme was 'Swinging London in the 1960s.' My character was "Kitty Killer," a glamourous and famous journalist who, I learned, was actually a secret agent! Paul's character was "Terrence Shrimp," a famous East London photographer. I had to ask some colleagues what it meant if someone was from East London in the 1960s, and they said it was like the guys in movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. I never thought Paul was going to get all that into his character, but he did a smashing job!

I do have to add that Mikki and Brian live in a 400 year old cottage with a thatched roof! It is so absolutely charming! They live south of Oxford, and have to bike and carry their bikes up 40 stairs over the train tracks to get there, but it's such a nice place to call home!

So now on to the pictures...

Here's Paul and Varun (an 'entrepreneur'/gangster) in the taxi on the way over.


Here's Alina (a pop star), Vinita (a former nightclub hostess/aspiring actress) and me


Do you know this couple?


The men of the party


After we solved the murder mystery, we went over to the local village pub. Here's Paul with all the ladies of the night



And again at the pub (which has Hoegaarden on tap, by the way!)


After the pub, we went back to the cottage and traded wigs for some more fun - don't we look cute?



We really had a fantastic time - a great way to celebrate the end of MBA classes! (at least until September, and not counting final exams next week).

More Simaceks in Oxford

No, there's not another little Simacek on the way. I'm talking about Paul's family coming to visit us a couple weeks ago! We spent most of the time touring around the Cotswolds seeing all the touristy things. We even rented a car, and Paul did great driving on the other side of the road!

I had to work the first two days of their visit, so they all went around to the Oxford colleges. That was fine with me, since we all got a chance to get out of Oxford on the weekend. Paul and I don't get out of town much (even to go one town over), so we really haven't had much of a chance to see England together. So it was great to have guests and an excuse for Paul to take a break from studying to see the sights!

On Saturday we did Warwick Castle and Stratford-Upon-Avon. We had some National Heritage passes left over from when my family visited over Christmas, so we wound up saving a ton of money on entrance fees - well over $500 when all was said and done!

Here we all are at Warwick Castle


Shakespeare's birthplace:


On Sunday, we saw Blenheim Palace and Broughton Castle. Blenheim is the birthplace and was the home of Winston Churchill. Not a bad start!

Here's Paul in Blenheim's back yard


At Blenheim, you can walk right into the sheep pasture, and there were adorable little lambs all over!


here I am striking a pose in front of the "Column of Victory" at Blenheim:


We also just happened to see this wedding procession! Can you imagine how much a wedding at Blenheim Palace would have cost?? I have no idea, but I'm sure you need a title like "Lord and Lady" to afford it!


Here are the Simacek ladies at Broughton Castle. The owners, Lord and Lady Saye and Sele (yes, they have an 'and' in the last name), still actually live there, but open it to the public two days per week during the summer. They filmed Shakespeare in Love here!


This is the back yard at Broughton - and the moat!

Yolanta & Anne in the garden


Paul and me on the roof..

Spreek vous Brussels?

Last weekend was a long weekend in the UK due to a Bank Holiday on Monday. Unlike the States, they don't really name their national holidays like we do (Memorial Day, President's Day, etc); they're simply called 'bank holidays'. Sure there are days with official names, but it's got nothing to do with time off from work. Anyway, this post is about our trip on the Eurostar, through the chunnel to Brussels.

When we priced out return tickets to Brussels (it's not cheap!), we realized it was about $200 more total if we wanted to go first class ($300 versus $400 each). What that means is that you get bigger seats, a table, a nice meal, and all the wine and champagne you can drink! So, realizing that this is something we probably won't do again (at least not for a very long time), and this being our first vacation together since we were married (apart from family visits) we went for first class.

To get to the Eurostar train, we had to get to St Pancras Station, which is a brand new and really nice station. We took a train from Oxford to London Paddington, then the tube from London Paddington to St Pancras Station. It was pretty easy, even though the tube we were on had some problem and we had to get off it after one stop and switch to a different one. St Pancras Station is the nicest train station I've ever been to. Usually, when you think of a train station, you imagine a dark place with dirty floors and, if you're lucky, a takeaway coffee shop or McDonalds. But since this is a new station, and because the Eurostar station is there, they can get all kinds of things from France and Belguim on a daily basis. That means they have some great shopping and excellent food choices.

Here's a picture of me in the station


Getting on the Eurostar was like getting screened for an airplane, but way faster. You didn't have to take off your shoes, and you didn't need to take laptops, etc out of bags. Plus, you can take all the liquids you want! The waiting lounge feels like a first-class lounge, with wooden floors that keep it pretty quiet, and modern comfy chairs/benches all around. There's even a wine bar, and you can take your wine with you to go read or whatever in the lounge.

The ride to Brussels takes 2 hours from London. The train goes through the Chunnel, through France, stops in Lille, and terminates in Brussels - at 186 km/hr. Here's me still at the St Pancras Station showing how I thought I would react to traveling at that speed.



Here's the spread they put out for us. Paul had the lamb, and I had the vegetarian option.


They give you champagne as soon as the train takes off, then bring you your food a little later, and some more wine. By the time you're done eating, you're nearly at your destination.

We booked a cheap hotel through Hotwire, so it only cost us $100 per night to stay in a Sheraton hotel on the North side of Brussels, about 20 minutes walk from the center, and 5 minutes walk to the station for Bruges.

Our first day, we went to Bruges. This was a pretty last-minute trip, so we had bought a guidebook at the train station in London, and charted out where we wanted to go.

Here we are on a bridge at Minnewater, which apparently used to connect Bruges with the sea.


They keep swans in the canals after Maximilian of Austria was imprisioned and his adviser beheaded. The adviser's crest featured a swan, so when Max was freed, he declared that there had to be swans there all the time. Here's one of the swans that looked pretty friendly


The architecture in Bruges is really beautiful. They claim to be the Venice of the North (though Stockholm may argue with that one).


Since it was a bank holiday, and the weather was gorgeous, there were people everywhere.


After touring a couple of museums (we bought a day pass), we stopped for some beer (and OOH is it AWESOME beer!)...


and some mussels...


We toured the old town hall in Bruges


And came across this random flag dancing thing...


The next day we toured Brussels. Here's their town hall


The Royal Palace...


And their Cathedral...


And here's me getting ready for some serious chocolate shopping!



And of course, a trip to Brussels would not be complete without a picture of Mannekin Pis


What was strange about being in Belgium, especially during a bank holiday weekend, is that we never knew which language to speak. Flemish sounds a bit like a mix between English and German (which both Paul and I kind of speak), but French (which I speak, brokenly) is also their official language. With all the English tourists around and speaking English to shopkeepers and waiters, we knew it was OK to use English, but it still seems rude not to ask first in French. So often I'd get tongue-tied with all these languages floating around.

The other strange thing was more just a commentary on how touristy it was. Like I said before, the weather and the bank holiday really added to it, but Bruges seemed almost Disney-esque with chocolate shops and museums everywhere (not that that's necessarily a bad thing), and Brussels was overflowing with overpriced restaurants (we're talking $30 for a personal size pizza on a side street). Luckily for us, some of our relatives had given us cash in Euros as wedding presents, so we were much better able to tolerate the prices!

In all, the trip was just what we needed. Some time away from school and work to just be together and enjoy being married.

May Day in Oxford

Tomorrow is May Day in Oxford. It's one of those celebrations of spring that goes back ages. Currently, the city gets up at 6AM to hear a boys' choir performing at Brasenose College, followed by Morris dancers (looks like men in leiderhosen waving hankies and banging sticks together). I read a story about the Morris dancers a couple of weeks ago, and I guess membership is dwindling, so they're now bring women into it.

After much debate, Paul and I decided we'd rather have a good night's sleep than participate in this, especially since I've got a lot going on at work right now and I don't want to be wiped out by lunchtime. However, I found a great video on YouTube of the May Day festivities from last year:




Also, we did see some Morris dancers the other week. Here's some pictures of them...

Dancing with Sticks (also note the woman to the right of the dancers, in the black coat. You may notice she's about to step on what looks like a pothole in the pavement. It's actually there on purpose to mark the spot where Protestant Martyrs were burned alive back in the day. You can read more about that here.)


...and Dancing with Hankies


PS. We're going to Brussels on the train this weekend! Going through the chunnel, and arriving in just over 2 hours from London!