Thursday morning, 7/3

Good morning. Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday, but it was one of those hectic days we occasionally have here in Oxford. The classes were cut shorter yesterday, so I didn't really have time to write and we didn't get back last night until after midnight. What caused the chaotic day? We went off to London last night to see Wicked, which was much better than last year's Lion King. A retelling of the Wizard of Oz story to explain why the Wicked Witch became wicked, it was funny, well put together and a quite impressive stage performance. I was impressed with the play and it might be one of the few plays I actually go to see again if I ever get the chance.

Before we went into the theater I took a small number of students off to see Buckingham Palace which was only about a 10-15 minute brisk walk from the theater. The students who went off and took pictures were genuinely pleased to see the palace. One of the guards was even changing with one of the others so it was interesting for them to see a very minor part of the show.

This morning I went off to the small Oxford Farmer's Market. I know when I am living in Steven's Close I am going to have come down here to get fresh bread, cheese and meats. This morning I picked up some fresh fruit scones, an almond croissant, and two pre Nazi German reichmark notes. I have some ones from 1923 that I use in my Civ 2 classes to show what it meant to have 100 million reichmark notes that were worth about $1 dollar at the time. Today's notes were a 1920 10 mark note and a 1922 1000 mark note. Both would be useless in 1923. They cost me 3 pounds for both, which is not a bad price for two pieces of history.

Other than that the weather has been highly fluctuating the last few days. It was quite warm for Oxford on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the temps in the upper 70s and lows in the upper 50s. Yesterday was the first day it really began to rain on and off and right now it promises to rain a lot more. The clouds are sort of black and huge white puffy clouds at the same time. It's both quite amazing and kinda freaky at the same time. Nothing much is planned for today only because the students are getting ready to head off to Ireland tomorrow at 5 am. I am kinda glad I am watching over the 6 or so students who are staying here, but they are a very eclectic group. I am not sure how many of them want to come to London on Sunday, but I am going probably right after breakfast.

I have a bunch of grading to finish, so I will be busy tomorrow working on getting that taken care of and then I should have my weekend free until Monday night when everyone returns back to Oxford. I am thinking that on Saturday I might head off to Warwick Castle which I haven't been too in more than 15 years (since I was living here in 1992). I will also start taking some pictures from the college and of Oxford. I need to carry my camera around with me more often.

Anyway, I need to get read for another day of classes...