In the shire...

Finally...a blog, as i promised. The title of the blog is in reference to Alice in Wonderland (blog "Laura in wonderland" was already taken). It is said that in the 1860's Reverend Lutwidge Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) was looking out the window of Christ Church College when he saw Alice Liddell, a girl always looking for adventure, jump out of a tree to chase a rabbit through the garden...and so alice in wonderland was born. The tree still remains in the Christ Church Garden.

Anyway, I arrived in Oxford a week ago today and I'm just now adjusting to the time change and getting regular nights sleep in my twin sized dorm bed. We are staying at Liddell, a graduate housing facility just outside the city center of Oxford. The first few nights we were here we checked out the local pubs and practiced our british accent (which we were told it sounds like its from east britian i.e. working class...were still working on perfecting it).

The first picture below is champagne hour (12 noon) at the president's home before lunch. They even had pet turtles/terapins in the garden...go terps! For the 4th of July we celebrated as any good american would by attending the Cowley Street fair, playing croquet, bbq'ing, and watching the movie Team America. Oddly enough they dont sell fireworks for the 4th here. And they have phoenix ale so I had to cheers a phoenix to my nefew phoenix!

Course work started Monday. I really enjoy the tutorial style of teaching - so much more engaging. The next 3 weeks will be tough with multiple papers due each week and hundred of pages of reading but looking forward to working with my professors. My classes are - Multi-channel marketing, social finance, business-state relations and international political risk, and negotiations.

Its been a busy week so far but ill try to get some better pics to give you the full sense of my experience here....its somewhat harry potter-ish if you can imagine.