a fine fellow

Dean's PhD grad pics arrived in the mail last week. Funny/cute, right?

The photos were a good reminder that I've neglected to share some big recent news with all but a very few of you. Earlier this summer Dean was named a Fulford Research Fellow at Somerville College.

There's a lot about Oxford, we find, that requires explanation to outsiders (there's a lot that I still don't get), but one of those things is that the University is made up of 38 colleges - each one houses a few hundred students where they eat and sleep and take some of their tutorials with professors who are associated with that College. Some lectures or tutorials might take place at other colleges depending on what you are studying and what profs are most fit to teach the subject.

All that said, you can be a faculty member at Oxford without being connected to a college. For the last year Dean has worked at the NPEU - a department of the university - as a senior researcher. To have any hope of working your way up to professor status, however, you need a college association, so securing a fellowship (though most are unpaid) is a pretty big deal. They mean access to lecturing opportunities (which ARE paid), they look great on your CV, AND they mean you can have free lunch at the College whenever you feel so inclined. I, for one, am looking forward to the invites to fancy college bops! :)

Congrats Dean!

home sweet chapel

we're back, and we're in!

When I last wrote we were packing up North Lodge and scrubbing each 200-year-old nook and cranny. Moving matters were slightly complicated by a 12-day gap between the move out and the move in. With Dean's parents arriving just 2 days after we vacated North Lodge, and no home to house them, the four of us booked ourselves a sweet cross-UK roadtrip, hitting three out of four countries in the Kingdom!

First stop: Pembrokeshire in Wales, more specifically a little village called Penally on the edge of the fab seaside town of Tenby.

After two days of relaxing, beach strolling and excessive eating, we trucked along to our next stop: York!

The next day brought us back to the beautiful Scotch mountains we love. Even on my sixth visit, Edinburgh is still enchanting:

A few hours north along the coast brought us to our principal destination: Aberdeen! It was such a treat to see old friends and to watch my hubby finally collect that piece of paper that tell us he's a doctor!



Last stop, after a 9.5 hour drive south: Windsor, a convenient hop/skip/jump from Heathrow where we said fare thee well to our excellent travel buddies, Mom and Dad Regier (thanks for such a fabulous visit!!!)

After so much adventure, I don't the least bit mind settling in for a bit of homebody time. Can you blame me?

more photos from the new house, coming soon!