no worries, mom--no one is breaking into THIS house!

wow.  wow.  so an interesting couple of days.

so, to start out with, for all of those concerned about my safety, no worries.  it is impossible to break into my house without actually breaking a window or breaking down the door that is locked.  my poor housemate, ben, learned that the hard way.  we spent about two hours trying to break into his window, but it has these wooden blocks nailed to the wall that prevent it from opening more than a couple inches.  we had multiple kinds of tools, a midwest farmgirl (obviously not me) with her crazy upper arm strength, and the manager from the restaurant next door trying to help, but to no avail.  but at least we now know how ridiculously difficult it is to break into our house!

anyway, yesterday, we went out a sightseeing tour of oxford (called the "topless tour" because there is no top on the bus.  i was entertained).  i took a bunch of pictures, but most didn't turn out, because it would take it at the moment that we passed a pole, or just after we lost sight of whatever i was trying to take a picture of.  go figure. i'll put the pictures on facebook.  but it was really interesting, especially seeing where different people went to school.  i also LOVE the history here, which is just crazy.  i can't get over how old everything is!  it's fantastic!

other than that, it has just been a lot of getting to know the city and wandering around.  i live about a 15 minute walk from the city center, so we walk down there everyday and just kind of wander.  i love all the random little roads that go off in different directions.  unfortunately, i seem to have an excellent sense of direction here, and despite my best attempts to get lost, i always seem to be able to quickly figure out exactly where i am.  i'm going to have to try a bit harder and really wander down more streets, because wouldn't it be fun to be completely lost in a random part of oxford?!

anyway, that's about all that's going on here.  tonight, my housemates and i are having dinner together, which will be nice.  that's one thing that i've quickly realized--there really isn't much ope in losing weight over here.  despite the fact that i walk everywhere, the food over here for the most part is really heavy, and i'm eating a lot of sandwiches, since they're affordable, and i don't think sandwiches are the best way to go to lose weight.  but we'll see.  :)

i hope everyone is having a lovely time at home.  talk to you soon!

diane