Well, I'm back in America. It's so good to be home. I missed my home and my family. I have been attending the Business School Orientation for the last few days.

It has been interesting already. We are organized into groups of four to five and we will be working together throughout the rest of the year. This is completely different from law school where each person is on their own. We have to be able to work together in order to succeed. It will be an education.

Stay tuned for more exciting B-school information.

A shot out our window

This place is called "Partymania." If you zoom in you will see that they offer an incredible variety of things, "Hats Banners Cards Balloons Lights Poppers - Table Bombs Make-Up Candles Fancy Dress Hire (new line) Boas Wigs Toys Gift Wrap Ribbons Pinatas Masks Disguises Etc. Etc. Helium Decorations"

Main Entryway

Lovely Bathroom

This room is not as nice as it looks

It's Sunday night. We are leaving England tomorrow morning and we can't wait. It's been too long away from home. We have been able to stay with some friends in the program, so we didn't have to get a hostel. The state of this place re-iterates what a great job Bryan did in finding us the place that we stayed in.

In fairness, it's much closer to school and it cost them a little less. However, I am very happy with the place that we lived in. I spoke with our landlord a little about this. He is an Indian-Brit and a physician (general practitioner). He is a very nice and intelligent man. I really have enjoyed talking with him the few times that I had the chance. I told him that of all the students in our program, we had the best accomodations. He said, "Our American cousins have come to expect high standards, and that is what we give them."

Finals went as expected. They were reasonable and since we are recieving pass/fail instead of a letter grade, we didn't have to strain ourselves studying. The professors and the students here have been very fun to get to know. It has been a great experience.

We watched the finale of big brother, Eugene did not win, however, he came in second and it was a close match. I was proud of Britain for that. He did, however, win just as much as did Anthony, demonstrating that, sometimes, nice guys don't finish last. They finish second.

It has been a great trip, but I miss my wife and I am happy to return home.

Well it's the last day of class, so in Products Liability we took some pictures. This is everyone but Geoff (the Canadian who is studying law in England). The kid on the top left is who we fondly refer to as Mormon Matt. He is the other LDS student here, Alberto, the Italiano, Maximillian, German, Nikita, Russian. I am kneeling down next to Genny. She's a USD student.

Today I got up late because Bryan, Chris, and I had a late leg workout. I always get worked up during a workout so it took me a while to calm down. We were up til 2:30 watching movies. As it was Saturday, I didn't really have much to do, so I took the bike down the dirt path. It was a nice ride.

My legs were pretty tired from the night before, so I took it real easy. I rode about 3 miles down the path. It follows the river for a while, then branches off and follows the rail tracks. I ended up at the "Stanford Lock." I'm not sure what the purpose of this place is, but I took some pictures and headed back.

The weather was perfect. It has been overcast for the last week and so the temperature is like 73 degrees. It is a little chilly if you are standing around, but it's perfect if you are on a bike. The Oxford folk were out in droves, punting, boating, and fishing.

This is one of the rooms that we take classes in. They seem to have put us in some of the ugliest rooms at Christ Church. In this picture you see a couple of Americans, a German, and a Russian. we take EU law from Professor Craig in here.


This morning I took my sweet time getting to school. I woke up early, so I had plenty of time to dilly dally. I took this picture of the river because the fog hadn't burned off yet. You may be able to see the rowers in the background.

When we first arrived in London, it was cold and rainy, completely fulfilling our expectations of English weather. However, once we got into Oxford and rented some bikes, it got sunny and hot. Because we only had our bikes to get us around, the heat was a nuisance. I was beginning to feel that I had been lied to. (The media always portrays England as rainy.) However, this last week, it has cooled off again and we have had some more rain. This was a welcome distraction from the sun and has made riding around on bikes ideal.

Today was legal London day. Most of the students went down to London on the schools dime to see the home base of all the legal centers. The 5 of us decided to opt out. This meant a free day for all of us. Dan decided to go see the tall ships Newcastle-upon-Tyne. About his time with the tall ships he remarked, "One of the coolest things I've ever seen. It was pretty stirring. I enjoyed it."

The rest of us stayed around the house, slept in, watched some movies, worked out, and enjoyed the free time. Here is a picture of us after a hard chest/tricepts workout. We're huge.

Typical day for the men at Oxford,

7:30ish - Awake and get ready for school.

8:30 - Head off to school, most days that means a bike ride for Bryan, Dan, and I. The ride is about 2 miles and takes us about twenty minutes.

9:00 - School starts at 9:00, although, school actually starts about five to ten minutes late each day, and most of us are greatful for it.

Our first class is EU law. We all participate in this one together. Professor Craig is excellent. He wrote the textbook we use. Each day he comes in and starts lecturing, without notes, starting right from the place he left off the day before. Bryan says, "He is a proper brit, with a sly sense of humor."

11:00 - Second class starts, that means Products Liability for me and International Public Law for everyone else.

1:00 - Class ends, some days we'll go to lunch with some of the other students, and some days we'll head home for lunch. There is a great place called Yates down by school. They have 2-for-1 fish and chips that are excellent.

3:00-5:00 - Most days we'll relax for a spell when we come home and then head over to the gym. Bryan, Dan, and I have been working out almost every day for about two weeks. Chris just recently joined us as well. We're all seeing results from our efforts, so it makes the effort well worth it.

5:00-10:00 - We come home from the gym, make dinner, watch big brother on the tube, and do some homework for the rest of the night. Sometimes we'll go get groceries or do other errands, but must days we just take it easy.