Louisville 2, Oxford 1, Cambridge 0:

It's been absolutely ages since I've written, and nearly three weeks since I've been back in Oxford. It's hard to believe that my three week break for Christmas went by so very quickly, and yet my time back here has gone at a more rapid pace. Already I'm in the second week of Hilary Term, and already I'm sick again! Whoo! It's okay though...seems to be a stomach bug and I'm on the mend, just in time for Aunt Kathy and Uncle Steve to visit on Wednesday! My first visitors!!!! I'm SO excited! And I've been able to schedule my work around their visit to maximize my time with them. So, life is good for the moment!

I suppose everyone will want a three week recap, especially since most of my readership is stateside and thus probably saw me over Christmas. Though I will say that Christmas at home was wonderful, with the exception of missing three very important sections of my family (*cough* Aidan and Sarah *cough* Erika, Andrew, and Isaac *cough* Beth, Aaron, and Wexler *cough*). It just illustrated how much we've all grown up. My cousins and I have our own lives and our own families and are thus starting our own traditions. We are independent, but poor, and we all have to work, so the celebrations of Christmas-past are not to be so common anymore. Jeffrey and I spent our first Christmas as an engaged couple trying to figure out how to spend Christmas with both sides of our families without hurting anyone's feelings. I think we were able to do it, though ten Christmas celebrations later we were both exhausted. But for the first time it was really clear to me that although showing your love through gifts is wonderful, I really did just want to be with my family and with Jeffrey's family. Watching Mackenzie and Lily open Christmas gifts was much more fun than opening my own. I can't wait until next year when hopefully I'll get to see Isaac and Wexler open theirs as well.

I stayed home long enough to spend my first New Year's Eve with Jeffrey in four years (I've always worked Radio Disney on New Year's Eve in the past) and to watch (or listen to, as Roy and Jeffrey refused to let me watch the fourth quarter of the game because I was bad luck) the Cards victory in the Orange bowl!!! So, if you're following my strange blog title, here's where we begin keeping score: Louisville 1. Just after the New Year I jetted back across the ocean, this time with sleep-inducing benadryl (yes!), and arrived in Oxford on January 5. I was greeted by my friend Rich who helped me carry my bags back to my room, and then I didn't fully unpack for two weeks. Yup, that's me for ya.

On January 6, I went with my friends to a party at Andrew's house. Now, Andrew did his undergraduate degree at Cambridge and then came to Oxford this year to read his Master's in Political Theory. As a result, Andrew decided to throw this party for both his Cambridge and Oxford friends. Andrew also decided to take advantage of the fact that his friends from both uni's were present at the same place/time and stuck us in competition with one another to decide which University was better. We were pitted in ten competitions relating to Theology, History, Medieval and Modern Languages, Philosophy, English, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, and Engineering. We then had a bonus round of Balderdash. At the end of nearly four hours of competition, Oxford emerged victorious! Thus, it has been scientifically proven that I chose the better university. Oxford 1. Cambridge 0.

Other than Andrew's party nothing too exciting has been going on in Oxford. I've been in the library researching daily, been reconnecting with friends here, and readjusting to life without Jeffrey and Mom and Dad. This really means I've been calling home a lot. It's been good to be back however, and I've enjoyed everyone's stories of their breaks. I've also readjusted (sort of ) back to British food. This means I've already had fish and chips, plenty of savory pies, and guinea fowl. By the way, did you know that guinea fowl is a monogamous bird? I felt guilty eating a bird that could've been celebrating a 5 year anniversary or whatnot, but it was already dead so....

You're probably wondering about the score. I've already given you Louisville 1, Oxford 1, and Cambridge 0, but where's Louisville's other 1? Well, that's somewhat complicated. Here's how the math works: Cards beat Wake Forest to win first BCS bowl game :1. Coach Petrino leaves the Cards to coach the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL: -1. So, we're back at square one. Michael Bush leaves for the NFL draft: -1. Uh oh, we're in the red (hee hee...always!), but I don't blame Bush at all. Good luck to him! Jurich hires Coach K (don't make me spell out his name), who speaks better than any football coach I've ever heard, and seems thrilled to be coaching at the Ville: 1. So, 0 again. Coach K promotes Jeff Brohm, who turns down an offer for Alabama, thereby helping to impact the decision of his brother, junior Quarterback Brian Brohm, to stay for his senior season hopefully leading U of L to a National Championship: 2. So...1 -1 = 0 -1 = -1 +1 = 0 + 2 =2. And all in just a few weeks. Meanwhile, an unimpressive U of L men's basketball team continues to surprise me being 3-2 in Conference play. We've got UConn tonight. We'll see what happens there. But I will say I'm quite content cheering for the women's team, who are 16-2. Whoo hoo! Oh, and UK lost to Vandy, at Rupp, for the second year in a row. So really, it's all good. Actually, everything's all good. And on that note...back to reading about medieval children, or to sleep some more, whichever comes first!

Blessings, love, and cheers to all,
Elizabeth