weekend visitors...

Ah, what better way to celebrate another birthday in a new place than to get visits from some of your favorite people? I can't begin to describe what a relief it is to interract with a set of people who know you really well after six weeks of work on building friendships all from the ground up. Neil, Scott, and Kristin Hayes all came in to town last Thursday. Thursday we wandered town a bit and ate dinner at Chaing Mai (great Thai place off the High Street), and then let Kristin and Scott recover from jet lag (while I also had to recover from three hours sleep I got between the birthday outing - see previous post - and a 6am rowing outing!). Friday all slept in a bit while I rowed and went to lecture. Then we met up and went for a really long walk around Christ Church Meadow (down to the Isis/Thames), and then all the way up to an around Port Meadow, on the nothern outskirts of town.

Friday evening was quite entertaining... The night started at the business school happy hour, which we have every Friday night and where you can get cocktails for just 1 pound. Quite a bargin, and quite dangerous! The previous week they ran out of liqour an hour before the end, but this time around they were fully stocked (I think they are starting to realize how much stress relief we all need from this insane program!). Following happy hour, we had dinner at Jamal's, a yummy Indian restaurant in the Jerhico part of town... it was greatI don't think I've laughed so hard in at least a year!!
After dinner we met up with some of my classmates at the
Worcester bop, but sadly got there right when it was ending (11.30 was a little early compared to most bops I've been to!!). Collectively about 25 of us decided to head to Escape, a dance club in the center of town. We got there at almost midnight, but still and danced the night away, until about 3am, at least! :)

Saturday we left Oxford and headed into London. We walked around a little bit in the afternoon, had dinner at a great Turkish place in Mayfair, and then went down to Brixton to meet up with one of Kristin's friends for drinks. A lovely, relatively low-key day. Sunday Neil left early for the airport, and the rest of us wandered in the rain for a while, meeting up with various other people for lunch, coffee, tea, etc. I left Scott and Kristin in London at around 4pm, so I could get back to a group meeting, but I'm hoping they had another good night there before flying back to DC on Monday!

Great weekend!!!