Well, faithful readers, a lot has transpired since our last post. For one, Ori and I have found ourselves a permanent place to live, in the beautiful town of Headington. It’s tempting to describe Headington as a “suburb” of Oxford, but in fact, its existence predates Oxford by quite some time. As one site (Headington’s own) puts it, we’re living in what was “a long-established settlement when central Oxford was little more than a bog.” There has been evidence dug up of Roman and even Stone Age settlements in the area, and it was also once home to the amusingly named medieval monarch Æthelred the Unready.

Sadly, “suburb” is probably the most accurate term for Headington today. Nevertheless, the town has its own High Street, a wonderful collection of shops and supermarkets (including six or more charity shops within a minute’s walk from each other), and perhaps most surprising, a whole neighborhood of stone cottages that very closely resembles the Cotswold towns we hiked through a few weeks ago. Headington is very much a self-contained entity, and it’s actually quite nice to be able to leave the maddening crowds and frustrating closed-doors elitism of downtown Oxford and head out “into the country” to where we’re now living.

The nice thing about England, actually, is that “the country” is never that far away. Separating Headington from Oxford is the River Cherwell, over which we cross on our way into town. There’s a beautiful pedestrian/cycle path, actually, that passes through some fields in which we’ve already seen a few cows, horses and ponies. The path then crosses over the Cherwell and a little bit of land called Mesopotamia, so named because it sits “between the rivers.” Actually, the “rivers” are only two halves of the Cherwell, but who’s to argue?

It’s a 2.5-mile trip one way into town, which Ori and I are currently making on foot when necessary – great for keeping off the weight we lost walking around Venice. We’ll be looking into bicycles soon, especially in light of the fact that Ori has already found employment! She’ll be working at the Ashmolean Museum, the oldest university museum in the world, as it reopens its doors in early November after a lengthy renovation. I am currently still searching for a job, but with Ori now employed and a place to live secured, I can take the necessary time to scour the web thoroughly and find the most promising positions for which to apply.

Our house is a lovely semi-detached place with three bedrooms, which we’re currently sharing with a very nice Polish couple. There is a friendly neighborhood cat that prefers to spend its days sitting in our laps, and we don’t discourage it. Our street is quiet, too, and there are parks and a few shops very close by. We’re of the opinion that we found the perfect place to live!

All in all, everything just seems to be working out. I’ve fallen behind on photo editing and uploading, so this post is text only. I promise to get around to it soon, though!