angleland! where everyone speaks anglish!

...er, not exactly. but close.

am in england! british keyboard giving me some interesting times. plane over was...boring and long and not very fun, as per usual. frances and i caught the tube and went to south kensington all by ourselves, aren't we such savvy travelers and all that. heh. spent the first night muttering around being jetlagged and sick and so forth (anyone who i've talked to about traveling with, i warn you, i'm a terror the first couple of days if the plane ride was over five hours). we took the oxford tube (which is actually a bus) up to oxford the next morning and i spent most of the time listening to 'wicked' which is brilliant and i want to buy it as soon as i get home! (it's addictive. and also very catchy. i spent all day singing...'popular, you're gonna be pop-u-lar...' hee.) spent night at lucia's. her house is fabulous, wonderful, quirky, filled with interesting objects and smelling of old english house plus cold. it took us a while to figure out how to turn on the heaters properly, so the first day we were all huddled up (she has the most wonderful fleecy blankets) drinking tea. not that there was anything wrong with that, really.
we walked around oxford christmas eve, shopping at the covered market, buying produce and guinea fowl (i expect it used to cost a guinea. which is a pound and sixpence. don't ask me to explain. old brit money systems make no sense) and pasties for lunch (yum yum) and so forth.
went to christmas eve midnight mass at st. mary magdalen's, just off cornmarket, which was an old-style proper catholic high mass. lord. lots of insence, singing the prayers--they sang the gospel, which was the first time i'd heard that. i missed st. mark's a bit, but this was interesting.
christmas was spent lounging around with tea, books (lucia has the entire chonicles of narnia and i've been re-reading them. more on that later) and british television, which is weird as anything.
came back into london yesterday, walked around--not much open on boxing day--and then went to a panto of aladdin at the old vic, with ian mckellen as widow twanky...i don't think i'm even going to attempt to describe panto. ask me later. suffice to say i laughed myself silly, got to yell things at the stage, and saw ian mckellen dancing and singing cabaret in a very tasteful black dress. yes. indeed.
today we are going about london more--saw the science museum, went back to the cast courts at the v&a, are going to the national gallery to see raphael.
tonight is romeo and juliet on trapezes. or something like that. hmmm....

i miss everybody madly. loving oxford as usual (although i miss the pcc like anything).
miriam, neal got your email and will try to reply soon. charlotte, i saw the stephen fry hp's on tape and if i had the money i would buy them for you but they are heniously expensive...i'll keep my eyes out for them less so elsewhere. anneka, am looking for a rock but as we are in cities it is more difficult. will keep looking however.


winter prezzies are going to be late. i apologize (blame it on my ability to live alone, or rather, lack thereof)--rest assured they'll be done. maybe by beltane. (kidding, try the end of january).

will see most of you new year's eve, if i can get over there. parents will probably fall asleep. come to think of it, so will i, but i'll try to do it a) at anneka's and b) in a friendly manner.

cheers, all. leave me comments, tell me how things are going stateside. must go, mum's kicking me off--ta!