It is 4:30 AM, Friday morning. I am sitting in the faculty apartment listening to the end of the ACU football game as I write this post, my first from Oxford. It is strange calling Oxford our “home,” but there is a part of me that feels like the word is the right one to describe my feelings. Walking in to city center yesterday with our students, Tara and I were reminiscing about many of the locations that have personal memories attached to them from our first stay back in 2012. The KFC that Gabe wanted to eat at for his birthday meal still stands, as does the local Tesco we visited for our family groceries. When Tara and I did this for the first time, I frequently said to her, “I can’t wait until we can do this without our kids!” Now here we are, and just 24 hours in I’m wishing that they were here with us. Tara is a great traveling partner, but our kids are our greatest joy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas, without our own kids to share the experience, Tara and I have 24 new “kids” to share this Study Abroad semester. We had a lot of fun yesterday walking through the open market with some of our students, a large square that welcomes local food trucks and produce vendors during the week. It has been a lot of fun observing student reactions to the UK and Oxford. “Wow, look at those hedge rows! Everything is so green here! That street looks like Diagon Alley!” The students are dealing with varying degrees of jet lag. Today (Friday) we’ll have a morning orientation led by Jacque Morrison, ACU’s study abroad director in Oxford, followed by an afternoon scavenger hunt game that will give students the chance to learn more about the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n