final countdown.

Well, we are now just HOURS away from leaving our new little home in Cambridge and coming back to our REAL HOMES. This time is very bittersweet as we've both LOVED our life and time over here, but are also ready to be back with the family and friends we miss so much.

Things have only been more and more busy as the end draws near. We had a wonderful visit from my Mom and Dad and Paul last week. We explored Scotland and our family heritage and also had great quality family time!

We've been cleaning like FIENDS for the last few days in preparation for our move and I'm happy to announce we PASSED our move-out inspection today! *ra ra ra*

As we reflect on our year in Cambridge we remember many of the things we dearly miss from home and begin to realize what we will dearly miss from the UK once we're gone. Following are our always developing lists:

Things we miss about HOME:

- Family
- Friends
- All the American luxuries
- Cars
- Our TV
- Washing machine and dryer
- Big spaces
- The FOOD:
  - Cheap food
  - Chinese food
  - Mexican food
  - Midwestern food
  - Our mom's cooking
  - Chocolate chips and Chocolate chip cookies
  - Pizza
  - Double-Stuffed Oreos
- Thunderstorms
- Garbage disposal
- Efficiency
- Lakes
- Red Barns
- Sweet corn


Things we WILL miss about CAMBRIDGE:

- Pubs
- Punting
- The charm
- The culture
- Trains
- The beauty
- The British accents
- British phrases
- Hearing tons of different languages all around you but always being able to communicate and ask questions of anyone
- Cycling
- English gardens
- Green everywhere
- Tea rooms
- The tidiness
- Cottages and villages
- The colleges
- The history
- Our church
- Living in Europe - so close to so many amazing places
- The churches
- The bells
- Nearly NO bugs
- The weather (shocking I know - Ok I could leave the month of February but the rest was GREAT!)
- The red phone booths and post boxes
- Seeing random men walking around with top hats and tails
- Seeing random Shakespeare-era costumes walking about
- Academic gowns
- Cobble stones
- The market

Ok, these lists are NOT exhaustive. I had to cut this post short as we have to turn off our internet right now, but we will be HOME SOON!

the end.

On Monday I finished the Summa Theologiae. More accurately, we finished the Summa. The seven of us who have worked through the Summa for the past year spent the evening finishing together and celebrating. Using a room at Trinity College, we read the last article at the same time. Then we celebrated for a while, went night punting and watched a classic - Point Break. The evening was fantastic, a fitting conclusion to the year. Pictures:













p.s. Before you think we are alcoholics, we had a generous friend donate a bunch of things to us... many of which weren't finished.

english change ringing

We went to a church south of Cambridge recently to witness the English bell ringing technique called change ringing. I have learned about this on many of the weekly Cambridge walking tours I take, and was very curious to see how it's done.

"Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes." It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody. It remains most popular in the context where, in the 17th century, it developed: English church towers."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_ringing)



Up in the bell tower. The bells weighed some thousand pounds each. Some of them were as old as the 15th Century, and some had been melted down and re-cast.


Going up all those rickety ladders made me very aware of how long it had been since I'd climbed a ladder, and how rusty I was. But I survived.


The ringers. It looked physically strenuous and even more mentally strenuous to play, but there was a little 8 year old girl amongst them, making it seem easy. (See the rickety ladder over there?!)


The "music"/ bell sequences they MEMORIZE and play. Ok, not so easy. It blows my mind, actually.

cambridge bumps

A few weeks ago we attended a classic Cambridge summertime festivity, the Cambridge Bumps boat races. The bumps are an Oxbridge phenomena where boats from varying Colleges and clubs and even pubs race for miles down the river with spaced starting times and try to catch up to or "bump" the boat in front of them.

For you sports-fans who want more info about the Bumps here is the wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumps_race

Here are some rowers who are gentleman on top and athlete on the bottom.

It was a lovely English midsummer's activity.

R.I.P. my first little mac.

Well, it's official. After nearly 8 long and wonderful years together my very first Mac has died.

He was my first, the one who successfully and passionately converted me from PC, and he has been there with me from design-school to marriage, to moving across the country and then moving across the world. I have written this corny poem in loving memory of him, my first little Mac.

Goodbye my first little Mac.
by andrea dahm

I will miss you my first little Mac, 
once I left PC I never looked back.


All through design school 
you were the best little tool.


The hours we spent together 
could be described as forever.


Till all hours of the night, 
you never put up a fight. 


You were with me so many years, 
through the laughter and the tears.


You fought and lived on and on,
when all other laptops were long dead and gone.


But now I must put you to rest, 
comforted in knowing you were the best.


So, goodbye my first little Mac.

happy rebellion day!

We enjoyed celebrating a triumphant Independence Day from Britain IN Britain, yesterday.
At church while talking to a Scottish friend about the large bag of food I was toting I said "It's the 4th of July for us today!" and he replied "Yes, it's the 4th of July for us too." hehe

As we were leaving church our vicar wished us a "Happy Rebellion Day!" We found it quite humorous. We celebrated our proud patriotism at a BBQ with all of our fellow ex pats.

Wishing you all a Happy Rebellion Day (a bit late).



The Cambridge Young Americans


Witherspoon's signature on the Declaration of Independence