Good-bye Ox

Today was our final day in Oxford. After two crazy weeks of errands, visits with friends, packing and cleaning, we are suddenly leaving. While many days seemed surprisingly normal, the reality of the flood situation did make for an odd context in which to depart. Final punting excursions, for example, were definitely out (a real downer for Rachel who loves this summer activity) as the rivers had escaped their beds and were too fast flowing. Visits with friends were at times canceled or cut short because of the need to take care of houses and property and certain companies were not operational in our final week in the city.

We did manage through it all to have several wonderful final memories. After three months off for maternity leave, Rachel got to play her electric cello with the praise band at church one last time. We also had several very special meetings with friends (like the crazy photo shoot with Rachel’s work colleagues!), many of which involved lovely food. Thank you to you all for this, it’s going to be a long time before we see falafel, curry, hot pot, or bangers and mash quite like these again!

We were also terribly excited to find that the blackberries have ripened early this year (we’re sure this happened just as a special treat for us : ). As a result, we were able to spend a couple of wonderful hours strolling through the paths in the park by our house picking berries. The smell of the grass, the vistas of ripening crops divided by green hedge rows, and the clouds blowing by on the wind are images we are not soon to forget.

We are very grateful too for the companies who helped us get out the door on time. At the top of this list is Splash Services, a Oxford cleaning company we were introduced to some time ago (run by a Christian, Romanian man who once was an asylum seeker in Oxford). They did a stellar job cleaning the chaos of our flat so that we could check out with the letting company on time!

As we drove out of town in a friend’s car, past the forest a Nunam Cortney, and rolling hills of Benson/Preston Crowmarsh (home to Benson lock–a favorite place to get honey), and on southwards, we had to conclude that we have had a really blessed 4 years in this community. In this time we have grown truly into adults, experienced several sub-strata’s of a culture entirely new to us, and even become parents. Oxford, the place and the people in it, have indelibly shaped us for the rest of our lives. I guess this is a little bit of why it is known as a city that shapes the world. THANK YOU!

Moving

As many of you know, the Criswells have taken a rather sudden decision to move to the San Diego area. We made this choice on July 1 and by today, 31 July were out of our flat. When you add into this the complicating factor that we only returned from holiday on 15 July, it has been a hectic and too short time. As a result, we realise that their may be those of you who are only finding out about or move by reading this post. Our sincere apologies for this!

Why are we moving? Brian is taking a position with a company owned by his step father in the Escondido area. While we could have done this later in the year, a number of factors–not the least being that we had to leave our flat on 31 July because the landlord was repossessing it–seemed to make this the right time to move. While the transition is an exciting one on several levels, the speed with which it is happening has left a lot of details open ended. As a result, frequently when we’re asked about this or that, we have to respond ‘we don’t know’.

One of the biggest questions is what Rachel will be doing when we move, particularly as we moved to Oxford specifically so that she could study–and later work with–a specific cohort of teenagers. The tentative plan is that Rachel will try to get the household together and normalize our lives for the first couple of months (we do not, for example, have any idea where we are going to live). Come January she will be studying Spanish and French (likely with some Arabic down the line too) part-time, developing crucial skills she needs to continue the work she has been doing in a new context.

Brian actually begins his work in Escondido in early September and we are therefore going to spend then next few weeks traveling in eastern Canada, recuperating and reconnecting as a family. There will be updates on our adventures in the travel section of the blog soon!

UK Floods

Thanks to those of you who have been calling or emailing in concern about the flooding in our area.  We are safe and still have drinkable water and electricity.  In fact, due to the fact that we live on a hill and have a very large park separating us from the river Cherwell we are not expected to have any problems.

The same cannot be said for some of our friends who have been evacuated, are sandbagging crazily, or have water coming up through their floor boards.   Flooding, however, unlike many other forms of natural disaster (hurricanes and earthquakes being the ones we’ve lived through the most) is a form of natural disaster isolated to specific areas (like tornados).  We’re extremly fortunate that we are not in the paths of destruction…this time.

Sleep baby…please

So here we are back from our 4 week trip to the USA, Mexico and Canada. Charlotte did really well throughout the whole trip and only had one not so good flight out of 4. Now, however, she has her days and nights completely mixed up (smiley and happy at 3am and screaming if ignored), which begs the question how do you cure jet lag in a baby? Sigh…

Incidentally, possibly the strangest side effect of flying ever: Charlotte cried hard for 20 minutes of descent in the airplane and since then her lovely ‘inni’ belly button is an outie. We’re hoping it goes back soon!