After a long and bumpy flight, (Russell might have some broken bones in his hand from my squeezing it so hard...) we made it to London Heathrow. There we picked up our bags and began the long process of finding our way to Oxford and getting to Mario and Diana's house. We finally found the bus station, got our ticket and then stood and watched our bus leave...without us. The sign said "Wait to be invited onto bus". So we waited, the driver stared at us, we stared at the driver, we never heard the invitation, the driver climbed on the bus, the bus backed out of the space, and we waved good-bye. No problem though, we caught the next one and were on our way. I leaned over to tell Russell to look out the window as the trip would give some nice views, but he was already snoring.
Mario came and found us at the station, we finally made it to their house and I slept. The rest of my day went like this: sleep, wake up to eat dinner and see Antony, sleep until late the next morning. Such beautiful days we've had in England so far. I hope it stays this way!
Maria - July 1st

Maria and I were engaged until late hours last night with her relatives Diana and Antony. We were of course playing the word game Boggle. Sweat dripping from our brows, furrowed in a frenzy of fannagled letters; I felt as if we were playing for public schools across America, I imagined they were chanting our names, transferring mad energy across the pond. I deciphered as many three and four letter words as possible, and guess what... I came in second to Diana. She wore her colours well and was a modest champion. Cheers to good company, good humour, and lots of laughs. (note from Maria: "I lost terribly...Washington County schools must not be quite up to par with Sullivan...") :-)
Today, we toured Oxford. Such an historical city, rich with humanities, and cheeky "City Site" tour guides.
Some highlights include:
College, college, college, college - Good grief, you must be an idiot to live here and not be educated, matter of fact it's probably impossible, or much worse, a crime. There are 39 colleges total, geeze!
Crime, ah yes, we toured Oxford Castle, which for so long took pride in its swift and expeditious practice of hanging criminals for stealing as little as one British pound. Lots of history, cool construction, neat castle, our tour guide's name was Black Bess.
We ate at the Eagle and Child. Apparently, J.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and other notable authors met here to share pints, tell stories, convert from agnosticism to christianity, and invent incredible worlds such as Middle Earth - small stuff like that. I on the other hand shared a pint and fish and chips with my wife. In my opinion, equally as brilliant as Narnia!
Russell - July, 2nd