Our last few days in the lakes were lovely. We were able to take a boat ride around the lake which gave a superb and even overwhelming view.

The area reminded me a lot of the Swallows and Amazons series, which we grew up reading and is set in the Lake District. We were also able to enjoy the little town of Keswick, which is absolutely charming.

Here’s the view from the little tea shop where we had our last afternoon tea:

Saturday we took many many trains and other forms of public transport back to London, and said good-bye at Heathrow Airport Sunday morning. I’m so very thankful for the chance to take a 10-day adventure with this lady:

So now I’m back in Oxford, settling in. After living out of a carry-on for nine days, returning to the luggage I had stored at the college and finding new outfits and *cough* [indiscernible number] shoes that I brought is marvelous. Other students have begun trickling in the last few days and our program officially starts today. I love seeing old friends and making new ones. The vast majority of us are English teachers during the year so we have a lot of shared experiences and similar interests.

I imagine the 50 or more students each of us represent would probably feel a sense of vindication if they could see us hard at work, preparing for classes with high page-counts of assigned reading and high word-counts of papers to write.  Here is my summer to-do list:

It’s a hefty workload for six weeks, but such a labor of love. It’s great to be back in school