The Return of the Native
“ASaturday afternoon in November…”
No, not that Return of the Native, albeit it’s one of my favorite novels. Instead, I am writing a travelog based on my quasi-sabbatical year in the UK which started August 31st with a flight from New York to Paris on La Compagnie, an all-business class airline (which was fabulous, BTW).
But first, a little background. I grew up in West London. I have degrees from both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. In 1979, I took a job in Michigan (in the field of “solid modeling”) and a few years later found myself in the Boston area, where I’ve been ever since. Fast forward to 2015 when I started teaching at one of our local universities. For the past six years, I’ve been full-time and teaching (1) algorithms and data structures; (2) a big data class that introduces students to functional programming and Scala in particular; (3) a class on cryptography.
While in the US, I’ve always missed things about the UK (although I’ve also appreciated many things in the US, obviously) and had some vague idea of spending more time here, above and beyond the regular family visits. Much of that desire has come about as a result of my interest in history, which was negligible when I lived here. But, there are other reasons like food and beer, too 😉.
My wife, Kim, and I have something of a menagerie of dogs (the number varies but is currently two) and until January 1st, 2012, we couldn’t even contemplate it (six months quarantine). Actually, it wasn’t until after the pandemic, when we realized how easy teaching online would be, that we discovered the new pet importation rules were in our favor, too.
And so we come back to our circuitous route to the Oxford area via New York and Paris. Basically, it was the only affordable, and predictable, way to bring our dogs with us on the plane (it’s complicated).
Why Oxford? The murder capital of British television? Apart from having lived there during my undergraduate days, it’s ideally situated — easy to get to just about anywhere. And the countryside is so much more interesting than around Cambridge.
So, here we are in the sunny Cherwell Valley— it just started a light rain today after eight dry and hot (!) days.
I’ll close this installment with a few preliminary observations:
(1) The beauty of the countryside. New England definitely has its charms — we love it — but the original is just idyllic (to me, at least). We live close to the Oxford Canal (see picture) and everywhere here is built from Cotswold stone. Next month we’ll be going up to Skye in Scotland — there we’ll have a completely different kind of scenery.
(2) The drivers here are very disciplined on motorways, at roundabouts, etc.. so driving on major roads seems relatively safe. On the other hand, they drive along narrow, bendy, single-lane country roads at breakneck speeds! Speaking of roundabouts, I love them. I dislike traffic lights (the alternative) because I hate to wait! [Yes, it’s true some busy roundabouts also have traffic lights].
(3) The beer! At the right pub on the right day, beer can be every bit as good as it was 45 years ago. And that is really good. But, so many of the pubs have succumbed to what I call the “American disease” — too much choice. Choice can be a fine thing. But, in a pub, beer has to be drunk within a certain time period. If too few people are drinking the best bitter, it might not keep so well. (We don’t like to put preservatives in beer, other than hops). I should also point out that, during my time in the US, beer has gone from basically undrinkable to very good (actually better than all but the best UK pub beers).
(4) Insects. In Massachusetts, we live in a town whose local newspaper is called The Mosquito. It has been so utterly refreshing to come here and not be bothered by any biting insects. There are stinging nettles all around but otherwise, here in Oxfordshire, we’re mostly safe from pesky critters.
See you for part two.
