Oxford

I loved this sign outside a church






















Colleges through iron bars

















At the top of St. Mary's tower

















Inside St. Mary's

Sunday at Gilgal

After church (and goodbyes to many friends) at Gilgal Baptist Church, Elise and I had Sunday lunch with Jane and Del, good friends and hosts. =)

Seafront

The day after the wedding, I slept so late that there were only about 2 hours of daylight left when I got up. Mmmm, sleeeeeep. Elise and I spent what little daylight there was wandering in the rain on the Porthcawl seafront and then taking refuge in Pietro's for some tea.

Jude's Wedding!!!

Me and my Welsh little sister


Nigel giving his sweet speech about Jude and toasting the couple at the afternoon reception


Jude removing that uncomfortable wedding footwear

Wedding prep

Setting up the hall for the reception: that's Jo's hand messing with the confetti.

Merry Christmas

Emily wonders what might be inside...

Laguna

Reunion with the Ah's! All of us:

















Melinda, Hannah, Corina






















A very different beach than the one I was walking on Wednesday:

Arturo

Julie, me, Arturo.

Crissy Field, SF

The Fourth Annual Barbara's Fish Trap Dangerous Crab Adventure

Stolen directly from John's Facebook:


And, yet again, no one ordered crab.

Ah, Palo Alto.

Old Haunts

Driving North

Through the Grapevine: snow in the shadows on the hills.

But where do they get the new ones?

Carissa said I need to put up more pictures. The sad truth is that I haven't taken any since Thanksgiving weekend. So. Here's a look at one of my favorite signs in Pretoria North:

Blonde

I haven't been taking many pictures in the past few weeks. But I came across this one of me when I was 2 1/2 and thought I'd share. See, I used to be a blonde...

Thankful

Just two of the many people I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving...



My nephew Jesse and his aunt Dianna. (My sister-in-law, who's expecting her first baby in June. Something else I'm thankful for.)

Roommate reunion

Yoori was my roommate in Whittier for several years before I moved to the Bay area. We got together to catch up over Thai food last night, only to find that our favorite Thai place is closed on Tuesdays. Bummer.


We had fun with PhotoBooth, though.

My baby nephew

This is Jesse, hanging out at the ice rink for his oldest sister's birthday party.

Reunion

Coffee in Costa Mesa with friends from South Africa. (Not quite as cool as eating Chinese food in Swaziland on the way to Mozambique from South Africa. But we never did get to do that.)

Let me get your cell phone number...


Melanie, me, Melanie, Katie

Reading

I've been experiencing that small anxiety that other avid readers may relate to--the fear of running out of reading material. The bulk of my library is in boxes in my parents' garage. I brought a (very) small handful of books back with me from South Africa, specifically these two, which I am currently reading.



The rest of my books from South Africa are somewhere between here and there, and will ostensibly arrive in mid-December. If the South African and United States postal services do what they are supposed to do, anyway. In the meantime...I need books. Well, today I managed to forage in the garage for the box of books I'd thought I might take to South Africa but didn't. I knew those were more easily accessible. And now my reader's mind is more at ease, with this modest pile to choose from:

Wedding

This is why I left South Africa a few days early...

Choir friends reunited for Hannah's wedding: Sarah, Melinda, Hannah, Corina, me. I like how we all have red-eye and our outfits are color-coordinated.


All of us minus the bride:


We didn't settle the question of whether it'll be Melinda or me who gets married next--we're the only ones left. But then, I left before the bouquet toss, so maybe I successfully handed that (duty, joy, privilege, responsibility) off to Mel.

Goodbye

The five of us at the airport, saying goodbye to Sarah as she left for her trip to Rwanda. A few hours later, we returned to the airport to drop me off. And that was goodbye to South Africa for me. It's been a great year...

Farewell Dinner

Here's the whole gang. I'm missing them...

I've been to the zoo...

On Thursday afternoon, the five apprentices were sent on an outing to the zoo (to keep us away from Pangani and the secretive farewell dinner preparations). Sarah's parents & brother are visiting and they came along, too--making a perfect total of eight people for two golf carts.

Where did Sarah's family go? Sarah looks so forlorn.


The pelican that came very close to eating Carissa's arm:


I really don't know. Can they?


Tyler's sweet new bachelor pad


The baboon that, according to Sarah's mom, looks like Will Ferrell. I think I see the resemblance...

Happy Birthday, Daleen

We celebrated Daleen's birthday at a local cafe called Deja Vu. (Have I been there before? Hmmm.) I stole these pictures from Carissa...




Small explanation of the below: the music for the afternoon consisted of an eclectic mix of classical, Christmas carols, hymns, and...The Star-Spangled Banner. The last of those we heard at least twice. Was it that obvious that all but three of us were American??