Eventful couple days...

So, the last couple days have been fairly eventful and I haven't done much blogging. So, here are the major events...

1 . The Weather. So, it snowed here yesterday and we got pretty good coverage. Probably around eight inches. And it was fun for about the first half-day of it. Now the snow has gotten very dirty and is becoming something less of the magical winter wonderland that once seemed. I did get some really nice pictures, though. Today I had my first real experience with sleet, which might have been enjoyable had I not been on my bike at the time. With no gloves : (

2. British Teenagers. Ok, I honestly think kids over here are way less behaved than Americans. Whilst taking pictures by Magdalen, there were about five 15 year old guys who were throwing snowballs at anyone who passed by. I was on the other side of the street and seeing as how baseball is not a very popular sport around here, their volley's fell sadly short of my person. I wanted to yell a fairly rude taunt at them, but little old ladies were present. So the taunt remained internal and I merely snickered derisively at their complete lack of throwing ability. On my way back to the house, I was about to pass under a bridge when I noticed that a number of teenagers were up there dropping very large snowballs and ice balls on passing buses and cars. The drivers looked less than pleased. There were a couple yells of "hit the cyclist!" when I passed under, none of which were heeded to my relief and gratitude. In addition to snowball pranks, there have been several five foot diameter snow boulders showing up in the middle of roads blocking traffic. Needless to say, these were not the doing of little old ladies.

3. Shopping. The supermarkets are very tiny and the stroller moms are very mean. Luckily, there have been no reported incidents of people being "chubby manned"

4. Philip Pullman. Today I went to a lecture by His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman. Pullman is an avid secularist and is seen as a sort of anti-Lewis (a quote from today's lecture: "We are our bodies. Body and mind are one"). He was speaking on writing and the thought process that went into his novels. I have found that people here do not typically have questions at the end of lectures, so thinking a couple up during the talk means you get to basically converse with the speaker when he is done. I got to ask a couple questions about his ideas on education through mythology. Here is the gist of my questions and his answers:

Me: You said that children should grow up hearing fairy tales and stories. Should parents only expose their children to certain fairy tales or allow them to hear everything and choose what is beneficial and what is not themselves.

Pullman: It is important for parents to teach their children through stories, but only those stories which are appropriate for their age.

Me: Is there a time when we outgrow myth and story and need to simply learn through pure reason?

Pullman: I like to think that we simply grow larger and don't necessary leave the stories behind.

A good deal more was said, but that was the gist of it. The reason I asked these particular questions was due to one of his final comments in which he basically said that he didn't recommend that children read the Bible. There were a lot more questions that I had, but it wasn't a personal interview so I just let others ask. He is a very clever man. Writes fairly wicked books, but he sure is clever.

Anyways, that is about it. Be expecting pictures sometime soon!