The Sun Also Rises

Time flies and we find ourselves in February already! Gaby and I took a trip back to the States over Christmas, which was so nice. We love it here in England, but you know.. we miss family, friends... taco bell... We had a great time at home, it was great to see as many people as possible.

Then, of course, we went to Utah to ski with my family, which was also excellent. It was Gaby's first time skiing and she picked it up very fast, and she liked it! So that's good news, I guess we can keep on going each year, then :) The place we stayed this year was great, too, and they had "free" food and drinks every afternoon for happy hour, which we took full advantage of. Overall, a great trip back to the US.

We then came back to York a week before I had my exams and Gaby's paper was due. So that was a very busy week, studying, reading, and writing. Gaby and I both think we did quite well on our assignments, though, so that's good. Then, classes began anew. I'm taking Advanced Plasma Physics, Magnetic Confinement Fusion (MCF), MCF lab, Computational lab, and Statistical methods in Experimental Physics. Gaby is taking "The Body Politic" and "Saints and Sanctity." So far we're enjoying all our classes, though advanced plasma physics is basically gibberish.

Our initial lease for our current flat ends in March, and we were planning to renew it and stay here until September. However, we started looking at new houses that were available just in case the perfect one came up, and it did! We like our flat now, but it is small, there are no doors except the one to the outside (not even to the bathroom...), and our landlords said no to bringing Fiddle (our cat) over. All these things are rectified in our new place, not to mention it's a 15 minute walk to campus from the new place, while it's a 50 minute walk from our current. All in all, we're happy about moving, though it might be a little stressful moving in the middle of the term. Fortunately, we have some friends with cars willing to help us, so hopefully we can knock it out in one weekend. We don't have THAT much stuff. As soon as I can I'll post pictures of the new place!

Oh, also, it snowed this past week in York!! We were hoping we'd get to experience a nice British winter with snow and cold, and it looked like it might not happen this year. But then, BAM, snow, and about 4 inches of it. We went out with some friends and played in the snow and walked around the city, which managed to get even more beautiful than it already was. The building in the picture below is the York Minster, the biggest Gothic Cathedral in England.

On a much more sad note, I have to start working on my taxes soon, which are guaranteed to be complicated with the move, only working half a year last year, getting married, etc. Hooray! At least I don't have to worry about UK taxes because we don't make any money here, we just pay it.

I guess the next big news that's going to come out from us is whether or not we get into PhD programs and get to stay in England for another few years. I interview next week for one position, which would actually switch me from Masters to PhD right away, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that one. It would also involved traveling down to Oxford every few months to run some experiments, which would be quite cool.

If that PhD doesn't work out, though, I also have interviews in March for PhD's starting next October. Gaby doesn't have to interview, just apply, so that's in the works at the moment as well, and hopefully we'll both find out that we both get to do our PhD's here! We'll keep everyone posted, and once we find out that we're staying for another few years, I expect people to start making their plans to come visit us!! Free lodging in York to anyone who comes and visits!

I guess that's it for now!