we're entering the final week of the program - the kids leave next saturday the 28th, and then i fly home on tuesday the 31st.  it's shocking how fast the summers go by when i'm over here.  i have LOVED having so many coworkers (some returning, some new) this summer who are such good friends - some seen below - and we've had a LOT of fun over the past four weeks.  (i do this job for the fun i have with my coworkers, not for the kids.  shhh - don't tell.)

(AND: three of the four of us in this picture will live in new york next year - yippee!)

this is the point in the summer where i start to feel the pressure for all the things i haven't yet done.  i haven't spent an afternoon walking through port meadow to the pub on the other side.  i haven't been into london to see a show.  i haven't spent enough lazy afternoons in christ church meadow reading my book (because it has rained so. much. this. summer.  but the weather report for the rest of the time i'm here?  glorious!).  i haven't talked nearly enough to my other friend claire who is in cambridge.  so: i have one week to try to rectify these things.

in the excitement of bill clinton day, i forgot to tell you guys that i am going to the olympics!!!!  there are random tickets available online for uk citizens to purchase - if i'm understanding it right, in order to get rid of as much of a black market as possible, any uk citizen can return any ticket to the olympics people and get a full refund if it is resold.  as a result, for every day of the olympics there are dozens of tickets to random events available - some very expensive, some very reasonable.  a uk friend bought tickets the other day and five of us are going to olympic tennis at wimbledon the day before i leave.  so exciting!  i don't really care about tennis, but it is a sport i understand, unlike, say, judo...and it's the olympics!  hooray!

so: final week in england, here we come...