The Rasmusens in Oxford

After church at St. Ebbe’s, we stayed and talked for a long time, and then ate hot pasties and ginger-chocolate cookies from Sainsbury for lunch, on the steps of a nearby building. After doing some shopping, Helen went home with everyone but Eric, Elizabeth, and Lily, who had a snack and went shopping for men’s clothes. The girls had fun in Marks and Spencer adorning the stroller with men’s shoes and shirts while Daddy shopped more. After a stop at Nuffield and a look at the base of the castle hill, we walked home. Elizabeth did marvelously over the long walk, only taking a small spell in the stroller, and they arrived home in high spirits. The picture above is while we were taking a rest, perhaps along Kingston Street.

We discovered the day before school started that Benjamin would be in Year 1, which is for students his age, but follows a Reception year of half-day “kindergarten”. So he is going straight into all-day school, with children who’ve already started to learn to read, and who’ve been together for a year already. But he was content with his first two days. His big gripe is that the classroom walls are painted pink. After school we’ve started teaching him how to write “bit” and “bat” and suchlike.

As Faith, Benjamin, and Faith played some variance on their “Chubby Babies” game:

Benjamin: …there was a world war and all the other babies died, but this is a fighter baby…

Lily: How about if we stay up late always at night time and how about if we don’t get any nap… and how about if everybody told us not to take naps..

Benjamin: and the baby stays up forever

Lily: Hey, I found candy. And how about today we’re going to England on an airplane and how about if I sit on the balance beam because you tell me to? How about if we always sit on the balance beam?

Benjamin: The baby can stand up and do anything. Lina, I’m going to drive.

Lily: Can I bounce?

Benjamin: No, you can just play with the baby.

We’re going to take off. Buckle up. Now we’re going off! Maow! Br Br. Lam ro blow blow… Whoa. We’re there. It’s the baby birthday.

Lily: How about there’s going to be all the birthdays in the whole world? And first it’s my birthday? And I’m going to get a princess and a unicorn for a present because I like those?

Benjamin: Faith, I’m going to give you a new sword, Faith. I’ve got Faith’s present!

Lily: Where’s my present?

Benjamin: Well, I don’t have them yet.

Lily: I found a ticket, Papa. We need that. Hey, the ticket costs … one dollar. We have to buy one dollar only.

Benjamin: Faith, here’s the holy sword. Okay. I’ll take out the ticket. Any scissors?

Lily: Hey. Some guns shoot. Some guns shoot. Some guns shoot. And how about we put the mystery jewel in the mystery jewels spot where all the mystery jewels are, and how about if all the people have mystery jewels and all the people have the same name as us? And how about if they have a baby with that name?

Benjamin: No, no., They never got a ticket. And we’ve got the most tickets and that’s why we have the most babies. I like the baby so much (singing). She’s a navy baby! And “Navy baby” is her middle name.

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Lily had to get a big spanking this morning, though, for lying about some little misdeed. She said something funny the other day, too. She was outside and I heard the doorbell ring, so I said through th4e door, “Did you ring the doorbell, LiLY?” She said, “No. It was someone else.” I asked “Where’s the person who rang it, then?” She realized she was in a bind: “He ran away.”

I then asked if she was sure, and she admitted that she had rung it herself.

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LILY (very seriously): Daddy, when Faith grows up will she be a boy, or a girl?

DADDY: A girl.

LILY: Good. She can be my friend.

DADDY: She’s your friend already.

LILY: Yes, she’s one of my best friends. Because she already has teeth!

Today was very special as we spent it all in London. Our plan was to visit Westminster and Big Ben first, then eat in Chinatown, make our way to the British Museum, wander around and find dinner somewhere and make our way back. Now back home, we can record some of our more memorable experiences. We managed to leave the house at 8 am and on a Saturday at that, and were in time for our 8:38am departure to Paddington. Eric walked the Thames path and the rest of us squeezed into a London style taxi— just pushing the stroller with the baby in it right onto the taxi. Eric walked into the station just a few minutes before we were supposed to leave – whew! – thanks to His long legs. We got some seats and then noticed that we were in the “quiet zone” standard seats. We didn’t know exactly what that meant and since everyone else was silent, we all were too, well, as much as can reasonably be expected of a family like ours. The children were so good. By the way, the family rail card at 20 pounds is very good. For all of us to get there and back in one day, being able to choose which trains, and having the freedom of taking any bus or underground train in central London cost just under 38 pounds. (it seems like a good deal to me anyway).

We were awed and amazed by the architecture of Westminster Palace and Abbey. The domed ceilings were amazing. Walking on top of 300-year old tombs is not something you do everyday. Elizabeth liked the tombs of Elizabeth 1st, Mary Queen of Scots, and of the little princes in the tower, and Ben liked King George VI’s sword and scabbard. I think he had always thought Big Ben was named after him.

New World dim sum (Leicester Square) was very good. But not exactly a bargain at about 43 pounds for all of us. (maybe good price by English standards though). We had a whole plate of garlicky spinach for 6 pounds 50 p. The Cantonese chow mein was really crispy and good (something you can’t find in Bloomington). Lilli and Eric and Amelia enjoyed the chicken feet (ugggh!) – well, it’s not bad really, you just have to get over your prejudice.

Then we decided to walk to Oxford Street to buy a second stroller. Unfortunately we stumbled through a REALLY rotten neighborhood, but quickly moved away. Oxford Street was awash with pedestrians and when we looked onto it from the double decker top decks, it looked impossible that someone wasn’t getting killed at every corner. So many buses, taxis and people. Especially near Selfridges, a huge stone, fluted-column department store. Ben, Faith, and I found a baby equipment store at Marble Arch and quickly got onto a number 7 that would take us back to where we had been and then onto the British Museum. Wonderful! By now Benjamin was having trouble behaving but the baby had napped through lunch (on my lap, and no, I didn’t spill anything on her amazingly), so she was happy.

The British Museum was the place for us. We need to go back there many times as we barely scratched the surface. But what amazing artifacts. The children and I have started studying history since none of us know any, and had learnt a bit about Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. We’ve got some photos to share here. Benjamin was especially keen on the stone carvings of Assyrian lion hunts, which were stunningly realistic and exciting. We HAD to view the Korean celadon since some of us had recently read A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park. Good read. We passed through Ancient Egypt too quickly, but appreciated the Rosetta Stone and the HUGE head of Rameses II. It was so exciting to see some things dating from the times that we had been reading about and to be able to appreciate in person real objects which bore the different symbol systems, the contrasting artistic styles, the skills these people had. It was very exciting for me. We saw a well preserved mummy dating from about 2300 years ago, pretty recent for an Egyptian mummy.

Check out some photos.

After wandering around too long, we finally found a restaurant that would suit us. Govinda, a hare krishna restaurant!! (vegetarian). Since we couldn’t all fit very easily, I ate outside with Faith in her stroller (most of the time), and Lilli, (who was also in her seat MOST of the time). It was good food and about half of what we had paid at lunch. The tricky part was all the hare krishna and hindu and just plain insane people wandering around me. I am quite paranoid in the heart of any big city with people milling around me, on a Saturday night, with 2 little girls to protect and feed at the same time. And I was freaked out by this 50-ish Indian guy who kept creeping up behind me and standing very close just staring oddly and fixedly at us. He tried to put his heavy silver cross pendant around Faith’s head before I caught him and gently asked him to keep it since the baby was too young. I didn’t know what to say to him! Lilli wouldn’t finish her dinner and she needed to get just a couple more bites in before I was willing to leave. So I was getting anxiouser and anxiouser. This older gentleman was probably harmless, but I, being the paranoid protective mother bear, didn’t like his attention and his weird grunts. Anyway, we all left shortly thereafter and I am so glad I’m not a hare krishna, or a Hindu for that matter. Sorry, this blog is not PC: we’re not a very PC family. (understatement) Jesus is the way for us. The people are very kind I’m sure, like the older Hindu gentleman who invited us to the festival next week, but there is no salvation there.

Back to Paddington by tube and hauling occupied strollers with bags hanging from each handle up and down flights of stairs, keeping everyone together, squeezing onto full trains, we just missed our target train back to Oxford by a minute or so. So we got the next fast train and arrived home around 9:25 pm. Faith hadn’t fallen asleep – what stamina. Tomorrow we will walk to church and back (almost 1 hour each way), so everyone will be quite quite tired.