French Market and Bonfire Night in Oxford posted on November 8, 2005 by Holly Hayes

Last Friday night we watched a BBC show about the Gunpowder Plot and Guy Fawkes, which was interesting. One of the historians they interviewed, Dr. McCulloch, is in the Theology department here at Oxford. Our first history group meeting was in his office, although I haven't met him yet.

Shown above are the preparations for the Guy Fawkes Day celebrations - the white sticks on the other side of the river are the fireworks launchers; the other is the "rubbish pile" for the traditional bonfire.

Saturday we went into town to attempt to open a bank account for David's first paycheck (he currently gets paid weekly), and eventually succeeded at the second bank we tried. He now feels like a real person, with a bank account and everything!

A nice surprise while we were in town was a French market! A bunch of French vendors came up for the weekend and set up tents in a pedestrianized street in Oxford. It was GREAT. They had fresh olives, spices, baked goods, soaps, hot crepes, sausages, candies, fruits, nuts, and a bakery (complete with ovens under the tent). The bakery had the longest line ever and although the pastries looked absolutely wonderful we decided it wasn't worth it and walked away sad.

But David went back into town Sunday morning and it was pouring down rain - perfect! So there were barely any lines and he got us croissants and chocolate twists, some little clementine oranges, nuts, plus some really nasty looking "dry sausages" for himself. They remind me of something you'd try not to step in on the lawn. The herb one actually looks like it's been in the lawn for awhile! And one of them was boar meat. But David liked them.

Saturday night was the Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night celebrations here at Wolfson (and everywhere around the UK). We huddled up out in our "backyard" by the river at 8pm, along with what seemed like all of the other Wolfson inhabitants. It was really windy and SO cold, but a great time. The fireworks were the type that we could buy in Washington back home, rather than the big professional ones, but that was part of the charm. They lit the big bonfire at the same time the show started and most people wandered over to it to warm up after the fireworks.

Later on a whole other fireworks show started nearby, and these were big professional type ones. We could see them off our balcony, and it was great. It's different to watch fireworks without the accompanying American patriotism we're so used to! Some of the historians interviewed on the BBC show pointed out it might be a little inappropriate to continue to celebrate a failed terrorist attempt and religious conflict in this day and age, but history doesn't seem to be a very big part of the holiday anyway.

In other news, David had another interview yesterday. His current employer was wonderfully understanding about it but she said she hopes not to lose him! The interview went really well, and the interviewer already called the agency to say how happy they were with him, but no decisions yet.

The interview was with O2, one of the biggest mobile phone service providers in the UK. David has naturally already become an expert on the mobile phone thing here in the UK, and he really likes O2, so it's a neat opportunity for him. The job would also be a good one in that it would be more interesting, including not just accounting but marketing and other stuff. And it pays more! The downside is that it is an hour train ride away, in the city of Slough (rhymes with "ow"). We'll be prompt about a blog post if he gets a new job!

And finally, our two other boxes from home finally arrived yesterday morning! We were starting to really worry and think we'd have to attempt to deal with the US Postal Service from here for the insurance, which would have been great fun. So I've got more clothes and books and David and I each have a full-sized computer to ourselves, wahoo!