Primary Student

I had my last tutorials for both my oxford courses today. One parting was more sad than the other...

Test results

So my body is a bit confused as to what it wants me to consume...

The poetry of the earth is never dead. ~John Keats

I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.  ~Frank Lloyd Wright, quoted, 14 August 1966

Time is running short

Well, I have 3 papers, 4 tutorials and 9 days left in Oxford....

The day I felt "Normal"

Could it be? Me? with all my food issues? feel .... normal?

Ahhh, there I am!

Sorry I've been gone, I've been very busy reading for my classes, writing essays and trying to find an internet connection strong enough to support updating my blog requires a fairly good hike to the nearest wifi point. I'm going to take advantage of the fact that I have the sturdy connection of the library right now and post some pictures.

My control (bloodsugar) has been a bit wobbly in the past few days because I've been sick. I have a terrible chesty cough which has persisted since the first day I've arrived and I have already gone through a bottle of cough syrup. I might try for something a bit stronger as it's developed into a sore throat. If it gets much worse I might just go to a dr. although I don't know how much that will actually do for me as I feel like this is just a virus and there isn't really anything more a dr could do for me other than give me a stronger cough medicine. Oh well, it actually seems to get better the days after I run.
I've been diligently wearing my CGM and believe that its been helping me a lot with leveling out my sugars in regards to my being sick. I'm using the bolus wizard (which calculates how much insulin to take when I put in my BG and carb counts) and that seems to be very helpful. I'm actually enjoying its help (okay Dr. Chase, you can say "I told you so now." ) I also think that I'm getting the hang of inserting the CGM device at the right angle because it doesn't bleed like a river anymore when I put it in. I have noticed that the first day or 2 of the sensor's life is sort of an approximation of my blood sugar and it takes it a while before it will sync up quite nicely with my actual numbers. But, overall, I'm happy that I rushed getting the new pump and sensor. I'm enjoying it.

As for the food, I've been plesantly surprised by the amount of gluten free food here and dinners have been lovely, I'm going to post some pictures of stuff I've found. My next post I'll put some general oxfordian pictures up too but if you would like, here is the link to my Facebook album.

The dining hall in Balliol College where we eat breakfast and dinner. The Harry Potter hall was based off this room!

This is one of my dinners- they consist of an appetizer type dish (usually a salad of some kind for me), a variety of main dishes and then dessert (generally fruit for me).

This was a gluten free pasta, with roasted tomatoes on top of a bed of arugula (called Rocket, here) with a basil and coriander oil over top. It was delicious!

That day everyone else had this tomato torte.

Dinner was sauted spinach and bok choy (top) with Curried prawns (had green peppers and beans too), steamed veggie medley and pork chops. I was a very happy camper that night.

My dessert was a nectarine cooked in a sugar, cinnamon sauce. It was sweet and spicy from the cinnamon and very good, but very sweet. Everyone else got a chocolate mousse pie, I believe.

As for grocery shopping, most stores have a "FreeFrom" section with plenty of options for gluten/dairy free choices. The bread was good, but kind of crumbley. It molded after about a week and a half, but I guess you could argue that's good cause its made from fresh ingredients. There is also a local company which supplies baked goods to various sandwich shops around town. I got a gluten free sandwich as a place called Heroes (picture) and they had this sign on the door.

National Celiac's Awareness Day!

So this post has NOTHING to do with England/Oxford but everything to do with food. This year, for the first time ever, there is going to be a National Celiac Awareness Day!

Little nonsensical things I've noticed about Oxford.

I'm hoping that this list grows, the longer I stay here. So far I only have a few....

A little about the food...

I figured that I put something about traveling with food intolerances in the subtitle so I might as well talk about them every once in a while.

Autumn

During my run this evening I passed through a fog bank of nostalgia. The weather was cool, if not approaching chilly, and leaves have started to change and detach from their summer homes--creating splashes of color along the black pavement.

Helllllllloooo Oxford!

I did a lot of contemplating about some witty, creative, insightful post for my first time posting from Oxford. I failed at coming up with anything worth posting, but I did decided that eventually I want to do an "Ode to Oxford." It might be a problem that I don't know how to do a proper ode, but meh. I don't do a lot the conventional way.

I've slept in a crowded McDonalds...

... in Tokyo and slept through the dull roar. Now I can ad to my list a starbucks at 5am in a major airport.