Well, we have made our final decisions in the past month and have been meaning to post about them to keep everyone updated. We have decided to go to Oxford University for the 2008-2009 school year (October 1st - June 20th). Scooter will be getting a Masters in Diagnostic Imaging and will be in Lincoln College. To explain how the college system works at Oxford the best analogy I can give the that colleges at Oxford are like houses at Hogwarts from Harry Potter. So Hogwarts is like Oxford and Lincoln College is like Gryffindor house. It doesn't matter what you are getting your degree in. Speaking of Lincoln College it was founded in 1427 and has some amazing buildings. For example they have filmed many scenes for the Harry Potter movies in Lincoln College buildings. So the plan is to be there until the end of June 2009 and then basically move straight to Kansas City, Kansas where Scooter will attend University of Kansas med school and get an MD/PhD. We feel pretty good about spending the money to go to Oxford because the whole Kansas program is fully funded. We will be in Kansas until 2015 and then off to our next big adventure. It feels pretty weird to know where we are going to be so far in advance, but I guess we have been looking forward to the semi-stability of medical school. Our biggest concerns now have been trying to find out all of the details about moving to England - what kind of visas do we get, will my credentials for working in hospitals here work for over there, how in the world are we going to find a house ahead of time, how are we going to make sure the flat we choose is close enough to campus, where are we going to get the last bit of money we need to go, should we pay to get me passport changed to my married name, how we going to get all of our stuff there, would it be cheaper to just buy all new things when we get there, etc. We are really excited and are really hoping that we can do quite a bit of traveling while we are there. I am excited to show Scooter my favorite places from my study abroad experience and go to new places together. My top five places I really want to get to while we are there are:
1. Italy
2. Greece
3. Spain
4. Russia
5. Ireland
6. Egypt
(I know I'm past five but who could keep the list that short!?)
You can imagine that I have been spending most of my after-work hours on the internet searching for jobs, housing, school loans, endlessly looking at plane ticket prices for other potential trips, looking at Oxfordshire on Goggle Earth searching the Lincoln College website, etc. We couldn't be more excited about it. We lie awake in bed some nights (which if you know us is HIGHLY unusual - we are usually so tired that we both are typically asleep within one minute of getting into bed) talking all about it. We are also really excited that my parents have generously offered to let us live with them for the summer so that we can save some more money for England. Plus, we really want to spend some more time with them because we don't really anticipate living in Utah for many years. Basically we feel like we are on the brink of the most exciting time of our life!
