I would like to tell you, at this time, about two of the nicest, sweetest, swellest people I've met here in Oxford. Despite all the scholars, academics, businessmen, and politicians I've met here, these two people stand out in my mind. Forgive me if I get one or two of the details wrong:

SHE is 28, strawberry-blonde, a full-time writer and a part time porter at the Bodleian Library. Born in Missouri, she grew up in Florida where she has a B.A. in journalism from Florida State University, an M.A. in English Education from the University of South Florida, an A.A. in Communications (from St. Petersburg College, and a B.S. in Media Performance (from FSU).

HE is 25, bespectacled, has brown hair and two BAs: in Anthropology from Florida State University and in History from the University of Southern Florida, is a fellow D&D gamer and is currently reading for a D.Phil in Medieval Archaeology from Oxford, because he wants to teach medieval archaeology and history.

They met when she was 19 and he was 16 (she thought he was older than he really was), fell in love, got married five years later, and will celebrate ten years together next year.

But despite them being two really smart, friendly people individually, what really strikes me about my friends (and I'm happy to be able to call them my friends) Andrew and Erin Hughey is that although they are so very different from each other, at the same time they are so perfect for each other, and every time I see them together they always seem to me to be so much in love. Just watching how they look and smile at each other, and are always aware of each other's presence is something that uplifts me. It is truly inspirational and magical to watch two people who have known each other so long and yet are still so completely and madly infatuated with each other, and it makes me happy simply to know that in this crazy, cynical world full of fear and terror, that love, pure love such as theirs exists and shines for the world to see.