Pre-Thanksgiving Rotary Heisman

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Colin and Kate Daines invited Johnathan (the other Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar) and I and our host/sponsor families to their house to meet the current and future, future Rotary District Governors for Essex. I asked them if I could call them each Mr. District Governor, but they said no. We had such a fun time talking about living and traveling as members of three very different English-speaking cultures. Johnathan is from Canada, and apparently Canada is like England in that donuts are not a breakfast food here. They're for dessert. No wonder I haven't seen a donut shop! I really wanted a donut the other day, too. The Rotarians all knew eachother, and it was hilarious to listen to them teasing eachother and remembering back to past scholars. They have wit enough between them for the whole island! 

At the end of the evening, Colin brought out his Dallas Cowboys hat so that I'd feel more at home, and Mike Poole modeled it with a Heisman pose. It was the least English thing I've seen in England to date. 

But thankfully Mike agreed to a photo, so there is evidence:

Cheers!

Desperate Measures

English people are officially obsessed with Thanksgiving. It's the American food-fest of a holiday they've experienced annually in How I Met Your Mother and Friends. And it's almost here!!!!!!! A group of about seven of us United Statesians are hosting a dinner at my house, and everyone can bring a foreign plus one so that people of all nationalities can experience the greatness of the meal commemorating the pilgrims' survival of New England winters. 

I'm learning to cook a turkey. I really don't know how I've avoided it this long. And I'm making the family rolls and cranberry sauce. My cool British roommate is making the "mash." That's mashed potatoes, ya'll, and everyone else is bringing a couple of dishes. 

It's a little odd celebrating the fleeing of colonists from England in England, but there is pie. 

Today Rebecca and I went to the groc (gr'ōwsh (n) - grocery store) near my house to get supplies. We picked out a six kilogram turkey and a ton of other stuff that all seemed like a good idea until I realized how much a six kilo turkey weighs and how much I miss my car. But we bagged it up, and this was the result: 

That bag around my shoulders is a giant, frozen turkey. The ones in my hands probably weigh a little more. But what's a girl to do? It's Thanksgiving! And it's 34 degrees outside, so I sure wasn't waiting around. 

I started home. While I slowly shuffled along, trying to spit out the hair that had blown into my mouth with my best lizard impression and  regretting with everything in me that I spent an hour rockclimbing earlier, the bags pulled too hard against my fingers. And I did way any rational person in my place would do. I threw them into the bushes and walked off. 

Just kidding! Actually I threw half of them into the bushes.

I walked home with the others, dropped them at the door (it's not like refrigeration was an issue), and I went  back to rescue the orphaned food. It was thrilled to see me. 

Yes, I am my mother. 

International students' Rotary Club reception

This past Monday, Rotary Club of Colchester invited all international students at The University of Essex to a reception at the Towne Hall. 

There were snacks, a wine bar, and enough countries represented to have a pretty impressive sampling of the globe. The mayor and "mayoress" (mayor's wife) greeted everyone, and the mayor put on the ceremonial robes and was a great sport about letting us foreign kids take pictures of him in the regalia. 

Mayor and mayoress:

You'll be so proud: I was asked to give the "token of praise" speech on behalf of the students. Usually it's a prepared baby-speech, and I only found out about it at the event, so it was perhaps a little shorter than usual. Like an infant-speech. :) 

Colin Daines, the Rotarian here who helps organize speaking schedules for Rotarian scholars, graciously chauffeured me to the Towne Hall and snapped a pic of my minute of fame.

Famous!

All students who attended toured the Towne Hall with a Rotarian guide who told us all about how representation works at the town level, and we even got to sit in the mayor's chair. Sadly there is no evidence of this, so you'll just have to trust me. Jonathan, the other Rotarian scholar who's from Cananda, and I met, and I think he'll be a fun person to attend speaking events with. Mike Poole stopped by for a little while and made fun of my swollen ankle. This is not a place you come for sympathy, and it's a good thing he has Gill to balance him out. (I know you're reading this, Mike!) 

After the reception, Colin (we're all strictly first names here), drove me home via MCDONALD'S! Sure, it's a a stereotype, but, let's be honest, short of Chick Fil A, which doesn't exist here, McD's has the best french fries. We had a great time with our North American food talking sports movies and families and planning Colin and his wife's future trip to the U.S. And being treated to a double cheeseburger and diet Coke was an awesome surprise!

More later! 

Abby

Not a gyro: Sunday lesson

Note: this is an entry from November. I found and corrected a spelling mistake, and the interweb reposted it here. I'm sorry! 

I haven't been to church since I moved here, because most weekends I'm out of town or not out of town. Yes. I have attended the Christian Union (CU, which is Campus Crusade for 2014) group on campus, so that counts. 

Tonight I broke my heathen streak. The service at Artillary Evangelical Church started at 5, but I rushed supper-less out of my house at 4 because Google maps suggested a new bus route, and I wanted to make sure I'd have time to walk the half mile between the church and bus stop. Also because it was 4. Who eats that early?! Well my surplus 30 minutes of over-prepared time I spent grabbing food to eat on my walk. Dinner options were Subway ('Murica) or a kebab place that sold Mediterranean, chicken fingers, and cheeseburgers (but not falafel). I squelched my hunger for a six inch turkey with provolone on toasted honey oat with some sick desire for adventure and feigned ignorance of food-bourne bacteria. 

Lest I remind you too infrequently, words are different here. English is not normal. And my goodness what I ordered from

the picture on the menu looked like a manageable eat-while-you-walk kind of gyro! So when the man behind the corner who spoke some semideveloped derivative of the English language asked if I wanted a fork, I said yes just to be nice. 

And this is what I got: 

It was delicious. Some meat thing, presumably lamb, but who knows; it had a different name, and mountain of cabbage and onion "in" a pita. People don't eat while they walk here. Not even sandwiches or French fries. Definitely now whole boxes full of salad-topped lamb pita.

Despite the strange looks and well, gazes of blatant pity, I received walking briskly and devouring this pile of Mediterranean culinary wonder, I did thoroughly enjoy my meal out. And I probably burned the calories for at least two bites of it! 

I still have yet to find a gyro. 

Halloween in England

As far as I can tell, there are two main differences between Halloween as a student in England and Halloween as a student in Texas.

1) Costumes in England are scarier. This is not the place to dress a like a Disney Princess unless you go as "zombie Cinderella," and my Audrey Hepburn custome of years past would only be acceptable if I added vampire fangs and fake blood. My plan was to dress as an M&M until I learned this. (A zombie M&M?) 

2) People here wear more clothes. As per the Mean Girl's (movie) quote, "Halloween is an excuse to wear lingerie and some sort of amimal ears." That is definitely true in "college life Halloween" in the United States, but thanks to the fact that temperatures were in the 50s last night, college girls (for the most part) kept their witch capes and trousers on. 

I went to the apartment of a classmate who hosted a Halloween gathering for a lot of the government department graduate students. 

And I went as...drum roll please...Katniss!

Katniss Everdeen is the main character of author Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games trilogy. The first two are movies now, but I digress. The good news is that the bow is fully functional, and the arrows did stick on the window with relative ease. 

Happy November!

Experiencing the NHS

This weekend I traveled with the Rockclimbing Society (of which I am a member) to the Peak District. I think that's in the central northern area of the island, but I wasn't driving, so you know how that goes trying to figure out a location from the back of a van. I've been told it's around Manchester. 

I borrowed a sleeping bag from the Pooles and stuffed a backpack full of everything warm I own and bought "wellies" and gloves and a hat on my way to school. 

Pre-planning packing: 

There were 18 students total, and we camped two nights in a field of sorts, like a real field with sheep for neighbors. But you know what they say - "location, location, location," and this location was breathtaking. 

Our tents and fancy dinner:

We top-roped Saturday, and then we bouldered Sunday, and getting to climb outdoors again was just great. There are few more wonderful ways to spend a Sunday than outside in relative isolation climbing on rocks. 

The group: 

Some of us girls looking hardcore:

In case I'm ever a famous rock climber and I get a little too big on it, here's a picture of me falling. It happens a lot. 

All was fine and well until the end of the second day when I was bouldering down into a cave with the other climbers. Don't worry; it wasn't a creepy cave. Anyway, I had to drop the last four feet because my relative lack of height is a little limiting at times. I was "spotted" down (the others made sure I landed without falling over), but I twisted my ankle. Two sweet friends on the trip helped me (carried me) down the mountain, and I was able to switch my climbing shoes to wellies before the swelling made my ankle too big. 

What ankle? Gross. 

The next day I called my Physician's Assistant little sister, and told her about it, and she said I'd need an X-ray. So I rang my Rotarian family, Mike and Gill Poole, who saved me from my "painfully hobble around campus" routine after my last class and took me to the ER. 

The ER is called the A&E here, which stands for "emergency and something-that-starts-with-A." On the way, I tried to calculate which section of the budget my copay would come from and how much of the treatment I'd be paying for since it's out of network. (There is an in-network doctor here, but the A&E has the only X-ray machines in the whole city.) When I went back, I asked my nurse why there is only one location to get X-rays. His response was that we probably have more in the US because we have to pay for them. Which then led me to wonder... Who pays for these??? The government, well, taxpayers, and it's free to anyone with a real emergency! So I ended up hopping out of the A&E in a matter of hours, X-rayed, ankle wrapped, and armed with a pair of crutches to borrow, all courtesy of the NHS. 

Getting some reading for a class done while I wait for an X-ray:

All the nurses and the nurse practitioners were really nice! Once I received the final verdict of "not broken," the doctor took a picture, so I could text it to my mom and dad. 

Not broken!

My future in rock climbing is on hold for a few weeks, but I should be off crutches by Friday and then just 2-3 weeks away from recovery. (Note: Those are my own estimates and do not reflect the actual advice of health care professionals. The doctor didn't tell me anything specific, and that sounds about right.)

Since you've been gone...

....actually since I've been gone. So sorry for no updating recently! The Internet at my house hit a rough patch, and I've been weeks without wifi until Tiesday. 

But! In your absence, here are some things that have happened:

1) I started a dinner club with a couple of friends! We each cook once a week and rotate. I made butternut squash soup with kale and sausage and baked apples for dessert. The apples were prettier pre-baking. 

2) I traveled to London with my new friend Rebecca to sight-see and watch the Aggies play (American) football, and I had my first "proper" tea. 

Tower Bridge was exciting. 

The tea was quite tasty - salmon and cucumber sandwiches and scones. So British. 

The game was absolutely tragic, but it was still nice to see American football for a change. 

3) I joined the dance and climbing societies. This weekend I'm going to the "Peak District" to camp and climb. Stay tuned for awesome pics. 

4) I gave my first class presentation (complete with illustrations) to help explain Gramscian views on the place of integral hegemony. 

I'll post Peak District pics on Monday. Until then I will continue with My current debate of how to transport this week's reading and the huge tree of kale I bought at the market. Sacrifices must be made. 

Have a good weekend!

Abby

Practically Speaking

Today I will walk you all through one of the most basic yet strategic aspects of living in England: eating. 

In the US of A, the grocery store is a five minute drive from my house, and goodness knows it's the South, so I didn't even have to carry my own food out. Here, I don't have a car. I have a bus pass and a growing identity as a metropolitan commuter. My first trip to the "groc" (pronounced grōwsh) was with a group of other North American students. It was an emergency. I needed coffee. For the second, more extensive trip my friend Rebecca (from Maryland) and I decided to trek to the farther, cheaper store. It's basically Walmart. Actually it is owned by Walmart, so there are striking similarities. I wore my three day pack (giant wilderness backpacking pack); she brought a suitcase. And though I'm sure we looked homeless, we successfully bought enough to make tacos and veggie pasta and Chinese veggie stir fry. See photographic evidence below to be very impressed with my culinary skills. 

So about lunch: food on campus, like basically all colleges, is pretty pricey. Instead of daily indulging my love for nachos, I freeze healthy, homemade meals and stuff one in my backpack on my way out in the morning. It stays cold until lunch time.

Campus does have a farmers market every Thursday, and I LOVE getting produce there. It's super affordable and  really fresh. Where else could I purchase a cauliflower the size of my head for like two dollars?

What am I going to do with it? Well, I'm currently accepting cauliflower recipe suggestions. 

Two weeks: the beginning!

Hello all!

This marks the beginning of my blogging to record my time as a Rotarian-sponsored scholar on this British Isle. I apologize that it's taken so long for me to get this up! I'll catch you up on the happenings.

I arrived on the 24th of September, and Mike Poole, a Rotarian from here in Colchester picked me and my two GIANT suitcases up from Heathrow customs. Maybe it's because I'm from Texas, but he seemed wary that I might have brought a chainsaw as per the horror movie based in the Lone Star State.

That first night I attended the Rotary meeting with Mike, and was informed that there are proper "real ales" and then the others. The meeting was good - The speaker talked from personal experience and a lot of research about a prisoner of war camp housed here in Colchester during the second World War. It's like living in history here. Colchester is the first recorded settlement in England, and we even have a Roman wall!

Mike and Gill invited me to stay with them while I sorted out housing. Staying on campus is way easier but pricey. Gill fed me, and taught me to make porridge, and drove me around and talked me through making a housing decision for about a week, and I am not officially a co-renter of a duplex with a British Phd student girl! The garden sold me. This is the view from outside my bedroom window:

And because I live off campus, I get way more space for way less money, and I get to master the city bus routes to get to class, and I'm getting pretty good.

Signing off for now. I have to do a ton of reading for class on Monday, and this weekend is a statistics/STATA software bootcamp, so I'll be in a math lab for 16 hours! Numbers. Who needs 'em? (Me, apparently.) I'll add more stories and pictures soon!

Abby