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!