December 2010
16 posts
NYE
You know what I love about England? I love that even though people here tend to drink way, way more than anyone I know back home, they still seem to have enough sense not to drive afterwards. Most people I know here wouldn’t even dream of driving after just one beer, whereas I can’t imagine many people at home that would even think twice about that. Brits are just really, really...
“In the UK today is Boxing Day. Its origins are debatable but one theory is that...”
– From today’s daily reminder mail from Moodscope.com. (I highly recommend them for tracking your ups and downs, but their daily emails are always really well written and meaningful, which might mean even more to me.)
FEED ME, SEYMOUR
I had a fantastic tea tonight.
First, I made zurek, a sour polish soup which uses fermented ryemeal as the main base for the stock. I’d never heard of it, but a girlfriend of mine who lives near Krakow was telling me about it in a discussion about traditional holiday food. And then I get this knock at the door the other day.. she actually had a courier bring me all the ingredients from...
Holiday Food
British Christmas food is so different from American Christmas food, but for some reason I never get homesick for my favorite snacks the same way I always do at Thanksgiving. In my family at least, Christmas food consists of an endless parade of savory appetizers, like salsas, dips, cheesy pastries and oh! those little tiny dried sausages that are basically a log of sodium on a plate. Our sweet...
“Sometimes, I wonder if my recent reluctance to post personal things here is a...”
– Tomorrow is my second Britday.
Buy a Fucking Shovel →
“The snowpocalypse has hit Britain, again, and you’ve still not bought a snow shovel. Naturally, all the shops have sold out and have no idea when they’ll get more.
Fill in this form, and on June 15th 2011 we’ll remind you!”
“Which coast is Chicago on again?”
– from a conversation with a brit last summer
“I love America. On my next holiday, I’m going to go to Los Angeles AND...”
– from my conversation with a Brit this morning
The Vale of the White Horse
Our final pit stop on this summer’s great journey to The South was a quick jaunt through the Vale of the White Horse. There are a lot of chalk horses in the hills here, and we saw a few before stopping at the one at Uffington.
It’s pretty hard to capture it without say… a helicopter. But we had a nice walk to the top and hung out for a while, chatting to a man who was...
Stone Circles
We decided to swing a little bit out of our way and see the mother of all tourist attractions: Stonehenge. I felt like I should see it, now that I live here, and again, we get in for free, so it seemed a decent idea. In all honesty, though, I felt like the stones were kind of overrated. I feel like a jerk to say that, but really, it’s such a tourist trap. I am glad I went; I will...
Dartmoor
We didn’t get to spend almost any time at Dartmoor, as it was nearing the end of our stay and getting to be pretty late, but we drove through for a short time and got to see the tiny ponies that graze the hills there. I think for sure that next time we go south, we will start at Dartmoor and work our way into Cornwall.
Did I mention how cute our cottage was? Or that it was in a place...
The Devil's Cauldron
As you hike the Lydford Gorge (which, incidentally, was way better than Cheddar Gorge, which I also saw on this trip) there is a bit near the end called the Devil’s Cauldron. You have to trek down some crazy, slippy stairs to get down there, but when you do, it’s just this tiny magical green space where you can hear nothing but the thundering of the waterfall. Our photos don’t...
Lydford Gorge
My in-laws got us a membership to the National Trust for our anniversary this year, which was a fantastically thoughtful present that we’ve used SO much, given that I’m still very much a tourist here. When we get to road-tripping, one of us always has out the app for them and occasionally we pit-stop on a whim at something just because we can get in free. This was the case with...
Thinking warm thoughts.
Anyone else counting down the days until the solstice? I never cared so much until I moved so far north. Midday sun here is kind of a joke this time of year, and in December, we lose something crazy like six minutes of light each day. I asked my doctor whether he thinks those SAD lights are worth investing in, and he said that they can’t hurt if you can afford it. There’s some...
“Wait, keep talking… haha… say something else. It’s your...”
– A friend of mine, talking to me on the phone for the first time in months yesterday.
Oh, hey.
So, on the first day of my 100th week in England, I went over to Preston and passed my Life in the UK test. It was a humbling experience. The office was crowded with others who would be in my class, but I was the only one who spoke English as a first language. Some of the people there were couples who had clearly immigrated together, and for them, I wondered who helped them learn all of these...
