November 30, 2007

So far the mechanic says the car isn't worth fixing. However, after doing some looking we can't replace the car for what it would cost to fix it, so we're seriously considering fixing it. Right now we just have to use the bus, which runs Monday- Saturday. I think we'll have to go to the village chrch this Sunday since we can't go into town.

England has an interesting structure. It is composed of counties- I'm a bit confused about how many there are in reality because they keep restructuring them and calling some one thing and some something else. But it's something like 86. This map is curtesy of the projectbritain.com website. I circled Cambridgeshire. I'm always surprised when I look at a map of England at just how far north Cambridge actually is. It always looks like it's really far from London. But it's not- England is just a small place. :) Wales is about a 4 hour drive from here to the coast.



Each of the counties has a County Councils, to whom you pay taxes for schools, healthcare (which is government provided), roads, libraries, trash collection, and I don't even know what else. Anything that is government run basically. You pay the Council Tax in 6 month installments, and the tax amount is based on the type of property that you live in. A property tax like we have in the US wouldn't work because lots of people here don't own property, they rent. Anyway since our cottage is older we pay less tax. Bonus. :) For those who are interested, our tax is basically $3600 per year. I don't know how that compares to property tax in Michigan.

The County Councils are sort of geographical- we are in what is called South Cambs (short for Cambridgeshire.) Today I got a very interesting magazine from our Council with an extremely amusing little article in it. Here is what is says, and I tried to simulate the fonts too:

Your Duty

Did you know you are responsible for waste collected from your household? If you employ unscrupulous companies that do not dispose of your rubbish correctly, you too could end up in court.

We take fly tipping very seriously. In addition to pursuing the tippers, we also want you to take responsibility. In August we prosecuted four people for not ensuring their rubbish was disposed of properly. It was fly tipped, costing hundreds of pounds to clear.

Remember:
*an advert in a newspaper or telephone directory does not mean the company is legitimate
*it's your duty to check that anyone taking waste away has a license. Ask to see a copy of their waste carrier's license. If they can't provide it, or you're unsure, telephone the Environmental Agency on 08708 506506 to check
*it your waste is fly tipped, you are responsible as well as the person who took it away
*always record the registration number of the vehicle used to take any waste away and always get a receipt

I don't have any idea what fly tipping is, but it is obviously something to be dreaded and feared lest it happen to your rubbish and then you end up in court. :) I just had to share that funny article with you. When I find out what fly tipping is I will let you all know. I wonder what articles in the US seem strange and unusual to our British friends living there. :)

Pr for us as we figure out how we're going to take care of Nelly while we're gone. We have a few options- we could leave her here and ask our landlords to pop in and check on her, we could take her to a cattery, or we could hire a house sitter. Unfortunately we can't just get a student to do it because we live far enough out that it's hard for students to get into town. There are some professional companies that do it but it can be expensive for a long time. On the other hand the catteries have such a small area for them that I can't see Nelly really enjoying that. But if we leave her here we'll need a magnetic cat flap, and if something happens to her it might be a day or 2 before the landlord notices. We will be in Australia for 3 weeks in January, right on the heels of being back home for 2 weeks- in fact we've considered going straight from Detroit to Sydney. Anyway pr that we can get all these details worked out.

November 29, 2007

When it rains it pours here in Swavesey, at least at our house. :) Last night on our way home the car started making funny noises, and stalling whenever we got close to slowing down. We managed to make it down the freeway, and off at the exit ramp, then it stalled and we thought it wasn't going to start again! We tried and tried, and eventually we sat there for like 15 minutes and were able to get it started. Fortunately we had been able to get the car off the road and onto the roadside (over a little curb) because it was a downhill slope. We made it to our house but that was it.

On Thursday mornings I have my women's home group, and I was leading the study this morning. So since the car was gone I took the bus in to town with G. Boy was that an interesting experience....have you ever ridden an elephant? Well that's what it feels like to sit on the upper deck of a double decker bus, if you don't sit right in the front. It feels like the bus is going to fall over any second, or that you'll be thrown from it, even though it is enclosed. I'm not easily made motion sick, but after 45 minutes of that I felt like I might possibly throw up. :)

This is the A14 as we got on it.

A roundabout from the top deck of the bus. Many of the large roundabouts (they call them traffic circles) have white and black bricks to help you remember which direction to go. :)

Well, that bus dropped us off at G's office, right near the door. I couldn't remember where to catch the Citi bus that would take me out to the study, so I had to go in and look on the map again. There's no use printing the maps because they are in color online, and only make sense in color. :) I figured out that I needed the Route 1 bus, and hiked it to the closest stop for that bus. Of course when I got close the #1 bus went past me, beat me to the stop, then went on. So I waited 10 minutes for the next one, no problem.

I rode that bus around until I had lost my sense of direction and couldn't remember where to get off. I knew the bus made a big loop, and that I needed to get off at some part of the loop. I called G to ask him to check the map, and I had missed my stop, so I had to wait for the bus to go all the way around and back again. Finally I got off the bus and walked to the study. We were looking at the story of Martha and Mary, which was great, and pring for our outreach event tonight where we were bringing friends and making chocolate truffle thingies.

So I went back into town on the bus, walked around a bit and took photos, then took the bus going back out to Swavesey. If it isn't apparent by now, there are 2 bus types- the Citi buses (#'s 1-8) which go only in the city and just outside it, and the Stagecoach buses which go out to the villages around Cambridge. Anyway the 15 and 15A take you out to Swavesey. :)

Waiting for the bus back to Swavesey I saw these ads- here in the UK it's the norm, and absolutely expected that you will say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Christmas." There's no such thing as "Happy Holidays" or anything else because holidays here means vacation for one, and because they don't see any point in pretending that Christmas doesn't have a rlgs meaning and root. Most people don't celebrate it for it's original purpose, but they don't mind that.

Tesco is on the bus route to Swavesey. Funny how different things look from up high.

I thought I'd have a nice quite ride home- the sun sets here at like 3:45pm now, and it was just about that time. The countryside was looking gorgeous and Englishy, with the latest wheat crop growing bright green like a beautiful carpet on all the fields. The view from the front of the bus was fantastic- I could see overtop of the hedges which line the roads, and it was great. All was well until we got into what is sort of downtown Swavesey....3 issues caused a horrible convergence of traffic at one point in our small village. The elementary (they call it Primary) school was letting out and cross walkers were stopping traffic to help the children cross. Parents were coming to pick up children, so the streets were lined with cars parked in the street and on the sidewalks (this is the usual method of parking) AND a tow truck was coming out of the repair place (they call it a Garage) JUST as our bus was trying to get through.

As you can imagine, this lead to an absolute standstill. The bus was blocking 3/4 of the street as it was, because there was a long line of cars parked in our lane. The truck driver thought the bus should have waited for him to come out, so he came out anyway and couldn't get past our bus. I had come downstairs as the bus stop was just a little way past all this so I had a bird's eye view (and a good earful) as this truck first rolled down his window to complain at the bus driver who complained to him that he shouldn't have pulled out. I will leave it to you to imagine their interchange. :) The bus driver got fed up and put the window up, and the truck got fed up and decided to go anyway whether he had to ram the bus or not. He managed quite well seeing as his truck was less than an inch from the bus, but at some point it started scraping, and there was nothing either side could do but keep going. After the truck went by we could all move again, and there was much discussion on what had minutes before been a silent bus. :)

G had come home so the garage people could come get the car, and they gave us a loaner. Unfortunately when it came time for me to go the the chocolate event, the car wouldn't start. :) The immobiliser wouldn't allow us to start the car! Too funny. Fortunately someone drove out to pick me up. But it was rather ridiculous that we had 2 cars die.:)

The mechanic insists that it isn't worth fixing our car- of course he hasn't looked at the used car market and seen that even putting money into ours, even considering what we've already put into it, it's still a deal to have them fix it. :) We're looking cautiously around at other cars, but we may end up just paying them to do it.

I made it to the event, where I was giving a short talk about the real meaning of Cmas. We had lots of great conversations, and had 3 ladies from China and 2 from Europe. The 3 from China listened to the Cmas story with wrapt attention, because they'd never heard it before, or heard about Gd or JC. I was glad for the chance to share JC with them.

It is incredibly late here (it's probably 12:24am) but I accidentally had tea at the party so I still don't feel sleepy. :) I'd better try to go to sleep though. I've been having real problems sleeping at night- I don't feel sleepy, and for like the first 4 hours I basically just nap, and toss and turn. I don't really fall asleep until like 6 or 6:30am, and I'm really exhausted most of the day, until like 8pm when I suddenly start feeling more awake, and then I can't sleep. So pr for me- I'm truly a morning person so this has really thrown my routine for a loop.

November 27, 2007

Well it's official- G's work is sending him to the Sydney, Australia office in January! My good friend Noella lives in Melbourne, just a short flight away from there. So we're both going in January. We're currently checking into round the world tickets- they're cheaper, and considering that we'll basically be going from Detroit to London, London to either Hong Kong or Singapore, Either of those on to Sydney. If we schedule it right we can come back around to Detroit in time for the Scottish Dancing Ball in February. :) I have a friend I would love to visit in Hong Kong as well....on this visit I don't think we'll be able to manage a stop in Cambodia, but maybe in the summer we can take a good long trip and stop in lots of places around the world. The funny thing is that it is way cheaper to get a round the world ticket than to get separate ones from London to Detroit, and then on to Sydney! We'll keep you posted with the details.

Back to good old England. :) I did a teeny photo shoot of our local Swavesey pub, The White Horse, with my phone camera. Pubs can actually be cool- I don't like crowds so we try to go when there's no one else there. :) The owner, at least one of them, is a very nice lady who calls you "love" or "darlin'" and they have great service. They also have good food prices- it's crazy expensive eating out here.

The pub, like many pubs, has a separate area for eating, and a separate section for just ordering drinks. This is the dining side of the pub.

The bar.

The first and most important thing to know about pub dining is that you have to order from the bar. You order and pay at the bar, and then they'll bring the food out to you. First you order drinks, which they give you. Then you order your food. Then you pay, and if it's busy they'll give you a number on a stand and they bring the food out for you. This is where you order at the White Horse. We're still on the dining side, so basically there's another bar for people who are just ordering drinks.

Sorry this is so dark- there's only so much you can do without flash on a phone camera. The door in the corner is the door you come in through.

Those black roundy things are slates that they write the menu of the day on. They have those at the bar and you can order from them.

Here's G's dinner. :) He ordered some sort of fish, but he didn't realise that the menu said fish, cheese, etc tart. He thought it meant fish, plus a cheese tart which is that round thing. Actually it meant the fish and cheese and potatoes were in the tart. :) That happens to us all the time.

If you come to visit we'll for sure take you here. We really like to eat here for 2 reasons: 1, it is cheap but good food. 2, since Americans eat much earlier than British folks, when we want to eat the pub is empty. :) Seriously though- we've consistently noticed more Americans in restaurants when we are there. We tend to want to eat between 5:30 and 7. When we go to a restaurant, frequently we're the first ones there. But depending on the place there may be other groups there, and they are usually Americans. Then when we're paying and leaving, that's about when British folks are coming in to eat, like 7:30-8:30. We thought that was interesting. :) It's kinda nice actually to go into a place and hear American accents at the tables around yours.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Although it's Saturday now I'm still wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving. :) Things got a bit interesting here around Thanksgiving- G started to come down with that flu that I had just gotten over, our heater pump was fixed, the family whose house we had planned to go to for Thanksgiving emailed us that their family had the same flu thing and the doctor said they were contagious so they had to cancel last minute. G stayed home sick on Thanksgiving Day, and I went to some friends of ours from our chch home group- he is British and she's American. It was very nice of them to ask us over so last minute- our group meets Wednesday evenings, and I happened to mention to them that our plans had changed last minute.

Did any of you find any good deals on Black Friday? I found some decent online deals, mostly for sweaters and things like that. Of course I can't get anything until we get home for Christmas but that's ok.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and gave some thought about what you are thankful for...that sounds cheesy, but living away from our family and friends is a reminder to us just how thankful we are for all of you!

November 20, 2007

This morning the pump repair guy came and was able to fix the pump. Although we had a bit of scrambling around when he asked us where the cold water turn off was- we had no idea and neither did the landlord. :) But he was able to crawl up into our attic and turn it off up there. I asked him what it was like up there, and he said it was "a bit mucky." He knocked down what looked like the remnants of a bird nest (or mouse nest) that I had to vacuum up. We haven't seen any mice, or heard any, which is good. :)

Here are his tools that he's using to fix the pump.

This is the entrance to our attic.

Going up the stairs.....

This is as close as I got- the repair guy had to go back up there.

Thankfully our heat is now working just fine. :)

November 19, 2007

It's Monday here in the UK- depending on where you are it might be Monday too, or it could be Tuesday. :)

Yesterday we had some excitement with the pump that runs our house heat. We have radiators all over the house, and the heating fluid is heated upstairs and pumped through the radiators. I'm not sure if it is water that is just cycled through, or if they use a type of light oil that is run past a heat exchanger and then out again. I didn't see a heat exchanger but our water heater has a million pipes coming in and out of it's little closet, many of which are covered with grey insulation thingies.

Here it is- the water heater tank and the red thing is the pump.

Anyway the pump was cavitating (making churning grinding noises because there was air in the pump) so we turned the system off and then on again to allow the pump to refill. That worked for awhile, then it started again. And then while we were gone at the chch last night the heat kicked on and the pump finally gave up. Now it makes a kind of quiet buzzing sound. So we turned it off and went without heat last night. And today.

Yes the pump is actually upside down. :)

Fortunately it is not so cold here that people couldn't do without house heat. Yes you'd feel a little cold, but you wouldn't die from exposure like in Michigan. It's actually in the 50s today, which isn't too bad, and if we sit next to each other and put a down blanket on our laps, and put hot water into our water bottles to keep under the blanket then we stay pretty toasty. We have Nelly too who is happy to sit on your lap and keep you warm, or snuggle under the blanket. Also we do still have hot water from the tap, and our bathroom shower water works on an on-demand system so we could still have warm showers.



Our landlady has a heater repair person that she uses, a local guy, who just came by, said the bearings were bad, but got it to start running and suggested we not turn it off until tomorrow morning when he can replace it. All this pipe stuff brought back fond memories of my fluids unit experiments during my last year of Chem E....ah the good old days. ;)

I'm finally feeling back to my normal self, after staying at home for most of the weekend except to venture out for an hour or 2 Sunday. Which is good, since we don't have any heat- that would definitely have made my flu harder to get rid of. :)

November 16, 2007

You may not be aware of this, but we Americans are our own pharmacists. :) Let me explain. As you know I caught some bug that was going around, and have in fact spent the last 2 days almost entirely at home. But I did go to Tesco to get some medicine. I have heard from British folks who lived in the US that they found our medicinal advertisements to be bit strange. Now I know why- they just don't have them here. Medicine isn't marketed to the consumer here. When people are sick or need some medicine, they either go to the pharmacist, the chemist, or the local medical clinic. I'm still not sure about the definition of a chemist, but I think they are between a pharmacist and a doctor. Pharmacists have some capacity to diagnose medical conditions and prescribe medicine for it. In fact most of the medicines are behind the counter.

When I went to Tesco I stopped there on my way back from our women's group, which looking back at it I probably shouldn't have gone to. By the time I got home I was exhausted and seriously sick. Anyway the last thing I wanted to do was stand in a long line at Tesco to talk to a pharmacist. So I took a look at their "medicine" section. Said section is only about 15 feet long, and is mostly comprised of pregnancy tests, contraceptives, and band-aids (which by the way they still call "plasters" here). There was a small section for "cold and flu" medicines, but a quick comparison between the 5 or 6 they had showed them to be all identical except for the packaging.

A British person might find it strange that I would be analyzing the medicinal content of all these boxes right there in the Tesco. But that's what I would do at home- except Kroger has an excellent variety of cold and flu medicines, and although some are repeated it's usually the name brand versus generic. There seems to be plenty of "recipe" differences, and since not everything works for every person that's great. I have it pretty much narrowed down to what medicines are helpful to me when I have a cold/flu, which specific type of decongestant, which type of fever reducer, and which kind of cough suppressants work for me.

Do you remember all those Dr. Mom commercials? Maybe we gain some of our medicinal analysis from our moms. Or maybe I'm just strange. :) But you can't deny that Americans know an awful lot about medicines for diseases we don't personally have because we see the ads on TV. When was the last time you saw an ad that had some nice sounding music, a person doing something, you're not sure what, or maybe 2 people, walking or on the beach or whatever, and wondered "What is this an ad for?" And then it turns out to be Prozac, Lipitor, or who knows what else. With the famous "Ask your doctor if Medicine X is right for you."

For your amusement I took a bunch of pictures of the various medicines that I bought. :)




First we have cough medicine. We can get Robitussin here but you have to ask for it at the counter. I was a bit surprised at the label "For chesty coughs" since we don't really use the word "chesty" in that way in the US. And who knows what "catarrh" is? I guess it's the British version of phlem. :) They also have cough medicine for itchy coughs, which is nice.



Next we have Paracetamol. This is the British version of acetominophen. It is not the same thing, and it is certainly not as strong, but I think it can potentially cause liver problems just like acetominophen if it is overly taken. I didn't see Tylenol here, even behind the counter. And they don't sell this in bottles- almost all medicine comes in a box with blister packaging. The paracetamol didn't help my fever at all- it was basically useless.



Now we're on to Vicks- a brand name that I at least recognized. This formula had 500mg of paracetamol just like all the other cold and flu things, but it has 12mg of Phenylephedrin hydrochloride. That is the decongestant agent. Since being congested is one of my main complains when I'm sick I thought I'd go for the one that had twice as much decongestant at the others. Unfortunately it doesn't do anything at all. Literally- when it didn't seem to work I dug around online and found several studies stating that it has basically the same efficacy as a placebo. Great. :) You may remember that in the US they removed Pseudoephedrine from over the counter medications because it can be used to make Meth. I think it's ridiculous that anyone should be able to sell medication that basically doesn't do anything. :)




I haven't tried this yet- I probably won't because it has the same stuff as the Vicks (only less placebo). Can you see the raised dots on the surface of the box? It's braille! How cool!



Here's the Tesco version of the same stuff- it's a bit blurry because the cell phone has a limited focal range but I wanted to be able to show people the braille up close.

I'm feeling better now, thankfully, and my next blog won't be full of medicine boxes. :) After all this, I ended up sticking with plain old aspirin, and benadryl, my allergy medicine which works great as a decongestant. And doesn't make me sleepy. Between the aspirin and the benadryl I felt much better. :)

November 14, 2007

Unfortunately that windy day out in London was not good for me- I thought I was over the sore throat and fever and stuff that I had over a week ago, but apparently not. I've been at home all day with it again. Which is of course very frustrating and somewhat boring. Not that I regret going to London in the least- we had a great time and if I have to pay for it now then so be it. :) I'm back to having a low grade fever now, but it isn't too bad. Yesterday G was kind enough to buy some frozen cream pie for me because my throat hurt- at least my taste buds were still in working order because it was very good pie. :) And I have been using all those veggie bouillon cubes that my parents sent- I've had soup basically every day for lunch and/or dinner.

Yesterday morning I went and got a replacement light bulb for our headlight, and although I am perfectly capable of putting the bulb in I paid them the nominal "fitting fee" since I was starting to feel a bit under the weather again and it was raining. :) Lots of the car parts stores will install (they call that "fitting") the part for you. Which can be convenient. I also bought a bike helmet yesterday, and the one that fit me best was unfortunately purple, but safety over beauty I think so I bought it. It fits great. I have a picture of it to put up here but I can't find my phone to computer cable. :)

I hear it's been getting colder in Michigan- weather.com said it snowed! I'm sad to miss the first snowflakes of the year- no matter what I end up thinking about subsequent snow falls there is always something almost magical about the very first flakes. I doubt if we'll get below 40 here all winter so I probably won't get to see any snow at all! Boy that will be weird. :)

Some American friends of ours have very kindly invited us and some other Americans over to their house for a traditional Thanksgiving meal on the 23rd. We will certainly be missing our families and friends on Thanksgiving but we will be seeing everyone at x-mas which is quickly approaching. Here they are having special carol services and all sorts of interesting things at the end of November. We'll keep you posted on how the holiday differs here from back home.

Drive safe and stay warm everyone!

November 12, 2007

Tired after a long day in London

We had a very exciting weekend here. Our friend Marc was sent to Italy by his company and managed to swing a weekend stopover in the UK. It is so great to see friends here and be able to have fun adventures! Since his flight left very early this morning we all went into London yesterday, and then he went on to Heathrow last night to chill and wait for his flight.

Believe it or not this was only my second real trip into London. I am not really a city person at heart, and I tend to find the crowds exhausting, the views full of concrete and windows, and the smells gross and polluted. Given all that I haven't been in any big hurry to go into London. We did drive down to Ealing (a section of London) for a exhibit of Walker Evans' photography of rural America, but that drive was a mess and we decided not to do it again. However, the train to London costs $25-50 depending on the day and time of day that you want to travel, and the Underground is usually around $10 for a day pass. So for 2 people going in to London isn't cheap. In fact it is cheaper to just drive if there are 2 of you because the gas roundtrip is about $100.

This is Platform 8 at Kings' Cross Station. The trains to and from Cambridge are often at platform 8.

Platform 9 3/4 of course. :)

We decided to go in and see the Tower of London and check out the Tower Bridge. The Tower of London has an excellent and very interesting historical armory, as well as being famous for all the King's prisoners who were held there, many of whom were tortured and some of whom were executed there by beheading. It's a gruesome history. But part of the tower was built by William the Conqueror in like 1070ish, so it is quite interesting. London has grown a lot since then. :)

The London Underground is an excellent way to get around London. Especially central London, what they call "The City" part. The stops are right where you want to go, and things are very clearly signed. We got off at the Tower Hill stop and the Tower of London was smack in front of us. I guess it's easy to forget that London is a major tourist attraction, and has been for like 300 years, so they have things planned to keep people moving. I didn't know that the Tower of London is actually a World Heritage Site, which means that visiting it during peak months is not recommended. :) It wasn't too bad on a Sunday in November- London actually wasn't crowded at all. I thought someone said London was a city that never sleeps, but maybe that was New York, because everything closed at 5pm and the streets were basically empty except for a few tourists wandering around looking at things in the dark. The sunset is at 4:15 right now. :)

"Mind the gap!" This is the gap. :) The Underground trains still have a track playing saying "Mind the gap between the platform and the station." The gap here isn't too big, but some of them it's like 10 inches.

Here is what the Underground trains look like on the inside. Not very scary. :)

Although this one is almost empty. There are like 10 or 15 different Underground routes, and the trim inside the trains seems to correspond to which route (here they are called "lines"). This one has yellow hand rails, because it is the Circle line, which is designated by the color yellow.

Tower Bridge

Marc and G and the Bridge

So we went to the Tower, then we walked over to the Tower Bridge, walked across it, and ate at the best Indian restaurant I've ever eaten at. Their service wasn't very warm or friendly, but their food was fabulous. I think it was called The Bridge Tandoori Restaurant. I recommend it if you get to London. :) London is apparently known for it's fog and rain, but you would have thought that it was famous for wind- we were frozen clean through by the time we got to that restaurant because of the wind. Then we walked back along the Thames, got back on the Underground, and decided to get off at the Westminster stop to see Big Ben.

As we were coming back over the bridge from the restaurant we noticed this interesting shadow....is it Batman? Or the Boogie Man? Hmm.....

The city from the Tower Bridge.

Big Ben!

A big Ferris Wheel

Big Ben is big, but not as big as it looks in pictures or on TV. :) Somehow they manage to get an angle that makes it appear monstrous. Up close it looks like a tall bell tower, about the height of the UM central campus bell tower, maybe a little taller but not much. One of the most amazing things about it is actually the stonework that it is made from- the carvings are incredibly intricate. Big Ben sits at the corner of the House of Parliament, and is very close to the river. Across from Big Ben on the other side of the river is a giant Ferris wheel which is lit up in blue at night. Big Ben looks awesome at night because they use some green lights around the very top- it's really cool.

The Remembrance Poppies

Near Big Ben is Westminster Abbey. We couldn't go in because it was like 7pm, but we walked through their grounds and they had a big section for the British Poppy Appeal. Sunday was Remembrance Sunday here and every town had a remembrance service, many of them at the various war memorials. Here at Westminster Abbey they have a big section dedicated to each British regiment or platoon or whatever and they had little crosses with poppies on them dedicated to the soldiers who died in the war, and I think some who have died since.

Although I enjoyed our trip to London, and especially hanging out with Marc, I'm glad to be home today. :)

Nov 6 PR update

Now that I'm feeling better I wanted to update regarding the Monday Arena course and the women's home group. Arena went well last night, although our numbers were down due to the Guy Fawkes fireworks. But in some ways that was better because we got the people who were really very interested. J is a girl from China who is here studying for a Masters in teaching English. She is very interested in studying the bbl more indepth, and asks wonderful deep questions about it. JY is a guy from Hong Kong who is going back at the end of November but promised his sister who is a chrstn to come to this course, and he too has some genuine questions. We are reading through Mark's book of the bbl, and they are taking small versions of it home with them.

For Arena please pr:
1. That J would find the truth about JC for herself in her own personal reading
2. That JY would have the time and inclination to meet with my co-leader to build their relationship outside of class.
3. That J would be interested in being my friend and hanging out some.
4. That students would read the sections for next week (Ch 5-8) and encounter JC in their reading

The women's home group went very well and was quite well attended. I was a bit disappointed because I didn't realize all the women there all had kids (we had 6 kids total), and they are all Chrstns already. I wanted the time to be more of an outreach, but I'm willing to take whatever Gd gives me I guess. :) We shared personal stories about our family backgrounds and history with JC, amidst the loud screaming of their children which was very distracting. I gave a ride to S who has a 12 month old baby that had serious health issues at birth but is doing well now, although unusually clingy. We have 2 women from S Korea, 1 from China, 1 from Belgium, and 1 from Singapore. The woman from Singapore really wanted this group to happen, and seems like she would be a good candidate to take charge of it.

Pr for the home group:
1. That Gd would equip SK from Singapore to take charge of the study eventually
2. That the children would be more quiet this week so we can all focus
3. For insight for the leaders that we would lead well as we study Luke's book of the bbl.
4. For the ladies to feel free to bring friends who aren't Chrstns.
5. For me to be on time every week picking up S and her baby, who doesn't like car seats.

I appreciate your prs!

November 6, 2007

I've been a bit under the weather the past few days- I came down with a really bad sore throat Saturday night, and since everything here closes at 10 on Saturdays and isn't open until 10am Sunday mornings, I had to wait to get any medication. G got me some throat spray, but here you have to get that sort of thing from a pharmacist, and boy is this stuff strong. Imagine that nasty stuff they rub on your gums at the dentist office right before they jab you with the needle.....it's that stuff in a spray form. The worst part of it is the vapor that is created by the spray nozzle- I'll try to get a picture of it on here. The vapor from it tastes so nasty in your mouth that you just about want to die. :) Plus it's Menthol "flavour" which I think is by far the worst flavor of anything.

November 4, 2007

"Remember, remember the 5th of November. X-files, treason and plot..."

Few of you probably realize (or realise if you're British) the momentous holiday which occurs tomorrow, and which has been being celebrated with small scale fireworks all over the English countryside. Tomorrow is the hugely momentous Guy Fawkes Day. What, you've never heard of Guy Fawkes Day? But surely you've heard of Guy Fawkes! Well, perhaps not. I have long been interested in European History (I studied it independently in high school and took the AP exam, which gave me 3 credits at UM for my trouble) but I think perhaps few high schoolers would remember a person like Guy Fawkes. In short, Guy Fawkes and some others attempted to blow up the British Parliament building in 1605 using barrels of gun powder, which were almost completely in place before the plot was discovered. The purpose was in part to assassinate James I, who was a Protestant ruler of England. This plot was known as the Gunpowder Plot. There were a lot of politics involved, for which I will refer you to other sources as my intent is not to teach a history lesson about Guy Fawkes. :) Some of you die hard Jane Austen fans might remember a reference by her to an "infantile Guy Fawkes." Now you know where that comes from. :)

There have been fireworks for days now- starting in people's backyards (gardens, if you're British) Thursday and continuing on and will likely continue for days after the 5th. After all, how many excuses do people have to shoot off fireworks? Last night we saw fireworks from our bedroom window in the villages of Over, Longstanton, and Willingham. Tonight was Swavesey's turn.

The fireworks here in Swavesey were actually sponsored by our only pub, The White Horse. Said pub has been in Swavesey since long long before the Gunpowder Plot. But they set up a small area to shoot of fireworks in the teeny Market Green of Swavesey. G and I walked down there, and one of the first things we noticed was the very loud music, of the type you might hear off the Pure Moods CD from the early 90s. :) Sort of techno-ish, but not quite. We were easily able to find the right location, as besides the 2 speakers with the music there were 2 strobe lights, and the square was already full of smoke, making the surrounding trees seem much more interesting than they are in the daytime.

About the time we got there, the music suddenly changed from Pure Moods to American square dance music- highly amusing for us seeing as this was a British holiday that we're celebrating. Following the square dance music we had the X-Files theme. And then a variety of other things. The fireworks were very good for a small town like Swavesey. Naturally nothing can compare to a sky full of brilliant mortars almost as high as the stars themselves. My family have long been connoissers of fireworks, with my brother obtaining fireworks as early as April for 4th of July celebrations in our huge backyard. But these were very good, and very enjoyable.

The spectators weren't more than 50 feet from the launch site, which meant a mouthful of smoke on every "Oooo," and the fascination of watching the guys with flashlights running around lighting the fireworks. There was quite a crowd there, at least 200 or maybe 300, it was hard to tell in the dark and smoke. The show ended with Pomp and Circumstance and the last few rounds going off.

I find it personally fascinating that a foiled homegrown terrorist plot is still being celebrated over 400 years later. 402 years to be exact. Britain has such a long history, and their history really is our history. We were very happy to be here to celebrate a holiday in someone else's culture, even if we don't exactly understand why it's still being celebrated. :)

When I was in Cambodia (I forget which time, possibly the second or third) on the 4th of July I had Cambodian friends who personally came up to me to congratulate me on my country's independence from Britain. Although that seems a bit comical, I was also touched by their thoughtfulness. In a country where the ravages of war have still not been cleared away 40 years later, a country which has been occupied on and off for so long, independence has a different meaning. I've never seen the 4th the same way since, and I am truly thankful for that independence which we won not all that long ago. Considering that tomorrow Britain is celebrating a holiday which began not quite 200 years before the birth of our nation, America's independence seems relatively new.