I have been hearing the craziest stories from people all the way from Michigan to DC about this storm front that came through. CNN said 300,000 people in Michigan alone were without power. I hope that you all have power now, even if the limbs and fallen trees aren't completely taken care of.
The weather here has been very bland really- they simply don't get thunderstorms in Cambridge like we get in Michigan. It's been mostly sunny, and a high of 75 on a warm day. Usually in the upper 60s every single day. The monotony kind of wears on you when you're used to Michigan's interesting weather. :) Not that I'm complaining- I'm enjoying the sunshine when we get it.
We've just been plugging away here- the CE course ladies are understanding more and more of what we've been studying, although it's the season for holidays among internationals here so they tend to be gone every other week. Our ladies intl bbl study has just finished studying Paul's letter to the folks at Colossae, and we're looking at Jonah for the next 4 weeks. You'd be surprised- there is way more depth to that book than most people realize. In iBASE we studied the best and worst king in the OT- his name is Mannaseh, and his history was recorded by both the writer of Kings and the writer of Chronicles. We saw how he turned from being the most wicked king ever to being the total opposite. And yesterday in TEAM we studied some very deep issues about JC, much of which went over my head. :)
G's work group is getting more internationals by the day. They've just added a man from Sweden, who is marrying an American woman in a few months and will be working remotely from Atlanta. They already have 2 Italian guys, a French guy, G (who as you know is American ;D) and another American guy who is of South American ethnicity. Oh, and there's one British guy. :) It's quite interesting. There seem to be more and more people working remotely for Citrix, which bodes well for us when the time comes to head back Stateside. But part of our reason for being here is for G to gain experience in a real workplace, making friendships there and reaching out to the people there- that's not something which can be done remotely. So we're keeping that in mind as we consider our time here.
We had a food adventure yesterday- one of my own accidental doing. :) Everything here is labeled differently than I'm used to, and when I get tired I stop thinking in "British labeling mode" and I start thinking as an American. We've been eating this great Italian dish, it's basically fresh tomatoes (washed of course), a type of mozzarella called Bocochini, basil leaves, and vinegar and oil. It's great- we had it in Australia and loved it, and now we make it all the time. Well we bought the cheese in a different store than we usually buy it, and I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. But I found something that said "di bufala campana" on it, which I thought was one of those weird European labeling things that meant it was called Buffalo Mozarella. When we got it home though, I opened the thing and pulled the cheese out, and it looked different than what I usually buy. It comes in water, in a ball, but this was just different texture. So I read the package again, and I had accidentally bought mozzarella that was made from the milk of Italian water buffaloes! Oops. :) It was very interesting- similar to what we usually buy, but with a MUCH stronger flavor.
They have an interesting system in the EU, which they call "Protected region of origin." You may NOT label something "di bufala campana" unless it really was made in Campana. The same goes for basically any regional food- wine, cheese, anything that comes from a unique region. So no labeling Champaigne unless it was made in Champaigne, for example. It's meant to prevent knock offs of a food type, which would drive the original producers out of business. It's an interesting idea I think.
I've been getting a good chance to chat with our landlady this week- she's been out pulling the weeds from the garden next to us, since her renters moved out. They can't rent the house out until they've painted, gardened, and some other things that need to be done. So I've been out chatting with her about the garden and random things. It's been nice- you just about need an excuse to talk to folks here. I'm excited about the Swavesey festival events in 2 weeks- I'm really looking forward to meeting some people in the village, and trying to form some relationships. Its hard to break into a small village, but we're persevering. :) I'll let you know how it goes.
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