November 30, 2008

The madness on Oxford Street.

Yesterday G and I had 2 separate but very interesting days out with friends. G went with Bruno up to Hunstanton to see the sea and the cliffs, and to walk around Blakeney Point where the salt marshes are. They had their own adventures, including turning the wrong way and driving the wrong direction for 20 minutes. :) While G and Bruno were driving around, I was on my way into London to catch a friend who was passing through on her way to Zambia for work. She didn't have very long, only 3 or 4 hours, but we had a good time taking a shotgun tour of London, including the Underground (parts of said tour we could have done without if the Tube map was clearer) and a restaurant called the Texas Embassy. For those of you who perhaps don't remember this obscure little fact, Texas was indeed it's own country for 15 years, from 1830 to 1845. They had an embassy in London not far from where this restaurant is, and the British government was thoughtful enough to offer them protection from the newly formed United States if they wanted to remain a country. However they decided to join with us rather than stand alone (a point to remind our Texas friends of perhaps when they get a wee bit too "Don't mess with Texas" ) and the rest is history. :) The Texas Embassy was closed in London. We found this place because we were desperate for some food- we had seen Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, The London Eye, Trafalgar Square, 4 Tube stations, Nelson's Monument, Buckingham Palace, The Mall, and Wellington's Arch by this point. I marked our route roughly on the map in purple. So we stopped at a pub for some food, but the wait was over an hour! So we looked for another pub, which of course stopped serving food at 2:30 as is common here. So we were forced to look for something less British, and we found the Texas Embassy. Poor Lauren had just come from the US and would have much preferred fish and chips, but the Texas Embassy definitely serves a version of tex-mex type food, closer to Mexican food than anything I've found here, and as such I was ecstatic! They had REAL tortilla chips with REAL salsa! My food was great- I just wish we could have found a pub for Lauren's sake. :)

(The purple route was where Lauren and I walked, and the
blue route was where Maria and I walked)

Anyway after I saw Lauren off at the Tube station I went on to meet up with a friend at the London Eye, which is the giant ferris wheel thingie. We're both into photography and wanted to photo the Christmas lights in London. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into! First of all, the Christmas lights in London leave much to be desired. They are not very traditional, and not terribly interesting coming from the US. :) But the crazy thing was that we accidentally landed ourselves in the middle of the biggest Christmas shopping mob that I've ever seen. Oxford Street was packed tight- and I mean tight- with people, from the station all the way down the street. We ended up having to climb over a railing to cross the street after we stood in this mob for about 10 minutes wondering if we would ever move again. And the worst thing was there was no where to move to! All 4 corners of the intersection and all the way down the streets was nearly as bad. If I hadn't been with my friend Maria I would simply have turned around and gone back into the tube and gone elsewhere. But these sorts of things make good adventures when you're with friends. :) We walked all over the area, wandering down small little streets and all sorts of places in search of good Christmas lights. Overall the lights were disappointing, but the city exploration was great- I found places I'd heard of or been looking for and never found. So from that standpoint it was great.

Burlington Arcade

Bond Street

St Christopher's Place

Some store called House of Fraser. Never heard of it.

November 28, 2008

These attacks in India are really horrible. I'm sure that you've been hearing about them there, as we have here. Please pr for India and the people who have been affected by these horrible attacks, and the tourists and businessmen whose families have been affected.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you're all enjoying your turkeys and football and time with family. It's a bit weird celebrating an American holiday in another country- sometimes we try to get together with some American friends, sometimes we just decide to stay home. :) As you are probably aware Thanksgiving is an American holiday only- British people don't have any reason to celebrate it really. For me one of the best things about Thanksgiving is having dinner with my family, watching some football on TV, going for a walk in the countryside (with or without snow as the case may be) and eating leftovers. :) I do miss that here. I think we'll try to have dinner with some people over the weekend since today and tomorrow are normal work days for us here.

Tonight is the monochrome competition for the camera club, which I'm submitting 4 of my images for. My style is very different from anything I've seen here in the club, so I'm interested to see how they go over with everyone, and especially with the judge. If they do well that would be great for my relationships in the club, because it will give people a chance to get to know me better and provide a good conversation topic. I'm certain that I'm the most active new member that they've ever had, because they all seem surprised that I'm volunteering for things and stuff like that. Anyway pr that the competitions would be a good chance to build relationships!

I have some very exciting news- it may not strike you as all that exciting if you don't believe in Gd, or wouldn't call yourself a follower of JC. But to me it is very exciting news indeed because it reminds me of a deep truth. None of us have wanted to let JC be in charge in our lives- we want to be the king, the ruler of our own life, and because of that we're separated from Gd. No amount of work will get us into heaven, because the condition for entry isn't based on how good or bad we are. In the eyes of a holy and perfect Judge not one of us is truly good. So on to my good news, but first a story.

I first met my great uncle Odis when I was 7 and my family had just come back from being stationed in Germany. My early memories of him have always stuck with me, and even at such a young age I formed an idea of the sort of man that he was. He was from Alabama, a culture very different from Michigan and my family culture was even more different than that of our extended family. He was an alcoholic, a coarse man, at times a vulgar man- he was in some degree a racist (I'll never forget asking my mom why Uncle Odis called a black person the n-word, and didn't he know that was wrong) but mostly he was a self centered alcoholic. Not that he didn't have any good qualities at all, but as a child those things stood out to me. My perception of him didn't change as I got older and he grew older and more dramatic in his faults. I heard the stories of things he'd done when he was younger, and he wasn't the sort of person that I felt I could really respect. Well over the past 5 years his hard drinking and smoking caught up with him, and the doctors warned him that if he didn't quit it would surely be the death of him- he'd heard that for probably 25 years at least, but this time the clock was really ticking. A few months ago the doctors told him that he only had a few months left as he had terminal lung cancer.

Now when I heard that news I can't say that I was terribly surprised- the more surprising fact is that he lived to be 80 years old considering the smoking and alcoholism. But I was quite struck by the fact that he had advance warning of his impending death, not something everyone has, and I wondered what he made of that. Was he ready to die? Did he wonder what would happen when he died? He has a son who is a pastor, and I wondered if he gave any further thought to what his son had told him about JC and about Gd. Did he wonder why he'd been given advanced warning? I was strongly impressed with the idea that Gd wanted to give Odis the chance to change his mind about JC- to think again on what he'd been told in the past, and consider again whether he could face a holy Gd who has the right of a perfect Judge to ask what he'd done with his life.

So I pr-ed for Odis- everyday I thought of him and thought of that one less day he had to decide, but also that one more day he'd had to think seriously on these things. I asked Gd to be merciful to Odis, although maybe from a human perspective he'd done nothing to deserve Gd's mercy. After all, he made a mess of his life, wasted it in heavy drinking everyday, and who knows the impact he had on his wife and family. But I know that Gd IS in fact merciful- compared to Odis my life might look spotless, but the fact is I am imperfect too and that Gd provided a way for every imperfect person (which is every one of us) to be able to have a relationship with him, and have our lives made new. I knew that Odis' son was telling him about JC and I just keep pring that Odis would see what an amazing offer Gd was giving him. The offer of a great exchange- JC's perfect life in exchange for his messed up life. Being far from Gd exchanged for a relationship with him. An eternity separated from Gd for an eternity with him. But to be honest Odis seemed like an impossible case- he was so set in his ways, would he be willing to let JC be the king of whatever bit of his life was left?

A few days ago, 3 or 4, I heard that Odis had died. When I heard that news I sincerely hoped to have the chance to see Odis in heaven one day and see him as a new person. And the day after I heard the most amazing news- Odis and his wife both decided to let JC be king of their lives about 3 weeks ago! What wonderful and amazing news!! To have lived lives that were very hard toward Gd, wanting to run their own lives their own way, and at the age of 77 and 80 to agree to follow JC instead is simply an amazing thing! So now I will have that chance to talk to Odis someday and see him in a new way- as one who took JC's offer to swap lives and therefore be made right with Gd, although he took it at almost the last possible moment.

Sometimes when people hear stories like this they think, "What kind of Gd would accept a person like that? How is that fair? He was such a bad person he should have gone to hell." In fact it's natural to think that really. But the fact is that not one of us deserves to go to heaven. None of us have met Gd's standard of a perfect life lived for him where he is the King of our lives. Not all of us have messed our lives up to the same degree, and some of us have even had pretty good looking lives. But we still can't reach that standard. That's why we need JC, and that's why he came- to pay the price for our rebellion and imperfect lives, and to live a perfect life himself. So those of us who are already followers of JC don't get what we deserve either. As for me, I think Gd is truly amazing that he has provided a way for us to exchange our lives, be they in our opinion only a little bit dirty or entirely messed up.

So that is my good news- that a man with a hard heart and a messed up life decided at 80 years old to take JC's offer of an exchange instead of living the rest of his life his own way. No life is hopeless, because the bbl says "What is impossible with man is possible with Gd."

Funny cats

Ok I have to admit that there are some very funny things on the internet. Ages ago I found this site with funny cat pictures and even funnier captions. I re-found it again today and decided to post a few up here. Somehow the internet powers that be have decided that cats talk in phone text mode- thus the strangely spelled words and things. :)


more animals


more animals

(Baths are good you say?)




more animals

(5 second rule- you're gone 5 seconds, it's mine)




more animals

(I've brought you room service)


more animals




(There's no room for you in our spa)




(Rare unicorn cat)

November 24, 2008

I usually try to be sure that I've updated the blog by Saturday night each week, because I know that our Living Proof friends who are printing it off will want to take it along on Sunday mornings. This Saturday we got back quite late from a day trip up to Chatsworth with a Chinese friend of ours. We went to see the grounds, enjoy the beautiful Peak District, and see the Christmas lights and displays in the Chatsworth house itself. Despite being caught in some construction (which I discovered is called "road works" here) we made it there and had a great time. I made my first online order for groceries via Tesco, and it arrived about 10 minutes ago. It is so much nicer and saves a lot of time! He brought things in these green crates, and I unloaded them at the door, and then off he went. No agonized wandering through the gigantic store wondering where they could possibly have moved the soy milk or tomatoes or cat litter this week...no screaming babies, bratty children, or almost getting run over in the parking lot...no parking worries, dealing with traffic...overall, I'm very satisfied with this new system and I expect to keep ordering online forever. :) And the delivery guy was SO nice and helpful! We still do buy whatever is available at our local news agent, but they don't carry much except milk and bread. Please pr for the international group as we try to structure things properly given that in iBASE we're losing most of our students at Christmas. We may join in with the iHUB group (which is for graduate students and post grads) after the first of the year. The ladies outreach that we have been doing with the international moms has just wrapped up, and we're inviting everyone along for the carol services which StAG has during this time of the year. We have about 4 carol services, which are hugely popular for inviting British friends along to, and international friends who have never been to a carol service before. So please be asking that the carol services would be welcoming places for friends to hear the good news. Also G and I are singing in the service on the 30th. I'll end with a few photos from Chatsworth- I wish you all could have been there with us! With Thanksgiving this week I've been feeling that "its a major holiday that you should be spending with your family and friends at home but instead you're in a foreign country that doesn't know about your holiday" feeling. :) That's part of the cost of international work, but it doesn't mean that we miss family and friends any less! Thursday and Friday this week are normal work days here, but we'll be thinking of you all back home enjoying the break and turkeys galore. :)

The local Church of England schools always help make decorations for Chatsworth, and this year they painted scenes depicting Mary and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem for the census.

Apparently there's a book that's famous here called The First Noel that is done in this style. They made giant versions of the scenes from the book and put them around Chatsworth.

This is the chapel at Chatsworth- it was hard to get it all in. The altar is between the 2 pine trees, the marble column looking thing.


This is the Painted Hall, which is like a grand hall entrance. It looked beautiful with the Christmas decorations.

At the end of the house tour you pass through the sculpture gallery. Napoleon's mother is the statue on the right.

November 17, 2008

You may not be aware that G has 2 cousins who are due on Thanksgiving. Which is coming up fast- next week already! Anyway we have a LOT of friends who are expecting, but when it's family you get all the inside info, maybe some that you didn't want to know. ;) Soon we'll be hearing of contractions, shows, dilation, waters breaking, and birth announcements. G has a large family (his grandmother has 7 children and something like 26 grandchildren and I've forgotten how many great grandchildren) which is overwhelmingly large for me, coming from such a small family myself. I can barely remember all his cousin's names, and I've forgotten most of the cousin's spouses names, and I'm not sure if I ever knew the cousin's children's names. :) Anyway I do know that baby River and baby X will be arriving anytime between now and next week, thanks primarily to Facebook.

After the excitement of Norway Cambridge has seemed a bit dull. It's been cloudy for days, and the sun is setting earlier and earlier and it's now dark at 3:30. If there were mountains around, or snow, like Norway, I think I'd mind the darkness less. But since the shops are closing around 4:30 these days as well, there is simply not much to do outside the house after 4pm, except walk around in the rain and get wet. :) The camera club is affording some new things to do, because I have to mount my prints for the competitions, and I hope they will fare well in the competitions. I'd love to place 1st in at least one, which would give me more exposure and a bit more acknowledgement of my presence at the club meetings. :)

Speaking of photography I'm happy to announce that I had my first purchase via my website from a person that I don't know and am in no way connected to! It was very exciting! I have also officially booked that wedding on July 4th 2009, and am looking around for other weddings to book. Weddings are good money and for me not very stressful since I photograph events all the time. I'm looking for people who don't want a lot of frills, and who are on a budget that is less than what most photographers in Cambridge charge. Most photogs here get 900-1200 pounds for a wedding. Of course with the exchange rate that doesn't seem quite so bad as it has done. :) But anyway that includes a professionally printed book, some prints, 10 hours of shooting, etc. I'm aiming for the market that would like half that price, and half the shooting time, without books or things like that. It's a lot less than I could make, but I don't have demo books or a good solid wedding portfolio to snag the higher end just yet. I will have though if I can convince another person or 2 to let me photo their weddings. :) This one promises well, because it's being held in one of the colleges, which are stunning for photography and make every person who shoots there look like a real pro. :) So business is off and running for me here, and I'm taking small jobs about once a week and continuing to grow.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I'm hoping to learn enough about the business of photography including weddings, portraits, and even running travel trips, to be able to teach that to folks overseas. I've heard that lots of expats like those sorts of things, and it could be a real blessing to them to learn a bit about photography. If I get good at organizing photo travel trips that would just rock- since we intend to live overseas we could bring in groups of photog tourists as a business. By we I mean me primarily. :)

Please keep pring for iBASE that meets Tuesdays, and for Bounce A Round on Wednesday mornings. I'm building good friendships there on Wednesday and am beginning my work on learning Chinese. I love the Chinese ladies there and I always look forward to spending time with them!

November 14, 2008

(photo courtesy of www.llama.org/new_groove.htm)

We've been adjusting well to life back in Swavesey since our visit to Norway. Although landing in the UK reminded us both strongly of a funny line from The Emperor's New Groove (which by the way is an old favorite of mine). For those who have never heard of it, it's about a spoiled bratty emperor of a vaguely Incan-like empire. He fires an evil woman who has been working for him, and so she tries to poison him to get rid of him. (Yikes- Disney movies are not for kids anymore!) Anyway her assistant accidentally puts in a potion to turn him into a llama instead. Well at some point in the movie Cuzco (the spoiled emperor) who has been a llama for the entire movie gets ahold of the evil woman's potions and is trying to turn himself back. He ends up going through about 8 different animals, a turtle, a whale, a parrot, and all sorts of things, and then he suddenly turns back into a llama. He says "Yay! I'm a llama again!!! Wait..." The idea that he'd gotten used to being a llama is really quite funny. All of that background to say that when we landed in the UK I said to George "Yay! I'm a llama again!" Going away on holiday to somewhere and then returning "home" and "home" being the UK was so much like Cuzco's experience of being turned back into a llama that I just had to laugh. :) Apparently I've become quite good at being a "llama" here- last night at the Camera Club there was a presenter who is British and was showing photos from his American Holiday out west. He and his American wife went to a family reunion there, saw Yellowstone, parts of Montana, and drove a van around and slept in it like a camper while they were there. None of that may sound strange to you if you're American, but if you could only see the hilarious perspective of a British person wondering why Americans do what we do! He took photos of the large campers that people drive around, and just all sorts of typically American things. I laughed and laughed, and I had a great chat with him after his presentation. My point in all this is that none of the Camera Club folks that I had talked to knew that I was American. :) So when I told people "I quite enjoyed the presentation today, since I'm from the States and it's very funny to see one's culture through someone else's eyes" they were surprised. Apparently I'm a good enough llama to fool most people. But on closer acquaintance I think they'd see immediately that I'm not a llama- I'm too friendly, too helpful, too interested in complete strangers, and too bold to be a British person. :) I had a lovely chat with a woman in her 80s who had come to the club- she was visiting her son Simon who is the club president, and in typical fashion no one spoke to her. It's tempting for me to think at these moments "What in the world is wrong with all you people?!!" but I keep reminding myself that it's not "wrong" it's simply "different." Anyway I had a very nice chat with her, and thoroughly enjoyed hearing about her tour of the local church buildings, and her daughter who lives not too far away, and how much she's enjoyed visiting Swavesey. I was very much blessed. But I definitely blew my llama cover. :) It may seem strange to result to scheming and plotting to form friendships here, but that's sort of how it goes with international work. In our own culture we can be natural and just form friendships naturally, but in another culture we have to be intentional about forming relationships. The Camera Club lot have been a hard bunch, so I've been scheming about how to get to know them better and how to get them to let me into their circle of friends. I've been watching how the club works, and have decided a few things: #1) Come early. I came early last night and half the people were already there by 7:15. I was able to chat with my few acquaintances beforehand, which helped a ton. I may try to get there even earlier next week to help with the actual setting up of chairs and things. #2) Serve people. I've found that in every culture helping people and serving people is a sure way to gain their respect and interest, so I always stay to help with the chairs, and last night I volunteered to help with the tea break- they always struggle to find people to do it, and I blew my llama cover again by publicly volunteering (I'm such a new member that people looked at me with shock.) If I help with tea then I can talk to every member of the club as they come in to get juice or tea at the break, and they will all start to know me. Besides the benefit of having the thankfulness of the club officers who are the core members. #3) Stay late. I decided to try to be one of the last people out of the room, and just keep looking for something to do until there was nothing left to be done. This gave me a great chance to chat with some of the core members of the club, as they are the ones doing the setting up and taking down. Although these are things we have to be specific about doing here, any of you can be intentional like this in your everyday lives as well. It does take a little effort, and you shouldn't expect many thanks (or any at all) for it, but to me helping and serving people is truly it's own reward. This wonderful older lady whom I chatted with last night seemed very excited about a little Christmas bazaar that's going on tomorrow in Swavesey, and I'm going to go in hopes of seeing her again there and chatting with her some more. I'm sure I'll see other Camera Club folks there too- that's my hope at least.

About Tromso

I can't believe we were only in Norway for 4 days- it seemed like a very long time. I for one am glad to be home for at least one reason- we had to pack light due to luggage restrictions and I am so glad to have clean clothes on after wearing the same clothes for 4 days!

For Michiganders Tromso is a very comfortable place- it is very strikingly like Michigan in the winter, except Tromso is surrounded by beautiful mountains. :) The city has the feel of an old West gold rush town- most of the buildings are made from wood, and shingled in a way that is SO reminiscent of the wild west. It has a young feel, partly because in the past 30 years many people have been moving into Tromso. Some for the adventure of dog sledding and living above the Arctic Circle, but many because Norway moved the Polar Research Center from Oslo (the capital of Norway) to Tromso. Tromso University is apparently quite famous in Norway, and is a bit like UM in that it attracts top people who are very educated and cultured. There are so many concerts and loads of cultural events going on in Tromso. But it doesn't strike you as a snooty place. If anything a bit granola because of the people who have moved there who enjoy outdoor sports and living a sort of one with nature lifestyle. It isn't very surprising when you go to Tromso though- it is just the type of place to foster a spirit of adventure.

Downtown Tromso

Norwegian Kroner, 10Kroner is about 1 pound, or $1.50.

Many famous explorers came from Tromso. Think back to all those things you studied about the Northwest Passage, Polar Expeditions, the North Pole, and you have a big piece of Tromso's history right there. Most polar expeditions came from Tromso, and they went up to Svalbard to launch themselves into the Arctic Desert on their search for the north pole. The many museums in Tromso reflect this explorer history and the Polar Museum is amazing in that it has lots of the original artifacts which these famous men used on their expeditions.

An ice cutter on it's way out to sea

I learned at one of the museums that Tromso is so comparatively warm because the area is warmed by the same gulf stream which warms the UK. Tromso is definitely warmer than Michigan even in their winter. But there is a biting Arctic wind, which we often experience in Michigan as well, although the wind is stronger being at it's source. We came prepared for the cold, but frequently found ourselves (especially G) to be a bit too warm. Better too warm than too cold in my opinion. :) There was no snow in Tromso, although they're expecting snow soon. I'd have loved to try dog sledding and sleighs and snowshoeing and all that, but we'll have to save that for another trip. You might be interested to know that almost all Norwegians speak English! Norwegian is a Germanic language, similar to English and German, so we have a lot of common words.

Ships in Tromso Harbor

The mountains around Tromso are stunningly beautiful- remote, desolate, and wild, with only a very small village of 3 or 4 houses occasionally, and lovely remote farms alone on stretches of road in the fjords. The water is clear as crystal, and you can see starfish, jellyfish, and all sorts of things living in it that you'd never expect. It's also quite salty and therefore more dense up there, so it takes longer to freeze. I love wild, remote places- I always seek them out wherever we go, and since G and I are both into adventure we usually find them. :) If I enjoyed walking more we would take some serious hikes up the mountains, but truth be told I'm more interested in photographing than walking, which slows G down considerably and quite rightly is annoying to the people I'm supposed to be walking with. :) We've hiked up a few smaller mountains, less than 3000 feet anyway, which I enjoyed. But I digress.

My favorite part of our trip was renting a car to drive around near Tromso, amongst the mountains and fjords that were within an hour's drive. We went out when it was dark, and although we didn't see the aurora we were blessed with a bright moon and loads of opportunities for night photography along the deserted road that wound although the mountains. It was simply incredible.

A deserted stretch of road heading out to a teeny seaside village.

A farm on a quiet inlet of one of the fjords.

I learned something interesting about Norway from the museums we visited- hunting and trapping have formed so much a part of the history of Norway, in addition to North Pole expeditions, that their museum which is dedicated to those things is quite telling. They are quite up front about how trappers bludgeoned baby seals to death, trapped foxes and other animals in the cruelest ways, and all for their fur. They sometimes ate the meat, but they were trapping for fur, which I have always thought is just wicked. But interestingly you can buy seal fur products right in the museums! There is no way the UK or the US would allow a person to bring a seal, walrus, or whale product back into their countries, but in Norway they are commonly sold. I'm happy to say that the demand for seal products has plummeted, and there are very few people still hunting seals at all. Given their reduced numbers, I think that's a good thing. I've spared you the most gory of the photos- ones of polar bears being butchered, and seals, and animals caught in viciously inhumane traps. Suffice it to say that I'm for humane treatment and killing of animals where their death is necessary for food only- not for sport, or fashion.

An arctic circle trapper's lodge

Fancy a dead arctic fox anyone? :P

We really enjoyed Norway, the little corner of it that we were able to see anyway, and I'd love to go back during a different season to enjoy the true winter or the beautiful Arctic summer.

November 10, 2008

Flying into Tromso!

Tromso downtown

We got back very late from our outside the city excursion- we had an amazing time hiking around in the darkness and moonlight, eating dinner in a traditional Sami tent (which was very similar to a teepee) and playing with the sled dogs and their puppies. And of course watching for the aurora- we were so blessed to see an amazing aurora! It didn't last long but it was indeed beautiful. G is right now on his way to pick up a rental car (rental cars are too expensive on the weekend, but we managed to get an affordable one for a day) and our intention is to drive around the area outside of Tromso on the mainland (Tromso is an island) and see some fjords and whatever else we can manage to see in such a short time. I hope the car rental folks have a map- if not we'll be looking for one so we don't get lost. :) We would love to see the aurora again tonight, and since we can drive wherever we want we are hoping for some good backgrounds as well. Here are a few photos from last night:

Tromso city lights in orange, aurora in green. :)

Tromso Arctic Cathedral- the northernmost Cathedral in the world.

November 9, 2008

We made it to Tromso yesterday, and so far we've really enjoyed this quiet little town. It reminds me a lot of Parry Sound, in Georgian Bay, Canada. It's a quaint town, on an island in the sea but protected by some other larger islands from the fierceness of the Arctic Sea. If you've ever watched Most Dangerous Catch, which is a live documentary of the crab boats that operate up here in the Arctic you'll be interested to know that we saw some of those crab boats here in Tromso! I say boats, but they are ships actually- larger than you'd think, and many are in between seasonal runs so they have all the crab boxes with them, and the ships have been hauled out to be repainted and such.

It rained yesterday all day and night, so no chance at seeing the aurora. But we did see the Arctic Cathedral, and we took some night photos of the town and the boats and things. We just got back from walking around and photographing along the water front. We also went to a small museum called Polaria, which was very interesting. We've booked a aurora sightseeing visit out to a farm 13km south of Tromso which has 200 huskies that they use as sled dogs, and they have all sorts of interesting things. The native people of Norway are called Sami, and they are a bit like the native people of all cold places in that they have a sort of yurt, or hut, that they lived in. This farm has one of those, and they start a nice warm bonfire that you can sit around while you wait to see the aurora. You can also play with their cute puppies and other things which any of you who know me well would know I'd be into. I could play with puppies all day- the main problem is not sneaking one back with me to Swavesey. :)

It is fully dark now- the sun set at 2:30pm and came up at 9am. During the day it's like one long sunset- the sun is low on the horizon and makes everything look beautiful. Since it's Sunday many shops and things are closed. By the way, we're getting around just fine without speaking Norwegian as everyone here speaks English. Norwegian sounds a bit like German and English smooshed together, with a bit of Spanish thrown in. It's a beautiful sounding language in my opinion.

We're off to do some other things in town before it closes- we are meeting our transport for tonight at 6:15 near our hotel, and I really hope there's a good aurora tonight! The weather is very reminiscent of Michigan actually- I had a sort of "at home" feel when we got off the plane, and although the wind is quite biting here it's nothing like January in Michigan. :)

November 7, 2008

Well we are off to Norway for 4 days early tomorrow morning so I'm keeping this short. The Camera club went "very well indeed" as we say here, with 2 individuals introducing themselves to me, which is a first! I've been attending for 2 months and so far I am acquainted with 5 people. We're slowly getting there. :) I went to a Bounce a Round inreach event tonight and had to deal with a similar level of difficulty in chatting with people- they all have children but me, and they mostly know each other. But such is the lot of an international worker- we have to often place ourselves into situations which may feel socially awkward or difficult, and just make the best of it. :) I try to focus on at least one good conversation with someone- a small but reachable goal.

We're hoping to be able to update and post some photos from Norway while we're there but no guarantees. I'm really wanting to see the aurora and to share some photos of it with you all!

November 6, 2008

Well we made it through another Election Day, and whether we are happy with the result or not, at least we don't have to deal with any more phone calls, TV ads, radio ads, etc. You might be interested to know that the world has found this election even more fascinating that previous ones, and most of the British or International people that I encounter here stayed up very late to see who would win. I however like many Americans went to sleep. :) Europeans are especially interested in our politics, but really America lives under a magnifying glass that none of us see until we leave the country and live elsewhere. They have very closely followed our elections here, and I've had lots of good conversations with people about who I voted for and why. There's unfortunately a strong lack of information regarding candidates voting records here, so they mostly like a person based on feeling and what the media says. I suppose some Americans base their vote off of the same things. Anyway I don't try to hide from people here that I am very much against partial birth abortion (which is the horribly barbaric process of taking a 4 to 6 month fetus out of the womb (except for the head) and then removing the brain from the head, killing the baby) and I simply can't in good conscience vote for someone who has made it clear that the first thing he'll sign as president is the Freedom of Choice Act, which supports partial birth abortion right up through the 6th month of pregnancy.

However, the election is over now, and we know that Gd is in control of all things. Peter tells us in his first book that we should respect the leaders who have been placed over us, and that we should remember that if we are followers of JC we are like foreigners in this world. We shouldn't expect the world to make decisions based on the values that followers of JC hold dear, and we also don't need to worry because the one who will one day judge each and every person's life will judge the lives of our leaders as well, who will be held to a high standard because of their position of authority. I know many conservatives are worried, but we don't need to worry- we were not appointed leaders, but we can and should pr for those who have been and ask for wisdom for them as they govern our country.

Besides all the election hooyah it's been quiet here in Cambridge. I've been busy doing some photography things, and generating new business here. I've just about booked a wedding shoot for this summer which is good news, and I did some portraits for business women in Cambridge yesterday. Tonight is the Camera Club meeting, so we'll see how that goes. :)

November 1, 2008

George in the V&A Museum, looking through a sandstone carved window.

So we now have working heat in our house! Praise the Ld! It has felt so good to come home to a warm house- it turns out there must be some crap in the line because the pump had stopped running properly. The guy said he thought something must be in it, and although he got it working the guy who usually fixes our plumbing will need to flush all the radiators out. That pump is a fairly new one- we got it last spring when the heat stopped working. I've learned a lot about radiators as a form of central heating, and I've bled all the radiators in the house to remove any air, so our heat is working properly for the first time ever. So you can imagine me with a little bucket and a wrench turning the nut on the top of the radiators to drain the air out- rank that up there with brick laying I suppose. :) Life is so much more fun when you learn new skills all the time! :)

We had an interesting time at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Basically it's a huge museum containing all the stuff that the British Empire stole from all over the world. There are some more modern pieces, but I was just struck by how many things they had that were "acquired" through some means or other. Some governments such as Greece have been requesting the return of their stolen artifacts, but to date the British government has turned a deaf ear. Apparently finders keepers is still in effect. :) The museum is enormous, and I unfortunately left my camera at home so I took these photos with my cell phone. I want to go back with my good camera and a tripod to photograph some of the more interesting subjects. The lighting is very low so the tripod is necessary.

Here are a few of the things we saw at the museum:

This is an automaton, a sort of robot, of a tiger killing a British soldier. It was owned by a sultan who hated the British. :) It even roars, and
the head moves!

An ancient floor covering that was hand embroidered in India. Absolutely amazing.

You can see the quilting on this one, which was a tent covering for someone in India, a sultan or something. The leaves were all hand embroidered. Although I have to say that their quilting isn't nearly so good as my Living Proof friends (who taught me how to quilt) :D

As you are probably aware there are many gods and goddesses
that are worshipped all over the world. I forget where this one was from,
but he is depicted eating the brains of an enemy. Yuck.

A middle eastern sultan's drinking cup

Today I went with 2 other girls out to Anglesey Abbey, one of the local manor houses that you can tour and see the grounds and gardens. It was not a nice day for it- cold, rainy, and very wet (which means very muddy pant legs and shoes) but we had a good time. Since I've been there so many times I was their tour guide. :) I'm thinking of volunteering out there in the spring to help with the planting of flowers and things.

Tomorrow we're having lunch with a family that we'e been trying to get to know for awhile- they are in our home group from StAG. She's American and he's British, so they make for an interesting couple. They have 2 cute little boys. We also have an International Team meeting tomorrow. It's raining here again, and cold, but at least we're nice and warm inside! :D

As a side note, you would not believe how many of our friends either just had a baby, or are going to have one soon. We counted at least 5 who have had babies in the past 6 months, and coming up this month 2 of G's cousins are having babies, we have 3 friends having babies before March, another cousin of G's is due in May, and my sister in law (my brother's wife) is due in June. We're feeling a bit overwhelmed by everyone's babies, and I've heard more details about child birth including all about shows, water breaking, natural childbirth, cradle cap, nursing problems, and you can imagine what else in the past 3 months than most people without children have ever heard. :) Someday I'm sure all this information will be useful.:)

October 30, 2008

It's been a very quiet week here in Cambridge- quiet and cold. I've been catching up on some cross stitch projects (yes, I do cross stitch as well as laying bricks, mulching gardens, quilting, and singing) this week, and trying to stay warm in our house! This morning was a social for the orientation course that we're running for new moms in Cambridge. We had a woman who came who didn't speak 2 words of English, and thankfully my Chinese friend D came as well and could translate for us. I'm determined to learn Chinese and so far I've learned a few greetings, which is more than I knew before. I'm hoping that my friend D who was a Chinese teacher in China will teach me Chinese! I've also been using a website called Chinesepod.com, which has downloadable Chinese lessons that you can put onto your phone or mp3 player.

We have finally decided that waiting for our landlords to get back to look at our heat is not a viable option. It's been at freezing each night and our house has been at least 50F during the day, which is unbearable for long periods. We called the estate rental people and got the phone number for our landlords (who it turns out are in Ireland!) and they gave us a number to call. So the heater guy is coming tomorrow morning which we're very thankful for. Tomorrow we're going into London to the Victoria and Albert museum and to visit with some friends. The museums in the UK are free, which is nice. :)