Back from DC. Some of you may know I was in Washington, DC last week. I had two conferences to attend, both at the same time and same place, about 10 minutes from each other. Both were important, so I sort of ran back and forth.

DC was beautiful. My mom and step-dad met me there and we stayed in Crystal City the first two days, then moved to Virginia Square. While in Crystal City we debated what to do/see and we all wanted to go to the Smithsonian, but I knew I had a "business meeting/tour" there later in the week, so I suggested the Frederick Douglass house in Anacostia. I'm really glad we went there, though it was a cooold walk from the bus stop (up a steep hill to the front porch) only to find out we needed to buy tickets at the visitors center at the bottom of the hill (not well marked, obviously). For those of you who may not remember your middle school history, Douglass was born into slavery and though a lady started to teach him his alphabet, he effectively taught himself to read and write and eventually became a journalist, politician, the first Black US Marshall, and friend to Abraham Lincoln. Douglass' story is truly inspirational.

Celebrity sighting. My mom saw that Paula Deen was going to be in DC autographing copies of her new cookbook, but she was nowhere near where we were staying and we didn't have a car. Ironically, though, Phil drove me out to one of the malls one evening- maybe 15 miles from where we were staying - and while I was shopping I overheard that Chef Ming Tsai was upstairs! Wow! I love Paula Deen for her awesome use of butter and yummy stuff, but I also love Ming Tsai for his creativity and Asian flair. It was a pretty big crowd, but I got close enough for a photo. While I was there, I was wondering why Phil didn't wander over, too... eventually I found him about 20 yards away, totally oblivious, in the bedding section.

Autumn in Rural England

No Place Like Home...

I'd been crabby the past couple days, topped off this morning with an all-time low of the dollar to the British Pound. With just a half percent here or there, I calculate hundreds and thousands of dollars added to the cost of my home (and even to the down payment), with the loss of thousands when I sell it and change those pounds back in to dollars, which I am convinced will be stronger in a year or more. Ugh!

But then I went to my new home to talk with the landlord about which size appliances I will need, and I just felt better. I like my new place. A lot. It's bigger than I should be buying, but it has charm and warmth and history. It's in a historical town, with two market days each week. Today I looked more around the neighborhood and liked what I saw - more older homes that have been formed out of a former church, former courthouse, etc., and charming stone houses with character and style. My landlord was having a new window put in upstairs - the place has skylight-like windows in each room upstairs, letting in much-needed light (see below) and they had also put together a booklet of instructions for me - how to use the fireplace, how to adjust the oven, how to contact the neighborhood surgeon (British for "doctor"). It just felt like home.

Daylight savings? Where are we saving it to? We went to daylight savings time Sunday. Monday was beautiful all day, then at about 4:00 the sky was crisp and there was a sort of orange tone to everything (sunset on the fall leaves?). By 5:00, it was like someone had dropped a balck curtain around everything. When it gets dark here, it gets DARK here. There are very few streetlights and most roads don't have reflective tape or lights... plus we're pretty remote, so the houses (and houslights) are few and far between. Tonight I drove back from my house on one of the many Fens roads- the Fens are what some areas here are called- it's land that really is under sea level, but with manipulation it's been drained and made into farmland. The roads through the Fens are very narrow, usually not marked, and have no shoulder, which means that it's easy to "fall" off of them and when you do oyu are likely to fall 10 feet or more, into muck. Dangerous! I'm glad I had some training in Japan - by having driven there for a few years, these roads don't strike me as so narrow as they might otherwise!

Napoli

Naples for a workshop... lots to report on that!

1. Heather Sighting. I was sitting at breakfast in the hotel in Naples, discussing work stuff with a principal, when in walks my good friend from Japan, Heather, whom I haven't seen in two years! I was floored!!! Of all the places to just sort of run into someone you know. Heather was in Naples for a music conference and on Saturday night we were all treated to a jam session by the music teachers at that conference - some instruments were brought in, the piano player at the pub was given the night off, and one of the teachers sang, as well. They were good!

2. Pompeii.. On Saturday three of us went to Pompeii... perhaps with more confidence than we should have had, we programed "Pompeii" into the GPS and set off. TomTom led us on a really scenic route - through lots of little towns and scenic countryside. Eventually we wound up in the town of Pompeii but couldn't find the ruins. We asked and were pointed to Vesuvius and then thought perhaps we needed to head out of town. Eventually, though, we realized the volcano had come to Pompeii and so the ruins must be there and about that time we found the site.

Pompei itself was just incredible. It's always amazing to walk through a place and think of the history that has occured there, but this is a place where so much destruction and fire rained down upon a city of families, inventors, artists, and more. Especially thought provoking were the casts of people who were overcome by the smoke or gases or fires- where their bodies were "frozen" in the lava and later disintegrated, scientists poured a type of plaster in and made a casting of their position at death. One display was of a group of youngsters with just one or two young adults.

3. International Bazaar - One evening while in Naples, we decided to drive to a base to see the international bazaar (charity sale) there. It was unlike other bazaars I've been to; this one was mostly small booths, each representing a country or region, with free wine/booze samples. We barely made it from the Italy booth (Limoncello) to the Germany booth (sweet wines), when the Greek booth (ouzo) did us in. Eventually we finished the evening at the tent, reminiscent of New Braunfels, Texas' Wurstfest - a giant tent with a stage for music and shows, surrounded by picnic tables which were ringed by food booths. We made friends with some young military men, and the wife of one of them; when we asked them if the sangria was any good, they offered us their glasses and said "Have some!"... Nice folks!

4. Beautiful sunrises at the hotel...

A Perfect Day. You ever have one of those days when everything just seems to come together? That was today for me. First, I am still happy from news that my brother's cancer has not grown since his last CAT scan (see my mom's blog for that). Then at work I was told that they want to give me more training so I can teach people at work about new and promising research and ideas; that's awesome, because I love learning and I've wanted to do more work with adult learners. Then I drove to Fakenham to turn in the paperwork to my leasing agent and it was a lovely drive: through forest and by wide fields, in rain and sunshine, with a rainbow behind me all the way back. On the way out of Fakenham I had to stop to let about 40 ducks cross the road and join their friends who were having a splash party in a puddle in someone's front lawn. Just a really nice day, and I am finding that I enjoy life in England quite a bit.

From school teacher to living in a schoolhouse. I'm tired of living in a hotel waiting to find a place to live, but I also want to find a place that will suit me. I think, after looking at lots of really expensive, tiny roomed properties, I have found it: really, really expensive with big rooms and a schoolhouse to boot. The building was used as a school house for the workhouse that was next door a hundred years ago. During WWII, it was used as a recuperation hospital for soldiers.

The buying process can be daunting here, plus the exchange rate with the pound really stinks right now, so I will be renting for a while but have a good plan. I'm glad the landlord will allow me to have a cat, despite his "no pets" policy, but when I saw he had a cat, I knew there was a good chance.

I'm in love with Ken

Ken is my new best friend, confidante, protector, and navigator. Ken's the man with the English voice trapped in my new TomTom 910 GPS. I LOVE how smart Ken is - he can find me directions to anywhere and he stays calm even when the traffic is crazy. Oh, he also has 20gb worth of memory so we can listen to music while we drive. Today we drove up to Alconbury, about 80 minutes away - not the most exciting trip in the world, though there was a "lorrie" that had driven off the road, caught fire, and burnt to just a shell. Ken didn't have a lot to say about that.

I've noticed that my guy friends usually have a girl voice on their GPSes, but I like having the guy voice, for some reason. Eventually I will get Ken some help, maybe a celebrity voice... something fun like Diego Montoya.

Harogate in NW England

This week I went to Harrogate on some business. It's a 4 hour drive from where I live, all highway and the whole drive looked a bit like the drive from Springfield, IL to St Louis, but with the occasional roundabout thrown in to slow traffic a bit. The roads here are pretty nice - no tolls (that I've found yet) and the traffic moves along at a pretty good pace. I'm getting used to the roundabouts, too - the only rule, really, is to watch to the right and give them the right of way... the people to the left of you then have to give you the right of way. It's pretty clever and you don't waste time like you do at a stoplight. While in Harrogate, I had dinner at Betty's, a famous teahouse that features fresh baked goods, scones, desserts, and Swiss food. I had a rosti, which apparently means "food on top of hash browns" - mine was chicken, mushrooms, and gruyere cheese.

Harrogate is a beautiful spa resort town surrounded by rolling hills. I stayed The Yorkshire, a hotel down in the city. The Yorkshire is an old hotel that has been refurbished, but I had to take photos of the hallway so I would be sure to tell you all how wonderful they were, wide and long and creaky, like from The Shining, and the carpet was thin, so you could feel the uneven, wooden floorboards beneath. If ghosts exist, they have to hang out there, it's so perfect for them! I woke up at 3 to some creaking noises, thinking I was getting to hear the ghosts, but to my dismay I realized it was just an amorous couple next door.... nowhere near as interesting as ghosts would have been!

Market Day at Bury St. Edmonds

Today was nice- an actual day off with no thought to work!

I've made a friend- yesterday a lady at the meeting I was in introduced herself and pointed out that she's living in the same housing I am and that she's single and how nice it was to meet someone else single. Then she asked what I liked to do, said she likes sports (another language for me) and plays and so on, and I replied and then we decided to head out with another gal today to go to the market in Bury... My question is, and this is a serious one, WHY CAN'T GUYS BEHAVE LIKE THAT? Like no big deal, just "I like to do this and this and what do you like to do and you wanna do this tomorrow or not?" ... it would be very refreshing.

So the market was really cool - about 100 stalls with fresh flowers, tons of fruits and veggies (I got raspberries, fresh figs, fennel, a carton of 8 mushrooms each as big as my palm, onions, and some fresh soup. Then we stopped of for lunch and tea and headed to The Nutshell (see photo), which is the smallest pub in Britain, with standing room for about 10 people. We might not have noticed it if not for some tourists taking photos of it.

We came back to base and went to the exchange, where we were trying to find out about GPS systems for our cars. By the end of it I was laughing because she had commented on how much she likes her football team (I forgot now which one!!!) and the guy points out how he's wearing a Dallas Cowboys nametag and then next thing I know we got guys all over the store coming to talk smack with Terri, and one guy left to drag his buddy over cuz the buddy was wearing some other team's jersey and then they all laughed at how ridiculous that guy's team was. I gotta get the lingo down, but I highly recommend this as a way to get a viewing of all men in a 100 foot radius.

Bright purple fields...

I drive past this one field at least oce a day, on my way home from work. Like most places around here, it lies on a 2 lane highway with no shoulder and no place to pull over or even slow down. It's a wide open field of grass and weeds kept tidy by a few livestock and fenced in by some twisted trees. What makes this field remarkable, though, is that is has a huge (40 yards sq) patch, right in the middle of the brown and green, that's BRIGHT purple. It is amazing and looks like a purple blob from outer space has landed and is spreading out to take over the planet one patch at a time. In reality, and I make it my mission to get a photo of the actual field (the one to the left is off google), it is a field of wild lavender. Researching it to find the photo, I even found recipes for cooking with lavender, including a recipe for lavender jelly.

To Buy or Not To Buy...?

We've all heard how tiny Japanese homes are - everyone I know was warned about it before moving to Japan. But who knew that the British homes are smaller?!? I've read that the average home here is 800-1220 square feet, and that's with 3-4 bedrooms! I've even found homes where the widest bedrooms were just over 4 feet wide! Typical is one or two that are around 10x11 and then the other(s) will be 9x5 or 6. A coworker explained that the bedrooms here are just meant to hold a bed and that's about it, but I haven't figured that out yet. I'm awaiting my household shipment and the big wardrobes and bureaus I have; I think that some bedrooms in whatever house I settle in may have nothing but stacked end tables and wardrobes in them!
The rooms may have a long history here - the B/W drawing is an image from an 1895 book on ancient Egyptian life. The original is in The British Museum in London.

Happy Labor Day!

Today was a holiday, so I decided to go for a drive and enjoy the beautiful weather. My first ten days here it seemed like it would never stop raining and it was COLD, but since then it's been sunny and about 68 degrees - just perfect.

I drove out to Downham Market and met with a realtor who has scheduled me for a meeting with a mortgage broker later this week. Housing is so comparatively expensive here, so it's daunting to take the big leap; it will be nice to hear from the broker how crazy I am to think I can do this. I've started to narrow my search down to the "west side" - the Cambridge side of this area. While it would be wonderful to live in a city like Cambridge, I'm not sure I'm up for the 50 minute drive twice a day... so I am looking at some smaller villages that are just off the main road.

After leaving the realtor, I drove through Denver (saw the windmill that's now a working flour mill) and down the banks toward Ten Mile Bank. The road is narrow but there wasn't a lot of traffic... though there were loads of boats out!

Move to Britain, get a British car.
It took me forever (okay, a week) to find a car I wanted and then I hesitated and someone else bought that car first. It was a 2003 VolvoS40. I went back to the dealer a few days later (Five Ways at Mildenhall... they are great!) and "Mick" told me he had found the car for me: a 2000 Vauxhaull Vesta CDX (it's the British version of Chevy, I think)... it was not love at first sight/thought, but I had to get a car and it drove well, so I bought it. I had to wait 4 days for the inspection, then another 3 (they lent me a car in the meantime) for them to replace the water pump and cam belt.

I've had the car just 4 days now, and I love it! I've named it Oscar for now- it's a deceptive car because it's small and unassuming, but it's also powerful and quick. Very British- sturdy, not flashy, seats that are leather but belong in a ball park stadium. Every time I get in it I discover some new trick it can do; today's is that it has an LED display that tells me the outside temperature. It's 20C today.

September 1: I filled Oscar's tank and found I'd gone 128 miles on 21 liters... or 5.5 gallons. That means I have been averaging 22 mpg. I know i can do better! My momma bought a Toyota hybrid this summer and it is INCREDIBLE! 30-40 mpg and it has a little video game-type screen that shows you what your usage is at any given point, so you find yourself challenged to better others who might have driven the car (or your own "scores"). We found the secret is coasting, so I'm gonna try to coast more with Oscar and see if that helps.

A few changes: karaoke to pubs

I've lived in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan the past few years and now am getting ready for my new adventures in the Cambridge, England area. It's been a busy summer with getting the new job and assignment, grad school, packing and shipping the "stuff" from my house, visiting my family in Austin, and resettling in England.

Second Year, First Week

St Charles Church in Plymouth, England
left as a monument to those who died in the Blitz


Summer School in Plymouth England... I heartily recommend it! Last year I traveled on American Airlines, from Narita to New York to Heathrow, 30 some-odd hours of travel. It really was not as bad as it sounds, because we were able to make all the connections. This year (2007), I decided to skip the US leg of the trip and went Narita directly to Heathrow on Japan Airlines... other than being crammed in a 3-person row window, it wasn't too bad. The plane was full.

I do the Michigan State University Graduate School Overseas program. If you're interested in a Master's Degree in Educational Technology, this is a nice way to do it.