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!