A Few of Our Favorite Things

As a follow up to my last post I wanted to write about some of my favorite things about living in England.  Although I miss home, there are quite a few things Craig and I have really enjoyed doing/eating/seeing/experiencing since we've been here.
1. Food and Flavors
When we first told people we were moving to England, we got a few responses from people such as, "oh that's exciting, too bad the food there is so terrible!"  This was not too comforting, but I wasn't worried, one of my hobbies is finding good food wherever I am!  Overall we have had really good food since we've been here.  British cuisine s heavy on beef, lamb, and game animals--pheasant, deer, partridge, rabbit, pigeon, duck, goose.  We have tried a lot of the game and have liked it all, it helps that most of it tastes like chicken :)  British food is also really rich because they add double cream to many sauces.  Double cream is like heavy cream except it has an even higher fat content.  Can you say YUM!?  

There is also this really wonderful thing called clotted cream.  When I first saw it I thought it was butter, but its just really really thick cream, so almost butter I guess.  It is typically used as a spread on scones and can be used in baking as well.  It is so good!!! There is a little tea house near us that serves fruit scones (scones with currants) with strawberry jam and clotted cream along with a pot of tea.  I go about once a week.  If anyone comes to visit us they can expect a trip to the tea house!

British food is not all fattening though.  They are really big into fresh produce and almost every village has a weekly or biweekly farmer's market.  The produce here is really good quality and flavorful.  They have the same fruits and veggies as in the US, but they seem to use root vegetables even more.  Potatoes are served with almost every dish and parsnips, turnips, and carrots are also really popular.  Rhubarb is also extremely common here.  They have it fresh, frozen, and canned in the grocery store.  You can even get rhubarb yogurt and ice cream at most stores so its a really popular flavor.  I love rhubarb so I think its great.  We've started cooking with it more as well.  The other day I made rhubarb chutney and served it over lamb.  Overall the food has been one of the best parts of our British adventure.  It has been a fun experience to see how a different country prepares food and combines flavors. 
2. The Sites
Since coming here we've been on some great trips in England and in Europe.  It has been easy to travel since the UK is not very large and its so close to "the continent".  We went to Amsterdam over Thanksgiving and to Barcelona in February.  In May we're going to Greece for about 10 days and we may be able to get to Turkey as well during this trip.  In July we are planning a trip to Paris with Deja.  Within England we have been to London a few times, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and a lot of smaller villages through out the country side to visit castles.  I really enjoy learning about history and have read a lot about British history so its pretty cool to be able to see castles that have been around for 1,000 years.  Just this past weekend we went to Grimsthorpe Castle (picture below) which was first built in the 13th century.  Craig is not quite as enthralled by this type of sightseeing, but he is a good sport! 

(the camera was tipping, not the castle!)

3.  The Humor
So it's hard to give characteristics to a whole nation of people, but I am going to here for the intentions of the posting.  Overall, I wouldn't say we have fallen in the love with the Brits, but we found they have some great qualities overall.  For one, their sense of humor.  You know Ricky Gervais?  Yeah, they're like that.  Maybe not so mean, but its definitely a dry sense of humor and very witty.  Most of the films shown here are American and sometimes Craig and I find ourselves the only ones laughing in the theater at certain jokes.  So just as British people with American humor, I am sure I miss out on a lot of things, but I am learning... slowly...

4. Our Town
We really love the little town we live in.  It seems to be similar to most villages in the area.  Someone once told me living in England is like living in America in the 1950s, but with all the modern technology of course.  I think this is true in some ways.  Most shops close at 5pm on weekdays and are closed on Sundays and all holidays.  The pace of life is a bit slower, everyone stops for a cup of tea and plate of biscuits (cookies) in the afternoon.  The post men/women ride around delivering mail on bicycles.  Probably one of the cutest things I've seen is the milk service here.  They still have milk men!  Here's a shot I got one morning on a run of a neighbor's milk waiting for them on their doorstep.  How cute!

5. Our Place
All the work we put into our flat was definitely worth it now that its done and we can just enjoy it.  Probably the best part about it is the deck and garden (yard) in the back.  The garden backs up to a river and we can sit on the deck and watch boats go by.  Recently, we had two giant swans build a nest right outside our gate to the river.  This sounds nice, except they are kind of scary--and mean--close up!  Here is a shot of part of the garden.

The weather is getting warmer and sunnier so its been nice to enjoy being outside more.  Its going to be a great spring and summer spending time in the garden and doing some more traveling.  We're looking forward to having some visitors as well, Deja, my parents, and some of Craig's family.  And maybe YOU too? :)

Things Missed

Since moving here I have spent a lot of time with my laptop-- me and my laptop in bed, on the couch, on the other couch, in the kitchen, we have become great friends.  I guess its keeps me occupied and provides some mild entertainment.  Sadly, I mostly read about celebrity entertainment, I have started giving Craig hourly updates on the Charlie Sheen saga.  But I have really gotten into reading blogs, there are a lot of great baking and cooking blogs where I get ideas for things to make, or things to avoid making as the case may be.  I have have found some that are written by American women living in the UK (that's me!) which are pretty interesting.  I recently found one, www.passportdelicious.com, its written by a woman from Chicago who moved to the UK and has since moved back to Chicago.  In a recent post she came up with a list of things she missed about living in the US and I was astounded and comforted at how many I agreed with.  I wanted to go over a few them to give a better perspective of what life is like here.

Things the Passport Delicious lady and I Miss About America (her list is in gray and my comments are in yellow)

Talking to strangers in elevators, on trains, and in buses and airports. You never know anyone’s story in the US. So many interesting ones to be had.  I don't chit chat with random people as much as I did back home, I don't know if that's not done as much here or if just don't feel as comfortable so I don't even attempt to do it.  When I have tried people just don't seem as friendly about it engaging in conversation, it could be because as soon as I open my mouth they know that "I'm not from 'round these parts" and thus, can't relate to me?  Or don't know what to think of me?

Wearing gym clothes all day on a Sunday. No need to break out the skinny jeans and lh or brunch or the grocery store. Sweatpants and baseball caps totally okay all day. I seem to wear sweats and leggings a lot  (and its not just because of the weight I've gained since moving here!)  They are just comfortable and unless I am going out to eat or meeting up with other people I see no need to get all snazzied up. arge sunglasses as you head out for lunc

Huge washers and dryers that work so quickly! 1.5 hours and you’re done with washing AND drying.  Laundry and me have been waging a war ever since we moved here.  And laundry seems to be winning. The washers and dryers are minuscule, and one wash cycle takes about an hour and 20 minutes, and a dryer cycle is about 90-100 minutes depending on what you have in there.  Don't even get me started on the dry cleaning places here... Where is a Zip's when you need one!?

Tap water. Everywhere. Easily refilled.  When I left college I thought my Britta days were LONG gone, not so.

Salads for lunch. Salads for dinner. Lots and lots of salads.  I really miss salads, restaurants here rarely have big entree sized salads on the menu, and if they do they have like 4 ingredients in them.  So disappointing.  How am I supposed to get all my veggies in if they only offer mushy peas for greenery?  (Mushy peas are an actual dish here, I wasn't just calling peas mushy)

Half-and-half. They don't have half and half, which is what I prefer in my coffee.  They have single cream and double cream.  Double cream is like heavy whipping cream, single cream is similar to half and half but with a slightly higher fat content, and they don't use it at coffee shops.  Coffee shops have semi-skimmed milk (like 2%) for customers to put in their coffee, it just doesn't do it for me. 

Gyms that open at 5:30 am. I can't even tell you how much I miss my gym in Virginia, XSport Fitness.  Not only was it a 3 minute drive from my house, it was HUGE, had TVs on every piece of cardio equipment, was open 24 hour/365 days a year, offered tons of classes, and was not very expensive.  I checked out a gym here that was not nearly as nice or as big as XSport (it closed at 5pm on Sundays!) and they wanted to charge me way more money.  I told the guy about my gym back home and he said, "Oh I love America! I wish I lived there!"  Needless to say, I didn't get a membership, I have just been using the gym on the base which is free and suits my needs fairly well.

Cheap manicures and pedicures. Everywhere. Ugh, yes.  Manicure and pedicure, two of my best friends.  I haven't had a one since I've been here.  Nail places are not common here and the ones that exist are really expensive, like 30 pounds for a manicure (around $45!!). No thank you!

The Today Show on NBC. I would watch BBC Breakfast and GMTV while I was in London, but nothing really compares to Matt Lauer and the gang on NBC. I especially like the first 22 minutes of commercial-free news. Fantastic for the treadmill.  I can't believe someone else shares my EXACT same feelings on the subject!  I need to find this girl, we may be soul mates!  Oh how I miss Matt and Meredith, even Al Roker's corny jokes.  I watch clips of the show online but it's just not the same, they only show the actual news segments and I miss out on all the witty banter.  And its what I used to watch when I ran on the treadmill every morning at XSport from 7am-8am.  I didn't even mind the running part because I was so enthralled by the show.

Salsa I am going to take salsa, and enlarge it to include all Mexican and Tex Mex food in general.  What I wouldn't give for a beef burrito, oozing with cheese and sour cream, followed by a giant margarita rimmed with crunchy salt.  I once ordered nachos at a pub here.  I got a plate of Doritos with about two tablespoons of shredded cheese half melted on top.  I thought the waiter was trying to play some kind of sick joke on me, but no, those are British nachos .                                                                                         \

The Passport Delicious lady had a lot more things listed but I think I am going to stop here.  I don't want to come off as a whiny downer.  There are things I like about living here.  In fact, that will be my next blog post!

¡Viva España!

Last weekend Craig and I spent three days in Barcelona, it was one of the best experiences we've had since moving here.  It was a reunion of sorts with two of Craig's friends from high school who were foreign exchange students during Craig's senior year, Eduard from Barcelona and Philip from Verona, Italy.  Here are the three amigos, thirteen years later:

We stayed with Eduard and his wife Lydia who I have to say were the best host and hostess I've ever had the pleasure of visiting.  They introduced us to the great local foods, wine, and sites.  One of the most fun things we did was barbecue on Sunday with neighbors and friends and had a traditional dish with calcots, a type of onion native to the Cataluña region in Spain.  Eduard, the master barbecuer, showed us how its done: first you blacken the calcots over the flames, then wrap them in newspaper to keep the heat in which makes them tender on the inside.

After a little while they are ready to eat and are unwrapped.  You take one and pull out the tender white portion from the blackened outer part.

Then you dip them in a really yummy sauce made with red peppers, similar to romesco sauce.  Seriously, this stuff is so good, I would have bathed in it had I been left alone with a large enough quantity! 

Then you get to eat it!

 We feasted on the calcots outside on the terrace then Eduard barbecued sausages, chorizo, pork, and chicken.  Later that night we moved the furniture out of the way and had a good old-fashioned dance party in the living room.  Craig was a wall flower as usual...

The last day of our trip Eduard and Lydia took us to see the Sagrada Familia.  Its a basilica designed by the architect Antoni Gaudi, its construction started in 1882 and its still going on today, its projected to be finished around 2022.  It's extremely intricate and elaborate and enormous. Almostevery part of it symbolizes or depicts parts of Jesus' life.  For example, when its complete it will have 18 spires representing in ascending order of height the twelve apostles, the four evangelists, the Virgin Mary and, the tallest, Jesus Christ.

It was a cloudy day out but you can see its still flooded with natural light inside, part of the genius of the way it was built.

It was amazing trip and made us feel so fortunate to be able to do these types of things while we are living over here.  The best part about it was being with friends again as that is what we have missed most since our move.

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year!  Hope your 2011 is starting off well!  We spent New Year's Eve in London with Deja and had a really fun time.  We did some sight seeing during the day and then watched the fireworks over the Thames at midnight.  Here we are out for dinner.

The next day Deja and I left and I dropped her off in Columbia and then was able to spend some time in Minnesota and DC.  It was great to see family and friends again--this is what we miss most about living here.   

A couple weekends ago we took a short trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon and saw where Shakespeare was born and grew up.  We also visited Warwick Castle which is over 1,000 years old.  We paid extra to see the dungeon where they have actors talking about how it was used and how people were tortured there and showed us the torture tools, etc....  Well after about 20 minutes of listening to all this lovely information I started getting light-headed and dizzy and had to be escorted out of the dungeon by one of the actors.  You may remember the same thing happened to me when Craig was getting his stitches.  I didn't think I was a giant wimp but apparently I am.  Craig thinks its a vitamin deficiency somehow related to me not eating enough meat--I swear he will use any excuse to get more meat in the house!  Even though we didn't complete the tour they didn't give us our money back, they said they don't give money back to sniveling babies (their words, not mine!). Anyways, we had a really fun weekend and it made us realize once again how lucky we are to be a short drive from all these amazing sites.  We are thinking of making our next trip to see Stonehenge. 

Daily life is good, Craig is working and enjoying his job.  I am still on the job hunt.  I am going to begin volunteering at the Equal Opportunity office on the Air Force base.  They investigate claims of discrimination and ensure EO policies and procedures are being followed.   I am very excited to start and do something that will keep my busy.  I am realizing I am not cut out for being a housewife. I need some incentive to get out of my pajamas every day and going grocery shopping and cooking just isn't enough!

As promised, here our some shots of our little home now that we have finished "decorating" (that means painting in English).  Our bedroom:

 The kitchen with all of our mini appliances!

Our dining room (with a Christmas tree instead of a dining table).

The living room, the doors lead out onto the deck.

I am really excited for spring when we can be out on the deck and in our yard.  Only a few more months to go!

Happy Boxing Day!

As you may or may not know (probably the latter since we didn't know either!) today is Boxing Day in the United Kingdom!  What does that mean, you ask?  We're not really sure.  We just know almost everything was closed today, just like yesterday.  Actually my mom looked up some info on it and we wikipedia'd it.  Here are the detailsif you want to know more. 
Craig, Deja, and I had a very nice Christmas.  We spent Christmas Eve in Cambridge showing Deja the sites and went to the Cambridge Corn Exchange and saw Snow White on Ice.  The Corn Exchange is a theater venue which used to be the building that they traded corn in.  Here is us in front of the River Cam and punting boats.  A popular thing to do in Cambridge is to go punting, it is similar to riding in the gondolas in Venice.  Basically you use a big giant stick to move the boat up and down the river.  We are waiting until it is warmer to go! 

We spent Christmas day watching bad made-for-tv Christmas movies that Deja LOVED (ok, I did too...), took a hike in the meadow across the river from us, and cooked a huge meal which we will probably be eating for the next two weeks.  It was very tasty though!  Craig even proclaimed, "You CAN cook!" Ha!  Deja made quite the haul from Santa, her grandparents, aunts and uncles, and the tooth fairy!  It was pretty cute because Deja lost a tooth and she was so excited that the tooth fairy and Santa would be coming on the same night.  Craig and I thought, geez we better not screw this one up, talk about pressure! We did well though and she was happy, as evidenced below:

We had a fun time and we are thankful to be together during the holiday season, but we missed our friends and family who were celebrating with each other back in DC and Minnesota. 

On an odd note, the other day we stopped at a little restaurant to get something to eat and I mentioned to the waiter that we had just moved from the US.  When we were walking out of the restaurant later on two customers said, "Ahh duck and cover! Americans are coming!"  So we were caught off guard, but I said, "Don't worry, we left our guns at home today" and just laughed it off.  And one of the guys said, "Oh good, we don't want any B10 bombers flying through here either."  So it was all a little weird, but I guess it goes to their perception that we are warmongers.  I know that is the perception that some people around the world have of Americans, but to be confronted by it in that way was kind of disturbing.  Maybe instead of making a joke I should have defended "us"?  Or explained that not all Americans have guns and want to be invading other countries?  Also, why did the waiter have the need to tell two random guys we were American?  I mean we not THAT exotic, are we?

It's Official...

Well we have some sad news to report. We had to give up our Virginia license plates yesterday for the much uglier, non-descript UK plates.  It's funny, it wasn't signing our lease, or unpacking all of our stuff, or getting British cell phone numbers that made an impression on me, but getting these license plates finally made me realize, we are officially living here.  Ahhhhhhh!!!!  But I am dealing with it alright I guess, I was planning on saving my VA plates for sentimental reasons,  until Craig burst my bubble and informed me we have to send them back to the DMV.  So there goes that idea.  I still get to have my Virginia driver's license so I guess that will have to do.

In other news, we had a huge milestone: we finished painting!  Exactly one month after moving in we completed every room and it looks great.  Once we tidy everything up I will post pictures.  I have to congratulate Craig for this.  If it was up to me, I would have petered out after doing the kitchen, but we he was gung-ho on doing every room and it looks so much better.  Since we have been doing all the work on the house, dressing up, doing my hair and makeup (showering...) has been somewhat on the back burner.  So we finally got the chance last night to attend Craig's company Christmas party and get all gussied up.  We had a great time, it was at a Turkish restaurant and they had a belly dancer perform and a DJ later on in the evening so we could dance.  Here is us looking pretty:

 Here are a few more things we have learned about living here.

• We had our first experience with the UK government services.  About a week ago Craig was trying to cut something using a knife, rather than a scissors.  I will spare you all the gory details but it ended badly, needless to say.  I had to call 999 (their version of 911) to figure what to do because he was bleeding pretty badly.  First a woman picked up the phone and asked what we needed, and I explained we needed medical assistance.  She said someone would call back within the hour.  I said, no we need help now!  And she hung up.  Luckily someone called back in a few minutes and I explained to her what happened and asked if they could send someone out or send an ambulance because we just moved here and didn't know where to go or where the nearest ER was located.  She said no because his wound was not life threatening, then she suggested I have him sit down for a little while and give him something to drink (by this she meant give him a cup of tea because that's their cure for 90% of the problems here-- I am not exaggerating, I have confirmed this statistic with several locals).  I told her, no we need help now!  I asked her where the nearest hospital was so I could bring him, she responded that it is on the "main road".  What main road?!  There's a million main roads!  Finally I just googled it and we were off.  After a few hours, several stitches, and one fainting episode later (me, not Craig...) we were all set.  The experience at the ER was alright, but the doctor kept leaving to check on other patients while he was still in the middle of treating Craig, we noticed a conspicusous amount of dried blood in the exam room, the doctor admitted to the nurse he forgot to write down what medication he gave the last patient, and he also told us how much less school is required for them to become doctors in the UK. That was comforting. So while the emergency services people were not helpful at all, and the staff at the hospital were not particularly attentive, the cost for it all was 7 pounds (around $12.00), and this was for the box of antibiotics they gave Craig when we left.  We paid nothing for the visit to the ER, in fact, we never even filled out any paperwork or signed anything, or showed them any ID.  The experience opened our eyes to some of the positives and negatives of universal health care.  Not having to pay or deal with insurance is great!  But do you give up some quality of the services...?  Possibly.
• British people laugh at you when you don't know what something is.  Just in the past week I have been laughed at several times.  Not that I am so unaccustomed to getting laughed at, but usually its at least by people I know!  At the local bakery they have "tiger bread".  It looks like a flat loaf of white bread with brownish orangish lines on it.  So of course I ask the woman at the counter what kind of bread it is.  She laughed and didn't answer.  The man in line next to me laughed and responded, it's white bread! But how is it different from the loaf next to it which is labeled "white bread?"  Who knows?  Then, at the farmer's market they have all this produce that I've never seen before.  So I ask the guy, what is this and what is that?  He just laughs: haha that's so funny, she doesn't know all 30 thirty varieties of root vegetables!     
• Credit cards are different here.  They don't swipe them.  As a way to combat identity fraud they put chips in all the credit cards and you stick the card in a little machine and then punch your personal code in to authorize a charge, similar to using a debit card.  But we are still using our old credit cards (it's a big process to get UK credit cards since we don't have any credit history established here) so everywhere we go we have to ask if they accept swipe cards, some of the younger salespeople don't even know what we're talking about when we say we need to swipe our cards.  Most places still accept them, if their machines still have the capability to swipe cards, but when we sign the receipt they practically take out a magnifying glass to make sure the signature matches the signature on the card.  And then the sales person kind of looks you up and down, as if trying to decide if you look like a person who would steal someone else's card (Craig says this is in my head, but I swear they do!).  It's very disconcerting.

Well that's all for now.  I am leaving on Monday to go to Minnesota for 5 days to see my family before heading to pick up Deja in Georgia.  She is spending Christmas with us here.  We are incredibly excited she is coming! 

Our Adventurous Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day in London.  We arrived in the morning and attended a church service at St. Paul's Cathedral for Americans living in the UK.  There was about 500 people there and the US Ambassador to the UK spoke as well.  It was a nice service and the church was beautiful.

After the service we went to a lunch at great restaurant called Fifteen owned by Jamie Oliver, he is pretty big over here (he had the show Jamie's Oliver's Food Revolution in the US), and then we did some some sightseeing at the Tower of London, walked along the Thames, and saw the London Bridge (behind Craig in the picture below). 

We had a great day together and can't wait to spend some more time sightseeing in London.  We really missed being with family and friends though.  When we got home we ordered some Chinese take out and sat around talking about how much we wished we were back home!

We've been feeling kind of like duds since we arrived here.  Most days we're in bed by 11pm.  We get up early every morning and drink tea.  We plan our meals out in advance and look up recipes accordingly.  We spend most of our days working on the flat.  So when the opportunity came up for an inexpensive three day trip to Amsterdam, we thought, here is our chance to prove we are still young and fun!  We left on Friday morning at 3:30am and took a ferry from England to Holland.  It took a LONG time to get there, about 6.5 hours on the ship plus driving to and from the ports.  We got to Amsterdam that evening and had a great dinner at a traditional Dutch restaurant, in fact, when we were done, Craig proclaimed it was the BEST meal he ever ate--and Craig has eaten a lot of meals!  We walked around the city and found the famous Red Light District.  Somehow it didn't seem as scandalous as I had always pictured it. The next day we did some more sightseeing and saw the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum, and the outdoor Christmas market, complete with ice skating and glogg.  We did a lot of walking and explored the different neighborhoods and canal areas.  I can't say that we partied enough to lose our "dud" status though, it was a pretty tame but enjoyable few days. 

This was a group of swans in a canal at the start of the Red Light District--you can see some of the reddish pink lights in the distance.

My favorite meal of the trip, a traditional stampot.  Just look at that sausage!  It was de-lish!!!

 On the way to take the ferry back to England we stopped in Delft, where Delft pottery has been made for several hundred years.  It was a beautiful little town.

So it was a great trip and has reignited our desire to make the most out of our European experience.  We'll still probably be in bed by 11pm most nights, but on occasion, you may find us in some famous city, drinking hot wine until the wee hours of the morning.