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!