Things I miss from home....

I'm often asked by people here about things I miss from home. Well, I've got it easy. Differences between the UK and US are pretty small, in the scheme of things. But there are things I miss. My family and friends top the list, of course. Beyond the people, I find it funny that the things I miss are everyday things- food, for example. The things that I never gave a second thought about at home.

Here's a partial list... and please note, this is not me complaining!!! I'm just answering a question I get a lot! And I can survive 11 more months without these things (mom, if you're reading this, please, ignore that last sentence. Please keep sending me care packages! Mac and cheese and almond roca are good space fillers!!!) hahaha.

• Kraft Mac N Cheese. Yep, the blue box. :-)
• Baseball (I know, it's the offseason- but I can still miss it!)
  
• Jiffy Corn Muffin mix. Can't make corn casserole w/o it!
• Water. I miss the water. Can you blame me, after living in Gig Harbor most of my life?
• Electrical outlets in the bathroom. Seriously, folks- despite serious evidence to the contrary, I am coordinated enough to use a curling iron in the bathroom without electrocuting myself. But no, I have to buy a mirror 'cause my curling iron cord won't reach from all the way across the room to the bathroom.
• Big washers and dryers (what takes me one load at home takes 2-3 here, and at triple the cost!)
• Breakfast sausages. They taste totally different here.
• Bacon. Again, tastes totally different here.
• Having my own kitchen. And all the kitchen tools I have at home. OK, this is simply because I have to share a kitchen in my accommodation- it's not uniquely British. But I had to mention it.
• Pizza from the Tides Tavern.
• My car. Yes, I'm American, and I love my car. Only, I sold my car before leave... so it's not mine anymore. I miss the freedom it gave me!
• 'Cheap' gasoline. No, I don't have a car here (yet!), but if/when I get one, I'm sure I'll miss $1.67/gallon gasoline.
  
• Kinza's chicken teriyaki and their salad dressing
• Mountains. I miss you, Mt. Rainier!
• Almond Roca. Oh my gosh, the best candy ever.
• Johnson Candy Co.'s 'Candy Ice' mints. 2nd best candy ever.
• The letter 'z'
  
• The Grand Cinema. I miss their cheap and really great movies and free popcorn (the benefits of membership!)
• Frisco Freeze. What I'd do for a cheeseburger, onion rings, and rootbeer shake from Frisco...
  
• Stores that are open 24/7 (or even just until 10pm!)
• Eddie Bauer. Crazy that I miss a clothing store, right? Oh well.
  

Things I don't miss:

• Driving on the right hand side of the road. I drove nearly 500 miles while my family was here in a rental- and not once did I veer to the right. No crashes either. :-) I love driving! And apparently, I adapted well.
• Television. I don't have a TV here, and that's great.
• Campaign ads. Yes, the woman who is addicted to politics was THRILLED to be an ocean away from campaign ads during the last weeks of the campaign. :-)

I'm sure there is plenty more for both lists... but it's time for me to put the finishing touches on my newly revised Rotary presentation so I can have it ready for tomorrow's speech!

2008 Wrap Up

Well, Happy New Years everyone!

I have been peer pressured into posting about my 2008- it seems all my blogger friends have done it, so I guess it's my turn. Here goes:

January:
The legislative session started, so I spent most of my waking hours in Olympia. No vacation time during session... but I did manage to visit a place I hadn't been since I was very young: the Museum of Flight in Seattle. I had a great time- I really should go there more frequently. There I saw a Boeing 707-120, known as SAM (Special Air Missions) 970. It may be better known as the first Air Force One, delivered in 1959 as the first jet used by a US President. It carried Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, and flew the Vice President and other dignitaries till 1996. You get to walk inside parts of it- and it's not nearly as spacious as it seems on TV. :-)

February:
There was an amazing lunar eclipse in February, which I photographed from the Tacoma Narrows Airport. The photo to the left is a bit photoshopped, I'll admit... but I did take the photo of the moon, and the photo of the Narrows Bridges... but the moon photo I used a 300mm zoom lens... and then copied and pasted. :-) I love technology. Also in February, my family went to a concert at Jazz Alley in Seattle to see Jake Shimabukuro. Jake's a world renowned ukulele player, who has played with Jimmy Buffett. It was my second Jake concert, and my second time meeting him. There I am --> with my sister and Jake.




March:
In March we celebrated my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary at CI Shenanigans, a restaurant in Tacoma. It was great to have everyone together! My mom made a quilted table runner with photos from their wedding, I made a video of wedding photos and other family photos, and lots more. And that night, my dad, sister and I drove across the pass to Eastern Washington for one of Kjersti's fastpitch tournaments. Only one other time in my life have I been as scared as I was on that drive, and I wasn't even driving! The snow and ice was horrendous. We arrived at nearly 4am, slept for about an hour and a half, then had to go to the fields. Brrrr. It was miserable. We had tarps up to try to block the wind. I brought a propane heater- and I seriously think without it we may have gotten frostbite. You can see just how bundled up Kjersti is.

Eastern WA in March? Never again.



May:
Fastpitch season for Kjersti continued, and I saw all but one of her school games (I think). What a great sister, right? :-) Oh yeah, I'm an even better sister for posting a picture of her pitching with that lovely mask. Hehe.

But the really exciting event of May was me flying to Orlando, renting a car, then driving to Cocoa Beach... warm weather, parasailing, kayaking... and, oh yeah, a space shuttle launch!!! It was my second attempt going all that distance to see a launch- the last one was with dad and Kjersti in Dec '07. But this time, it actually launched! It was amazing. And don't worry, I have photos and video. :-) I rented a 500mm lens for my camera, and this is as close as it would get me:







June-August:
My summer was jammed packed. In addition to getting ready for my year abroad, I went on several vacations, and quit my job. The vacations were fun, the quitting the job part wasn't. :-(

Kjersti and I went on a "college visit" trip. At least that's what we told Mom and Dad, our monetary backers. :-) We visited UConn, Boston College, Boston University, Georgetown and UVA. So yes, technically, we did visit colleges. But the exciting parts (in my opinion) were the baseball stadiums and historical sights we managed to fit in. :-) We saw Dave Niehaus (Mariner's broadcaster) get inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame (hooray for Dave!!! Our favorite Mariner!), we went to a game at Fenway Park where the Sox played the Yankees (by the way, that game was on my sister's 16th b-day- how awesome a sister am I for getting those tickets?). We spent a day in New York City (never, ever, ever again will I drive anywhere near there). We stayed with family in Washington DC. We went to a National's game at their new stadium. I saw old friends, and got to visit my favorite place in the world- Jefferson Memorial.

Then we flew home, were home for one day, then went to a Mariner's game where the hometown fans celebrated Dave's induction into the Hall of Fame and I got this great photo of the Navy's Blue Angels who were performing for Seafair that day. They're between the light standards. :-) From the game we drove to Winthrop, in Eastern WA, for round two of the festivities surrounding my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary- a family reunion-esque vacation. Remember before when I said the drive in March to eastern WA was one of two terrifying drives I'd been on? Yep, this drive to eastern WA is the other terrifying drive I was talking about. Yikes. Dodging deer, winding curves with cliffs and no barriers... no way will I take that road ever again.

Fastpitch continued.... though we went from freezing cold in Eastern Washington to miserably hot north of Seattle...










September:
Here are Kjersti and I at the last Rainiers baseball game of the season... it was sad to leave the stadium knowing that I'd miss all of the 2009 season. Did you know that I have been to every single opening day game at Cheney Stadium for my entire life? That's 24 years in a row for anyone counting. And I've only missed one July 3rd fireworks show- when I was living in Washington DC. And now I'll miss an entire season. So sad. Oh well. At least they broadcast the games online... too bad they start at 3am my time...


What else did I do in September? Oh yeah, I moved to England.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Here's wishing a great new year to you all. If this year is half as exciting as last year was, I'm in for a treat.

-Hannah

Merry Christmas Eve!

I hope you are all having an amazing Christmas Eve! And I hope you don't see this for awhile which would mean you're having a great time with family and friends! Here's my family- taken earlier today in Oxford.

We've been really busy the last few days- ok, I know I've said that before - but we're really keeping busy!!! Just got back from a one night trip up to Coventry so I could show my family where I've been living. On the way up we stopped in Stratford-upon-Avon, and on the way how we stopped in Oxford. Lots of touristy things to see! And the night we were in Coventry we were invited to my host counselor's home for dinner. It was the best food we've had in a long time- it was amazing to have a home cooked meal after so many days of restaurants and take out!!! :-) And the company was just as good as the food. :-) It was great for me to be able to introduce my family to the people I've been telling them about!

At this point you should ask me how we got to Coventry.... and the answer would be: I DROVE!!! :-) We rented a car, and I successfully drove nearly 200 miles up to Coventry and back. No accidents, no driving in the "wrong" lane... and only two very minor missteps (wrong exit on roundabouts most often due to the four of us all counting which one we should go to and, amazingly enough, all of us coming up with a different idea of where to go. Thankfully, I had already been on those two roads, so I was able to just go through the roundabout again and find the right exit... :-) haha. Oh, and I must add, I am the Queen of the Coventry Ring Road. Hahahahahaha. I mastered it. hehe.

Anyway, back to the family... Have a great Christmas, everyone!!!

Unbelievable.

That's the only word I can think of to describe what has been going on!

In no particular order:
1) Is the world ending? What on earth did I do to have my first white Christmas ever WHEN I'M NOT AT HOME???? Last I heard from friends about an hour ago, there were 8 inches on the ground back home, and steady snow still falling. Seriously? Unbelievable.

2) Guess where I've been? The reason this blog hasn't been updated in awhile? I was in Paris. :-) As you know from my last update, my mom arrived safely last week and we'd been seeing the sights in London. Well, my dad and sister arrived last Thursday, and we went straight to Paris.

In the 34 hours that we were in Paris, we saw so much! We took the Eurostar, which takes just over two hours headed through the Chunnel and French countryside. After we checked into our hotel, we headed for the Eiffel Tower. The view from the top was amazing. Little chilly, though. :-)

After the Eiffel Tower, we took the Metro (subway) to see Notre Dame. I hate to say it, but as amazing as that cathedral is, it was so commercialized that I really didn't appreciate it. There were machines throughout the church with lights advertising the commemorative coins you can buy. There were boxes strewn about in one part that looked like they used to contain items the gift shop was selling. Seriously, folks, can't you dispose of those properly rather than just throw them on the ground? It didn't feel like anyone actually treated the church with any respect. Sad.

After Notre Dame we walked to the Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportationate which remembers the 200,000 people deported from France to concentration camps during the second world war. It's right on the River Seine, and was very poignant. We then ate an early dinner at a cafe in the Ile Saint Louis neighborhood, and headed back to Notre Dame. There we caught a cab, and headed to our evening bus/river cruise tour. We got to see all the famous Parisian sights lit up in the really beautiful, crisp evening. The Eiffel Tower, for a few minutes on the hour, lights up with white twinkle lights. It's amazing. The river cruise was great, although it did make me feel quite stupid. One of the tour guides kept saying things in five different languages, and, while I'm certainly no expert, her pronunciation sounded perfect. I can barely manage English sometimes. :-) The perfect end to this crazy day was a crepe with nutella. Mmm. :-)

That was all on Friday... Saturday was even crazier. We started with breakfast, as any sane person should... and I must say, a croissant with nutella is heavenly. :-) Then the mad rush through the museums began. We started at Musee de Orsay, where I found many Monet paintings, which was really exciting (including this one, on the right, of the Japanese bridge at his gardens in Giverny). For those who don't know, I'm seriously addicted to Monet (by the way, I was just chatting with my godmother, we're staying with them near London now, and she's just given me an awesome early Christmas present- glasses cleaning cloths in a Monet pattern. She knows me too well. hehe). Once we finished at Orsay, we headed to the Louvre. It was too big for my taste. So many awesome things, but I was so overwhelmed. And, to make matters totally worse, none of us grabbed a map before we headed inside. We just followed the signs to the Mona Lisa, then, when we realized none of us knew how to find the Venus de Milo statue, we realized that we had no idea where we were. In my very broken, tourist-guide French, I was asking museum employees "ou est Venus de Milo s'il vous plait?" To which we got terrible directions. About 45 minutes of wandering aimlessly later... we found our way out. Without having seen Venus. :-) Oh well. I was happy to head to our next stop: Musee de Orangerie. This is where you can find Monet's water lilies!!! Only something I've dreamed of seeing ever since I saw my first Monet painting years and years ago. They were breathtaking. Absolutely amazing. One of the panels of water lilies is below. There were two huge rooms with four panels each, specially designed for these panels. I didn't want to leave.

After Orangerie, we ate lunch at a cafe near the Louvre, and I headed out on my own afterwards for my FOURTH museum of the day- the Musee de Marmottan, which has the largest collection of Monet's work of any museum in the world. Yes, I was in heaven. Water lilies, Giverny, the Houses of Parliament in London... the list goes on, and on, and on. Every one of them was more spectacular than the previous. I couldn't take photos here, but you can trust me. Amazing.

I met back up with the family later that afternoon, grabbed one last nutella crepe, and we headed to the train station for our trip home. A great start to the family vacation.

We pick up our rental car today... wish me luck remembering to stay on the left side of the road. :-) London on Monday, then Stratford/Coventry/Oxford on Tues/Wed. More later.

Family, Day One!

Today I got up bright and early (6am!!!) so that I could be on a train to London, then ride the tube for what seemed like FOREVER to get to Heathrow Airport in time to welcome my mom to England! I made it to the arrivals area about two minutes before she got through customs- nice timing! It's great to see her, and get to watch her reactions to things like having to look to the right first when crossing a street instead of the left, and seeing cars so different than at home. And telling her the values of all the coins. :-) And, most importantly, not having to think at all about how I word sentences, knowing that she'll understand whatever I say, no matter what phrase, joke, or saying.

I certainly got her trip off on an interesting footing- less than five hours after she landed, I took her to a doctors surgery (office) here so that I could get a prescription for something to kick this cold that I've had lingering for nearly three weeks now. It wasn't really miserable until today, but the last few days I think I've been annoying all my friends with my coughing spells. Thankfully, the very helpful doctors surgery got me an appointment only two hours after I called- and they've given me a prescription for amoxicillian, which I hope does the trick. I swear, if I spend one more night (or day) coughing, I'll go insane! Hahaha.

It's been a long day, and I'm in serious need of sleep. Night, everyone!
(less than a week until I'm in Paris!!!)

Christmas Mood

I've been in a serious Christmas mood lately. I can't get enough Christmas music, and I love walking through the city centre and seeing all the Christmas lights. At Chatsworth House last weekend I saw beautiful Christmas trees and decorations. And to finish off my weekend, yesterday I went to "Carols for Christmas" at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford upon Avon. This was a carol service jointly put on by the Rotary district that I'm in (District 1060) and the local Inner Wheel District. I was so excited to get a chance to attend a carol service, mainly because a church I used to attend back home used to sing Christmas carols every Sunday of Advent- and I was really missing that!


If you don't know, Holy Trinity Church in Stratford is where you'll find William Shakespeare's grave. It's a beautiful church, dating back to 1210. There were several readings and several carols, and I was excited to see several familiar songs. But I also saw some I'd never heard of before: "Once in Royal David's City", and "In the bleak midwinter." The familiar songs were "O little town of Bethlehem," "It came upon a midnight clear," "O come, all ye faithful," and "Hark! the herald angels sing."

Now, just because they are familiar to me doesn't mean that everything was entirely familiar! The tune to all but one of those songs was different than I'd ever heard! What a cultural experience. I'm not a good singer- I'll be the first to admit, but when it comes to Christmas carols I'm not terribly shy. I started singing, and, well, no one else was saying the words in the same way I was (and no, I don't mean accents!). Hahaha. It was a great experience, but I'll admit that once I got home, I did listen to a few of the songs again, with the tune that I'm familiar with. :-)

Visiting Mr. Darcy's House

Today I took my last trip with the International Students office of this calendar year- to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. For those who don't know, Chatsworth House serves as the home to Mr. Darcy in the 2005 film "Pride and Prejudice." I'll happily admit that's the sole reason why I went to see it. :-)



The house was all decorated for Christmas- trees, lights, ornaments- everywhere! I still think if I could have gotten one of those trees out of the house without them seeing, they'd never know it was gone. I should have counted how many trees- it was at least over 30. And they were all so beautiful! You can find many more photos on my photo page... here...


Next week I'll be visiting the Birmingham Christmas Market, which apparently is the largest authentic German Christmas Market outside Germany or Austria. You can read about it here. I'm so excited!

Time for Gloves!

We've had quite the cold streak lately, and for me to admit that is saying something. Normally I welcome the biting chill of winter... but I'm pretty sure I'm still in recovery mode from my cold last week... and some taste of tropical weather would be really nice. :-)

Wait, you mean I didn't move to the British Virgin Islands? 'Cause I thought that's what I signed up for heading to Great Britain... hahaha... Just kidding, just kidding.

I broke down today and bought gloves to go with the scarf that I refuse to take off. I've been wearing a new coat the last few days- a North Face that I've been wanting to buy for years- and finally did earlier this week. It's great. Totally not suitable for daily walk around town weather during an English winter- it's built for wearing as an outer layer when running (which I'll start back up again once any evidence of me having a cold is gone). But I love it, so I'm wearing it and shivering all around town. Apparently common sense is not my forte.

Only six days until my first essay is due, and I'm only about half done. I really need to concentrate on it. But between now and the deadline, I'm off to see Chatsworth House on Saturday (an all day trip)... This is the house you may recognize from Pride and Prejudice- Mr. Darcy's Pemberly- which, ashamedly, is why I signed up for the trip. I'll post pics once I'm back! And on Sunday I'm off to sing Christmas carols in Stratford. And I also hope to fit in a trip to the Birmingham Christmas Market, too. Then mom comes! She flies in on Friday of next week!

Time is going so fast. I have a calendar on my wall that I've been marking off. I'm not counting down the days till I come home- yes, I miss my family and friends (and the water!)... but... I'm marking the days to remind myself to make the most of the precious time I've been given here- to experience as much as I can. Can you believe it, I've been here nearly three whole months already? Amazing.

***My photo webpage has been updated... to include the Thanksgiving photo I promised, among many others! Click here...

Busy Week...

Well, I've survived a very, very busy week! Two Thanksgivings... a trip to Gerrards Cross (London), helping with a dinner for 40+ people, two Rotary presentations (and another tomorrow!), all while attempting to recover from a cold. Phew. I'm exhausted even thinking about it!

I still don't have Thanksgiving photos- I know, I'm a failure. :-) But I do have a photo to provide you with a "Where's Waldo" esque experience. Can you find me? :-) That was at our All Student meeting of the Student Union last week. Give up? Spoiler Alert! I'm on the far right side of the photo, in a grey sweater and glasses. :-) That was a fun meeting- especially for this political nerd. A meeting is only exciting if there are procedural motions and amendments. Therefore, this meeting was exciting. :-)

Off soon to a meeting with one of my professors to discuss an essay I'm working on- developing a proposal for a peace education programme. I'm having trouble focusing on it... I'm so excited about the potentials that I've become scatterbrained. Oh well. I'll get there!

Hope you all are doing well. More photos soon, I promise! Including photos from last night's "Meet the Scholars" evening, where four of the five Ambassadorial Scholars from studying in this district came together to share a bit of our cultures. I shared lots of food- deviled eggs, apple pie(s), pumpkin pie, and chocolate chip cookies. I also gave a talk entitled "Service Above Self in American Government," where I talked about a lot of experiences I've had- including peace gaming, lobbying in DC, and school levy campaigning that I've done. I got lots of questions afterwards, and that almost always means people were listening to the speech- and were curious for more. So I'll take it as a compliment! :-)

UPDATE: Here's some photos of the last few weeks...

The Christmas Light Switch-on in Coventry
reminded me of just how much history this city has... 1345? Wow. The food in the styrofoam? My Thanksgiving dinner- a crepe with nutella! Yum! That was at the Warwick Victorian Evening. Also at the Victorian evening was the Leamington Spa Regency Rotary Club stall- where they sold hot dogs! 200 hot dogs, to be precise. Lots of money for charity!

The "Castle" photo is a street sign in Warwick- and part of the castle in the background!

A ferris wheel at the Victorian evening!













And last, but certainly not least, a photo from last night's "Meet the Scholars" Rotary event.

Another Peace education lesson

Today was presentation day in one of my classes. The topic? Four different groups presenting on non-violent movements in different parts of the world. The groups were:

1. Women in Africa- non-violent movements
2.USA Civil Rights Movement
3. Non-violent movements in the Arab World
4. Non-violent movements in Latin America

I was in the Latin America group. There were five of us in the group, and we each focused on a different country. When we first got the assignment I instantly remembered a movie I saw in college called the Agronomist- a documentary about Jean Dominique, who ran a radio station in Haiti. Dominique was an amazing person who dedicated his life to fighting (non-violently) for basic human rights for the people of Haiti who have suffered so tremendously under violent military dictatorships. Dominique was assassinated in 2000 while on his way to deliver a morning broadcast. His station broadcast in Creole, the language of the peasantry, not in French- which was the language of the ruling elite. That in itself was revolutionary. It was really great to watch the movie again, then do much more extensive research into Haitian history. It's really important for Americans to understand the involvement of the US in so many countries in central and south America- and Haiti is no exception. Dominique was often critical of US involvement in Haiti, and from what I've read, I agree with many of his points. When trying to "help," we often made things much worse. And that's saying something, given Haitian history.

There were many really interesting presentations today- and I'm especially interested in looking into the story of the Palestinian village of Battir, which was protected during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war by Hasan Mustafa. We heard a brief talk about it today, and there was a MA dissertation about it from a Coventry U student two years ago (which can be found here if interested). Really interesting stuff.

After class today (which ended early- at 4:45), I talked to a classmate for awhile about a lot of different topics- how classes are going, the civil rights movement, travel.... It was so nice to just sit down and chat with someone with no regard for time or topic. We sat in the really comfortable couches in the graduate centre (I really, really, really miss having a living room!), and talked until 7. It reminded me so much of my undergraduate years, and I realized how much I had missed this collegiate atmosphere.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how badly I want to go on a roadtrip. When I was at Pacific University during my undergrad, I took frequent trips to the ocean- to Cannon Beach. A beautiful part of the Oregon coast, and perhaps my favorite vacation spot. For those of you who aren't familiar with Cannon Beach, here's a classic shot of the beach, taken on one of my many trips a few years ago.

I miss being able to take those drives, to escape what's going on here, even if it's just for a few hours. After classes end in March, when I'm supposed to be deep in research and writing of my dissertation, I am seriously thinking about buying a used car, and traveling all over England. Short day trips, weekend trips, maybe as long as a week at a time exploring this amazing country. The worst thing I could do with this year is not explore. I'm going to be here for 14 months- I should see as much as possible! I've had several people tell me they'd be interested in joining me on a trip or two. Those are trips I'd remember for the rest of my life. Plus, I've got friends and family coming to visit over the summer... and it would be really convenient if I had a car so we wouldn't have to hire one... this is sounding pretty logical. Hmm...

We've got an All Student Meeting tomorrow for the Student Union which should be fun (free milk and cookies- gotta love being a student, right? haha). After that I've got class, then off to volunteer at a Rotary event. That's how I'm celebrating Thanksgiving. Then I'm off early Friday morning to my godparent's house just outside London for Thanksgiving, round two. I'm back in Coventry late Saturday night, then off to help cook dinner and provide entertainment (a speech) for 30+ Rotarians. Busy few days ahead of me!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!