;)

Let it Snow Let it Snow!

Today, we woke to this pleasant surprise:

But there's papers, papers, and more papers...oh, and I have to call the hospital....again. This is going to be a very long day.

Cheers!
--Mary

Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

 

Stories might follow….but with the massive amount of essay-writing that needs to be done, I would not hold my breath if I were you…

Cheers!

~Laura

Thanksgiving!

We'll see what we can whip up around here for tomorrow ;)
Speaking of Thanksgiving...I was buying foil roasting pans, and the British Gentleman in front of me was rather inquisitive:

"Making Turkey, huh?" I sweetly nodded, but I really wanted to say "Yes, I'm an American and tomorrow is Thanksgiving - duh!!!" partly out of the frustration of not being able to find suitable ingredients.

Exhibit A: Pumpkin ravioli... they don't seem to know what to do with pumpkin, as in putting it in a pie
Exhibit B: really expensive turkey that is the size of a large chicken...really?
Exhibit C: Turkey breast fillets... no plain turkey breasts, which would be cheaper...

We'll see what happens... I just hope we got enough meat :)

Things are looking optimistic, though!

Cheers!
~Laura

The Joys of the NHS ( with GREAT sarcasm)

Dear Friends, (readers and countrymen),

After reading that title, you can probably guess that I don't like nationalized health care. They tell me that the NHS has improved in the past few years due to reforms, and all I can say is that is must have been UNBEARABLE in the past. Now, it's just really, really bad.

You might be wondering why I, a healthy person, would have any contact with the NHS. Let me just say right now that it wasn't serious. Basically, my new retainer started rubbing on my lower gums, under my tongue, which caused a blister. The blister broke and then my body responded by growing a lump the size of a lima bean in that place. It was 7mm in diameter to be exact. (I took a picture, but I don't think you'd like to see it).

Well, my retainer definitely needed fixing at this point, so I went to a local orthodontist for some help. He had the coolest office ever. It was designed like a ship with three 'decks' and a long staircase in the middle.

The orthodontist took one look at my mouth and developed a very worried look on his face. Apparently, this was not supposed to happen. Ever. He trimmed my retainer for me and gave me a nice note to take to the hospital so they would treat me asap.

Well, I went home, had some dinner and then set out on a very windy, rainy evening to the hospital. We got lost a couple of times and every person we asked gave us a different set of directions.

Well, I explained my problem, showed them my note and waited in the waiting room for about a half hour. During that time I saw people come in with bad back and bleeding hands. Everyone had to wait, regardless of their injury.

Then, I saw the Triage lady. She basically just laughed at me. She was quite rude to everybody. I'm so glad I wasn't dying.

Then I waited for another two hours and was seen by a doctor who looked at me and then told me to make an appointment with an upstairs clinic. AHHHHH!!

Well, a few days later a got a call and set up an appointment. I didn't get to choose the date or the time. Luckily it worked out. I waited in that waiting room for an hour and a half and got seen by another doctor. Apparently the first doctor didn't talk/give notes to the second doctor. So, we started from scratch.

He was Irish and had such a cool accent, except for the fact that he mumbled quite a bit. He decided to cut the thing out right then and there (after some persuasion from a collegue who insisted that I was uncomfortable and there was no reason I shouldn't have the surgery. I really liked that guy.)

It wasn't such a bad procedure. I got one stitch :) The worst part was the Novocaine (my mouth started bleeding all over the place when he juiced me up. I HATE Novocaine. )

Supposedly, I have to go back fro a checkup, but again, they get to decide when and where.

The NHS in a nutshell:
- you have to wait in very long lines because everyone who has an ingrown toenail goes to the hospital to get it fixed
- they apologize for the wait, but don't ask them to take your blood pressure right then
- the hospital is basically the medical version of the Circumlocution Office. If you don't know what I mean, read Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens.

Enough ranting. I'm really glad it wasn't more serious. If I was dying, I would be dead by now. (FYI, I'm fine).

Now, back to my essays...Cheers!

--Mary

;-)

Quaint and Quirky continued…

Just some odd things that happened today that are worth noting…at least, I found them slightly amusing :)

-Today at Mass there was a Belgian Men’s choir singing (probably just came from a concert at the Cathedral or something).  They were really good—but the priest did not seem to be in the best of moods as Mass progressed—a) because a lady (who was probably associated with the choir) was taking flash photos DURING MASS… and b) because they sang “Old Time Religion” as the recessional.  Nothing particular bad about that song… except it’s very American Protestant sounding…not good for reverent, traditional Catholic :P  Nobody else seemed to know what to make of it either: I heard some people talking as I came outside “Old time religion, now isn’t that Judaism?”

It made me smile :)

-Subway.  Mary and I went to grab some dinner after Dicken’s World (I won’t spoil Mary’s post about it) and we got into an interesting conversation with the attendant.  It went something like this:

“I’d like a 6-in. _________”

“Alright then.” pause.  “Do I detect an American accent?”

“Yes.”

“How do you like Subway in Britain?”  rather odd question, that!  “What’s Subway like in America?”

“Well, for one thing, the wallpaper is of the New York Subway…”

“Oh yes, we’ve got one of those in London…”  At this point the thought crossed my mind that such a thing as the New York Subway on wallpaper must be confusing to Britons…

Then, of course, we had the “Twin Discussion,” are we related, who’s older, etc…

-Sprite.  We almost never drink pop, but today Mary and I decided to splurge…interesting thing, Sprite, in this country, is made with SUGAR not HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP… cool, but weird… I don’t recall ever seeing ORGANIC soda in the US of A without some sort of corn syrup!!

 

That’s all for today’s episode of Quaint and Quirky :)

Cheers!

~Laura

The English have a certain fascination with twins

I have often remarked to Laura that we are celebrities wherever we go (as long as we go together, of course!). Random "fans" come up to us and ask "Are you twins?" or the more original, but getting old, "Are you related?" One time, we walked into Wal-mart and a girl said to her mom, "Look mom, a set of twins! A real set of twins!" (as opposed to a fake set?). Another time in a movie theater, a little boy asked "Are you twins?" When we responded in the affirmative (simultaneously) his reaction was: "Wow. oh wow!"

The English are no different than Americans in their curiosity about twins. Today we visited Chatham (pronounced Chat-'em) and Dickens World, which is a kind of amusement park with a Charles Dickens theme. It was really cool, not a lot of stuff to do, but still cool.


The moment we stepped into the square, one of the staff (dressed in a very Dickensian outfit) came up to us and starting talking to us. I don't remember what she said, but Laura and I answered together. She got such a kick out of that. As we walked away I could hear her telling other members of the staff about "the twins that spoke at the same time."

The English don't scream on roller coaster rides. They had one ride in Dickens World - Great Expectations boat ride, during which, your boat turns around and goes down a waterfall backwards. Well, like good Americans, we screamed on our way down - all in good fun of course. When we got off our boat, one of the staff asked us TWICE if we were ok. Weird. Sometime later, we watched other people on the same ride and they didn't scream.

To cut this story short, by the time we left, the entire staff knew who we were. We jumped rope with some of them and chatted about London. And then we couldn't find the exit. Most exits, as you know, are carefully marked with flashing red lights and such. This had sort of a back door, hidden exit. I think they don't want people to leave.

Alright, you've been promised a London post, so here it is. We had a very quick tour of London via our coach (which caused later problems). They dropped us off at St. Paul's Cathedral (pronounced S'int Pauls) and we climbed to the top of the dome. Pardon my pun, but it doesn't hold a candle to St. Peter's :)


Pretty, but plain. After that, we had free time. The only problem was there isn't anything to see around St. Paul's other than St. Paul's. (ok, so if you want to go to the Tate Modern, you can.) Laura and I wandered around a bit along the Thames and came across this cool alley:

We decided to go into the Clink Prison museum...which was VERY cool and creepy. When I went to buy tickets, I got scared by the guy at the counter because he was dressed like an inmate with creepy make-up. They had all kinds of torture instruments you could touch and wax figures in different scenes. There was one person screaming behind a locked door. I almost couldn't read the museums signs it was so distracting.




This is London Bridge, by the way.
It was quite a full weekend. Now I really need to write on my paper(s).

Cheers!
--Mary

Quaint and Quirky

Today we went to a Writer’s conference/book festival in Folkestone.  It was absolutely fabulous and we learned loads and loads about how to write, edit, and publish a novel.

However, getting there and back was really the story I wanted to blog about :)

Originally we were going to take an 8am train, but since we had been up late last night we decided to sleep in and take an 8:30am train instead.  Everything went smoothly, until we started off to the train station slightly on the late side.  Halfway there I realized I didn’t have my amazing-one-of-a-kind Britrail Pass (further digression upon that subject can be seen here).

I couldn’t leave without it, so I ran all the way back to the dorm…couldn’t find it in my drawer where I had thought I put it…finally found it…raced out of the building (slamming all doors in the process, probably waking everybody up) and ran as fast as I could to the station.  Running and nice breakfast don’t go well together…especially when one has had the breakfast before the running :(

Every other breath I was glancing at my watch and praying that God would delay the train so we wouldn’t be late to the conference.

Thankfully, I reached the train SECONDS before it was about to leave the station!!  Now, who says God doesn’t work miracles?

Leaving the conference, we had the same sort of problem, though to a lesser extent…  As we were changing stations, we couldn’t figure out which platform our next train was on, and the clock kept ticking away.  Finally I saw a sign, we ran down stairs, down a hallway, up some more stairs (which, let me tell you, isn’t easy for someone who climbed to the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral the day before!)  The conductor yelled “Canterbury?” and we got on the train…again, seconds before it was about to leave…

But now for the meaning of the title… yesterday, on our tour of London (which Mary is planning to blog about) we had the most entertaining guide.  He had my favorite British accent (there are several, you know…) and the way he said things was just so quaint… straight out of the BBC or something :)  The tour went something like this:

“You see that Church in the alleyway on the right hand side? The one that’s called St. Bride…well, it’s not actually St. Bride, but short for St. Bridget…well look at the architecture and tell me what you think.  It' looks like a wedding cake, doesn’t it? You know, when you go to weddings…if you’ve been to any weddings…and they have the cake with all those layers…well sometimes they do… well, that’s where they got the idea…or so i’ve been told…”  Then he paused. “Quirky,” he said slowly. That’s where I lost it!  Mary and I erupted in giggles (quietly, of course).

“Oh, you like that word…very interesting, isn’t it?” he paused again. “Quirky…if I had more time, I’d tell you about our different languages…we do speak a different language, you know…” and so on and so forth…very charming, in my opinion.  It helped that he looked like Dr. Watson :P

Now for some odd and interesting, quaint and quirky (love that word) facts:

Did you know that the British term for pickles is gherkins?  just found out from a native :P  Odd that, we pickle pickles, they pickle gherkins…

For some reason, the petrol around here is marked at gas stations by the barrel price, instead of by the liter price (I think…otherwise, they’re all spending 124 quid a liter :P)

Cheers!

~Laura

The pitter patter of rain

One thing in England is always constant--it rains, it has rained, it will rain. Right now, it is raining. I have to say that I don't mind it as much now as when I first came here. I feel like having a good cup of tea.They have coffee here, but tea is much better (I'm not say the coffee is bad, just that Italian coffee is better). We have easily incorporated it into our diet, along with a very tasty biscuit called a digestive--tastes better than it sounds.

Ok, we promised (actually, Laura promised) that we would do a post about the Vatican. So, here it is. On our Sunday in Rome, we went to mass at the North American College and visited a seminarian friend of ours. He showed us around the college and took us to the Vatican for the angelus with the Pope. It was really cool, except the Pope was far away. We were closer in Birmingham. Afterward, we decided to climb up to the top of St. Peter's. 550+ steps. It was almost the best view of Rome (everyone knows that the very BEST view has to include the dome of St. Peter's). We wandered around in the church for a while after that and then went out to dinner with our friend.

It was probably the best restaurant we went to on the trip. Our friend told us that if you take a thin bread stick try to break it into three pieces by just holding the tips, you will come back to Rome (this is the same superstition as throwing a coin into the Trevi fountain). I don't give a fig for superstitions, but mine broke into three pieces :) :) And yes, we threw coins into the Trevi fountain--just for fun.

The next day we visited the Vatican Museums. This was very cool, except a portion of it was closed. And we were tired and hungry. I have to say that my highlight of this day was going to the Catacombs of St. Callista outside of Rome. As Eric would put it: Vatican + Catacombs + St. John Lateran = AMAZING! :P Oh, and fyi: the early Christians DID NOT live in the catacombs. They gathered there in secret to hold prayer services and sometimes mass.

We also attended a Papal audience.

From there we went to Venice, Padova and well, you've seen the pictures. The sun is now shining outside. Homework time!

I'll leave you with my new favorite song by Clémence. If you don't understand the lyrics, it's basically, "I take life as it comes and as it goes." Well, with a little bit of a story, too.

Just curious...

I have a question:

Does anyone read this blog anymore?

I mean, we haven't gotten a comment in AGES... yes, I know that's somewhat my fault for not posting anything...

But now I just updated... so there's bound to be something interesting that you could comment on... (hint)
...otherwise I just feel like the guy in the red-headed league... copying out a dictionary :( ... and getting a worn-out sleeve in the process :P

Cheers!

~Laura

October in review:

Time has really gone by fast! October felt somewhat cut short because of Reading week and all the trips we were taken out on… so here’s what happened (that we promised we’d blog about) in pictures… after all, a picture is worth a thousand words :P

Dover Trip: (Dover Castle and Secret War Tunnels)

Windsor, Eton, Stonehenge, Bath, Lacock, Oxford:

Roma, Venezia, Padova, Paddington:

Cheers!

~Laura

P.S. Mary: this is your cue to write something inspiring :P

On Guy Fawkes Day…

…we stood outside of Parliament. We wanted to get in, but of course (as NOT stated on their website) they were closed. For those of you who don’t know, Guy Fawkes day is a really important holiday to the Brits—it’s the anniversary of the day that Guy Fawkes (a Roman Catholic, incidentally) tried to blow up Parliament. He was caught, of course, because Parliament is still there :) Now, every year on November 5 everyone celebrates with bonfires and fireworks. Being in London all day (and almost all night!) we missed the fireworks…but some of our neighbors had some during the week in Canterbury, so it was ok :P This year was the 405th anniversary (if you were curious!)

We got some pretty cool pictures of Parliament and Big Ben…that is, until it started raining. So then we trudged over to see the Churchill museum and the Secret War Rooms in Whitehall across the street:

The war rooms were really cool—being filled with artifacts from the period, as well as the furniture being left in the exact arrangement as it was during the war. We saw Churchill’s rooms, and his officer’s rooms, and important meeting rooms and map rooms—totally worth the 12 GBPs it cost to get in :) There was a cafe smack dab in the middle of the museum…I guess they anticipate people getting hungry halfway through. So Mary and I splurged and got cream tea with our lunch (I had vegetable quiche, and she had Butternut Squash soup).

Cream Tea is my one weakness :P (Lark Rise to Candleford reference, in case you didn’t get it)

In case you didn’t know what cream tea is either, it’s tea, served with a scone, jam, and this butter thing (I think the correct term for it is Devon Cream, but its a cross between whipped cream and butter—probably either a light butter or a heavy whipped cream… very tasty on scones though!)

After we finished the museums, we strolled around in Trafalgar Square:

…and then took the Tube to Baker Street :P

Very touristy, very cool… they let us take pictures with the hats and pipes… plus, we got to see TONS of artifacts from all the stories: Holmes’ makeup kit, the head of the Hound of the Baskervilles, Dr. Watson’s doctor bag, the Turkish slipper that Holmes kept his tobacco in… like I said, very cool! It was 6 GBPs to get in, but in my opinion, totally worth it! We spent some time in the cute giftshop as well ;)

Next, we went to the British library to see the Magna Carta, an original music score from Handel’s Messiah, Piers Plowman, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and other cool stuff… no pictures allowed though…

After stopping briefly at platform 9 3/4 in King’s Cross station =) we tramped over the the Victoria and Albert Museum (passing by Buckingham Palace, of course). Keep in mind, this was already 7pm… so much of the museum was closed even though they advertised later hours on Fridays… whatever, we’re going back :)

Here’s some cool stuff that we found:

Can’t escape those Americans, now can you?

Seeing as how I’m supposed to be writing a paper this weekend while it’s so nice and quiet around here, I’ll leave you with that :)

Cheers!

~Laura

P.S. All that glitters is not gold... some of it is silver ;)