Happy Christmas!!

Yes, we look like dorks, but here we are in London in Trafalgar Square by the Christmas tree and carol singers.

Merry Christmas everyone! Peace and happiness to you and yours.

Love you,

Kelly & Brian

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!!

Hope yours was happy! It was a normal work day in the UK, so we had a small Thanksgiving gathering this year - with our friend Jo. She's getting some good face-time on the blog as of late... :) We think she enjoyed the stuffing and helping make the sweet potatoes with marshmallows the best!

Gobble, gobble!

Miss Ya Chazz!

Charlie's been with us for about a month now and we were all up at the crack of dawn to see him off today. He's heading back to the US for more adventures!

This past weekend, we took a day trip to Bath so he could check out the spa town and its elegant architecture. My British friend and colleague Jo had never been to Bath, so we invited her along.

Upon on easy arrival into Bath via the train, we started with a lovely stroll up to the Royal Crescent, and a tour of the posh No. 1 flat. The flat is now a heritage museum, showcasing all the relevant furniture and decor corresponding to the time period of the late 1700s.

Then to find lunch - landing in the Jane Austen museum tea room. Jo and I very much liked the "ladies lunching" tea room, and Charlie was a good sport. As he really was the only bloke in there for most of the time, sipping his Jane Austen blend tea!

We thought we should reciprocate then, and have 1/2 pint at the pub so he could catch a bit of the England vs Australia rugby match. Who knew rugby and American football are fairly similar?!

Next, a visit along the river heading towards the Bath Abbey and then the highlight Roman Baths. I've been in there about 4 times now, so I shopped a bit while Charlie and Jo checked it out. One more stroll around the river, a quick sandwich and off we headed back to Oxford!

Just touched down in London town . . .

While bro Charlie is here, we took a day trip to London to check out things out. It's been awhile since Bri and I had gone in to the city for a day. Charlie saw London briefly last summer with Mom & Dad, but the three of us wanted to go and check out some new stuff.

Right away we went to the north part of the city - St Regents Park/Hampstead/Camden area. Charlie wanted to find Abbey Road - where the Beatles recorded all of their albums in London. It's pretty easy to find and cool to be on the spot where their infamous walk across the zebra crossing is. It's hard to do yourselves though with all the traffic!

We were caught in the rain, so wandered aimlessly about for a bit, but trying to get to the London Zoo. On our way, we passed Lord's Cricket Grounds, which is a huge and famous stadium.

Made it to London Zoo via Regent's Park (the largest in London) and saw lots of unique animals. The London Zoo as been around for a long time, so the facility itself is ageing, but the animals are well taken care of and are really amazing.

For you Harry Potter fans, in the first movie, Harry talks to a snake at the London Zoo and it was filmed right where Charlie is standing here in the Reptile House.

We then continued to Camden Town to check out the Camden Market and Camden Locks area. It's a really young and happening town, which was fun to see. A couple different types of market areas to walk around and see the wares. Lots of it has become the cheap clothes, but at the Camden Locks many of the booths were the better quality handmade crafts. Stopped for a pint of course, and a really nice pub tucked away. Then made reservations for dinner at a Greek place back down in the city centre/West End district. That was perfect, so that we didn't have to roam around looking for a place to eat.

We then walked around Picadilly Circus/Leceister Square and Trafalgar Square before din-din. Dinner was very enjoyable, but we realized the Greek place in Summertown by our flat was probably even better food! After dinner we stopped for hot cocoas and walked through China Town. Luckily we caught one of the last trains back to Oxford and were really tired once we finally made it to the flat. Another successful trip to the big city! Next weekend: Bath!

Indian Wedding Extravaganza - Dr & Mrs Gill!

Congrats to my bestie and her new hubby - Sonja & Sanjay Gill! I blogged about their visit to Oxford this past summer. We were soooo glad we could meet Sanj before he married Sonja - got to get the 'ol high school friend approval! Of course, he passes with flying colors, and Brian and Sanjay are now the best of buds while they geeked discussing science, physics, medicine, politics and religion. While Sonja and I gossiped and shopped! But that was in June. . . on to the Sikh Wedding Extravaganza of the year!

While I thought the festivities kicked off Wednesday night, for Sonja and Sanjay, they had already been celebrating with family since the week before! Lots of his family from India and around the US had flown in for the celebrations. As we've learned, Indian wedding are a 1-2 week celebration - so lots of partying and eating (and drinking) involved. For the Westerners, Wednesday night was a kick off party for a yacht cruise on Lake Michigan. We however, didn't get into town until Thursday, along with our other Mason City friends, so the party started Thursday for most of Sonja's family and friends.

Thursday night was called the Sangeet, and it is a celebration of music party. Sanjay's sister and sister-in-law prepared special performances for S&S, which they watched from their special swing next to the dance floor. There was wonderful (and spicy for the Iowans!) Indian buffet food, three open bars and live Indian dance music with singers. I should back up and explain the set up. Most of the events for the week(s) were being hosted by Sanjay's parents, who live in Oak Brook, a wealthy suburb of Chicago. They had outfitted the back of their house with a huge tent to host all of the parties. Thursday had a lovely green/yellow color scheme, lots of flowers and as I mentioned, food/drink and dancing. It was a fun way to experience the Indian wedding culture and learn how to Indian dance (one arm up "screw in the light bulb", one arm out "opening the door knob" and bob your shoulders up and down!). It was great to catch up with the high school girlies - Sarah, Rhea, Lisa, Erica & Shae. Miss ya ladies!



Luckily, Friday's activities didn't begin until the afternoon (as one might assume that attendees would be moving a bit slow in the a.m.). At 1, there was the Mehendi and Lunch, which is a favorite of the ladies. This is where the ladies can pick out glass bangle bracelets for the wedding, and get henna tattoos (only temporary!) done on their arms. Sonja, as the bride, had henna put on all up and down her arms (both sides) and on her feet/legs. It took 4 hours to get in put on - where mine was just 10 mins! They apply it on as if it was icing in a piping bag, but it is the color of mud and dries like it. After an hour or so, it dries and falls off on it own. The stain left is the henna tattoo.

We had yummy Indian food again, buffet style, and there was also Western salad/soup/sandwich choices as well. Both Brian and I are fans of Indian food, now that we live in England. So it was fun trying different types of Indian cuisine. For some reason, I was expecting the lunch to be a more intimate, ladylike affair, but it ended up being another big party in the middle of the afternoon! Guys were also there, but mainly the ladies got up and dancing again. While Sonja was getting her henna put on, Sanjay had to stay by her side and made sure she had food and drink (by feeding it to her!). Pretty fun Indian customs- Sonja was definitely pampered all weekend! Oh, and I should mention that the entire color scheme and flowers had changed again for the Mehendi!

Friday night was downtime again, which was welcomed by all. :) Bri and I met up with good friends Ands and Ruairi. Andrea is a good friend of ours from Gustavus, and she met Ruairi when she moved to Chi-town. Ruairi's fam is from Ireland, and you might have remembered I blogged about visting them in Ireland last summer. Anyhow, we met up at Rock Bottom Brewery to chat at catch up. They have an adorable little girl and we got to see some pics and hear if they are getting any sleep!

Saturday morning was the actual wedding ceremony. I was a bridesmaid and got to wear my Salwar Kameez outfit, which I absolutely loved! Good friend Sarah picked it out for me along with Sonja, and they did perfect! I got to wear my fave - bright yellow! I met the bride in her room, as she was getting ready - wow, it was an absolutely incredible outfit she was wearing. The bride wears red - it was a two piece red/embroidered outfit, with a long head covering - and REAL ruby/diamond necklace - OMG, gorgeous! Putting the bangle bracelets on Sonja proofed the most difficult, but it all worked out. :)

The bridesmaids road over to the house together in the van, while Sonja was in the car. In the meantime at the house, the tent has been transformed again (the tables/chairs/buffets/bars/music stage was all turned into a ceremony room). There was a new stage in front of the house, and Sanjay and his groomsmen were wearing their Indian outfits and turbans and dancing around to the beat of the Indian drums. The bridesmaids were on the other side of the stage, standing in front of Sonja's car, so she is "hidden and protected".

They Sanjay rides up the driveway to the stage on the decorated white horse, with his friends and family still dancing around. Then on the stage, the families exchange garlands, to signify the joining of the families. First the sisters, then the brothers, then the parents and finally it's Sonja's time to come out of the car. The bridesmaids walk her up to the stage, and then Sonja and Sanjay exchange their flower garlands and dance around!

Everyone of course is watching, and taking lots of pics. Then the announcement comes for everyone to head to the tent, where they have to remove their shoes, put a scarf on their heads, and ladies sit on the left, men on the right. Oh, and they have to sit on the floor (of course there are nice hard floors put in for all of this). There were chairs in the back, for John Boy and those who cannot sit on the floor. While everyone is getting settled, the wedding party is in the house getting pictures taken and such.




The groom then goes in to sit in front of the Indian priest and the holy book. Next, the bridesmaids walk Sonja down the aisle, and sit alongside in the front. The ceremony is called the Anand Karaj (ceremony of bliss) and it was all done in Punjabi (the Sikh language), so we didn't really know much of what was going on. But it was really great. There was a guru there playing his Indian music, saying prayers and leading the ceremony. The priest would also say prayers out of the holy book, and wave a white feather over the book (not sure what this was for, but guessing to ward off the evil spirits or something). Sonja's dad at one point, had to tie around the wedding knot around S & S to symbolize that he is giving his daughter's hand away. This is called the Pallae di Rasam. Then the final Chaar Laavan is done (known as the 4 circles). This is when S&S stand up and Sanjay leads Sonja walking around in a circle. They do this four times - and after that they were married! She kept asking when she got to kiss, but I guess that part isn't in the official ceremony script. They kissed anyway! Lastly, served was something called the Pasad, which was a mixture of flour, sugar and butter and it was steamed. It was scooped from the pot into our hands, and was quite tasty, if a little weird looking. Not sure what it was for, but another fun part of the experience.

Everyone was then asked to visit the pool room for drinks, while the tent was transformed again! Lunch was being served there, both Indian and Western this time, but vegetarian only. More dancing and singing and party ensued!

Mid-afternoon, everyone headed back to the hotel to relax/take naps/shop/whatever. Because we had to get ready for one more big bash! The wedding reception was being held in the Westin hotel where we were staying. The bridesmaids were getting their hair done in Sonja's room. And Sonja was getting all done up again for the ceremony. She literally reshowered, and had her hair and makeup completely done from scratch again - in the same day! I decided not to wear a Sari, the Indian wrap outfit as most of the Indian women and bridesmaids were doing, but I wanted to wear something bright in color and British! As you know, the Brits like to wear hats to weddings here. They also wear what I decided to wear - a hair fastenator. It basically was a fun froofy feather thing on a hair comb. Lots of the American ladies thought I was going the Sarah Jessica Parker route in Sex in the City, but really I was just making my British friends proud!

The reception started off with cocktails and seafood canapes (oysters, crab legs, shrimp cocktail, etc) in the huge cocktail lounge room. Wow. Then we moved into the actual reception room with dinner tables and the dance floor. Holy moly. It was pretty much like we were in Vegas at like Pure or Ghost Bar or some super chic club - amazing! And the flowers alone were unbelievable . . . Each table had a completely different centerpiece with flowers, crystal and custom made S&S table clothes from India. . . did I say it was completely amazing yet??!

The wedding party was introduced coming out down the catwalk stage - I walked (actually danced) down the stage with Sonja's bro Corby, who I know from growing up. We had a good boogie down the stage. Then Brian and I were lucky enough to sit at the Head table. It was just S&S, me and Bri, and bridesmaids/high school friends, Sarah and hubby Mike and Erica and honey Chris. It was great to be at an intimate table with my great friends, amongst such a huge celebrate. We had surf & turf for dinner (Bri went with the Indian cuisine and said it was fab) and lots of great wine. I think the part that really made me pinch myself and wondering if I was in Vegas/Hollywood/Bollywood was when the wait staff did a Champagne Parade. I've never seen one, but basically they all come out down the runway, holding up a bottle, and circle around the room. Then they come to our table and in complete synchronization, pour our champagne. F'ing amazing! (Excuse my french!)

Of course, the night was not complete without lots of dancing -especially with the awesome tunes pumped out by the DJ flown in from NYC and a visit to the third lounge/cocktail/bar room, which was the dessert room with the flower tree. Have I said how amazing this all was yet??! :)

It was absolutely a ball, Sonja & Sanjay looked fantastic, were having a great time and I know they were utterly exhausted, as they had been doing this for over a week now. They were being great hosts to their friends and family, and especially the aunties and family members from India. They Scandinavian Iowans were definitely outnumbered, but we all sure had a great time learning and celebrating S&S's marriage in his family's culture.

Way to go Sonja & Sanjay and I hope that you get to put your feet up, order take out and watch a lot of TV for the next month! Love you two so much!

Charlie has landed in Oxford

Brother Charlie wrapped up baseball work in Belgium this past weekend, and has just arrived in Oxford today to hang with us a few weeks, before he heads back to the US in mid-November. It's great he has a transitionary period (speaking English again!) before getting back home. And we're glad he has time to chill with us here and check out more of England. He was here for only about 2 days last summer, so there is lots more he can see and explore now. We know he is bummed to leave his great friends and wonderful Belgian way of life. . . but we're excited to have him here!

Next up, trip back to the Midwest for Brian and Kelly to join in Sonja and Sanjay's Indian Wedding Extravaganza in Chicago!

We've already voted for the President of the USA!

I do have to say it's pretty cool that we've already gotten to vote! As we are US citizen's living abroad, along with the military personnel, we vote via Absentee ballots. We had to figure out how the process would go, but it wasn't too bad reading up on what we had to do via a few different internet sites. We discovered that we had to vote in the state where we last resided - so that is Oregon. We contacted the Lane County elections office, had to fill in a form that stated our last known address in Eugene, and our new address overseas. We had to sign it, and mail it back to them. Then, they mail us updated voter registration cards (which still lists our old address, which I think is a bit strange, since someone else now lives there) but anyhow. Then, our ballots followed in the post. Obviously we vote by mail in this process, but after living in Oregon, we were used to voting by mail anyway. Oregon was the first state to pass an initiative to have vote-by-mail only. There are no voting polls in Oregon. You have to mail or drop off your ballot to the local county election office. I have to say - it was great. You could take your time and read through all the information before you made your decision. I think Oregonians are very well educated on the people and positions when they cast their votes.

Anyhow, so we vote via the Lane County elections process - but now that we are overseas and don't live in Oregon anymore, we can only vote for Federal elections. We can only vote for US President/VP, Oregon State Senator and Oregon US House of Representatives. So races such as Oregon Secretary of State or city mayor, we can't vote for any of those people or positions.

It has been very fun and interesting to watch the US political race from abroad. The Brits and Europeans are so interested in US politics and surprisingly are following it all pretty closely. Early November sure will be good fun!

Dottie's Wedding Review

We're back in Oxford after a fab time in Denver at Brian's sister Dottie's wedding last weekend. Luckily, we hadn't been gone long enough for the jet lag to really set in, so we've been able to get back on our schedule here pretty easy. Although, we've definitely taken it easy this weekend too!




Brian went to Denver two days before I did (he left on 16 Sept, yes our anniversary, and I left on the 18th). Brian was able to help out with some wedding prep and attend the rehearsal on Wednesday night. I arrived on schedule Thursday night, and was ready to go for all the wedding activities on Friday!

The girls got their hair done Friday morning while Brian and his bro Rick were in charge of picking up the wedding cake. Brian's folks were really busy with lots of the wedding prep too, and did a great job making everything look fantastic!

We were all ready to go for the 3 pm wedding at the Ellis Ranch in Loveland, Colorado. It's a dude ranch in the Rocky Mountain foothills, next to some bright orange red rock formations. It was a beautiful location and a beautiful sunny day. The wedding was outside in front of the gazebo, and Dottie and her dad Al made a grand entrance in a white horse drawn carriage with a cowboy driving! It was very cool! The ceremony was great, with Dottie and her now new hubby Andrew reading their own vows to one another. After the ceremony, we went inside to the event center, which was huge nice barn-like place for the dinner and dancing.
Everyone's fave part was the Wedding March dance that we all participated in, led by some of Andrew's family members. We partied not too late at the reception, but then all packed up and went back to the hotel for some more celebrating into the late night! Cousin's Gina and Jimmy kept us all very entertained into the wee hours . . . :)

Saturday we were able to spend time with the immediate family and so some low key hanging out and shopping. Rick, Kate, their little baby Abby and Bri and I did some shopping at the Outlet center and then grabbed lunch at Old Chicago. I sure enjoyed some typically American shopping and eating - it's just not the same over here! Then we met back up with Dot, Andrew, Al & Jackie and all drove through the gorge to the mountain town of Estes, in Estes Park. It was a really cool drive (saw fly fisherman, mountain goats and cool mountain cabins) through the gorge, and then had fun strolling through the Estes. The rain finally caught up to us, and we got a bit caught in a big downpour, but we were on our way out of town anyway. We were all really tired, so just ordered some pizzas for dinner and packed our stuff. We were all heading home the next morning - B&K back on the plane to the UK, R&K&A on the plane to Seattle, and A&J in the car back to southern MN. A good time was had by all.

Congrats to the newlyweds!

BBC article: US vs UK teeth

Ha! We all know Kelly definitely sides with her Americans on this one!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7633254.stm

Brian's Big Physics Day

I almost forgot, I wanted to mention that there was a big day for physics last week - and of course, Brian was enjoying it all. You've heard in the news of the LHC, Large Hadron Collider http://www.lhc.ac.uk/the-big-questions.html that ran a test run last week. It's all the buzz (as you can imagine) here in Oxford amongst the nerds, oops, I mean physicists. It's pretty cool though, and don't believe what the media is telling you about the earth turning into a black hole or whatever. Bunch of bollocks!

Oh, and Brian was in Cambridge on that same day, and guess who he ran into in person and got to meet? It might be the one and only physicist everyone knows by name (well besides Brian of course :) ) - Stephen Hawking! http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/stephen_hawking_asks_big_questions_about_the_universe.html

Dottie's Wedding in Denver

Hi all,

I'm heading to Denver this morning (13 hours on a plane!) for sister-in-law Dottie's wedding! Brian left on Tuesday, and I'm leaving today. We are excited to see his sis get hitched and be with all the family. We're also excited to see 80 degree weather and the sun! We'll only be in the US for a couple of days, so I'm sorry if we don't get a chance to connect while we're there. But hopefully next time!

Visit from MN crew and trip to Scotland

Was great having the MN ladies to visit and tour around. They enjoyed exploring on their own while Bri and I worked, and then doing some fun things together on the weekends and week nights. Meg's mom Karen was around the first week, and then she flew home, and Meg's friend Kelly come over and met up for the second week. Megs, Kel, Brian and I went to Scotland all together for a long weekend. Was a great time (although another rainy weekend) to be in Edinburgh, as it was during the annual Fringe Festival. Was great seeing tons of live snippets of comedy, musicals, plays, theatre, bagpipe playing, you name it, it was there to entertain you.
We luckily snagged the last 4 tickets to the world renown Edinburgh Tattoo - an outdoor music concert/parade/band show at the Castle. It was absolutely fab and as Scottish as you could get. However, those young Norwegian soldiers in uniform were mighty fine to watch . . . :)





We also hired a car for two days to drive up further north through the Scottish highlands. I wasn't sure what to expect, as I knew they weren't "mountains" as Americans know them, but it's a beautiful area of huge hills (which I know it's the proper word either). They were covered in purple heather for August, and were so colorful. Looks like a painter had painted stripes of green and purple all over the landscape. The photos don't do the color justice at all. We stayed at a lovely B&B in Inverness. Of course, we were that close to Loch Ness, so took a fantastic drive around the entire lake (which is huge) and thought we spotted the Loch Ness monster! We'll never know for sure . . .

My biggest impression of Scotland is on how friendly the Scots are. Maybe it was since it was the Festival and they try extra hard, or if it's just in comparison with snobby Oxford, but I really liked the Scots and their friendly, laid back attitude. It was quite refreshing!