Earthquake in England

I'm just finding out about the same time you are in the States - I guess we had an earthquake here last night! It was at 1 a.m. UK time, so Bri and I were sound asleep and didn't feel a thing. But people are talking about how it woke them up, and had no idea why! So no worries, I guess it wasn't too big, like a 4.7 on the rictor scale, and no serious damage, with only some small structural damage to select buildings throughout the UK. The last time an earthquake was this noticeable in the UK was back in 1984. So we're not too worried. There are many other more pressing issues I'd be more concerned with here, including; carbon output, terrorism and death by too much mayonnaise on everything. So there you have it!

The Brits

Have I told you we finally got a telly?! We have collected it the cheap way though, since it's a hand me down from our American friends who moved back to CA. And it was a hand me down to them! So it's the telly that's making the rounds. And it's totally an old school 13 inch screen box with rabbit ears! But I am excited nonetheless. And especially now since Brian's colleague had an extra Freeview box, which they gave us. This box allows us to receive up to 20 digital channels free, so we're not just stuck with the 5 basics. So last night we were really excited to watch . . . . American Idol!! Brian won't admit it of course, but it was such a great taste of home. :)

Last Wednesday were the Brit Awards, which is the UK version of the Grammys. The entire Osbourne family served as hosts, and actually they were pretty decent hosts. It was the rest of the presenters and award-winners who were doozies! I know the American awards shows offer plenty of booze for the celebs to inbibe, but in general, even if they are drunk, they try to pretend they aren't too bad off. Well at the Brits, everyone who got on stage to present or accept an award were extremely pissed (drunk!) and literally either couldn't remember what award they were presenting or couldn't even talk they were so drunk! And they would bring their drink on stage with them. At one point Sharon Osbourne is scolding them in the background and yelling for them to get off. It was a doozie of a show!

I have to admit, there are a number of extremely talented musicians from over here. But, there are not many of them. The ones who are though are great. Amy Winehouse performed and she's amazing, although extremely eccentric. Artists who performed and are popular British acts were; Mika, Mark Ronson, Adele, Kate Nash and Arctic Monkeys.

Now that I've lived over here for more than 1 year, it's hard for me to know if I'm keeping up with US music, or ahead of it, or probably a mix of both. So it's fun to be up with current music, but from another country.

Check out the link to the awards page if you're interested: www.brits.co.uk

Then Sir Paul McCartney ended the show with a 3-song set, which was pretty awesome. First song was something new from his current solo stuff. Second song was Live and Let Die and then he ended with a rocking version of Hey Jude, which was a blast.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm starting to feel deja vu! I think a year ago we blogged about our first Valentine's in England, and now we our second Valentine's is coming to a close. We already missed our "official" one-year mark of living in England. And honestly, I can't even remember the exact date we arrived last year, but was something like Feb. 3rd. This year we missed it because we were in Rome!!! We took a last minute weekend getaway for 5 days, so we could take advantage of some down time before Kelly started a new job. Yep, that's right, I'm back to the 9-5. I won't bore you with details, but so far I'm having a great experience working for the University of Oxford in the alumni department, connecting with overseas alumni (including good 'ol Americans!) and event planning. Lots to learn and get accustomed to working in an academic environment, but so far so good. And can't beat all the holidays and personal days you get off in the UK! So before I started working, we popped over to Rome and explored the sights. I plan on giving you a Rome recap on the blog, so hopefully I'll get my act together and do that sooner than later.

Anyway, we enjoyed a nice shrimp/veggie pasta, wine and cheese for our dinner. I received some beautiful yellow roses and Brian got a copy of the Economist. So romantic I know. :)

Thinking of all our friends and family and know we love and miss you to bits!

B&K

Formal Dinner at Hertford College

This past Friday night we were invited to attend formal dinner at Hertford College by one of Brian's colleagues. Pete is a Brit and just completed his PhD at Oxford this past term. He was an undergrad and grad student at Hertford College, and now will be a Post-doc with Brian's group for a short time. Pete's girlfriend is Gemma, and she's an undergrad with Hertford College. They are great people and are only a few of the Brits we know as friends.

Anyway, each college has a guest night maybe once a month during term (that's how we had dinner at St. Hilda's as well). We didn't sit at the Head Table this time like we did at St. Hilda's, but sat in the regular rows of tables and benches with the students. The dinner at Hertford was called Formal dinner, so it was black tie. Brian wore his tux, but I was a bit caught off guard on this dinner, and wasn't best prepared. So I wore a smart (albeit a bit too casual) dress and dressy boots.

We met Pete at the pub for a drink beforehand, and then met up with Gemma at the President's lodgings during the champagne reception. It's amazing the life these Oxford students have here. They have formal events with champagne receptions with the President. And this is normal for them during their collegiate careers! I remember late night snack night in the canteen at Gustavus during finals, where we're all wearing sweatpants and no makeup! I suppose our Banquets for sorority/fraternity stuff were the most formal we got in college. And that was only if you were in one or invited by someone in one. So here we're trying to act as proper as possible as you can see!

After the reception, everyone went into the dining hall and has to first stand by their place until the head table people (including the president) enters in the room to their seats. Then before we can all sit down, the President bangs a gavel on the table for silence, and says grace in Latin. This order is basically repeated at the end of dinner as well.


We had a nice 4-course meal starting with cream of mushroom soup. Then grilled salmon with mango salsa for 2nd course. Then filet mignon, potatoes and cabbage for main. (Of course Brian went with the veggie tart for veg option.) Dessert was a champagne and strawberry mousse tart thing. And we had to experience the "No Hands Dessert" at formal dinner. So we learned that even though you're at a formal dinner, students don't act very formal! So Brian and I gave No Hands Dessert a go!















After dinner, Pete, Gemma and Gemma's friends Jen and Corenza, gave us an inside tour of the college.They have a gorgeous chapel, simple but elegant, small library and the college bar. Of course we had to stop off at the bar for a quick one before heading back outside of the college and to the pub again.













I haven't even mentioned yet, but it was also Pete's birthday that day, so many other colleagues and friends of Pete's were at the pub and more partying continued. Gemma had baked a cake for all, which was a big hit. We stayed until pub closing time and I'll admit wasn't feeling too perky on Sat a.m. :)

Oxford Castle

I toured the Oxford Castle today with the Newcomer's Club. I tried to sign up for this tour last term, but it was cancelled. So was fun to check out the local castle. Now really, it's not a castle in terms of a romantic, beautiful, royal castle. It's just the remains of a Saxon castle tower built in like the 1100s and then a jail was built hundreds of years later. The interesting fact is that this jail was used for prisoners right up until 1996. Talk about a medieval punishment! Now, the entire area of castle, prison, and mound has been turned into a modern-day tourist attraction and entertainment center with posh restaurants, bars and a 5-star hotel. The prison was actually turned into a 5-star hotel, with a "prison" feeling. A night costs about 230 pounds ($460 a night) so it's a "destination/experience" type hotel. To be honest, I'd rather spend $460 a night to spend in a true romantic Victorian English castle or something.

We climbed to the top of the tour for a great view of Oxford and the spires.








Picture of the crypt below.
















A section of the prison cells they have left to show on the tour.















A bit morbid, the actual pull handle used in the hanging executions at the Oxford Castle Prison in the 1800s. The pull handle opened the drop floor, pulling the floor out from underneath the person being hanged. Yikes!

Had coffee after the tour with a few of the ladies at the cafe to chat. Another successful Newcomer's tour!

Funny Foods

I know we've lived here for almost a year now, but we still can't help laughing and making a bit of fun of their food or food names over here. We still can't believe the mixture of foods sometimes here, such as prawn cocktail. Which all it consists of are small shrimps and plain mayonnaise. They even have potato chips (crisps) with Prawn Cocktail flavor. Blah!

So just recently we discovered these pork nuggets (warning, very un-PC):

Of course Brian won't touch them with a 10-foot pole, and frankly I won't on these either! Ha ha!

And another fave of ours:

Now you'll never look at peanuts in a shell the same again!

January Update

Happy New Year! We're already a couple weeks into it, and not much is different in 2008 than 2007 so far. I thought I'd blog about the latest news, happenings and activities we've been up to. Although don't get too excited, it's been pretty chill here. :)

Just this past week, I've wrapped up working for my cute little home shop down the street. I was a bit sad to be done, but all the staff was changing over, and it's time to get back into marketing, so it made a lot of sense. But I had a great experience there, learned so much more about British culture and people, and made great new friends. Also we have Charlie returning to this side of the pond. He arrived in Belgium this week to get back into playing baseball for the LLN Phoenix, just south of Brussels. So hopefully we'll see him soon, and at least in March for birthdays.

If you're following international news, you've heard that the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, and leader of the democratic party Benazir Bhutto was killed a few weeks ago. She was a University of Oxford graduate from Lady Margaret Hall. Her father went to Christ Church College. And her son, a fresher (freshman) at Christ Church College is taking over her leadership for the Pakistan People's Party. I'm mentioning this, because it's very interesting living in a city where there are extremely high-level people from their respective countries living and studying in Oxford. And while everyone carries on about their own business here (which is great), it's slightly unsettling knowing that there are also students/employees who need extra special security because of what they represent.

Back to personal news. We have lots of friends and family members announcing births of little ones or first-time pregnancies. Congrats to Jen Krause and Andrea Barnwell for their little girls this month. And we found out over the holidays that Brian's bro Rick and wife Kate are expecting their first! Whew, Brian and I are really running behind in that department!

Random thing to tell you about. But I still enjoy hearing differences from everyone's perspectives over here. An acquaintance of ours Barry, who is an American, but has lived in England now for 20 years, had his children over here. When they go back to the US to visit the grandparents in Ohio, the kids are amazed at the McDonalds over there. And it's not because they don't have them here, there are tons of McDonalds over here. But it's because of the SPACE they take up. Over here, the McDonalds, or the KFC, Burger King, whatever, is a small store front on the High Street, where you walk upstairs to sit and eat, or just take it out with you. Barry's kids can't believe that in the U.S., a McDonalds has it's entire large building to itself, including a huge lawn all around it. And that the lawn isn't even used for anything. And that there is possibly an entire Burger King right next door, with it's own building, lawn, parking lot, etc. Sounds funny huh? Since that is what we American's are so used to. All of that space. I've said before in my blog, that is probably the one biggest thing I miss as well over here. Is space.

Well we're heading to London tomorrow to get out of town and hit up a free museum and hopefully get some cheap last minute theatre tickets. It's so amazing to just hop the train and check out London for the day!

Sorry my blog is so random today, but just wanted to pop in and let you know I haven't given up on the blogging. Just not much is happening during the dreary months of winter here.