Feeling Rather Foreign

I mentioned before how everything over here has such history and is so old (in a good way).  TGD was reading us a history of Cambridge tonight:  “The Round Church was built in 1107.”  I walked past that today. It’s not a ruin or anything. “The
first colleges of Cambridge University were founded in the Middle Ages.
Peterhouse was founded by the Bishop of Ely in 1284. Clare College was
founded in 1326. Pembroke College was founded by the Earl of Pembroke’s
widow, Lady Mary de Valence in 1347. Gonville and Caius College, 1348…Trinity Hall, 1350…Corpus Christi
College, 1352. Kings College was founded by Henry VI in
1441…”  Are you absorbing these dates? Students are STILL living in these dorms and taking classes and eating meals in these buildings! 

But, what makes me feel really foreign are the little things.  The food is small. Potato chips–er, crisps–don’t come in a big bag. They come in a big bag which has six or ten individually-wrapped mini bags of chips, enough for a smallish serving.  Imagine the average six-pack of Yoplait yogurt. Cut that cup size in half. That’s the regular size of yogurt (er, yoghurt) here.  

No Cheer and Bounce for the laundry.

And speaking of laundry, here’s the dryer.  I think this size is rather normal for a home. (That’s a regular spoon I’m holding for size comparison.) No, it’s not just the opening that is small. I think I fit in three pairs of jeans and two shirts.

The fridge comes up to below my shoulders.  (Yup, CheesePuff, Wit has been putting the magnetic poetry to good use–making garden scenes.)

You flip the light switches up to turn them off and down to turn them on.
 

Now, none of what I’m saying is a complaint. Truly. It’s just different here.  I think it will be good to escape the LARGE American mindset and view life from a smaller, well-crafted lens. 

And, when I walk around the yard and see where we are living, I know that I’m not in America, and it’s just fine.

 

These heavenly-smelling yellow flowers are beginning to bloom on a bush in the back yard.  Any idea what they are? Mamaglop–help?
  

Welcome to Cambridge!

I apologize for not posting sooner. I am feeling very jet lagged and useless. But, for those of you who have been eagerly awaiting a picture or two, here you go!

Here’s the happy family at Dulles Airport with our 29 pieces of luggage. (Somehow, I miscounted and TGD miscounted and we wound up having to pay $150 to ship an extra piece of luggage. Ooops.  One gets two checked bags and two carry-ons.  Seven times four does equal twenty-eight.)

The flight was uneventful, though turbulent at times. I was praising God for Bonine as I get horribly motion sick in planes, backseats of cars, and rafts in the pool.  I really wanted to watch Stardust on the free TV/movie thing, but I was so exhausted from three days of very little sleep that I had to snooze.  The kids took full advantage and watched videos the whole trip.

The bus ride from Heathrow to Cambridge was a wild time. (not) I packed seven muffins from Wegmans (a little last taste of home), and we ate them. Then, zzzzzz….

Here’s our new front door with Little Miss and LibbyK to greet you.

Here’s a shot LibbyK took of the living room.  (I’ll get more of the house later.)

A little “look-forward-to” for Ghosty–the curtain in the upstairs bathroom.

The second floor is TGD and my bedroom. (The bottom is the study of the man who owns the house.)

This is the part of the yard–oh, I mean “the meadow”–that is not full of bulbs coming up. It’s where the kids can play.

Here’s the gate we need to keep latched so that “charging cows” don’t wander into the garden.

The side of the house.  Just imagine what this place will look like when it’s not January!

And, two shots of Cambridge.  It didn’t even rain today! Well, it’s raining now, but it’s not day, being almost 11:00 p.m. and all.

I want to apologize for not keeping up (or even attempting to read) your entries.  I am sure I will return to “full speed” sometime in the next week and can think beyond eating, sleeping, and purchasing food for our bare cupboards.  I’d love to answer any questions you have or take pictures of whatever you’d like.  Hopefully, I’ll be more entertaining with observations when my brain fits into the proper time zone.

We’re here.
I’m exhausted, even though it’s been a full day. 
More later.  I’ve already got some spiffy pictures!

Leaving
A poem with the cheesiest rhymes ever

Tied Up in Knots

That’s how my stomach is right now.  Why, I’m not so sure. Things are going along very well. We seem to have plenty of room in our suitcases for all our clothes, shoes, school books, games, computers, and so on.  Little Miss is over her fever, and so far no one else is sick. My mom and the B’s are coming over tomorrow to help us finalize all the thisses and thats. And, we had a fine farewell dinner with a whole flock of friends at Subway in Wal-Mart earlier tonight.

So, to distract myself, I’m off to have a final (gulp) hot bath and read a book.  And then I’ll lie awake for four hours (thanks, caffeine) thinking of all the things yet undone.  I don’t fret often, so I suppose I should make the most of it when I do.

A Lot and then Some More

Boy, this packing stuff is bothersome.  Don’t get me wrong; I’ll gladly do the packing for the reward of the trip. But, knowing what to take isn’t so easy. Right now, I have one of my two suitcases almost entirely full of crafts to do while there, office supplies, card games, bathroom things, a few books, and not much more.  Yikes!  I do have to take clothes, shoes, and 109 pounds of school books (we weighed all of them).  I’m glad that each of us get two suitcases and two carry-ons. 

Today was the day for assembling all non-clothes items we wanted to take.  Monday is Pack the Clothes. Tuesday is Finalize the House and Leave for my Mom’s.  Wednesday is Go to the Airport and Fly Away.  Unfortunately, not one day is set aside as Read the Blogs of my Friends and Comment. Forgive me?

About a Year

I signed up for a writing challenge blogring, the Kween_of_the_Queens. My first assignment was to go through my weblogs from 2007 and take the first sentence from each month and write it down. One sentence didn’t seem enough, so you get more. Lucky you, eh?  (If you want to read the whole entry, click on the date.)

January 1–Happy
New Year to you!  We rang in 2007 with a crush at our house.  By my
count, we had 103 people here for the party.   [There was a later edit taking the total to 108. Where did I get 121 that I reported a few days ago?]

February 1–I
have often been asked how many words per minute I read. I’m not sure. I
wondered if others might be curious to know their reading speed as
well, so I’ve put together a “test your reading speed” entry for today.

March 2–This
morning, the menfolk in my house packed up and headed out to the Big 10
wrestling championships in Lansing, MI.  . . .  So, that left the girls at home, all by their lonesomes. What to do? What to do?  Hee hee. As if we needed any ideas!

April 1–I’m
baking cookies right now–chocolate chip, except with dark chocolate
chunks.  Mmmm.  Will these be cookies of consolation or a bite of
victory?  I have until 11:00 EST to find out. Win or lose, it’s been
such fun!

May 1–According to The Writer’s Almanac: “Today is May Day, a day on which you should wash
your face with morning dew to keep yourself looking young and beautiful. You
should also gather wildflowers and green branches, make some floral garlands,
and set up a Maypole to dance around.”  Woo! Let’s go!  Perhaps we could stomp some dandelions to death along the way!

June 1–Today
is supposed to be our first day of summer vacation as yesterday was Day
180 of school. But, some of the children (who shall remain nameless)
did not complete their checklists which I told them 2.5 weeks ago MUST
be done.  So, they are under “house arrest” until finished: no music,
iPod, TV, reading non-school books, books on tape, going anywhere
“fun,” and so on.

July 2–I
have discovered that I’ve not planned very well for this trip to
England. We leave Saturday, and most normal people would have all their
ducks in a row at this point.  Usually I’d have all my downy friends
lined up as well, but not this time. What was I thinking?  Last night
my mind was in a swirl and my stomach spinning to match while I thought
of all I’d not done. [Urgh. I have visions of this again... we leave on Wednesday!]

August 4–Howdy,
Ya’ll! I just got back from a week of being a camp counselor at a
Gold-Rush/true treasure in Christ camp. I had five 10-12 year old girls
(plus Little Miss) in my cabin.

September 3–It’s
the first day of school tomorrow. Oh, boy! I’m getting up early to make
pancakes. I might even wear a denim jumper. Wait. I don’t have one.

October 1–May tomorrow be a better day.

November 3–I’m
busily tapping away at my NaNoWriMo novel–5271 words, not counting the
10,000 or so I had before I started. I feel like a day trader, except
it’s not my stock portfolio increasing by leaps and bounds, it’s my
word count!

December 1–I’m at my mom’s house. This weekend is the annual Curwensville United Methodist Church’s Christmas pageant, The Search for Peace.

Do you remember any of these entries?  Is there an entry you wrote last year that you remember fondly?  Leave the link for it in the comments section so we can all enjoy it, too!

Happy 2008!

Here are the shoes




And the coats




And a few of the people



That helped to make up our New Year’s Eve party.

Final count?   125!   I crawled into bed at 5:50 a.m. but I’ve done just fine all day.  So, how did we spend the evening?

Playing cards and other games



Getting hurt playing Ultimate Frisbee

 


Eating lots of food and drinking sparkling grape juice




Writing poems (I need a word that rhymes with bat…)



Sharing a massive afghan



This is my favorite picture from the night.  D on the right was leaving, and simultaneously, all three guys held out their hands to give him a good-bye handshake.

  

Nine people slept over, and we had Ransom’s mom’s muffins and Teacherperson-made pancakes for breakfast.  Later, some Kroekers, Sellers, B’s, and natureg0d headed out to see I Am Legend. It was a suspense movie. If you like that sort of thing, it has little swearing, no sex, and not too much gore.  But, if you don’t like suspense and creepy creatures, skip it. Now, we are playing cards, watching the Rose Bowl, and eating.  2008 is very good.

How was your New Year’s so far?