Where's William Wallace?

I'm on a train from Edinburgh going to London using their (shotty) WiFi. Fun. Roamed around Edinburgh for a bit, but didn't see most things because I woke up late and the sun goes away early and I don't want to be walking around a strange city in the dark by myself. I went to the Museum of Scotland, which is ho-hum. I thing my saturation point of museums hasn't subsided since the Great Museum Saturation of 2005. When Dan got off of work, we went on a ghost tour. It's like any walking tour I have been on--very interesting stories told by over the top, failed actors and actresses. Still very interesting to go down in the vaults I think. Dan wasn't impressed, though I'm sure he was scared at times. Today we went to the Edinburgh Castle and had lunch at The Tower, which was very nice. Never saw anything about William Wallace, but then again I didn't explore the city too much. Now we are on a train back to London! Woot!

I like Edinburgh. It's small, walkable, not overwhelming, full of history--it was good. :)

Some pictures of the trip will be on the slideshow to your right, but all pictures can be found on Facebook.

I Don't Run

A few weeks ago Dan and I went shopping for new soccer (AKA football) cleats (AKA boots). He was still at work, but suggested I look at some local stores' websites to find out what cleats I would be interested in so I can partake in football Wednesdays. So I click on their women's things, and they offer mostly casual shoes and running shoes. I thought to myself, "Perhaps this website is just shitty and I should do a search." So I type "women football boots" in the search box; it returns "SORRY WE HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO MATCH ANYTHING TO YOUR SEARCH." WTF?! Certainly they are mistaken. Luckily, they have a football section, which leads you to your choice of football boots--available are men's boots and junior boots. Increasing my frustration and curiousity I decided to find out what available sporting goods were for women. And to my dismay they are as follows: badminton, cycling, dance, golf (which I find hilarious and their selection is, to put it bluntly, crap), field hockey (they say hockey; gay), running, swimming, and tennis. WTF?!

After work, Dan picks me up and we go to the store to look at cleats. In the car, I rant the entire time about how their website doesn't sell women anything. He's not surprised, but tries to console me by saying there might be women's soccer cleats there. We arrive at the store, and almost half of the upstairs is devoted to soccer cleats--men's soccer cleats. Dan tells me to just try some on just in case. So I try on a junior size 4--too small. I try a size 5--too big and wide. They don't have 4.5's. After an hour I am too frustrated and tired to try on any more ill-fitting shoes that I just assist Dan since the staff was useless. In the end Dan bought shoes and I bought nothing in protest of their shitty existence!

I must be coming off as some crazy feminist of sorts, but I am probably far from that. I like it when boys buy me things and open doors and do all that chivalrous jazz (even though my boy doesn't do that, but maybe he'll read this and make more of an effort). And even though I like to compare myself to boys when it comes to athletic competition, I will acknowledge the fact that there is a physical difference between men and women; not necessarily to the point where women can't be better than some men, but just different enough that it warrants boy and girl things. And I cannot emphasize how important shoes are!!!

Mens shoes are obviously way too large and wide. And I'm the classic girl who is tiny enough that I can fit in little boys shoes, and I do own little boy cleats (yay, Nike Sharks!). But when it comes to soccer shoes, boys shoes are just too wide and really you want soccer shoes to fit well or you mangle your foot with blisters and you don't get the touch you are looking for on the field. And I should know a thing or two about shoes. My junior year of high school, my coach basically made us run at least 5 miles for practice (and we practiced Monday through Friday if we didn't have games), and I ran with my New Balances. Towards the end of the season my achilles was swolen like no other, my arches hurt, and I hated running even more. It was my shoes' fault! I now run with Nikes because they support my arch and achilles. So I am super particular about shoes and I want women's soccer shoes!

Now, it's not a question that they aren't available. If you are in the US every brand creates a woman's equivalent if not make an exclusive women's shoe. It's probably good business practice not to keep women's sports gear as women aren't going to be playing these sports in the UK. But it irritates me that it's limiting what women can do, especially what girls do! If a girl goes to the store with her dad who is buying soccer cleats, she won't see stuff tailored for her so she's not going to want to play. She'll probably end up seeing the little dance outfits (though there's nothing wrong with that) and will never spark an initial interest to play soccer or basketball or whatever! And now that I think of it, I don't see girls playing team sports any where! It is absolutely horrendous!

Perhaps this is why the US dominates all women's sports. The US national soccer team is one of the best in the world (unlike the men), our women's softball team dominates too much that the Olympic committee is no longer having softball for 2012, our basketball team is awesome--US women athletes just dominate. And I think it's because we encourage women to do anything they want at a very young age, and retailers and designers are continuing to encourage it by designing products targeted to women and girls. If the UK is thinking of getting competitive in any sport for women, they need to encourage their girls to do the sports rather than having them do passive sports (AKA non-contact).

Uh, this has been angering me for the last couple of weeks! If Dan and I were to have children and live here, you better believe I am going to make sure they can play contact sports. And if they are going to be elitist (which I have experienced playing golf in Cornwall), then we are moving back to the States where girls kicking boys ass is normal! Word!

Procrastinatin'

So I promised myself that I would not update the blog until I finish my essays, and I have already broken that promise. :( I'll make myself feel better by not really writing about important differences between the UK and the USA (I have a lot of topics to share). Quick update nonetheless.

• I have essays to write, and I'm absolutely dreading one that has no relevance to my aspirational career goals. Poop.
• Next week Dan and I are going to Scotland for two nights and two days. Dan will be working at the Edinburgh office while I meander about in Edinburgh--overwhelming advice is to just do a pub crawl. Mmm... two days of pub crawling. Probably a bad idea, and will further depress me. I'll probably see another castle too. I should get a book, or borrow a book on what to do in Scotland. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.
• Next week is also the Super Bowl!!! It seems I'll keep up tradition, hosting Eileen's 7th Annual Super Bowl Party here in Enfield (woot!). It's also the daunting task of trying to figure out what to cook--especially daunting since it will mostly be an entire day affair as the Super Bowl is not going to be shown till 11:30pm GMT!!! So not only do I have to cook dinner, but I probably need some nibbley bits. Oh and did I mention that they sometimes don't have the ingredients I am looking for? I am also uncertain as to what theme I should go for, if any. Naturally (once I get these stupid essays out of the way), I'll come up with something fantastic causing you lot back in the States to wish you partook in this year's Super Bowl party! Don't worry, it happens every year. :) I'm open to suggestions/ideas for themes and recipes--leave it in the comments.
  

Ok, now time to get to work. Peace!

Inaugurapocalypse--UK Edition

So I have a live feed going on my computer and BBC 1 is thankfully doing a special of the inauguration ceremony.

I'm slightly sad that I'm not home to take part in this big change. I was in Capitol Hill, at a bar, as the election results came in. It was one of those exciting moments I will never forget, and I just feel like today will very much be the same.

But knowing myself, I know I hate crowds and crowds of people. Metro will definitely have a million riders today, smashing it's previous record of 800k. But reading and looking at the pictures on the news and things, I'm glad that I am not there. I mean someone was hit by Metro at Gallery Place, probably due to the amount of people freaking taking Metro! They even closed the 14th Street Bridge to pedestrians! The mall has been closed since 9am I think, and there are just so many people Downtown trying to see history, as expected. So that makes me glad that I'm not there. God there are so many people!

BBC's coverage is just funny. So I'm going to watch and laugh. But I thought I would tell you all that I can watch it with no problems! Yay!

Update 4:55pm: BBC said Aretha Franklin is singing the US National Anthem. Actually, she's singing My Country Tis of Thee, which sounds like the UK National Anthem God Save the Queen. Silly BBC.

Update 5:44pm: Again, BBC makes another failed comparison of Obama to JFK. Really BBC?!

Update 5:46pm: BBC yet again interviews black people to emphasize the fact that we are breaking racial barriers. I think we get the picture. Let's show how diverse the US really is and interview other people!!!

Update 6:00pm: I like how the BBC is doing this hour documentary later today on Obama, and then casually mention that Obama's mother is of English and Irish decent! Haha!

Update 6:01pm: Finally, a very short blurb of the BBC interviewing people on the Mall, and it's not a black person!

Additional Notes On Obama 1/22/08
It may sound like I'm a bit of a racist, but I am not. As an American, I think that it is great we have elected an African-American. But I think mostly we elected the best fit man for the job, and he happens to be African-American. On Election Night, these three women said it best, "He's better than the other man, and he just happens to be black--it shouldn't be about race." (They happened to be African-American.)

I guess it is a big deal to the rest of the world that a black man, an African-American man can lead one of the most powerful nations in the world. And to me, I don't find it strange at all because Obama is the epitome of the American dream--there are many stories like this, but perhaps not to a grander scale. And I guess this isn't true for other "progressive" societies. So for me to hear the BBC dwell on his color became really annoying because Obama is so much more than that.

Obama-rama!

As January 20th approaches, I feel a sense of relief to be here in London. Don’t get me wrong—I’m very happy that Americans voted for the best candidate, and that he happens to be African American (in the truest sense). But with all the road closures, restrictions, people, toilet issues, etc., I’m glad I’m not going to be stuck in the hoopla. Summers in DC are bad enough when people take their vacations and annoy the local residents, but having close to a million (or two or four) people converging for the long weekend in the city makes me cringe. Thank goodness for London!

I haven’t been really following the BBC here (I still frequent my local DC news sites), but there is a following, albeit strange following of Obama. I lied, I read the BBC yesterday. They likened Obama to JFK , which I found to be a very silly article that concluded there are no real similarities between the two men really. Anyways, I thought it was just Americans who were chanting “Yes we can!”, but strangely some of the English are just as much in love with the man. Even Torries (English conservatives) are fascinated and excited about his leadership, and not in a sense that “anybody but Bush is better”. But it’s a genuine attraction to this articulate black man from Hawaii.

Discussing the new presidency to Dan’s friends, the theme I here (just a summation of course) is that they are relieved that Americans are now voting for a competent man who thinks about the world as well. And as much as I would like to believe in that, I still think that Americans are still isolationists (and historically, our nation has been this way to a degree). I don’t think that everyone’s vote primarily focused on how this presidential candidate will impact the world. Generally speaking, I think most Americans voted for a man who can bring America back to its greatness; and that just so happens to impact the world. And to be honest, I doubt Joe the Plumber and friends really did their research on each candidate before they went to their local polling place. They got their information from the TV, and based their vote on what they saw and heard. And as much as I would like to be an optimist about the United States, I am whole-heartedly a pessimistic person when it comes to politics. Americans are obsessed with themselves and preserving the American way—sorry world.

It still is an exciting time in our history. And all eyes are on Washington the next four years. Hopefully Obama and Capitol Hill will work together to get things done (the world forgets about the House and Senate all the time!), and hopefully it will positively impact not only the United States, but the world.

UPDATE: It seems Obama-rama has reached new heights here in London! According to the Post, I have to flash my US passport at Madame Tussauds on Inauguration Day for free admission, and I can get some Krispy Kreme if I say, "Yes we can!" Sweet!

To The Left

Last night I drove about a mile on the freaking left side of the road--it was terrifying! There is just something wrong about having the steering wheel on the right side of the car. Dan also has a manual transmission, so I had to learn how to shift gears with my left hand, say what?! I think driving a stick is hard enough when you don't drive one often (um, 16 whilst on vacation in the Philippines was the last time I did it), but forcing me to learn with the wrong hand annnnnnnnnnnd learning to drive on the wrong side of the road is asking a lot of me. Perhaps it is just me.

We started out on our little road. There's a grassy circle in the middle of our street; not quite a cul-de-sac, but pretty much is. So I drove around there a few times--easy peasy. Did I mention I would only move if there were no cars driving at the same time? Yup, that's me--gently pulling over to the side to help others get to where they are going. I also would like to say that I am an excellent listener (Dan would probably say otherwise). So I did a little reverse, and drove straight, and I was assuming he was going to tell me to turn at the circle. Nope, he said nothing, and we continued to go straight to the main road--more cars!!! I immediately start yelling, "You aren't telling me what to do!" and "We are going to the main street and I'm afraid of cars!" Dan tells me to turn left, and I did. I stopped our little red Ford Fiesta at the the main road, and silly me for assuming that Dan and I would swap spots so he could drive us home. Nope, he tells me to turn either right of left. I tell him left cause that is easiest. He then yells at me to pull up more to the main street so I can see if the coast is clear--I stall, woot! I start the poor Ford Fiesta again, and we are off. Dan kept telling me to go 40, I was going 30 and freaking out as there were cars wizzing by me on my right and a car behind me. I just cry that I want to go home and that cars scare me and that this is terrifying. We pull into a neighborhood down the road, and Dan's directions become more frustrating as he would tell me to turn too late for me to prepare to turn. I stall yet again, then drive back to the main road--this time I need to turn right to get home. I plead with Dan that the lesson is over and that he should drive us home, but he doesn't budge. I check the coast is clear, and cry, "I'm scared!" as we peal out towards home. Again, Dan tells me to make the Fiesta go 40--I go 35 this time. I wizz by to make a right back to our street, probably scaring Dan (he yelled at me), and myself for that matter! There are 2 small roundabouts in our neighborhood, but nothing I would classify as a real traffic circle. Dan keeps reminding me to drive to the left of those as it is ingrained in my head to go right (that's what 11 years of driving on the right side has taught me). Dan tells me to pull into the driveway, I scratch the poor Fiesta with the hedges, I put the parking brake on and put it in neutral, turn off the car, open the door to the house, and run into the bathroom!!! Yes, I was sooo terrified I almost pissed myself. So yes, I did it--I drove on the wrong side of the road and I am definitely not eager to do it any time soon. Here's a map of my adventures!

I don't think I would have a problem driving here if they follow simple parking rules, especially in London. In the US you technically are not allowed to park against the flow of traffic (except in Philadelphia, where you can park in the middle of the street if you want to). So when you are in the car, it's really disconcerting to see cars parked, facing you--it genuinely feels like you are driving on the wrong side of the road. Another problem is all the roads are a lot smaller than US roads, but it's like that in the entire world except for the US I think. I generally don't have a problem with that, but I know talking to Rob he thinks the roads are too small. I think they should just park with the flow of traffic, and this country would be a little better.

Multiple Things

So waking up this morning has made me miss football so much! What is up with the NFC??? At this point I think the AFC Championship game is the game to watch over the Super Bowl (teams TBD). Dan and I might just make a trip to Essex and stay there for the night since I am pretty sure the Steelers vs. the Ravens is going to be a very exciting game (Dan's parents have Sky cable). Regardless, I think I am going to throw a Super Bowl party, even if it only means Dan and I watching in our very cold home.

In preparation for Eileen's 7th Annual Super Bowl Party, I have to come up with a fantastic menu to feed the masses (or Dan and I) come February. Unfortunately they don't sell Velveeta here! I know Velveeta is gross to people, but it is actually good melty fake cheese! It's also very American and would be good to feed it to the foreigners (or Dan). I actually spent the last hour trying to find a way to either purchase it in the UK or make it. Unfortunately, making it sounds super complicated and I don't think I can melt it the way I like to melt it--with beer!!!

Regardless, I am quite excited about the Super Bowl. And surprisingly a lot of young English people do watch the NFL, and it makes sense. There's nothing on TV on a Sunday evening (when the games are on TV), so why not watch football before you go to bed? Isn't that how we spend our Sundays? I'm sure there will be another person willing to sleep over, eat my cuisine, play a little Rock Band, and watch the game aside from Dan. This is also an open invitation for you guys to come to England and visit me and take part in the annual tradition that is Eileen's Super Bowl party! Woot woot! :)

Fooders

If you know me at all, which most of you do, you know that I like eating and I like cooking. If you put food in front of me, there’s a good chance that if it smells good, looks good, and/or covered in bacon, you won’t stop me from eating it until it is all gone (Heather made a dip at this party and it had bacon on it—it’s my crack rock!).

There are foods that can be easily ruined by people/chefs. I know that there are people who prefer provolone on their Philly cheese steaks, but there is something about having gooey and not-good-for-you cheese wiz, especially in Philadelphia. Or putting soy sauce on your white rice when you order Chinese! And I know a lot of you white folks who read this are guilty of it, and I shake my head in disappoint. There are just some things that can’t be made any better just because you try to make it “gourmet” and shoot up the price.

This leads me into dinner tonight. We are going out to the Oxford Street/Soho area for drinks, dinner, and karaoke! Woohoo! For dinner we are going to Carnaby Burger Co., which looks like a very posh Fuddruckers to put it bluntly (but I guess that is what Hamburger Hamlet is too). They also boast about being eco-friendly, which a lot of restaurants in London try to do. Anyways, I find it patronizing to invite a bunch of English people out to a very American-style restaurant and I’m the token American, and I find it more upsetting at the prices and creations they are putting out there.

As a DC native, one knows that Ben’s Chili Bowl is a staple. You know you are going to get damn good food and maybe some heart burn to boot. It’s also good bang for your buck, unless you are going to the Nationals ball park to get Ben’s Chili Bowl, which is absolutely outrageous based on the 200% mark up.

Well, Carnaby Burger Co. also does the chili burger, the chili dog, and the chili fries. Cue in anger, bordering on objecting to dining there tonight. Their chili cheese dog cost £5.65!!! Not only that, but they put real melted Swiss cheese!!! WTF?! They actually put Swiss cheese on anything that says cheese! I actually was excited to have some chili cheese fries and a pint of beer. But after reading that it is melted Swiss, I am kind of saddened and slightly homesick. God, I don’t even know if you can get Velveeta here—the English are quite snobby about their cheeses.

Those of you who work in downtown DC, you know that there’s this burrito stand on 15th and K Street NW that has a line halfway down the block. It looks like a shady operation, and there are other dining areas (i.e., Cosi, Subway, and Potbellys), but there’s just something about these burritos that have the suits come out during their lunch break. Perhaps I should just open up a shady stand and sell chili cheese everything, except use Velveeta. It’ll be cheap and yummy, especially the way I melt Velveeta.

So added to my list of things I miss… Velveeta? God this is a strange post to have cause I never imagine I would miss something like that! Oh, and I also miss American cheese to put on my sammiches.

H2O Works

In case you solely get your updates from this blog, my water works again. Woohoo! Welcome back to 19th Century living! Ha! Now I can solely focus on the cold weather. It may snow tonight (it snowed two nights ago).

A Strong Case for the USA

If you have been following my Facebook status updates, you will notice there are two updates related to no water. Yes, I have no water in this house. Scratch that... there's cold water running in the kitchen, but no where else. This means there is no hot water and the toilet tanks don't refill itself unless you go fill the bucket up to take to the tank. Is this a third world country? No, it's freaking the London suburbs!

As a condition of our basically rent-free home in Enfield, Dan (and sometimes me) are fixing up the joint (or as the locals say, "Do a bit of DIY!"). Dan bought a complete kitchen (solid oak cabinet doors, frames, and appliances) on eBay for really cheap. Dan's uncle did the electrical and plumbing bits to get the basics of the kitchen in. So our oven and stovetop (they call it "cooker") work, as well as the kitchen sink. But to install the kitchen sink, the water had to be turned off. When the water was turned back on, only the kitchen worked--nothing else!

Dan's uncle thought that it was just airlock. So before he left yesterday he said to just keep the cold water tap on and water should come out again. At that time we had a little bit of hot water too. By the time Dan came home from work, we had no water whatsoever (except for cold water in the kitchen of course)! He went into the attic (they call it a "loft"), and that tank was completely dry. And since that tank feeds the hot water tank, that became dry as well. Dan tried all the stopcocks for the water, and nothing will fill the tank in the attic. I'm hoping that it isn't a frozen pipe, and Dan doesn't believe it is a frozen pipe. Regardless, we have no water and have no clue when water will be returning, if at all. We are staving off a phone call to a plumber, as that would probably cost us a fortune. Dan's uncle is coming back to check out the problem again.

One thing I have noticed about England and their water--they always have separate taps for hot and cold water in their bathrooms. Occasionally, you'll visit a home with a "modern" bathroom and a "mixer tap". But for the most part, even in the house in Cornwall (built in 2000), the bathroom taps were separate. In the US you'll find these in old homes, like most apartments in NYC. I just find them rather annoying when you want to wash your hands, but most especially when you want to wash your face!!! Do I want to scald my face with the hot tap, or just freeze it and remain frozen the rest of the night as this house is freaking cold 24/7? These are hard life choices I tell you.

In other news... I got your letter Teresa!!! Yay! It felt good to get real mail! Woot! Thank you!

Aside from that, I'm pretty damn miserable right now. :(

Road Trippin'

Happy New Year! I hope everyone rung in '09 with a bang. My New Year was a little low key, and definitely sans ball dropping--I'm left slightly unfulfilled. Anyhoo, an update to start off your '09 work week.

I did my very first UK road trip. I love road trips because it gives you a chance to see a country and experience local culture. Dan and I left on the 29th to go to Kent then to Dymock. On the 30th we went into Wales to see a castle. Then on the 31st we went to Cornwall. We left Cornwall on the 4th and stopped to see Stonehenge. It was terribly cold and a little disappointing here and there.

As a seasoned road tripper back in the States, I thought that I had this innate ability to navigate my way through any pickle. I rarely get lost and I usually know my way around any foreign city in a day. Here in the UK, it has taken me awhile to get to know the area, and it is harder when you don't drive. But I miss the grid and interstate systems and it's organization! Living in England for a few weeks now, the roads remind me of Maryland--they suddenly change names or suddenly end--it's awful! What disturbs me the most is the UK highway system. M means motorway, A is a smaller motorway but can go through rural towns at low speeds. That's fine, label the type of road you are going to travel on. But the numbers attached have no rhyme or reason like they do back home. Everyone in the US should know that odd numbers means you travel north/south, even east/west, when there's three numbers if the beginning is even you travel in a loop around a city or odd then you go through a city, etc. That's organization I can appreciate. You definitely don't have that here, so one road can theoretically take you in a roundabout fashion and you wouldn't know it. It's awful!

It's still fun to go around and see different places, though I wish I weren't sick for most of it. Oh well. But the next time you are on the Beltway, take the time to appreciate the organization before you curse it as you are stuck in traffic.