Archive for the Category ◊ Culture ◊

10 Sep 2009 Exploring Caledonia: Part I
Author:  |  Category: Food!, General observations, History and Archaeology, Places and Sights, Random fun, Uncategorized, Vistas  | One Comment

A Week in Caledonia

I began writing this shortly before we left Britain, but then life caught up, and in the chaos of returning to the US, it got set aside. As I write these words now, it has been nearly a month and a half since we landed in the US and a month since we returned to Albuquerque.  Life has been…  Very good, but very busy since the return.  But the memories of Britain and Europe are still strong, and part of our hearts still live there, I think.

So now I flip back through my notes and the feel and scents of Scotland return to me.  I will do my best to transcribe some of them, but there’s a great deal to say, so this may take more than one post and some time to get out.  (Not aided, I know, by my incurable verbosity.)  Think of it as a slow-motion discovery for each of you — you’ll never know when another bit of it will pop up.  But I’ll do my best to at least finish up Scotland before, oh, say, Christmas…

One of the final tour targets for the great Rati-Lane British Isles tours was Scotland. We’d been hoping to hit all of the major regions/countries of the British Isles (England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland), but we still missed Ireland.  Ah well — good reason to return at some point.  ;-)

We had to decide on something, and we had really needed a work-free vacation, so we packed our bags and headed North.  A lot happens in a week of intense vacationing, so there’s quite a bit to report.  We’ll start with:

more…

16 Jul 2009 Leaving the Shire, Mr. Frodo
Author:  |  Category: Culture, General observations, Meditations, Places and Sights  | 4 Comments

As I write this, we’re sitting in the airplane at Heathrow, about to take off for the US.  For home and the end of a wild, wonderful, eye-opening, strange, and sometimes stressful year. more…

17 May 2009 Did someone tell you British food was bad?
Author:  |  Category: Food!  | 3 Comments

So, before we came to London, we’d heard plenty of tales of the bland and boring British food.  I have no idea what people who talk like this have been smoking.  Maybe I don’t know what what THEY consider to be good food.  We’ve been having a great time eating in the UK, both at restaurants and in our own kitchens. more…

28 Apr 2009 Strange sights
Author:  |  Category: Daily Life, Places and Sights  | Leave a Comment

Quick note on a strange occurrence the other day…

I was leaving home in the morning, heading for the bus stop to go in to the university. As I approached the end of our street, and the turn onto the more major cross-street, I was surprised to see a Victorian hearse pass.

Two beautiful grey horses in fancy tack and bridle (complete with the feather head dress) drawing an elaborate, gilded and ornamented, glass sided wagon containing what appeared to be a coffin. The whole affair was driven by two men in formal dress — coat and long tails, top hat, the whole bit. It was a vision out of a Dickens novel, for sure.

This surprising conveyance was followed by just two dark, limousine-style cars. (And then a red London city bus.)

I assume that it was really a funeral arrangement of some sort.  I was just surprised to see it trotting down a city street in what is not precisely an upper-class or elaborate area.  I think of horse and carriage as being something that people hire for weddings and other romantic occasions, not for funerals.  And there wasn’t a long line of mourners following.  (Though the tradition of a huge number of cars following a slow hearse and paralyzing traffic for miles around may be more of a US thing.  I don’t know.)  It just felt…  Out of place, I guess, in the middle of a neighborhood of early 20th century row houses filled with immagrents and making its way through dense traffic.

13 Apr 2009 Royal badasses
Author:  |  Category: Culture, General observations, History and Archaeology  | 6 Comments

A recent voluble tour guide was lecturing us about the history of York and, while telling us about the ruins of their abbey, he started a remark:

“And then, when Henry took the throne, he…”

I had to interrupt (being a loud and obnoxious American), “Which Henry?”

He stopped his flow of lecture and blinked.  “The Eighth, of course.  We’ve only had two monarchs, you know: Henry and Elizabeth.  All the rest were just placeholders…”
more…

19 Mar 2009 The FOOD review of Paris
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So, I got some requests to describe what we ate in Paris in more (excruciating) detail. more…

06 Mar 2009 Chip shop with an identity problem
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Here’s a photo of a takeout shop just down the street from us in London: more…

02 Feb 2009 You know the weather’s bad when…
Author:  |  Category: Daily Life  | 4 Comments

It’s snowing in London!

In fact, it’s been snowing all day today (2 Feb — Candelmas!), and apparently most of last night. more…

13 Jan 2009 Another day, another currency
Author:  |  Category: Daily Life  | 5 Comments

So, now that we’re in London, we have to adjust to British pounds.  It makes you think about how money is designed. more…

30 Dec 2008 Christmas in Madrid
Author:  |  Category: Culture, Food!  | One Comment

We had a very nice Christmas here with more fellowship than we were really expecting.

I was suddenly struck by a clue-by-four in December and went looking for an English-language Christian church.  I have no idea why that didn’t occur to me sooner.  One Google search of “English language Christian church” turned up Community Church of Madrid, which turned out to be a fantastically welcoming congregation formed from a core of English-speaking expats and a lot short-timers like me.  I went to a bilingual candlelit Christmas Eve service that was co-hosted by them and a Spanish-speaking sister church.  It really put the mood back in the season for me.

In the theme of family and home, Terran made rabbit stew the way his father used to make.  Rabbit meat is more easy to buy here than in the States.  I’d never had rabbit stew before.  It was very good.  (Kind of tastes like chicken! :) )

On Christmas Day, we had an invitation from Terrans’s madrileña postdoc, who is home for the holidays, to have Christmas lunch with her family. We had a lovely time and were able to use some of our baby Spanish. The parents spoke no English, but Terran’s student’s siblings did, so we bounced back and forth between languages. At the end, they put on a children’s video for the 3-year-old, and Terran and I laughed that the Spanish was just about right for us. The food, of course, was amazing and unending, but this time I was braced for it: ham and bread and cheese for an appetizer, followed by gambinas (~prawns) cooked in butter and garlic, followed by a main course of suckling pig in the style of Segovilla, followed by a traditional dessert of turron (almond sweets) and marzipan. We’re glad we got a chance to taste suckling pig before we left, since we missed it when we actually visited Segovilla. It was amazing.

We got home in the late afternoon, which was still morning, back in the States, and called our families.  It wasn’t the same as being nearby, but it was a good time.

Now, we’re in the last day of our time here in Spain.  It’s hard to believe the time has gone so fast.  We want to find a way to hold on to the Spanish we have learned, and we hope to be able to visit Madrid again someday.  We think it is one of the undersung cities of Europe.

We still plan to post the story of our Pisa trip and hopefully a couple of other bits about Madrid, but all of that will have to come after we’re settled in London.  We fly on New Year’s Eve (tomorrow!).  The last few days have been crazy and stressful, and I’ll feel better venting about it after everything has turned out all right.  Wish us luck!

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