Deja vu.

Happy Midsummer!

Today's Sunrise: 4:36:58 BST
Today's Sunset: 21:18:12 BST

(BST = British Summer Time. Subtract 7 hours to equal Mountain Daylight Savings Time.)

I think it is a good thing that I have people like Dan around to keep me motivated to write on this blog. He says:

Hi Amy,

I've been checking your blog to see an updated health post. How are you doing? Are you getting psyched to come back to the States?

The sick thing is an interesting tidbit right now. No, I am not healthy. Yes, I am sick. But I am sick again rather than still. Which I suppose is better. My chest is not full of gunk, though I go in for an x-ray on Monday just to be sure. I, however, have come to the conclusion that whoever told me that it takes 5 to 7 years to develop allergies in a new place LIED. (And I say that with venomous emphasis, just in case you were wondering.)

I had seasonal allergies in the states: mulberry pollen got to me just like it did everyone else. There must be something here, though, that I am really allergic to in the air. I have been hacking and sneezing repeatedly and strongly, and glad for doing it as it itches my throat when I do. (When I am not sneezing to itch my throat, I am rubbing my tongue as far down it as I can to try and itch it that way.) My nose is running, my throat is sore from the nastiness draining down it, AND my eyes and the inside of my ears are so itchy that I seriously consider scratching them out.

These allergies don't feel like allergies from mulberry pollen. They feel like the allergies I get when I roll in the Bermuda grass and my eyes swell up and I break out in hives. So today Stephen and I took a trip to the local chemist (pharmacy) and I found the anti-histimine Loratadine. I hope it is my friend. I am really tired of being sick.

The weather here has been about 65 to 70 degrees F. The other day a colleague was telling me that it was obvious that summer was here. I hesitated to ask. She told me that this was about as hot as it gets in the summer. Egad! I feel like an icicle. My sweater is still my best friend, and I never leave home without it.

As far as being excited to head back to the States, I am! I can't wait for the heat. I can't wait to see my family. I can't wait to hold and kiss Tristan and read him books. Still waiting on the inventor to show up with my portal for instant travel.

There is news going on in our world too. We are house hunting again. Our lease is up at the end of July. The rent is going up, and we can spend less fairly easily. So the weeks before my trip to the States will be filled with work and packing. Woohoo fun.

Remember the job Stephen applied for? Well, just the other day we were sitting in our favourite coffee shop talking about it. We decided that it had been too long without hearing anything, and that must mean that he had not been called back for an interview. We get home and Stephen finds an invitation to interview in his email inbox. It is July 10. We will let you know what happens.

Ashley leaves the country on Tuesday. She will be flying internationally all by herself. She is almost adult-like. She will have her old cell phone when she flies into Houston, and will be staying the night with her Uncle Jim.

That's the current scenario. We will keep you posted!

Oh my... It's already February?

When Gramy sends a comment that says I need to post more, that tells me something doesn't it?

It has been busy in this here house, and I am sure that you all want to hear all about it. I am in the midst of a 6 week student teaching placement... and I have distinctly mixed feelings. I am in a year 6 class (6th grade) and it is a particularly interesting place to be. Years 2 and 6 are the years of the SATS, which are significantly high pressure tests for both the kids and the schools. Year 2 they try quite hard to hide the tests, but Year 6 it is right there in the open. The kids know about them, know they will be judged, and most, actually, are told often that they will be found lacking.

At first I couldn't figure out why they placed me in a Year 6 classroom, as it was pretty obvious that they really didn't want me there. The administration has made it clear on more than one occasion that I am only to be teaching groups, and that the teacher needs to be responsible for things like lesson planning and whole group instruction. That doesn't work, though, since there are university requirements that must be met. That, and papers that I need to write afterwards that are based entirely on the process of planning, delivering, assessing, then planning from assessment.

While I could go on for quite a while... and I may still do, I want to give other things their fair shot to be spoken of.

Ashley is in the midst of a work placement thing, and is spending some time at the art store on the High Street. She spent yesterday running the till (that's the cash register), calculating change in her head, and unpacking canvases. She now knows more about canvases that anyone else I know. She will be there for another 2 days, and says she likes it. This morning, though, we ended up waking her. She had turned off her alarm for being too tired. Flashed me back to my much younger days when work was not nearly as important as things like hanging out with friends and going out and sleep. Made me feel surprisingly old.

Stephen has shaved his beard. It was lovely while it lasted. He is almost 2 different people. With the beard, he looks older, more dignified, more like the stereotypical Englishman, I think. Clean shaven, you can really see his baby face and he looks years younger than he actually is. Both ways, I had to take a few days to get used to it. He just didn't look like himself. I think he was glad to have shaved, though. His mum definitely likes him better clean shaven. I am happy either way, which I suppose it a good thing, as it is HIS face.

Quite a while ago, Dan and others asked me some questions, which I have yet to answer, So, because i have put them off for so long, I'll do it now.


1) What are you homesick for (besides Tristan)?

Hmm... this is a tough one. There are food items... green chile most especially, and corn tortillas, elk meat, and malt o meal. I miss the cactus. I miss the sunshine. I miss knowing my way around the town and larger grocery stores with familiar items in. I miss quarters. (They have 20p pieces, which seem just silly. I learned that 4 25's is 100 by using quarters. 20 p just seems like a waste.) [I learned that five 20s are 100 - Stephen] I miss my animals. I miss my family. More than missing my family is missing the ability I had to drop everything and go and see them. I have gone longer without seeing them, but the simple fact that I CANT go and see them if I wanted to makes it that much harder. I miss my friends. I am so cautious about making friends here. I am not comfortable opening up. So we do have friends, but they are Stephen's friends, or university colleagues. Not the same.

2) Are you feeling comfortable living in the UK? Are the cultural quirks working themselves out?

I have come to discover that Americans are prudes. I did not consider myself prudish in the States, as a matter of fact, I think I was quite the opposite... risqué, even. But here... commercials make me blush. Comments make me blush. People say things and I am offended, and it is no big deal to them. Sex is taboo in the US. Here it is something that is much more ok to tease people about. So... I am a prude. Knowing this means that I have to be very aware of the cultural lens that I look at things through, and often have to pick apart my response before sharing it with anyone else.

As far as comfort, I don't think that I can yet say that I am comfortable. I know my way around much better than I used to. I feel at home in my house. I don't notice the accents any more (there are even times when I cant tell the difference in a TV program between an American and a British accent.) But I absolutely feel like a foreigner. I actually have a new understanding of how it must feel for immigrants in the US. Sometimes it is downright unintentionally hostile. All the talk about immigrants stealing British jobs, how immigrants should be kicked out, how no one wants immigrants, immigrants should pay more taxes, more tuition, have less pay... all things I heard in the US, but now I am on the other side of the fence. It is not that people are intentionally unwelcoming. They don't see how the rhetoric affects the atmosphere. I wonder if Mexican immigrants in El Paso feel as uncomfortable and lesser.

3) Have you had to go to the doctor yet? If so, was it easy to get in (RE: Sicko).

I have been to the doctor, but not because I was sick. When you register with the NHS, you have an appointment with the nurse for a history, etc. That went smoothly. I had piles and piles of medical records, since I brought copies of EVERYTHING with me (all right, I hear the "Obsessive-Compulsive!" shouts from the peanut gallery... hush!) I have not been sick enough to go to the doctor. Neither has Ash. There is much less an environment of go to the doctor. Most people don't, unless they are VERY ill. It is frowned on. You don't need a doctors note to leave work sick, unless you are out for more than 5 days. Herbs are a bit easier to get, though the raw unprocessed ones are harder to find. I feel very lucky that I brought all mine and they made it through customs ok.

4) How did you do your first semester?

The school year is not divided into semesters here. And the grading system is messy. So bear with me. This degree that I am doing is a 3 year degree. However, none of the grades from the first year are worth anything. But the second and third year, each piece of assessed work is actually a percentage of my final degree grade. Classes are the entire year long, and each class has between 1 and 3 pieces of assessed work. My classes this year are Professional Studies (2 pieces), Science (2 pieces), English (1 piece), Maths (3 pieces), Art (2 pieces), and Inclusion (2 pieces). So, 50% of my final degree grade is in these pieces of work (all of which are really really huge, 8-15 (and some even larger) page papers with appendices and 10-20 researched cited sources.) So, 6 classes, each class is worth 8 1/3 % of my final grade. Divide that into the number of pieces of assessed work and you have how much each piece is worth.

Like I said, grading is messy. Degrees have value. A first degree is the best you can get, then a 2-1, then a 2-2, then a third. [Actually there is a grade that sits under a third, there's a level that is just called a pass. If an honours degree is being studied, a pass may lose the honours label. - Stephen] (I know, it makes no sense. I still am not entirely clear on it.) Assessed work follows the same type of scale. Technically, I could get up to a 100, but no one EVER gets anything above an 80. EVER. A 70 to 80 is a first. 60 to 70 is a 2-1. A 50 to a 60 is a 2-2. 40 to 50 is a third, and below that is a fail. Most people end up with a 2-2. That is average. 2-1 is really good, and it is nigh-on impossible to get a first degree. It happens, but it is always to those ephemeral people who have no lives. (And quite possibly to a colleague named Cleander, who has 2 small children and apparently never sleeps. Or so she says. We still cant figure out what she is doing to get those grades.)

Before I actually answer the question, I have to point out that I have really struggled. The writing style is completely different here. I remember being taught how to write a 5 paragraph essay... 1 paragraph introduction with topic sentence and 3 main points. 1 paragraph for each point, with evidence. Conclusion states topic and 3 points again. I remember being taught this and then told to NEVER WRITE LIKE THAT AGAIN. That's how they write here. And there can be absolutely no independent thought or opinion in the realm of academic writing at my level. EVERYTHING must be backed up with evidence. Someone else must say everything that I want to say. No one has taught me what is expected, I have just been assumed to know. So this whole time has been a process of figuring out exactly what it is that they want. And it has been tough. and I am not sure that I like it. I am a good writer, but it hasn't seemed like it lately.

Ok, my grades. Professional Studies, I have turned in 1 assignment, but have not gotten it back. Science, I have turned in 1, and got a 60. English, none turned in. Maths, 2 turned in. 1 a 56 (that was the first paper I've turned in) and the other a 78. Art, 1 turned in, got a 73. Inclusion, 1 turned in, got a 66. So I do some figuring, and right now I am looking at a 66.84%. That is a 2-1. This is not final, it will depend on how well I do in the rest of my assessed work. But I seem to be on an upward trend.

The hardest part of it all has been combating my own feeling of having poor grades. A 58 % looks terrible when you are used to that being a failing grade.

5) What language differences have you found?

Tons. Just for ease, the first word will be American English, and the second British English. And Ill provide the more daring of you a link to an American/British English dictionary. Whoever said that we speak the same language is WRONG.

• period - full stop
• quotation marks - speech marks
• parenthesis - brackets
• gas - petrol
• big rig - lorry
• tylenol or acetaminophen - paracetamol
• pants - trousers
• underwear - pants
• trash can - rubbish bin

There are so many, I almost don't know where to start. And this doesn't touch on words we spell differently (fetus/foetus or center/centre, for two) or words that we spell the same but say differently. (herb and route, off the top of my head.)

For far more than I can or will give, check out here. If you want to know the slang terms and see the site I use most often, then check out here. And for a website that points out cultural differences, go here.

Questions and Answers...

Happy October to you all! Pumpkins and Samhain and soon it will be Stephen's birthday, and I am excited to be able to try out my carrot cake recipe for him. Everything is just slightly different cooking here. Spices act and taste just a bit different, things need a titch more or less cooking. It's a lot to adjust to. I have high expectations that my carrot cake will come out as delicious as I hope it to.

I love it when people interact with my blog. I love it when people ask me questions and give me something to look at specifically for them, and in the hopes of getting more questions, I'll share the ones I just received. Dan the Man sent me an email asking me all sorts of 'curiosity' questions. So instead of posting a reply just to him, I though that, since other people might be curious about the same thing, I'd answer them here.

Here's what Dan said... "So, overall, how does it feel being in the UK? Have you felt any different (besides cold)? Have you met any other "yanks" in Canterbury? The university experience any different from NM? On the school front, how does Ashley like school? How are her classes different than here in the States? Number of periods? Length? Class size. etc. Thanks ;)"

How does it feel being in the UK? Have you felt any different (besides cold)?

You know when you are 12, just turning 13 tomorrow... and you think for sure you will feel different because you will be a TEENAGER... and tomorrow comes and you really don't feel any different at all? That is how this is. It is so awe-inspiring, so overwhelmingly mind blowing, that I can't stay in the mindset of how amazing it is. I forget to be appreciative in the trudge of daily existance. I have to remind myself to look up and conciously remember that these buildings are older than the entire COUNTRY I was living in. I have to remind myself to notice.

And then, there are times when England reaches out and grabs me by the throat and forces me to remember. Like when staring at the tree in Westgate Gardens that has a trunk larger than the diameter of a car. Or when listening to the piper standing on a street corner of the High Street playing in rags, with a dog at his feet and a small pool of coins on a cloth in front of him. Or standing by the eternal river flowing past the ancient gate and into the city center. Times like that it is impossible not to wonder if I am really here and now, in this time, or if I have somehow managed to slip back into the past and stand in the completely different body of some wandering peasant. And if so, have they slipped forward to take my place for a moment? Are they as awestruck as me?

Sometimes, I'm held motionless by it. And sometimes, I forget. Both are disconcerting.

Have you met any other "yanks" in Canterbury?

As far as other Americans, I have met 1 who has been at the University I attend and works in the International Office. She is leaving come spring to go back to the States. She is from Oklahoma. The next closest is a collegue of Stephen's, who is from Canada. He sounds fairly North American, and has been living in Ireland for 7 years. Otherwise, everyone around me is British. Their voices have become normal enough that an accent like mine stands out in a crowd more than the English accent does. On the news this morning, they were interviewing an American, and she sounded strange to me, almost harsh. I wondered if that is really how I sound.

However, Stephen's mum works in the same corridor with 4 Texans. Just the other day she asked me, in all seriousness, if I carried duct tape and WD-40 (though she called it CD-23 or something like that, and it took us forever to figure out what she meant) in my purse, because one of the Texans she works with said that ALL real Texan women carry Duct tape and WD-40 with them everywhere they go. I had to sheepishly explain that I must not be a real Texan - and that I lived on the border anyway... we don't carry duct tape and WD-40, we carry black eyeliner and Our Lady of Guadalupe medallions.


The university experience any different from NM?

The first week I was completely overwhelmed. They absolutely piled on the workload, and said things like, "Now, you need to be doing a lot of reading on your own, which is why we are not giving you a lot to do." I think I figured out why I was overwhelmed.

Here, there are 3 terms in a year. You stay in the classes you take for the entire year. And they give you a list of all the work you have to do for the entire year at the start of the classes. So all this work is spread over the entire year. I'm not used to that. It seems like too much, and I'm going to have to really work to figure out how to manage my time effectively.

I still haven't figured out the book situation. I'm not sure what I need to buy or even if I need to buy. And in general, the University seems disorganized. But it is nothing that I can exactly put my finger on.

On the school front, how does Ashley like school? How are her classes different than here in the States? Number of periods? Length? Class size. etc.

I think it best if I let Ashley answer this question for you, as she is the one actually experiencing her schooling, and can compare it much more effectively than I can. I'll have her post on this tonight.

Now for a complete change of subjects... Stephen and I had an interesting discussion last night on my post about grocery stores and the plethora of ready meals. He said it sounded 'cheeky'. After a discussion of exactly what 'cheeky' means (which I'm still not sure I understand... but it is something like sometimes bratty and sometimes slightly rude, but not always...) he stated, and rightly so, that the US is /known/ for being a country that is so focused on fast foods. So I feel that I should clarify. I haven't been to a whole lot of grocery stores here, so I can't really generalize that ALL stores have so much in the way of ready meals. And I went to stores in the US that were geared towards my kind of cooking (whole raw foods). So it's not entirely fair to say that the UK has more ready-meals in a general sense. Its like comparing apples and oranges.

I stick by my statement that I have seen more ready meals (in % of the store focusing on them) in the stores that I have been to here than I did in the stores I frequented in the States. I am open to changing my mind as I see more.

In Which Amy Ponders the Implications of Shoes... (Myspace Blog)

I want to talk about shoes. There is a guy who walks to class barefoot. This makes me happy. I do not know why. He is tall, with longish-blonde hair - a hippie like me maybe? Anyway, I think he is important. I think I have things to learn from him. Is it the freedom from the constraint of wearing shoes? He makes me want to write about them.

A college campus is the perfect place to write about shoes - there are so many to see. Tennis shoes, dress shoes, pointy toed, black lace, high heeled, flip flops, sandals (though none like mine... are 'Jesus sandals' really so unusual?) I think people are the only species to cover their feet. Does this further our inherent human need to distance ourselves from the animals?

Signs tell us "No shoes, No shirts, No service". We have societalized the need to wear shoes, taken away the choice to wear shoes or not - Why? Does it matter if you have shoes to go into a convenience store? Are the candies going to be infected by a persons' dirty feet stepping on the dirty floor that the candies don't even touch?

Wow - I never thought of the concept of shoes being, really, a concept of control. We are told that we MUST wear shoes. I am sure that people walking by barefoot guy think how strange he is, how abnormal. We are brainwashed into believing that 'different' means 'abnormal'. I like that he has rejected this means of direct control. I like that it makes me question - whose authority is it to decide whether or not I wear shoes? Why is it anyone's decision except for mine? I think I need to go and sit where I can watch these tiny control devices more closely... perhaps there is more to them than meets the eye.

I am going to have to stop barefoot guy and tell him what I have learned from him...

In Which Amy Thinks About Civilization... (Myspace blog)

I was having a delicious cross-cultural (he in the UK, me in the US) political discussion, when my very old and dear friend Stephen said, "Civilization occurs through depriving those around you of pure free choice of action..." I had to stop and think... how do I feel about this? Is this truth? And I couldn't say. Partly because I had never stopped to think about WHAT civilization was. SO... I did some research. I took what I found and put together a very tentative Amy-nition of civilization. I am curious as to how others define it, so please share with me, and help me to develop my own knowledge about this surprisingly sticky topic. In a few days, I will follow up and post what my research showed me... and my own definition. It is very interesting stuff.