Crotchety ole Jane

So I've been home for the past three days with a kidney infection. I feel like I should be taken out like old yellerand shot! These things are not a good time. And then today my washing machine finally had its final spin cycle. I'm telling you that thing got too excited for itself. It broke and flooded my kitchen. These things always seem to happen at the best times. On a bright side, I'm hoping I can get a washer,dryer now. I've made a request. Someone from the letting agency is coming over later to clean up the mess. I went british on them and told them I couldn't be bothered because I was sick. Hope everyone is having a better week than me. What I wouldn't give for some Kraft Mac and cheese right now!

News flash

This was a headline in UK Yahoo news. You can't make this stuff up! A hooker is a position in Rugby and the guy's last name is Hore. Amazing.

New Zealand hooker Hore cited, England wait on Flood

Rain Rain Go Away!

So there is flooding all over the UK currently. I thought it just always rained over here but didn't realize the country could actually flood. The bridge that goes close to my flat was closed to through traffic. I will try to take pictures to show you because it is crazy. One of the colleges is Christ Church (where they filmed some of Harry Potter) and they have a large meadow that runs down to the river. Well, you can't tell where the river ends and the meadow starts. It's just patches of water. And the neighborhood pub has water right up to its edges! We are supposed to go to an event tonight in London and now have to take the bus in because the train has two hour delays. Kind of crazy! It's supposed to stop raining tomorrow though. I believe the weather is starting to sink in with me. It's a bit depressing and I think I have started to hibernate for the winter. Hopefully, it will stop raining soon and there will actually be some sun. I may have to plan a carribean trip next winter...

Tday

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and had lots of family qt. I'm attaching a picture from my Thanksgiving. I think you will appreciate the amount of food I have managed to accrue on my plate. My sweet potato casserole was a hit. No one over here could wrap their heads around marshmallows on a sweet potato dish. I showed a picture to my coworkers and they were like is that a "pudding" aka dessert or do you have that as a side? "It just doesn't seem right". Then at the dinner some of the British guests were like this marshmallow thing is good. They weren't really sure what to do with it! And, I had to use the marshmallows that Kristin had from the States. The only marshmallows they have here are pink and white. It's a funny little country I'm living in! It was nice though because one of the French people there had family who owned a vineyard so she brought French wine and champagne from it. Was amazing!! We went around the table and said what we were thankful for. At the end I said I was thankful for seconds and went back to the kitchen. No one followed me. I was like oh... just me? Well, the more for me!! It is not Thanksgiving without seconds!!!

Pitty Party

So I was fine coming into work today until I realized everyone in the States was not going into work because they were home celebrating Thanksgiving. That and it was still about 3am for them. Definitely missing my family today. But, am so grateful to have the opportunity to be doing what I'm doing. And I get a half day tomorrow and will be spending Thanksgiving with some good people. Our Thanksgiving party is a bit comical with only 2 Americans out of 15 people. I guess that was kind of the original theme of Thanksgiving though right-bringing different people together? I'm taking it back to old school Thanksgiving with Brits, Frenchies, an Italian, and Australian and an Ukranian. You know, the usual! One girl actually asked if she should bring roasted or mashed potatoes. Silly Ukranian. And my friend Kristin (American) said one person asked about bringing chickens. HA!! Turkey... turkey!!!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all!!!

Yam tastic

So my American friend here is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner at her house on Friday night. I'm going to cook a sweet potato casserole for it. There are a couple of holes in my plan though. One being that I have not seen many sweet potatos in the stores here. This weekend I went on a sweet potato hunt to see what I was dealing with and all I could find were little baby sweet potatos. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with that. Also, I have no idea how to use my oven. I've only used it when British people are in it and have instructed me on how to turn it on. It has three pictures and none of them seem like "cook" to me. And none of them sound like "cook" when they are turned on. So to better handle this anxiety I emailed my boss earlier today and asked her if I could have a half day on Friday to cook a casserole. Now, in the States, I may not have been so honest. Seems kind of silly, but in the UK they have a better handle on the life/work balance. She wrote back "of course-happy feasting!". You have to love Europe!! I will keep you posted on how the casserole comes along.

A bit boring...

So now that I am more settled here I feel like I'm a bit boring on the blog. I'm sure it will get better when I travel and do other new things, but I'm sorry to be a bit of a bore. Please let me know if you want me to write about anything in particular. Happy Thanksgiving to all!!! I will be working and not eating turkey that day. :(

Bubble and squeak

So each Monday my coworker Bev receives an email from the Dining Hall with the weeks menu. It is the most exciting part of my Monday. I know... crazy life I am living! I had to share today's breakfast though. I don't get breakfast but it's fun to see what they have. I really don't think Black Pudding sounds appetizing and have never asked what it is. Then I have absolutely no idea what Bubble and Squeak is. Who came up with these terms? It's a heck of a day for lunch with you have Toad in the Hole and Bubble and Squeak on the side. :)

Black Pudding Bacon Fried Egg Bubble and Squeak

Gypsy Funeral

So apparently gypsies have 7 day funerals where they are just massive drinking parties. There is a gypsy funeral right outside of downtown and there has been a stabbing! These gypsies are crazy. I didn't even know Oxford was the gypsy type. The front doors of all of the colleges are closed. How crazy is that? Mom, don't worry, they think it's fine and are just taking precautions. Wonder what a gypsy looks like? All I've ever seen is My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. They mostly just looked like rednecks. Hopefully, a gypsy is not reading my blog after a long funeral!

And you think cable is bad

In the UK you have to pay a TV licensing fee. Basically, you have to pay for the right to watch television. It's totally ridiculous and I have to pay £100 a month!!! That is on top of the money I already spend to actually have the cable. And I didn't even sign up for the nice package. They show you all of the channels and gray out what you didn't buy. So you will get all excited about a show and then realize that only the people who can afford fancy cable are able to watch that show. So there you have it... :)

A bit mental

 So I've been playing on a soccer team since I first got here. It's been a bit of a bittersweet experience. Most of the girls are great and a lot of fun to play with but there are about three that are real toads in the hole. :) I'm fairly certain they think the game is a life or death situation. Today I was told that I was not mentally in the game and needed to turn it on all the way. Guess what, I've been standing on the sideline for the last 30 minutes freezing my arse off while you jokers have been keeping warm yelling at each other so yeah, you are right I'm not mentally with it. I'm 34 and way past the stage of it being ok for some joker to yell at me like that. So basically don't think I'll be plaing for them anymore. On a funnier note, I was asked today if I watch the show Homeland. The girl described it as a show about a ginger terrorist. Hilarious. Poor red heads here, the british really have a go at them.

Terms of endearment

Not that this is a tender post but am talking about terms so thought I would use that title.

Funny words here that we don't use in the US of A.

Jumper is a sweater.
Boots are actually like soccer cleats. So I would say soccer cleats and they would say football boots.
Dressing gown is a robe and men are not afraid to say that they wear one.

And they really love to omit a noun after a personal pronoun. So instead of saying "I will come to your place and then we can head out" they say "I will come to yours and then we can head out"

The other thing that kind of makes me laugh but that is endearing... agh, now the post title is all coming together... is that there has never been one day that I am walking on the street where a person walking the other way and I just walk in a straight line and have no trouble getting out of each other's way. The other person will always make a move that will then lead me to make a move and then you almost always nearly run into the person. And they don't say excuse me here. They constantly say sorry.. sorry sorry. It's so funny that it is a cultural thing and most do it.

Toad in a hole

I'm able to experience all the culinary wonders that England has to offer by eating at our dining hall every day. Today I had "toad in a hole" which is pretty much a fancy pigs in a blanket. It is basically sausage wrapped in Yorkshire Pudding. It has taken me 4 months to realize what in the hell Yorkshire Pudding actually is. I was thinking it was a pudding or dessert. Well it's just this flaky puff pastry. Happy eating!