Adventure Awaits!
Summer is upon us!
It seems that Cambridge has finally decided to give, albeit reluctantly, into the Spring and Summer seasons. After about a month and a half of rain and grey skies (apparently, this April saw more rain than any other April in the past 100 years), we are enjoying blue skies, sunshine, and incredibly warm temperatures (it was 63º yesterday!). We just hope it stays like this and doesn’t get any warmer!
We have had an exciting past couple months, which have kept us from writing more often. Laura has stepped into a few temp roles (she starts a new one on Tuesday), Chris has been working hard to submit for his first-year assessment (he submitted on 18 May), and we have had family and friends visit! In April, Laura’s parents visited for a week on either side of Easter. We got to show them Cambridge (and tour a good number of the colleges!) as well as take some trips outside of the city (including the historic Peterborough Cathedral and the east coast!) Earlier this month, David, Chris’s brother, was able to visit for a day (he was nearby, visiting a church in a village 30 minutes north from us). It was a very busy day, trying to take in as many sites as possible in just a few hours, but we’d like to think we gave him a true Cambridge experience. Lastly, two of our friends from Houston, Eric and Beth Young, stopped by for a weekend on their way back home from a European vacation. We took them punting (our first time!) and learned that it is a little harder than it looks!
Now that Summer is more-or-less here, it looks like things will be a bit more relaxed in the Fresch flat. Laura’s new temp job (for a department of the university!) starts on Tuesday and continues at least through September! Now that Chris has submitted for his first-year assessment, he is spending the summer preparing for the assessment itself and reading, reading, and reading some more (intentionally not writing!).
So far, we only have a few plans for the Summer months. We will be going to the Outer Banks in North Carolina to see family in June, and we cannot wait for this!! Seriously, it pretty much gets talked about every day in our home. :) Apart from that, though, we don’t have much else planned except for enjoying the cool summer and settling into more of a routine. Chris may be going to 2-3 conferences in July and September (two in England, one in Germany) and he might be going to Houston for a bit in August depending on some other factors. We are really looking forward to just spending some quality time with each other in England.
That’s all there is to say for now. We’ll update as new things happen!
We know we owe you an update, and it’s coming soon (we hope!) but in the meantime, here are photos of the past few months. ~~> http://www.flickr.com/photos/lfresch/sets/
We are still catching up on adding photos, so it’s not completely up to date yet.
But, here’s a sneak preview:
British-isms
In our short time here, we are becoming accustomed to many phrases, words, and concepts that were not the norm in America, so we thought we’d share a few with you. Feel free to laugh at us and enjoy using these at home. :)
1. Instead of asking someone how they like or are enjoying their home/job/etc, we have found that the common phrase is “How are you finding your home/job/etc” or, slightly more confusing in the past tense, “How did you find your home/job/etc.” We have both been caught off guard by the second question and started to explain how we went about locating and leasing our flat, for instance, before realizing the true nature of the question.
2. “Puddings” does not in any way imply the chocolate or other flavored substance often made by JELLO or sold in snack-packs. Here, it is a general term used for dessert.
3. Additionally, popsicles are referred to as “ice lollies.”
4. The American first floor is considered the ground floor in England while the American second floor is considered the first floor in England (the first floor above the ground floor). So, while by the American definition we live on the third floor, by the England definition we only live on the second floor. Unfortunately we still have to go up the same amount of stairs. :)
5. Instead of using the words “call” or “mail” to contact someone by phone or by letter, the generally accepted terms are “ring” and “post”. (Also, we have yet to hear the term “mom” used, instead it is “mum”.)
6. This is a weird thing to notice, but while we have seen “buy one get one free” and similar sales occasionally, the most common type of sale we’ve seen is the “3 for 2” sale.
7. We have realized that if you want to throw a British person off their game while on the telephone, ask them how they’re doing. Most people don’t know how to deal with this question and find it quite an odd thing for you to ask.
8. A follow up to number seven, however, is the British phrase, ” You-al’right?” It’s a common question upon initially meeting up with someone or a remark thrown out as you pass someone (whom you know) in the hall. Don’t be fooled, though, if a British person asks you this question, they are usually not actually asking “How are you?” It’s more or less an alternative to “Hi.”
9. Contrary to popular American belief, “cheers” is often not a closing remark to be used in place of a goodbye, but rather an extra remark, as in “Cheers! Bye!” or “Cheers! Thanks!”
10. Following that, it is quite customary for Brits to end their phone conversations with several instances of progressively quieter “bye”s. As in “BYE, bye bye” all said in rather quick succession. Even grown men of the engineering profession have been known to do this.
“You are all winners! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!”*
This is the story about how Chris and I are winners. As announced by The Civil Wars.
First, if you don’t know who The Civil Wars are, google “The Civil Wars Grammys” and find out. I’ll wait here.
{For you lazy people, I’ll summarize: The Civil Wars are a pretty new band who won two Grammys this year and have opened for Adele. They are sort of amazing. They have also been one of Chris’s favourite bands for past year-ish and one of mine for the past…week and a half.}
They are (were?) touring in England, but Chris has been sad because their shows were sold out. No The Civil Wars for us.
Then he entered a drawing without telling me. Whatever, no big deal. No one actually wins those things.
But then, he got an exciting email! He was among 18 people who won a pair of tickets to an intimate, exclusive The Civil Wars show in London. I would say that a 36-person audience is certainly intimate!
My first reaction (other than excitement for him), was to ask if any of his Cambridge friends liked The Civil Wars and wanted to go with him. I hadn’t ever really listened to them, so outside of the thrill of winning, I wasn’t really that enthused. He was sad that I wasn’t interested and convinced me to go. I found a Tex-Mex place in London near our underground stop and suddenly I was so enthused about our outing.
So, two Wednesdays ago, I met Chris at the Cambridge train station after work, and off we went for Tex-Mex in London. It was pretty authentic. They had chili-peppers on the walls, Tejano music through the speakers, and absolutely no strange psuedo-Mexican ingredients (as England “Mexican” food is so apt to have). It was a great night! The end.
Just kidding. (Not about the great night, just about the end.)
Soon we were on our way to Blacks in London Soho, an “exclusive club.” (So exclusive that there was no sign for it on the street and we ended up walking past it at least twice before someone pointed us to the right place.)
We walked inside and the poor door guy asked me if I was there for the civil partnership. I looked at him like he was from Mars while I tried to figure out what he was asking me. He then recovered his lines and asked me if I was there for The Civil Wars, which I did understand, and he pointed us to a door, behind which were steep stairs. And more steep stairs. And more steep stairs. (I would not want to walk up those in super tall heels while pregnant! Which I only mention because that’s exactly what Joy Williams of The Civil Wars had to do. Unless she can fly, which might be a possibility considering her amazingness. I digress..)
We finally reached the top of the stairs which opened onto a small room filled with people, which led us into another small room, also filled with people. It’s a good thing we got there when we did, because we grabbed pretty much the last seats in the small over-filled room. We looked around and took in the fact that we were approximately four or five feet from the “stage.” In a room much smaller than an average American living room. (Or, almost exactly the size of an average British living room.)
At this point, I started to feel a little guilty. There I was with front row, probably highly coveted, seats for a band I had only started listening to a week prior (for the sole intention of at least kind of knowing their music for this show). I didn’t belong here. I didn’t adore them like every other person in the room did. So, I sipped my drink and pretended I was as euphoric as everyone else as we waited for the band to arrive.
And then they were there. And then they started singing. And I’m pretty sure they cast a spell on me, because within 10 minutes I definitely belonged there. I was just as mesmerized to watch and listen to them as anyone else in the room, perhaps more so because they were so completely new to me. They opened with “My Father’s Father” and it was all uphill from there.
{Sorry for the poor quality! I was equipped with only an iPhone and Instagram.}
I don’t know how to justly describe their live performance other than that it was probably the best musical experience I will ever have.
I’ve heard it said that the way Joy Williams and John Paul White collaborate on the spot is sort of like twin-speak, and I absolutely agree. John Paul would take the song in some new way and Joy would just pick it up and follow. It made the whole thing so much more intriguing. And Joy’s voice. It sounds wonderful on their cd, but hearing her live just takes it to a whole new level that recordings just don’t do justice to. And her stage presence…so intriguing. Did I mention she was six months pregnant and in high heels and a GREAT non-maternity dress?
After the show, we hung around for a few minutes hoping to maybe get a picture with them. That part didn’t happen, BUT, Joy asked us where we were from (seeing as how we obviously weren’t British..). And then it happened: Joy touched my shoulder and thanked me for coming. Yes. That happened. I’m so glad I was wearing a cute jacket!
The whole experience was pretty amazing, and they definitely made me into a fan. I enjoyed all of their songs immensely, but for some reason my favorite song they performed was a cover of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean. (Weird, right?) Now, before you start thinking, “Okay, now I know what kind of music they play” stop right there. First, a confession: I’d never really heard or paid attention to the original version of this song, so the “first” version I ever heard was theirs. And it was spectacularly, hauntingly good. Then I listened to Michael’s version and was absolutely shocked at the difference. SHOCKED. It’s like it’s not even the same song.
Seriously, you need to listen to their version here. (Do it. Right now!) And then go buy their album. And, if you ever have the chance, do yourself an amazing favor and go see them live!
*The title is a quote from Joy Williams and John Paul White during the show when they were talking about how we were all there.
A guy juggling knives while riding an 8-foot unicycle!
This is for real. We saw this guy last weekend in City Centre and I took this video!
{Sorry it’s so long, but I think you’ll think it’s worth the length!}
The Difference of 24 Hours
Yesterday, the forecast was for rain.
I had to run some errands in town, so I had succumbed to the idea of not fixing my hair but rather wearing a hat, a raincoat, and some boots to get through my outing as quickly as possible.
Then, I realized that the hat I was planning to wear had been intentionally left in Texas.
Then, I looked out the window and realized that the rain had stopped, and, while still a little threatening, the sky held the promise of sun.
So, I fixed my hair and prepared to leave, grabbing the rain coat just in case. As you’ll soon see, Cambridge weather can be unpredictable.
The rest of the day was GORGEOUS. Case in point:
Beautiful, right? I mean, rain? What rain? Chris and I ate lunch outside and enjoyed the wonderful mid-50s weather.
The forecast for today was also for rain, but we were more than a little skeptical after how Saturday turned out. Unfortunately, however, the forecast was right. It’s been raining all day.
We didn’t pay much attention to it, until suddenly, about 15 minutes ago, Chris looked out the window and realized: It’s snowing! It’s very wet and won’t stick like before, since it’s 37 degrees outside, but regardless - it’s snow! Who knew that snow could be so immediately following such a gloriously “spring” day?
<3
Sorry that we haven’t written much lately - there haven’t been too many new things going on our world.
Laura has added some new Cambridge photos to her Flickr site, though! Click the links below to see the albums.
Good News!
Laura has a job!
Sort of.
It’s a temp job, so the search for permanent employment is not over just yet, but we’re still pretty excited.
The position will last between 3-7 weeks, and after one week, she is still really enjoying it. Everyone at her office is super nice and she is REALLY enjoying the concept of working a 37.5 hour week. Yay England! :)
There isn’t much chance of it turning into anything permanent, but that’s okay with us. While she’s enjoying the job as a whole, neither of us are enjoying her hour commute each way.
While this job itself won’t become permanent, it will be a good stepping stone to permanent jobs elsewhere. (Apparently, the English don’t like taking chances with people who have never worked in England before, so having some English work experience under her belt should help out a lot!)
Praise God for this!
Snow Day!
Lately, every time we check the forecast, it says that it will snow the day after tomorrow. But, the weather always changes and the snow always gets pushed back (it’s always a day a-way!) We are always so disappointed. We love snow and were so excited to move to a place colder than Houston, only to discover that snow is not that frequent here.
Well, this time was different!
On Friday, instead of having a forecast for “possible light snow” on Saturday night, the report warned of an expected 1-3 inches of snow! So we got cautiously excited, and waited. On Saturday afternoon the forecast changed again, but this time for the better! An expected 2-4 inches of snow was on its way!
We stayed in on Saturday night, completely forgetting about the weather until around 8pm. Chris looked out the window, and the snow was coming down hard! It was so windy that the snow was actually flying horizontally past our windows in giant gusts! It was beautiful. We continued our night in for a bit while it continued coming down, until finally, around 10, we decided we couldn’t wait any longer and HAD to go play in it. We stayed out until around midnight, running around in it, sledding down our hill with improvised sleds (as in, plastic grocery bags. Ridiculous? A little. Effective? Mostly!), and taking a long walk through town and by the river. (We are so thankful for snow boots/pants that kept us completely dry and warm!)
Here are a couple phone photos from last night. Visit my flickr site for more from last night/this morning.
Is it already late January? Whoops!
We really owe you an update, sorry! {Please imagine that in an English accent, maybe it will make you more forgiving!}
Someday I will tell you all about our holidays, but Chris is super busy with school and I’ve been in a post-holiday-mid-winter-I-live-in-England-without-a-job-or-a-church-funk that has been preventing me from focusing on any one thing for too long. So…I haven’t done much with any of our photos, which I need to do in order to tell you about our super long three-week trip. So we’ll file that under “coming soon” for now and move on. {Also in that category is a set of photos of our flat!! Just as soon as I finish taking them. Remember the funk? Blame that.}
Life has been more or less status quo lately. Chris has been busier than ever with school {his advisor asked him to write a paper over the break between terms, so he hasn’t ever really quit working since fall term started in October}, and I’ve been playing housewife and looking for a job. I got really far into the interview process for a promising position, but in the end it didn’t pan out, so, still looking.
Fortunately for you, status quo for us here does not necessarily equate to boring and mundane. We live in a new country! New things are the status quo! So here are some things that have been going on:
We got a free table! Over the past few months, I have been scouring the internet for a coffee table of just the right size and price for our smallish living room and have yet to find one that’s just right. Well, a few weeks ago our landlord was in the building and asked if we could use a coffee table! It was in the empty studio flat downstairs but he thought it was really too big for the small space and wanted to take it out. So, we now have a pretty perfectly sized table for FREE. {Sure, it’s not really ours and will stay with the flat when we move, but that just means one less piece of furniture to carry downstairs, so it’s win-win!)
We had a visit from Chris’s dad a few weeks ago. While he was here we discovered the Fitzwilliam Museum, where we got to see a lot of neat art and a few special displays. A great thing about England? Museums are FREE!
This is a little odd, but the other night while we were visiting a church, a dog suddenly showed up in the sanctuary. He didn’t seem to belong to anyone but proceeded to walk around and sniff everyone during the last song. He even ended up sitting by Chris’s feet by the end. It was a fun surprise.
I really enjoy taking walks around our town, but I’ve gotten a little bored with wandering around city centre. Not that city centre is at all boring, but it’s only so big, AND sometimes when you wander around by yourself you get stopped by solicitors. Last week on my way back from the post office (in the opposite direction of city centre), I decided to take a walk around the more neighborhood-like areas of Cambridge. It was so great! I discovered a green I hadn’t known existed and just enjoyed experiencing the beautiful day. I think I ended up walking about 2.7 miles if you include the trip to the post office.
{This is a shed near The River Cam, which was another part of my walk}
I took another walk on Monday and found myself inside the gates of Clare College, where I had never been before. The Clare College bridge offered a stunning view of punters in the river.
{View from the bridge}
The only semi-resolution I made this year was to take more photos and I’m doing it by way of the 365 Project, which is to take one photograph a day for a year. We’re 31 days in and I’m still going strong! Only 334 left! If you want to follow along, please visit my 365 Project set on my flickr site here! I’m a little behind on uploading the photos, but I’m still taking them every day, so they’ll be online soon!
I’m sorry that this update has been a little all-over-the-place, but, that’s life. :)
Huge Discovery!
You may have already known this, but we discovered today that cilantro and coriander are the same plant.
Short lesson: According to the internet, they are one in the same. The coriander you find in the spice aisle is made from the seeds of the plant, which is why you wouldn’t necessarily associate the spice commonly called coriander with the leafy green part commonly called cilantro in the US!
Today, we also discovered that in the UK, or at least as far as the Tesco grocery store is concerned, they call the leafy green part of the plant coriander instead of cilantro.
This is big news, because in the past, I (Laura. Chris doesn’t grocery shop, remember?) have pretty much searched all of Cambridge for cilantro to no avail. But now that I know that coriander is the same thing, I have just added a nice bunch to my online grocery shopping cart.
I am a happy girl and next week’s soup suddenly got a lot tastier. <3
Another street performer in Cambridge. I think he’s a bit more talented than the last one.
Happy New Year!
Wow! Sorry for such a long break!
We have just returned home from the longest trip we have ever taken.
On December 16 (over three weeks ago!), we said farewell to Cambridge and headed up to Norway to spend some time with Chris’s side of the family. Chris’s brother, his sister-in-law, and our two nieces live there, so his parents met up with us all there and we had a wonderful Norway-style Christmas! While we were all together, we took a short side-trip to Vienna to experience some of the wonders of Austria. We went to multiple Christmas markets and even toured a palace! We had a wonderful time getting to experience new things and spend time with family we don’t see very often.
Just after Christmas we crossed the ocean and spent some time in Texas seeing Laura’s side of the family and a few of our wonderful friends. It was great to be back in America, spend time with more people we don’t see very often*, and drive a car! We even got to spend New Year’s Eve with a group of friends from our Houston church. What a blessing!
In the past three weeks, we have been in four countries (five if you count the Amsterdam airport!), adjusted to three time-zones, and flown on nine planes. Whew! We have enjoyed the past three weeks immensely, but we are so happy to be back home and getting back into a normal routine.
We hope to post more about our travels soon, but bear with us as we re-adjust to being home!
*We tried to see as many people as we could, but we were only in town for so long. If we missed you, we hope to catch you on our next visit!
Life and Food - Part Three (The Best Part!)
Okay, so you know we have a tiny fridge to hold food without many preservatives and an extra freezer in the hallway, but do you know how we actually get food?
I’ll give you a hint, it’s not like in America.
We have a few smaller nearby (~.5 miles) grocery stores that we use for the things we buy frequently, but it’s difficult to really “stock up” on anything when you have to carry it a half mile home (sometimes uphill, depending on the store). Also, Chris sort of hates grocery shopping, so unless he’s in a really rare pro-shopping mood, I’m on my own.
So, as of recently, we’ve discovered two options.
1) I convince Chris to come with me and we take a bus to a nearby town with a larger grocery store. We bring backpacks and bags and stock up on things to put in our freezer and in our pantry and then ride the bus back, praying that our cold things don’t spoil.
Or
2) Our new plan as of this past weekend: we order groceries online. Readers, this is a game changer. First, Chris doesn’t have to go grocery shopping, so that’s win-win. Second, we don’t have to deal with bus schedules or packing bags of food as efficiently as possible and hoping it stays cold. Third, we don’t have to scour the store in an effort to figure out the sometimes nonsensical organization system (now we can just type it into the search bar and hit “enter”). And fourth, the delivery cost for the groceries bought online is less than the cost of two bus tickets.
We are so thrilled with our new solution. I’ve heard of grocery delivery in the states before, but I always considered it more of an unneeded luxury. Here, it is a game-changing problem solver!
