Travels

Just a brief update on our status. We have been rather busy as of late with the holidays (for example we just got to relive our ski instructor days by teaching our niece and nephews how to ski!) and we will fly back to London tomorrow and then will visit our friends in London and THEN back to Durham after the new year. So sometime we'll begin to write regularly but it might be a few more days (given the nature of travel and all that) so bear with us.

P.S. Maybe we'll even post a picture of Megan and her newly truncated hair.

A Christmas Video

These are not our kids (seeing as how we don't have any) but it is a video of our friend's kids (Tim Boyle), Charlie and Petra that was shot a couple of years ago now. Every year though we watch and just get a kick out of the thing and after getting Tim's permission we decided to share. What a better way to celebrate Christmas than with a rousing rendition of "gloria" we hope you enjoy. Merry Christmas!

On the road again

Last night we experienced a nice snow storm in Iowa, and tonight it's blowing outside here in Michigan, as today we drove from Josh's family in Springville to Megan's in Zeeland, typically a six hour drive. Despite some bad weather predictions, we made it in not too much more than that. However, we did encounter a few interesting things along the way:

61 cars slid off into the ditch on the side of the road, 2 of them U-hauls and 55 of them within the first 1.5 hours
5 Semis in the ditch, 1 turned on its side (those are big lorries, British folk)
1 wrapped present sitting sadly in the snow on the side of the road
1 Iowa state vanity license plate reading: OBAMA08 (now that's dedication)

It's fun to drive on straight, open midwestern highways again...

Hee-hee

A year ago today

A little comic hangs next to our desk in Durham. It shows a car in mid-lane indecision on a snowy highway approaching an exit ramp that, rather than heading off to another road, scoops up to what looks suspiciously like a ski ramp, steep enough to tempt only a James Bond-esque car chase or those guys from Myth-busters. A sign with a downward arrow towards the main lane of traffic reads, "Through traffic." The other points off to the exit saying, "Ski resort, exit only."

This square sheet of paper was torn off a daily desk calendar by my office manager exactly a year ago today, December 20, 2006, my last day of work in New York before taking off for Winter Park and beyond. Amazing what adventures a year's time will bring!

Irony

Yesterday was one of the shortest days of the year (sunrise at 8:30, set at 3:30 in Durham) BUT we milked it for everything it was worth, since we got up at 7:00 and didn't end up going to bed till around 3:00 AM the next day, same time zone. In hindsight it kind of changes the idea of "the shortest day of the year" when you double the length of daylight through nine hours in flight. Funny thing that.

Five things, recap

As the comments on our Five Things post now number in the double digits, we've decided to write a short follow-up. Thanks to everyone who took part in that post, and while I can't think of many people who enjoy rings in the toliet (mom, I presume?) or boring cars (dad, I presume?), I thought there were some quite interesting answers. I liked the "largest car on the road at any given time..." (never thought of it as a relative thing), and Meg thought that candles and the beach were excellent, unexpected contributions. Eric's late "three strikes and you're out" input was also a good one. For the most part I was amazed at how much I learned about other people, not highly informative secrets but still interesting tidbits nonetheless. (Note: don't take Melissa out for cheesecake or buy Sarah Mountain Dew...)

And on an unrelated note we are begining the journey home for Christmas (while getting to visit some friends en route) and so if posting drops down over the next week forgive us, we'll be enjoying family we haven't seen in a while. We should be OK but I just wanted to put a preface on any strong feelings of laziness that may arise while we are home. We are flying from London to Iowa via Chicago on Monday and then spending time both there and in Michigan until the 29th (in other words, call us, friends!). Hope all is well, and Merry Christmas!

Scottish St. Nic

Today on my walk to school I passed by a man in a Santa suit who was playing the bagpipes... I just needed to share that.

Fairy Tales

Fairies don’t show up too often in the average American life. They appear in books or movies, and fairies make excellent Halloween costumes, but that’s about it (other than as a slang term for something else…). I’ve come across fairies in a few unusual places this week here in NE England, though, the most puzzling found in yesterday’s paper. One of those "5 minute interview with a celebrity" type articles had questions obviously geared towards the holiday season:

What has been your favorite Christmas present?
Where will you spend the holidays?
What is your favourite Christmas song?
Are you a star or a fairy person?

Wait, what? A star or a fairy? It took some further reading to realize that they were referring to Christmas tree decorations. Upon arrival at my office, I queried half a dozen coworkers about their Christmas tree topper habits and discovered that fairies are quite popular around here. They won 3 to 2 (with the 6th person claiming whatever creation the kids made that year trumped both star and fairy). Angels, a common star alternative where I come from, were still a viable option, and it took a few puzzled looks before someone could come up with the difference in their Christmastime manifestations. It’s the wings, apparently. Angels have larger, feathery wings; fairies have more translucent "wings of “gossamer,” said one workmate. Of course. I guess I knew that.

Other fairies? Someone here asked me if all Americans put up as many fairy lights as Chevy Chase did in the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I also made fairy cakes, not cupcakes, for Josh on his birthday as we didn’t have a cake-sized tin. And there’s Fairy Liquid in the office kitchen, which seems to be a popular brand of washing up liquid (commonly known as dish soap in the USA). So we’re surrounded by fairies here. How lovely!

(By the way, if you are interested in learning more about fairies, Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book is a charming, wonderfully illustrated introduction.)

A picture of my screen...

I looked at this and thought, "man I'm a nerd." Megan looked at this and said, "You're overloading the computer."

If I could be anywhere today....

I'd be back in Colorado skiing. I just needed to tell someone that... man I miss skiing...

Life, Study, and Boundaries

Being a student is an odd thing, isn't it? I've been a student for 21 of my 28 years of life with a total of about three adult years where I was not in school, and I find that my understanding of boundaries and work is much more healthy than my understanding of them with school. In work, you show up, do what's needed for the job, and then go home (with some exceptions). Then at home you can rest, spend time with friends and family, watch a movie, cook food, go out, whatever. And I find that rarely do I feel guilty doing any of the above mentioned activities when I'm home. However being a student, or at least a (post)grad. student, is a different beast altogether where a sense of boundaries becomes... well murkier.
Read the rest...
As a student I feel a continual sense of guilt and obligation to study. It is as though my life is my study and that any time I am not in class should be directed (in some way, shape or form) towards the advancement of those academic goals. I feel obligated to stay up late and get up early, and, more importantly, any time I am not explicitly doing something else I feel I SHOULD be working. There is no boundary, there is no space for myself, and school quickly (and quite easily) slides into the rest of my life in ways that don't happen when I'm working. Additionally, I find it interesting that when I do take breaks from studying (to do the normal things that occur at home) they are done in weakness, due to an inability to continue my studies until I rest adequately. I rest because I need to and in doing so imply that if I were stronger, smarter, or better I would do nothing but school and continually revel in the work.

However, I find school often leaves me tired and worn out. It can be (and often is) a rather euphoric state of exhaustion (i.e. the feel that accompanies the end of a term when all the required work is done after several days/weeks of little sleep), but it is also a sense of utter collapse. It's obvious then that I need to draw clearer boundaries between myself and my work (or begin to draw boundaries at all) in ways that help foster my life in addition to my studies. But this idea, of boundaries, of not being consumed (in its positive and negative senses), isn't something that is fostered in the academy. We praise work-a-holics, the prolific publishers, and those who do nothing but revel in their nerd-dom by talking/thinking incessantly about their topic of interest. And I'm faced with the recognition that if that motivation is what it takes to be a good academic, I don't ever think I'll be one... or at least a good one.

With that in mind, let me say that someday I look forward to having a job, to having something that fosters balance in ways that a student's life does not for me... oh and someday it would be nice to see money coming into a bank account as well.

New life goal.

I think I am going to single-handedly try to bring the word "whilst" back into the American English vernacular. I like it.

(Also, "cheers" and A4 size paper. I find A4 much more elegant than the short, squat letter, and cheers implies so much more than just thanks.)

Made in America

I don't feel as though I eat a ton of pre-packaged food, nor do I gravitate to it. I grew up in a house with some canned or boxed items but little junk food or processed snacks in the pantry (I enjoyed the cupboards of my friends' houses immensely). I've never been an overly picky eater, and I tend to think I am willing to try just about anything. In fact, I search out the strange stuff on the menu every so often, resulting in such events as The Thai Sundae (mmm…. creamed corn and ice cream) or The Durian Moon Cake. I thought our 5 months abroad was a great opportunity to try some local dishes, and I tried to pick the items well-known for that area.


However, here I find an unusual number of packaged items catch my eye at the grocery store, and inevitably they are labeled somewhere as "American style" or "an American favorite". Who knew my tastes were so colloquial?