Nothing Special

As I was walking through Castle Ashby's beautiful formal gardens with Nina (see pictures), she asked me how it would feel to leave England and return home. She's a psychiatric nurse. She's always good at starting deep, meaningful conversations. She doesn't do superficial chit chat. I'll miss that.

While I'm looking forward to going home and being surrounded by friends, it will be a bit weird, like stepping backwards. We've been through a unique experience, living in a different culture. In some ways Americans and Brits are much the same. But in others we're very different. Not many people can identify, because they haven't been through it. The few American families we've become close to here can understand, and I hope we don't lose touch with them, wherever life takes them next.

This may seem snobbish, but I can see Americans from the rest of the world's perspective now, and it's not a very pretty sight. Americans are very naive, ignorant even, and very America-centric. I can fully appreciate the concept of the "ugly American tourist." I see them in London, and in other places we've traveled to. They are sometimes overweight, garrish, loud, and expect everyone to serve them. They demand the best and can be extremely rude.

Living here has caused us to be more sensitive to other people's points of view, cultures and religions. Their agenda's are not our agendas (see I still lump myself in with Americans). The things they value are not the same things we value. They have to negotiate in peaceful ways because they live so close to other countries that what happens to their neighbor also happens to them.

They are extremely concerned about the enviroment, their bio-footprint. I have friends who chose not to own air conditioners or clothes driers or even fans (which is a little too martyr-ish, I think). They debate the pros and cons of fuel emissions and efficiency of driving with the windows rolled up and the A/C on or leaving the A/C off and rolling down the windows. they sweat more, and are a little less perfectly kept. They seem more in tune with nature.

That's not to say that they don't have their problems. Anti-social behaviour is chief among them. From my perspective there is a great decline in the traditional family. People don't get married before they have children. They might have the same partner for years, but nothing is legally binding and break-ups are frequent. Christianity has been secularized. There is no separation of church and state. They are taught Christian values in school. They get Good Friday and Easter Monday off of work, but no one observes Easter for the Christ's resurrection. And don't get me started on the undisciplined children. Bill calls groups of teens hanging around town "hoodlum" and I have to say, they frighten me because there doesn't seem to be any common, decency or respect for other people.

However moving back to the States scares me, too. Brendan is starting middle school. He has to carry a mesh or clear backpack. According to the student handbook, police can inspect lockers, they can have dogs sniff for drugs anytime during the school day. We haven't lived with guns for three years, and I have to say, even though there are cases of shootings on the news almost every night, I feel safer, because most people don't have them. You don't have to worry about someone shooting you if you accidentally cut them off on the M1.

I wonder how interested people will really be to hear about our travels when we return. They are so precious to us, but they are only vague ideas if you haven't experienced it. And after a while, we'll lose our specialness. People won't comment on our accent and ask us where we're from. They won't ask about traditions at home or what it was like to live in another country. Maybe we'll become garrish and loud and demand the best. Maybe.

But, I hope we never forget. I hope we have learned to be more careful not to offend, tread a little softer, and speak a little quieter.

Goodbye, Old Friend

That does it. We have to move back. I can't function without it.

My precious Pyrex 2-cup measure, with ML and pints on the other side, shattered in the dishwasher, and I feel like I'm cooking with one hand tied behind my back. I got the measure as a wedding gift. It has helped me through every annual turkey-gravy-making, ginger-bread-cookie-baking, special-birthday-cake-creating session I've ever done as a wife or mother. Now that it's gone, I've lost the will to bake.

I have another measuring cup, but it's seen it's better days, too. It's made of plastic. It's cracked. I can only use is for the dry ingredients because it leaks like a sieve. I also have the plastic stackable cups, but you can't very easily beat an egg or combine cornstarch and water, or boil water in them. They just don't cut it.

Thankfully, we're heading back to the states in June. I suppose I can buy a new one then. But it won't be the same. There was something special about that cup. I've had it for 19 years. 19 years! It was practically an antique. That's quite a testimony for the Pyrex company.

I hope this doesn't say anything about our marriage.

BTW - I just had to add a picture of a rapeseed field in full bloom. It's the beautiful yellow flower with the unfortunate name that they use to make oil, like sunflower. Enjoy!

The Luck of the Irish...and the Coopers

Since we'll be leaving England soon, we thought it would be a great shame not to make it to Ireland before we left. Many Brits that we've talked to have never been, which is no surprise when you find out they've never even been to London! But like most visitors we make a point to see the sights. Who know's when we'll pass this way again - especially since the exchange rate is now over $2.00 to the pound. I think we'll be limiting our holiday travel to the States for a while. (It's funny how we've started thinking in dollars again even before we move back.)

Ireland is just a short hour flight away, so we thought it would be a cheap weekend getaway. But once you add in rental car, hotel stays, food, attraction admissions - all in Euros which at least gives us a little break, I don't think there is such a thing as a cheap break.

We flew into Shannon, and drove along the scenic West Coast to see the Cliffs of Moher - a very popular photo op and to get a glimpse of the Burren - thousands of acres of limestone that resemble the surface of the moon, except for the fact that in the summer wildflowers bloom in the cracks. It was too early for flowers in April. Thanks to the White's suggestion, we stayed that night in a Hotel on Lake Derg, outside of Limerick. It had a pool and two story spiral water slide to help Brendan work off some energy after being stuck in a car all day long.

The next day, we drove South to Cork, where I thought we'd go see Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney Stone. But, I guess Bill doesn't want me to have the gift of gab, because he and Brendan poo-pooed all over that idea. Instead, we went to a pretty harbor village called Cobh, which has a great Heritage Museum and tells the history of the Irish potato famine, emigration and the last days of the Titanic and Lusitania. (It was the last port of call on both their voyages.) I got some great material for a few articles I hope to write for a children's magazine which happens to be featuring Ireland in a issue next year. The article have to be in next month. I was struck by the stong connection between Ireland and America. So many people came to escape starvation and looking for a better life. The first person registered at Ellis Island, was a young girl named Annie Moore, who sailed from Cobh.

We finished the day on the south coast in a village called Tramore. We just drove til we got tired and found a hotel for the night. In our younger days, we traveled around Europe without making reservations, and found places to stay along the way. We're not used to winging it like that anymore, and thankfully things turned out okay. The beach stretched out to the Irish sea and was only a short walk away. The water was cold and the tide went way out, so we strolled along the sand picking up stones tumbled smooth by the waves and skipping them back in to the ocean. They had a fair operating that night, but Bill and Brendan were drawn in by the arcade. Bill won about £45 playing the slot machines!

We stayed right outside of Waterford, so the next morning we followed our noses to the Waterford Crystal factory and took a tour. They turn out beautiful, hand made crystal that I would love to own. Seeing the process from start to finish makes you appreciate the final product even more. Brendan was really impressed by the sculptural nature of working with glass. It takes 4 years as an apprentice to learn to blow the glass, another two to etch and four more to learn to carve it like stone. Wow! We didn't buy any since we'll be moving soon, but I've got their website!

After Waterford, we drove to New Ross to see an exact replica of a famine ship that brought emigrants to America called the Dunbrody. It was built and paid for by the Kennedy foundation. JFK is a hero around these parts. His great granfather sailed for America from New Ross and in about 110 years, the family went from emigrants to President. Its quite a success story.

Then we hightailed it to Dublin, as much as you can behind tractors and on single-lane roads with no shoulders. Even the N roads, which were just below Motorway status were iffy at best. The scenery was outstanding. Green pastures full of sheep and dairy cows. Rapeseed in full bloom. In the west, they use a lot of rock in building their walls, but they also have tidy hedgerows just like in England. Their mountains weren't much more than hills like those in the Texas Hillcountry, but whose complaining? With a little encouragement from Brendan and me, Bill mastered the tempermental standard transmission and touchy brakes. We didn't lose our way too many times and arrived safely on the east coast outside Dublin at the Portmarnock Hotel and golf links. (Golf is EVERYWHERE.) This hotel didn't have a pool, but who needs one when you have miles of beachline, tidepools and jagged rocks to explore and a small harbour village with lots of restaurants up the road? We had to pull Brendan away to tour Dublin.

Dublin is much smaller than we expected. We inadvertantly parked in Temple Bar, notorious for rowdy nightlife and promised ourselves to be out before sunset. BTW - temple bar comes from the Vikings who conquered the area. When they took a town, they put up a huge stone pillar (a temple bar) to let those coming after that they were there and it was safe.

We boarded the sightseeing bus to take the circuit around town, hear the commentary and get our bearings. But we couldn't understand a thing the guide was saying! We got off at the Guiness Storehouse (can you imagine Bill at a beer factory?) and took the tour through the seven-story building that told the history of the Guiness family, who the beer is made, and an exhibit of the advertising through the years. The best tidbit we learned is that the Guiness Book of World Records stems from an arguement that an employee was having at a bar with his friends (no doubt over a pint of Guiness) about which was the fastest hunting fowl. The decided that every bar should have a book of records so they keeper could settle such disputes.

At the very top, the Gravity Bar gave a 360 degree view of Dublin and a free glass of Guiness to every visitor over eighteen. I tried a tiny bit in the tasting room downstairs and opted for the soda with Bill and Brendan. The barley is roasted, so it has something like a coffee taste and the hops gives it a bitter aftertaste that stays with you far too long. (They taught us all about this in the tasting room.) They say it's an acquired taste, and I believe it.

Of all the other things to do, the Dublin Gaol, St Mechlin's church with mummies in the crypt, Dublinia - the viking exhibit, the only thing I could get the guys to agree to was a stop at the National Museum of Archeology to see the largest Viking exhibit outside of Scandinavia. When we arrived, we found out it was closed! So... we walked around the museum looking at well-preserved bog mummies and rested before walking back to the car. After terrorizing shrimp in the tidepools til the sun went down, we had Chinese takout in the hotel and watched Lost! What a way to end the trip.

It's always fun to spend time in the car with your family. It reminded me of the months we spend traveling the US - except its much easier to navigate in the States. Bill and I talked about our impending move, and all the little details we couldn't forget. Brendan studied his music book that came with the tin flute he bought as a sourvenier. Bill had told him that he wanted bagpipes and flutes to play at his funeral, and Brendan vowed to learn a tune that he would play for him.

All in all - a little stressful, but a fun adventure - one of our last in the EU, and I think we can cross Ireland off of our list.