Mischievous Famous People

Pirates! Costumes straight out of the closet. You can say it, we are good!
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I am a dedicated fan, its official. I stayed up until 4:15 in the morning the night the Red Sox won the World Series. I feel quite bad for James because he had a nasty first exam that Monday morning in which he had to be there at 8am. That meant no Sox for him, so I had to watch it for both of us. What a sweet game, got quite good at the end. I was glad to have watched the Red Sox SWEEP the World Series…again. Oh by the way, we get a lot of crap about it not being the World Series from the international students. I think they are just bitter that they don’t understand the rules. Speaking of not understanding the rules, we have figured out why the Europeans do not understand football. We were watching the Pats Colts game on Sunday at a college bar (they played it on TV here!) and because they do not have commercials during the games, they kept cutting to this big man who looked like a bear and a puny old guy. For some reason they would show these guys in the middle of plays and for as long as they pleases during the game. They must have sort of contract that gives them a certain amount of air time, because after one cut they went back to the game and the Colts had 7 more point! Of course the British aren’t going to understand the game if they have to make up ways that each team got its points! Oh man. It was also a great game though.

Guy Fawkes Fireworks! All the lights on the street are the carnival
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It has been quite a holiday extravaganza over here. They DO in fact have Halloween, and we definitely celebrated it…as pirates! We didn’t collect any candy, but we sure did get the hyper side effects out with some friends. It was quite fun to see what all different ethnicities of people (international business school!) would dress up as. We had some naughty nurses, some Hugh Hefners (of course), some conservative bunnies, a Jamaican man, a few witches, a million cats, a vampire, a prep, a disco girl (that was a guy)…you know, the typical stuff. A group of Asian kids dress up as the Jackson 5 with Afro wigs and brown face paint, that was something else. A witty one was “Miss Conception” (a pregnant pageant girl), smart kids these ones are! Even Albert Einstein showed up.

No turkey, no cranberry sauce, no apple pie

My daily view. Get it away!
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They also have Guy Fawkes Night which they celebrate on the Nevember 5^th. It’s basically their version of the 4^th of July. Guy Fawkes was one of the Roman Catholic conspirators who were in on the Gunpoweder plot of 1605 (the first attempt at terrorism against the Protestants) in an attempt to blow up the Parliament. They celebrate foiling the plan by setting off fireworks and throwing a dummy (guy Fawkes) into a huge bonfire on one of the bazillion greens in the city. A ton of people gather together on Jesus Green and watch the fireworks and there is a carnival of sorts as well (sound familiar, East Longmeadians?) It’s pretty cool. The only difference is the big fire and the weather…its chilly. England actually legally sells fireworks for only two months prior to the night, so for the past couple weeks every night has been loud booms and sparkling skies. It’s pretty, but also gets very loud. And we all know how much I love loud noises, especially the sound of fireworks and big booms. It was nice to celebrate with fireworks though since I missed the fourth at home.

Misconception and some of the crew
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Next holiday…Christmas. No Thanksgiving here…sad. No turkey, no cranberry sauce, no apple pie, no sweet potatoes or mashed potatoes. No gravy, no carrots, no squash and no rolls. You can imagine my disappointment. The stores are already decorated with green, red and silver bells, and toys line the isles to instigate children to beg their parents and make their lists to Santa. It’s strange to see a woman walking along the isles in Asda (their Walmart with way more groceries) with a fake ever green tree in her hands. I guess it would be nice to decorate for a month longer, and Mom I KNOW you are jealous that they don’t need to store as many boxes of decorations in the attic, but it is strange. Just seems like something is missing…

Celebratin the Sox in style...a day later
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I swear the post office lady hates me. Unfortunately it’s ALWAYS the same person, and there is only one of her. I don’t think she actually hates me, in fact I think I might be her daily dose of humor, but she just comes off totally abrasive when dealing with me…aka hates me. I have been a frequent customer of the post office with all of my application materials, and every time, I am the only one in line and I wait there until she nods at me to move up to the window. Half the time, she makes no gesture at all so I stand there politely while she does nothing but stare at her desk for five minutes with absolutely nothing in front of her. I think she just likes to see how long I will be patient. When she looks up without cracking a smile, I walk toward her and begin talking and she always gives me this roll of the eye look like I have interrupted her very precious moments of starring off into space. So I always jubilantly ask her if I can have a stamp to America, she points at the scale and I toss my envelope on it and she hands me the same stamp with the same price on it (we have this down to a system now). Then, every single time without fail, she points me the direction of the three mail slots, one blatantly marked for inland mail only, another for international mail, and a third for parcels of sorts. But she says it like I’m some stupid idiot who is not aware by now that I have to put my mail going to America in my American accent with an overpriced stamp into the international mail slot.  I always try to play it off with a funny comment or two to shake it off and get myself to laugh at the situation that is always as comfortable as getting your teeth pulled. I’d like to assume she’s just assuring my mail goes to the right place, but I really think she does have some strange grudge against the fact that I have so many friends to be sending mail to in America! Ha…let’s hope they will be friends soon.

This is what I do with my time on beautiful sunny days. Yes I was laying on the ground for this.
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I’m having a good time with the paper situation over here. I have searched high and low in all sorts of office supply stores, but no one carries 8 ½ by 11 paper over here. Not even Staples made it easy this time…where is that button? They all use this A4 stuff that’s tall and lanky, and I guess it’s common pretty much everywhere except the US. We always gotta be different. I print my applications out and have to cut them all down so that they don’t stick out of the pile. Maybe I shouldn’t have so they could STICK OUT…hmmm too late for that thought.

This is the other thing I do with my spare time...call me nuts, its fine.
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In my spare time around here, I make my way outdoors and take pictures.  Its been beautiful weather here, and while Jaym is meeting with his people and listening to important people talk about business things, I meander around town with my handy dandy digital camera and steal moments.  Its quite a good time, and luckily the weather has been quite fantastic.  The fall is just as gorgeous here as it is in MA, and honestly, we have some pretty cool flowers that peek out at this time too, making the orange and yellows stick out even more from underneath their white pink and red masks.  Unfortunately many days are gloomy, but the ones that are spectacular and sunny I get my butt outside and me and my camera go for walks!

But now, I must get back to all the famous dead people calling my name from my desk top. Who must I answer to now? Albert Einstein already wanted to know what I have been up to and why I’m taking this year off (nosy man). Now I have to tell George Washington what I am going to be doing this academic year and why I like him so much. And Rosalind Franklin just wants to know if I have any additional comments to add to the already ridiculously long application. Guess I will just have to go tell them all what’s going on. Maybe they should just read my blog! =)