The other side

Today's post is from a guest blogger (actually, I'm just posting an email she sent me) - my mum, who recently spent a couple of days in London to visit the Tutankhamun exhibition at the O2 Dome and the Terracotta Army exhibit at the British Museum.

London trip really well organized ... it was almost worth the money just to NOT drive in London. Some pathetic members of the group complained that they had expected a champagne reception ... peasants!

Train journey good, fast, clean and on time - probably a first for the company! Excellent dinner and adequate room, with a fine view of the staff garage ... but it was quiet. Really good breakfast then off by coach to the Dome/O2. A ghastly insult to architects the world over ... but it worked. The (included) lunch in Pharaohs Palace was excellent, the talk first-rate, concise and well delivered (by a lady who had worked in the Valley of the Kings) Then we by-passed all the queuing public and were ushered straight up to the exhibition ... I have never before been in a tent with an escalator and an upper floor paved with marble.

We had plenty of time to see everything, and the ecoute device was an extra help when one could not get really close to the printed details, as they were just the same, but with added bits of information in one's ears. There was a lot of gold; some very fine sculpture and art work ... almost everyone commented on the beautifully decorated little woven cane chair for a princess.

Returning to the hotel in Docklands, was an experience ... Saturday traffic in London ... all the lanes stationary, and just as we began to move, the sound of Police sirens and ambulance neenaws gave us to believe that Milwall had lost at home. We got back in time to sit in the bar and watch the second half of the rugby, then another fine dinner.

Next morning, off to the British Museum ... had I been driving, it would have been termed a scenic route, we drove past several landmarks twice ... including the side entrance to the museum ...and indeed the main one. (It turned out that the coach and driver had been imported from Sheffield.) Our timed tickets gave us plenty of time to admire the new main courtyard, have coffee and then go into the reorganized reading room ... again the layout was first class. There was a lot of film and video, but plenty of real stuff ... much of which we had seen in China, but one could get so close here ... even the marks on their feet and shoes and the brushmarks on their hair were clearly visible.

One particularly fine exhibit was a long model ... a bit like a 3d comic strip, showing the entire manufacturing process from digging the clay to positioning the finished warriors ... full of detail, and worth a lengthy scrutiny. There were seven actual warriors, a general and some foot soldiers, plus a chariot complete with horses and charioteer. Two of the horses were fake , and clearly marked as such. One other fine display was a group of musicians, playing to some dancing water birds ... and there were jugglers, strong men and dancers, plus display cases of armour, headdresses, and weapons, much of which we had only seen photos of in the auxiliary museum in Xian, so we felt it was well worth the journey.

One little add on ... as we drove through Greenwich, our driver commented that we had just crossed the meridian and "You are now on the other side." Your father said he had always wondered what it would be like, and there was a general consensus that it was exactly like the world we had left behind. It seemed a fitting comment following two days admiring the tombs and art work of the long ago.

The mysteries of friendship

For years I have been irritated by the fact that Americans assume that just because someone is from the UK we will automatically want to be friends. We may have lots in common simply because we come from the same country - and then again we may not. Even if we have much in common, that doesn't mean we will become friends.

When I had my first child, the local hospital arranged a post-partum doula for me. I was living in a town I'd only just moved to, but worked 60 miles away, so didn't have any friends in town other than DH's. The doula coordinator did a brilliant job. The doula she found for me lived right around the corner - I could see her house from mine, but we had never met before. She was the same age as me and also from England. However, she had moved here at the age of 18 with her parents, had married much earlier than me (who didn't?) and had three children, the youngest of whom was 4 at the time. I would not have made it through the first few weeks of motherhood without going insane or being incredibly depressed if it had not been for her help. She was wonderful. It seemed at the time that I had found a new friend.

Yet now, over 8 years later, I have to admit I don't even remember her name. Maybe it was the circumstances under which we met - although the hospital was paying, it was a little as though she was working for me. She came to the house when I needed her, and did things like the dishes, laundry and cleaning for me as well as helping me with the baby. Maybe it was because there wasn't enough of a connection. Yes, we were both from the UK, both the same age, and both parents, but what ELSE was there? Clearly something was missing. Both our lives were already busy - hers probably even more so than mine given that she had three children already. Given my lack of friends in town, I don't know why I didn't make more effort to stay in touch, but I didn't.

I've recently added a lot of expat or bicultural blogs to the list of blogs I read regularly. I'm really enjoying reading them, which is why I listed them here. Do I enjoy them more than someone who is not also an expat or who does not share the same culture? I suspect not - good writing is good writing - but clearly the shared experiences are a powerful connection. These are not friendships though, at least not yet, though I suppose there is that potential. No one will notice if I STOP reading a blog, just as (unless I comment) no one notices when I read it. Some of these bloggers could perhaps be good friends, while others because of differences in, say, age or family situation would not. Yet that's a silly comment because one of my most valued friends is also an English expat living in the US, married but childless, and old enough to be retired already. Shared geographical location is not a requirement for friendship either - I have at least one very good online friend (not just acquaintance) whom I have never met.

So, I don't roll my eyes anymore when someone says "Have you met so-and-so? (S)he's from England too. I'm sure you'd get along!" Maybe we would, maybe we wouldn't. I hope our mutual acquaintance is thinking of other reasons we might become friends too and not just about our shared nationality, but it certainly doesn't hurt to find out. We don't have to be best friends, or friends for life. Friends for now is enough. Sometimes even just broadening your circle of acquaintances is nice. My life has been just as enriched by the people who have just been passing through like my doula (without whom I would have gone insane) as by those who stay forever, like DH. Now there's a mystery friendship - different nationalities, different ages (did I mention I'm a cradle-snatcher?), different hobbies and on and on . . . and yet it works! :-)

Mad cows

I'm not allowed to give blood here in the United States because, despite being resident in the US for so long, I have spent long enough in the UK since 1980 that the health authorities worry that I may be carrying Mad Cow disease. A sensible precaution really, given that it is not something that they can test for.

I suppose I should be reassured by the fact that there is a far lower incidence of CJD in the USA than in the UK, but today's news of a beef recall makes me wonder. How can they be sure that the beef supply in the United States really is free of mad cow disease when quite clearly there are meatpackers who ignore potential symptoms of BSE in the animals they are slaughtering? I know there are supposedly 'other safeguards' in place - but who knows if those are being ignored too? I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but this will certainly strengthen the argument of those who think BSE is more prevalent in the US than the USDA would like us to think. I'm just glad that I only eat beef once or twice a year, when our friend Theo makes his wonderfully yummy teriyaki beef.

Chinese food

Too many years ago now, I spent a summer living in Taiwan. I lived with a Taiwanese family, took the bus to work every day, and even ate out and went shopping on my own despite not speaking more than a few words of Chinese. I tried all kinds of food, including 'thousand year eggs' - which I was amazed to find I quite liked.

The only thing I was offered and decided I was not even going to try was chicken feet.


A few years later, I went on a package tour to mainland China. I was amazed at how reluctant the Americans on the tour were to try the food. One of their major complaints was that the food wasn't like the Chinese food served at their local restaurant at home in the US. Ironically, one of my complaints about the food we had on the first 2 days of the trip was that it was NOT typically Chinese! Fortunately, there were two Chinese-American families on the tour - I sat with them at mealtimes so I didn't have to put up with constant whining about the food.

On our last day in China we had lunch at a Dim Sum restaurant in Guangzhou. The Chinese-Americans and I had a GREAT lunch - the Americans were all not eating in anticipation of getting to Hong Kong and being able to eat western food again. We did the rounds of all the tables helping ourselves to all the goodies they were ignoring!

The Americans were ecstatic when we finally arrived late at night in Hong Kong and they headed off to the Hard Rock Cafe. One commented that she was looking forward to a milkshake - her first milk product in over 3 weeks. I asked why she hadn't had any milk, yogurt or cheese in China? Although many Chinese are lactose intolerant, they provided those foods for the Americans in the hotels. She hadn't liked the milk because it was served warm. She hadn't seen the yogurt because it was not served in little plastic containers with foil tops. She hadn't wanted the cheese because it was served at breakfast time and "cheese is not breakfast food."

While the others in the group ate bagels, cereal (with cold milk) and yogurt (from plastic containers) for breakfast in the hotel in Hong Kong, I delighted in eating things like teryaki salmon, rice porridge, and steamed buns with barbecued pork filling. Why go abroad and eat the same things I would have at home?

Valentine's Day

When I was growing up in England, sending a signed Valentine's Day card was considered to be incredibly naff, not to mention unromantic. I still have a hard time signing Valentines even though I'm obviously only sending one and if DH didn't know it was from me there would be something odd going on! There was none of this sending signed cards to everyone in your class in elementary school so that no one felt left out. Actually, I don't remember celebrating Valentine's Day in elementary school at all.

I think the only Valentine's Day I really have any recollection of from when I was in school, was 8th grade. ('Year nine' it's called in England now I believe, but it was 'third year' at the comp.) I actually had a boyfriend. It was the only year I had a boyfriend on Valentine's Day the entire seven years I was at that school. His name was Tim. He was tall, dark haired, and had gorgeous brown eyes. It was years before I could go out with anyone else with brown eyes after Tim.

We got each other Valentine's cards of course. It was the first romantic Valentine I ever got, so it was a big deal. I remember waiting with anticipation to see how romantic the card he got for me would be. It wasn't as simple as just giving each other our cards. Given the tradition that the cards were supposed to be unsigned, you had to find a way of anonymously getting the card to the other person. Of course you hoped they would only get the one card. I had a friend who sent two to the same boy, and then dumped him when he didn't tell her about the second one! I forget how Tim's card got to me, but I remember asking a mutual friend to deliver my card to Tim's locker. I doubt there was much focusing on school work that morning!

When his card was as romantic as I had hoped, I was delighted and also, to my surprise, a little scared. I'm not sure how much longer the relationship lasted after that, but the whole thing only lasted a few weeks. I dumped him. I didn't even tell him myself. I asked the same mutual friend who had delivered the card, (the same friend Tim had used as a go-between to ask me out in the first place,) to tell him I didn't want to go out with him any more. I never explained to him why - that I was terrified because I liked him so much. I was only 13 and my body was reacting to him in ways I knew I wasn't ready for and the only way I knew to deal with it was to back off. I didn't have the social skills or experience to handle it any better. Of course, even if I had explained, he wouldn't have understood. Fortunately we weren't in the same classes and didn't see too much of each other around school. Nonetheless, after that, it was four years before he spoke a single word to me.

Over the years there were some depressing Valentine's Days with no prospects of any romance, and some so-so, predictable, ones. My first Valentine's Day with DH was neither. It's a long story, but involves him sitting outside my apartment in frigid weather thinking I'm out when in fact I was home. He'd driven over an hour to see me (on a work night, no less) and sat outside for almost an hour before I finally realized he was there and opened the door. He had a helium-filled balloon for me that never recovered from the wait in the cold, and he's never let me forget his devotion that night.

DH has promised me a bottle of blackcurrant lambic instead of chocolates this year. Probably not much better in terms of calories, but at least it's low fat and will get both of us in a very snuggly mood! He then surprised me tonight with flowers. He is such a sweetie :-) I'm SO glad I broke up with Tim, and the other boyfriends I had over the years - DH was worth the (very long) wait! I hope he thinks I was worth the wait on that very cold porch 12 years ago!

Fun at some Americans' expense

Of course this wouldn't be funny at all if they showed people giving the correct answers . . . Jay Leno does a segment like this too, and it would surprise me if someone hasn't done the same thing showing how ignorant Brits are. There are always clueless people to pick on.

I had no idea North Korea was that big though. ;-)

Feeding the pigs

We like to put bird feeders out in the winter. Our neighbors, on the other hand, have stopped feeding the birds because they objected to how much the squirrels were eating.

There seemed to be fewer squirrels here than at our last house and we hadn't seen any squirrels near the house so we thought we were feeding birds rather than squirrels. How foolish we were! The squirrels had been pigging out at a large 'squirrel-proof' feeder that holds several pounds of bird seed. They had figured out how to reset the lever that closes the feeder up tight if anything as heavy as a squirrel sits on it. DH bent the lever so that the squirrels can no longer reset it, and now they come to the feeders at the house (which are most definitely not squirrel-proof) instead. They are pigs and completely unafraid! We tapped on the window at this one - it turned and looked, and then ignored us.

Starving you thin?

There are efforts being made in many countries to raise people's awareness of just how unheathly obesity can be.

Education seems like a logical approach. Many years ago a neighbour of ours in the UK moved to Canada with her family. When we saw her a couple of years later we were stunned at how much weight she had lost, and how good she looked. She said on her first visit to a doctor in Canada, he had told her that he considered her to be obese and that if she wanted to be his patient she had to lose weight. That simple approach worked for her! No one had ever actually told her a) that she was obese and b) what the consequences might be.

How about refusing to serve food to an obese person? Would that be very effective at helping them reduce their weight or change their attitude towards food? (If, indeed, that is their problem!) Take a look at this bill:

House Bill 282

AN ACT TO PROHIBIT CERTAIN FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS FROM SERVING FOOD TO ANY PERSON WHO IS OBESE, BASED ON CRITERIA PRESCRIBED BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH; TO DIRECT THE DEPARTMENT TO PREPARE WRITTEN MATERIALS THAT DESCRIBE AND EXPLAIN THE CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING WHETHER A PERSON IS OBESE AND TO PROVIDE THOSE MATERIALS TO THE FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS; TO DIRECT THE DEPARTMENT TO MONITOR THE FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS FOR COMPLIANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THIS ACT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. (1) The provisions of this section shall apply to any food establishment that is required to obtain a permit from the State Department of Health under Section 41-3-15(4)(f), that operates primarily in an enclosed facility and that has five (5) or more seats for customers.

(2) Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese, and shall provide those materials to all food establishments to which this section applies. A food establishment shall be entitled to rely on the criteria for obesity in those written materials when determining whether or not it is allowed to serve food to any person.

(3) The State Department of Health shall monitor the food establishments to which this section applies for compliance with the provisions of this section, and may revoke the permit of any food establishment that repeatedly violates the provisions of this section.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2008.

Doesn't this read as though the dateline should have been April 1? Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Surely the courts in the USA have already dealt with this issue? I believe restaurants should provide adequate nutritional information about the food they are offering, and leave the choice up to the consumer. The fast food places are actually fairly good about posting information about their foods since the lawsuits against McDonalds. I would like to see more restaurants including more nutritional information on their menus, but to ask them to make an on the spot assessment of the cause of a customer's obesity is ridiculous! If I eat a high calorie, high fat, meal from time to time, that's my business. Maybe I compensate by eating nothing but veggies for the rest of the week! Maybe I'm overweight because of a medical problem, and nothing to do with what I eat. (I would guess most truly obese people do eat too much and the wrong kind of foods, but I'm sure there are some who don't.)

I don't believe there are any easy (I was going to say one-size-fits-all) answers to the question of obesity, but legislating who can eat in restaurants is NOT something that is going to help anyone! In fact, although it wasn't an April Fool and certainly wasn't intended as a joke, the author of the bill didn't expect it to pass and the state House Public Health Committee chairman said he is going to "shred" the bill:

"I was trying to shed a little light on the number one problem in Mississippi," said Republican Rep. John Read of Gautier, who acknowledges that at 5-foot-11 and 230 pounds, he'd probably have a tough time under his own bill."

Super Tuesday

Not one but THREE emails from my mother in the UK today reminding me to vote! Having gone to the effort of getting American citizenship, yes of course I voted. Technically, I still have the right to vote in the UK (or I did the last time I checked.) However, the reality is somewhat different as it would involve voting in the last place I was registered to vote, which is hundreds of miles from any family who could be my proxy, therefore requiring a postal ballot, and getting waaay too complicated for me to be bothered. I do make sure I exercise my right to vote here in the United States though. You can't complain about the results of the election if you haven't participated!

The obligatory SuperBowl post

I think Maddy's comment on my last post was hinting that I should have posted about the SuperBowl. Yes, one of the teams playing was our 'local' team, but that didn't make me any more interested in watching it. I know some people watch mostly to see the new ads - but I spend much of my TV watching time avoiding them, so would not choose to watch anything, let alone an American football game, just to see the ads.

The children did watch the first half hour or so of the game and I listened to the reports on the radio this morning. (That way we could all make conversation about the game without actually having seen the whole thing.) It sounds as though if I had been interested in American football it actually would have been worth watching - certainly more entertaining than watching France hammer Scotland 27-6 at rugby this weekend. Not that I watched that either - I haven't found any TV channels here that carry rugby with any regularity without paying extra. The games are available on the BBC website but will only show the video to people accessing it from the UK :-( That may change in the future though



That's the French team in pink.
Here's one from a calendar of French 'rugbymen' or 'Dieux du stade' (Gods of the stadium)


The chains supposedly represent the 'strong links between the players and the rugby ball'.

The drive-through

The drive-through is a thoroughly American concept, and something I managed to avoid for a very long time. I have no interest in eating at somewhere like McDonalds or Burger King, and even less desire to eat their food in my car. I think I have been to a drive-up window at a fast food place precisely once - and that was because the driver (not me) wanted a Coca-Cola and decided it was too hot to get out of the car.

There are the obvious places for drive-through windows such as fast food emporiums that I knew about before coming to the US, but there are others too. There are the drive-through wedding chapels in Vegas, though I didn't know until today that at least one of them was originally created to make it easier for individuals who have difficulty walking to get married. There are drive-through flu clinics where you can get your flu shot without even getting out of the car and even drive-through liquor stores, which just seems so wrong! I used to think the whole idea was plain silly, and typical of lazy Americans who couldn't be bothered to walk a few yards. I suspect that in the many years since I left the UK, the idea of drive-throughs has surfaced over there too.

Since having children, I have discovered advantages to the drive-through. It is very nice not to have to get the children out of their car seats and then back in them again, especially if the weather is bad. On the days when getting the children moving anywhere is like herding cats, it is just so much easier to use the drive-through ATM (hole-in-the-wall cash machine). I get my cash, and I don't lose any of the children or my temper. Ditto for dropping off or picking up prescriptions at the local pharmacy (chemists) - PLUS I don't end up making impulse purchases in the store. "Ooh, look, that lipstick's on sale! Can't remember the last time I wore any, but it's a good deal, and I'm sure I'll remember to put lipstick on in the morning if I buy a new one!"

I'm very glad they don't have drive-through liquor stores around here though. That would be very bad.

Game playing

In some respects, the British approach to games is different to the American one. Although it goes down well here in the USA, Whose line is It Anyway? seems to me to be very different to the typical American game show. There are no points, at least none that really matter, the winner is chosen pretty much at random, and there are no valuable prizes. Mornington Crescent is more serious - certainly less hilarious - but still has no valuable prizes. Most people play it for the sheer intellectual pleasure of playing I think. I remember listening to it on Radio 4 as part of a weekly show called I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. It quite sensibly migrated to the internet, which is an ideal place for the game. There are a variety of Mornington Crescent sites. Mornington Crescent in Outer Space is perhaps not the best place to start for a beginner. This one provides an overview, plus a version of the game with a graphical interface, which may make it easier. It also provides links to other sites where you can play the game online. This one is perhaps the most complete if you really, really, want to understand the game.


Another game originating in the UK that I hadn't heard of until recently was Lost. I was winning for quite a long time but I lost again today. Oh well - I can console myself with the fact that lots of other people lost today too! Can you figure out how it is related to this site?

Oh, no, not that much snow!

There is snow forecast for Thursday across the UK. The BBC website posted the following recommendation for drivers:

Carry warm clothing, food, water, boots, de-icer, torch and spade in your car
Plan your journey before leaving home
Check the weather forecast
Check your route for delays

How much snow is forecast? Apparently 2 centimeters is expected in the south, with "up to 5cm of snow in some areas" of northeast England and eastern Scotland. Temperatures will 'struggle' to reach 2 or 3 degrees Celsius. Hmm, let's see, we had about 10 centimeters yesterday and the town didn't even think it was worth plowing our street! Temperatures here tomorrow are supposed to reach a high of 14 degrees Fahrenheit (that's minus 10 Celsius), but it will feel more like 0 Fahrenheit (minus 18 Celsius) because of the windchill. Recess (playtime) at school will be indoors I'm sure.

I have driven in the UK when there has been that much/little snow and I have to say the BBC is right - there is often chaos on the roads. The roads are untreated and drivers don't have enough experience of driving in the snow. And then of course, it could always be the 'wrong kind' of snow for the snow ploughs ;-) The kind of snow is more significant than I ever realised when I was living in the UK. We had the 'right kind' of snow here this week - it was excellent for making snow men! On the other hand, it was also the wrong kind of snow as it was heavy to shovel - however I was lucky enough not to have to experience that as my darling DH took care of it all!

What it looked like here yesterday afternoon:


Thinking of converting temperatures, I just made Dear Daughter go through her homework adding in an F after all the degrees symbols. Her math/science homework was about temperatures and only 'degrees' was specified when it should have been 'degrees Fahrenheit'. I explained to her why it mattered to be specific about the unit of measurement. OK, so she's only in elementary school, but surely it's not too early to think precisely and scientifically?

What Holiday Food Am I?

You Are a Gingerbread House

A little spicy and a little sweet, anyone would like to be lost in the woods with you.

Hmm - I had thought I'd be a trifle, like Maddy. A gingerbread house is much more American to my mind.

What Holiday Food Are You?

Cookies for Mrs Claus

The little ones put this plate together before going to bed and decided that Mrs Claus should have a cookie too. Hers is in the plastic bag (together with another one for Santa to have when he gets home.) Carrots for the reindeer of course - though apparently they're on a diet as they only get 3 between them. Milk for Santa to drink - "Because last year we left wine out for him and he only took a couple of sips." Hmm - well, I guess you shouldn't drink and drive a sleigh, but still, I'm very surprised Santa didn't drink it all.

New Christmas traditions

We decided not to bother with one of our Christmas traditions this year - I'm sure it's one we share with lots of other people. It's the one where you're up till the small hours of Christmas morning wrapping presents. Not this year. I have a couple of things to wrap for DH tomorrow, and the kids have presents to wrap for each other, but basically we're done :-) Yay! So on Christmas Eve we can pack the kids off to bed and then sit and relax with a glass of wine and snuggle. A much more enjoyable tradition I think. It will not only make Christmas Eve much pleasanter but Christmas morning too as we won't be too exhausted to enjoy being woken up at the crack of dawn . . . A couple of years ago when we were in England for Christmas, Father Christmas told the kids they weren't to wake up until 8 a.m. on Christmas Day and to our amazement they didn't! We even had to wake the littlest one up at about 8:30! That's a tradition I'd like to see continue!

Hannukamas

I picked the Littlest American up from daycare today and as we were leaving we had the following conversation:

- Can we have a menorah?
- Why, sweetie?
- Eli has one.
- Well Eli is Jewish and we're not. [I had just spoken with Eli's dad about the family Hannukah party they're going to tomorrow.]
- No, he's not!
- How do you know that?
- Well, . . . he . .. umm . . . doesn't TALK Jewish! So can we have a menorah?
- Do you know why people have a menorah in their house?
- It's for Hannukah.
- What do you know about Hannukah?
- It lasts 8 days and you light a candle every day, and you get a present every day, but there's one extra candle on the menorah. So we need a menorah for Hannukah!
- You do know Hannukah already started?
- Oh, no and we didn't get our Christmas tree yet!
- Christmas tree?
- Yes. You HAVE to have a Christmas tree for Hannukah!

Hannukahmas indeed, or is it Chrismukkah? Happy Holidays, anyway to one and all!

Quel produit révolutionnaire!

It's even Mac compatible they say. . .

The British version would dispense beer. The American one, Coca-Cola.

Seven passports between the four of us

My kids and I all have dual nationality, US and British. Contrary to what many Americans believe, it is perfectly legal to be American and have another nationality too. The Department of State explains on their website that "U.S. law does not mention dual nationality or require a person to choose one citizenship or another." Legally, we must use our American passports to enter and leave the United States, and our British ones to enter and leave the UK. UntiI I renew it in a year or so, my British passport still has my maiden name on it so, because my plane tickets are always booked in my married name, I am always unsure as to whether I should show my US passport as I leave the UK or not. My last few flights have been connecting ones - via Iceland, the Netherlands, or Belgium, so I have compromised by showing the British passport at Heathrow and then pulling the US one out at the next airport. So far so good, no one has questioned it.

Having spent thousands of dollars getting a 'green card' (which was actually pink), I thought it would be nice if my kids did not have to jump through the same kind of legal hoops if ever they decide to study or work in Europe. Apparently many other people have been thinking the same way. This evening I heard a report on National Public Radio about Israelis who have been applying for European passports - Israelis whose families left Poland for example, now applying for Polish nationality. In many cases it is not with the intent of moving to that country. One young woman who was interviewed explained that she was applying for a foreign passport so that she would not have any visa problems should she decide to work or study in London for a couple of years. A passport from one European country opens the doors to many others nowadays, and in an increasingly global society it makes sense to me to hold all the passports one is entitled to!

I've heard of Irish-Americans applying for Irish passports too. Again, the intent is not necessarily to return to the 'homeland' but to open up European possibilities. Although I have no doubt that many Americans would disapprove, I don't see this as a bad thing. I think it is important to have connections and loyalties, but that it is not only possible but probably a good thing to have a feeling of belonging to two places. I think one of the advantages of the ease of modern travel is that we can see that other places while different are places to which we might want to belong, and that people from other places can be our friends and family.

Unfortunately, while dual nationals (UK-US) such as myself are tolerated on both a personal and official level, I think there is much suspicion of people who come from other cultures/language backgrounds such as the Iraq or Iran or even Mexico. I see amazing prejudice on a regular basis against people who have not been in the US for long enough to learn English well and wonder if people really would have made the same comments about me when I had only been here a few years. I know they would not. For all the comments folks make about my accent and about the fact that I am a 'foreigner' (despite the fact that I've lived in the US now longer than I lived in the UK) the truth is I am accepted far more quickly and better than someone who does not speak English as their first language. For all the gripes I may have about Being American, I am happy to be here - but I am always happy to be back home in the UK too. Having an American passport doesn't make me any less British - but the fact that I have not renounced my British citizenship does not dilute my commitment to my adopted homeland. Unless you've lived in two countries and loved both, I'm not sure that you'll understand.

Christmas already

I suppose it should have been no surprise to see Christmas decorations up outside people's houses last weekend (before Thanksgiving) given that I had seen them in the stores in the middle of October. The Little Americans in our household were heard muttering in disgust yesterday that it was still far too early for Christmas decorations to be up because it's still "a long time" until Christmas. It might seem like a long time to them, but actually doesn't seem that far off to me. The year just seems to accelerate from the middle of October. I barely have time to turn around, take a few breaths, and figure out where the Christmas presents are that I've been buying all year and hiding around the house, when suddenly the day is upon us and, despite all my good intentions, I still end up till the wee hours on Christmas Eve wrapping presents.

We'll get our tree in a couple of weeks. As we always have a real one, (usually from my father-in-law's backyard), we don't like to get it too early. The lights will go up on the outside of our house the same weekend. I realized as I was looking at our electricity bills for the Riot for Austerity that the lights make a significant difference to the electricity bill, so much as I like them, until we finally invest in some LED lights, I will be trying to minimize the number of days we have them on.

Almost American

Stinking Billy asked why the name Almost American. Very easy really - I was born in the UK, lived in Turkey for a couple of years, and France for another year, but moved to the USA in 1985 thinking I would be here for 2 or 3 years and then I'd return to England. Somehow I ended up staying. I have now lived in the USA for longer than I have lived anywhere else. I have an American passport as well as British one (which is perfectly legal, in case you're wondering.) Having not been raised here, there are still some cultural things I just don't get. I still think of England as 'home', (though of course the US is home too.) I am taken aback when people here make comments about my foreignness, or my accent. I don't feel like a foreigner, and forget my accent is different (though I sound very American when I'm in England!) So although I am An American, and am happy to be one, I'm not entirely American and never will be, and I'm happy about that too.

How hard is this to read?

Hmm - I tried this test on some of the blogs that I read and most are apparently written at an elementary school reading level, with a few at the junior high level. I did finally find one though that the test said is written at the 'Genius' level and one at the University level. Perhaps that explains why I haven't read either of them in several weeks - I'm too lazy to expend that much reading effort. They both happen to be academic blogs, so the reading level is appropriate. I guess I have to wonder if the writing (reading) level of my blog is appropriate to the subject matter? If I'm not writing something academic, should it be written at an easier reading level? Can I make myself write like that? Would I want to? And as for my reading, 'should' I be reading more sites that are 'harder' to read? (Not that I'm sure how they've determined the readability anyway.)

I'm not going to obsess over it. I'm going to keep reading the blogs I find interesting, and writing what I feel like talking about.

Not so addicted

55%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Clearly from the infrequncy of my posts, I'm not so addicted. Been doing a lot of reading of blogs recently though, but that's not blogging, it's reading. Reading blogs is one of my selfish pleasures - taking a little time out of the day to do something that is just for me - but I find it a little depressing too. I used to think I was a decent writer. I even taught writing when I was working my way through a Master's degree. I knew I wasn't 'A Writer' like some of the other teaching assistants in the Freshman Writing Program who were doing degrees in Creative Writing. I did think I was a good writer though, who could teach the undergraduates in my classes how to write better essays. I suppose I was good at writing academic essays. I scored in the 99th percentile when I had to take the state's literacy test to become a certified teacher. I really am not very talented at creative writing though. Never have been. I see some of the beautiful turns of phrase other bloggers seem to produce so effortlessly, and I despair of ever creating anything worth reading.

The only good pieces of creative writing I did in school were more my mother's writing than mine. No, she didn't actually write them for me, but by the time she was done inspiring me, they really were more hers than mine. Looking back, my mother was the only one who ever took the time to teach me how to write. Real cut-and-paste, with scissors and sellotape! What little I learned about good writing, I certainly didn't learn in school. I specifically remember my English teacher when I was 12 who only read the first and last paragraphs of anything I wrote and always gave me 9 out of 10. I proved he didn't read the middles by writing some outrageous things in the middle of one piece. He corrected an error in the first paragraph (which my mother, also an English teacher, had already told me was NOT an error) and gave me 9/10 as usual.

Stinking Billy was asking about the point of blogging and I really don't know what it is for me. I'm definitely not one of those bloggers who's looking for a book contract! I'm not even sure who I'm blogging for or why. DH blogs for a small, select, by-invitation-only, audience which seems to make sense. I've read some excellent blogs recently from mums with autistic kids - well-written, entertaining, and thought-provoking, that set my issues with the Little Americans in perspective. There is much I can learn from the blogs I read. Maybe if I read enough of them, I'll even learn how to write better! The good thing is that even if I don't, people like Maddy, Jude and Sandy, amongst so many others, will all enrich my life.

What Halloween's about

When I was growing up in the UK, for the couple of weeks before the 5th of November, Guy Fawkes' (or Bonfire) Night", you could be fairly sure if that if there was a knock on the door in the early evening it would be kids dragging a scarecrow-like figure around with them and asking for a "penny for the Guy." Not 'guy' as in 'bloke' or 'man', but Guy Fawkes, the man who is infamous for being one of those who tried to blow up the houses of Parliament in the year 1605. The 'pennies' the kids were asking for were usually to buy fireworks for Bonfire Night. My siblings and I were never allowed to participate in this ritual. My parents bought the fireworks and certainly would not have approved of us begging for money in that way.

Over the years, because of safety concerns retailers have stopped selling individual fireworks and age restrictions have been introduced so that children can no longer buy them. The tradition of asking for money seems therefore to have carried over to the 'new' tradition in the UK of trick-or-treating. I've written here before about how in the 20+ years since I left the UK, Halloween has claimed a place in British culture and I bemoaned the homogenization of cultures. But wait - it seems the British have added their own small twist to the tradition of trick-or-treating. I had heard my mother mention it, but was not sure whether to believe her. Today I read on the BBC site about how

On Halloween in 1986, the House of Lords debated the "recently imported trick-or-treat custom of demanding money on threat of playing a nasty trick, now being used by youths to obtain money from old people and others.
Their lordships saw trick or treating not as a tradition, but as American for begging.

I get the impression that there are many who go out trick-or-treating in the UK prepared to 'trick' - throw eggs at cars or commit other acts of vandalism. I have never seen that happen here in the US. In some communities I've seen 'TP Night' celebrated the night before Halloween, when kids throw large quantities of toilet paper at trees, but I've never seen any really damaging vandalism. This year the kids here were particularly polite. Although some of the kids had pillow cases for their candy, none were particularly greedy, and almost all asked if we were offering them one candy or more than one. Even the older kids, though noisy as they moved from one house to the next, were unfailingly polite and had made an effort to dress up.

On National Public Radio this morning there was a report about how Halloween is the 4th most commercial 'holiday' in the US nowadays (the others being Christmas, the SuperBowl, and New Year!) It seems that one way or another, it's all about the money.

Candy stash

We dug out the plastic pumpkins last night for tonight's trick-or-treating, only to discover that they still contained candy from last year! I think the little ones had been eating their stash whenever they felt like it (i.e. right before meals, how dare they?!) so I had hidden the pumpkins away high on a shelf in the basement, fully intending to dole the candy out in small doses at what I considered to be appropriate times. Apparently there are no appropriate times for children to have candy in this house as, once I put the pumpkins away, I forgot that there was candy in them! (Not at all like me to forget that there's candy in the house though - wonder if I have some kind of memory problem?)

The Halloween candy survived the year well and is still edible. (DH and I snarfed some of it last night on the premise that we had to check if it was OK and we were doing the kids a favor by letting them have the fresh stuff tonight!) On reflection, I'm sure there must also be a bag somewhere that has some of last Easter's treats in it. Cadbury's creme eggs go mouldy over time* so I hope there aren't any of those hiding in the basement - that would be a serious waste :-(

* I know this because I have been known to hide them around the house so that I have a secret supply. Once I forgot I had hidden some in a particular cupboard. When I finally rediscovered them I was sorely disappointed (after my initial excitement) because, although the chocolate was fine, the filling had gone mouldy. Even before they reach that stage, the filling can get rather dry and is not so yummy. Moral - eat your treats sooner rather than later!

Accident-prone

The little people in the house claim to be accident-prone today. This morning they were "accidentally" watching TV. This afternoon the larger one bit the smaller one "By accident!" Huh?

Well, at least the littler one has finally learned to say "By accident" instead of "On accident". Now we just have to work on the definition of 'accidental'!

I may 'accidentally' have the TV on tomorrow evening when today's rugby game is finally shown on a TV channel I can get without having to pay any extra for.

Autumn. Season of mists and . . .

• road repairs
  Why one of the towns I commute through leaves their road repairs until the fall, I do not know, but it seems to be a regular thing. Last year they resurfaced a long section of road and only just got done before the first snow, and they appear to be doing the same thing this year. On Thursday the road was like an obstacle course as they had started raising all the drain covers to the new road height and it was impossible to drive in any kind of straight line down the road. Because they had surrounded all of them with large orange barrels, at times the only way to avoid the raised structures was to drive on the wrong side of the road. That made me very nervous as I set off on Friday's commute to work as we had some very seasonable, and very thick, fog. Fortunately, they had removed all the orange barrels, so it was actually possible to remain on the correct side of the road.
  
  
• rising smoke
  Usually at this time of year there is smoke rising from many chimneys when I drive to work in the morning as people are starting to heat their houses again with their wood stoves. Not so many this year, yet, as the weather has been unseasonably warm - into the 70's Fahrenheit (over 21 Celsius) several days this week. I miss the wood stove we had at the last house. It was good to know we had an alternative source of heat, especially as we have a friend with acres of woods who's happy to give us wood in exchange for helping him cut, split and stack enough for him and us.
  
  
• household jobs
  like taking all the window screens out and getting the snow blower tuned up for the winter. I took the window screens out last weekend, and then regretted it as the temperatures stayed so warm! Raking leaves used to be the bane of our existence in the fall, but that was at the old house. Although we have trees near the house now, the prevailing winds and the openness of the housing development means that the leaves blow right on into the neighbour's yard and we don't have to rake them :-)
  
  
• bear tracking
  The local university tracks the bears around here, but for some reason we only ever seem to see their bear tracking vehicle (an SUV bristling with radio antennae) in October. The Littlest American was asking this week why we haven't had any bears in our yard this year. I'll have to stop and ask the bear tracker next time I see the van if the bears have changed their wandering habits this year. It may be that we simply haven't seen them, though they do sometimes leave evidence behind. Sometimes they empty out the compost bins, sometimes they leave other 'evidence' behind. I was ready once to accuse a neighbour of letting one of her dogs c**p on our lawn, when I realized that her dogs don't eat birdseed! The bears aren't the daintiest of eaters, so when they go for the bird feeders they usually destroy them - more evidence!
  
  
• color
  Of course New England in the fall is beautiful. This week the colors around here finally started to look good - such gorgeous shades of orange, yellow, and red, that even when they were muted by the morning fog they were still stunning. I need to get some chysanthemums for the front step, though the geraniums are colorful as they are still flowering. We have a couple of little pumpkins that the kids got at school, but need to get a couple of large ones that we can carve for Halloween. It's time to buy another seasonal item too:
  
  
• unicorn bits
  (and other kinds of candy too, as we can't give out unwrapped candy to the trick-or-treaters.)
  
  
• Christmas decorations
  in the stores already, well before Halloween!
  

0.2%

I'm in that tiny percentage of the population that has familial hypercholesterolemia. My cholesterol was over 350 the first time it was tested and it had next to nothing to do with my diet or lifestyle. (That's over 9 using the units they use in Europe, and it's actually low compared to some people in my family!) I was in my 20's and I had to BEG my doctor for the blood test. He was convinced I didn't need it. When we got the results back, he didn't seem to know what to do. Rather than give me any advice, he asked what my brother and sister (3,000 miles away!) had been told to do! I knew what my first move should be - I switched doctors!

Today I watched a kid eat a "lunchable" for her lunch. Holy cow! If I'm going to eat that much fat in one meal, I'd rather it was something yummy like Ben & Jerry's icecream! I save my fat calories for good stuff! I sometimes have to remind myself though when I'm getting all self-righteous about it, that people like me are only 0.2% of the population and most people's bodies can handle fat much better than mine can. I've had to learn that what I like is not always what I should be eating - and that, somewhat like a diabetic, my life may depend on it. The difference is that a diabetic's body reacts quickly to the wrong foods. Mine reacts slowly, but over many years the wrong food will still kill me. Many people don't ever get the chance to learn that, because they don't find out until too late that their cholesterol is high.

People thought I was odd to have my kids' cholesterol tested before they were even teenagers. With an inherited condition like this, the chances were 50/50 that I had passed it on and I figured it was better to know sooner rather than later. Fortunately, we have an excellent pediatrician who agreed that an early test was a good idea and who then sent us to the appropriate expert when indeed one of the children turned out to have high cholesterol. It was a long drive for a short appointment, but well worth it! Now it is being recommended in the UK that all children have their cholesterol tested at age 15 months because so many adults don't even know what their cholesterol is. What a change from 20 years ago when my doctor thought I didn't need to have my cholesterol tested because I wasn't even 30 yet, female and a non-smoker!

Statetris

Can you name all the states of the United States? Do you know where they all are on the map? How about the British counties? How many counties are there, anyway? Try Statetris and see how you do. Here's the British version, and this is the one for the USA. Oh, and there's one for the French regions too.

Even if you don't know where the state/county/region should go, you can guess pretty effectively. I'm better, nonetheless, at placing the American states in the right place than the UK counties :-( Of course it helps that I used to have to teach international students here in the USA some US geography including the names, abbreviations for, and locations of, all the states. I'm not sure that I EVER knew exactly where all the counties are. If someone tells me that they come from say, Suffolk, I nod as though I know exactly where it is, but quite frankly I'm not always 100% sure where it is in relation to where I used to live. It's easier for me to tell where US states are in relation to where I live now. (Of course, given that most of them are to the West and or south, that's cheating really - a bit like saying I know where the counties all are in relation to Cornwall!) Of course, it didn't help that the names and boundaries of the counties changed as I was growing up. North Humberside should still be Yorkshire as far as I'm concerned, and at least they've moved part of the Wirral back into Cheshire where it belongs instead of Merseyside! Oops - checks Wikipedia and discovers that North Humberside returned to the East Riding of Yorkshire some 11 years ago! Apparently I didn't notice the change in address on the occasional correspondance I receive from Hull Uni.! How am I supposed to know where all the counties are if they keep changing them? I wonder when the last time was that they changed the names or borders of any of the US states? Longer ago than 1996, I'm sure.

Riot for austerity

So, the Riot for Austerity challenge is to use one tenth of what the average American uses. A pretty extreme challenge, but they're not dogmatic about it as they say:

"the goal is to reach a 90% reduction (or the best each of us can do) *AND KEEP IT THERE* after 1 year."

I don't think we'll ever get to the goal they've set, but we're doing better than 'average' in some respects. They say that the average American household uses 900 kwh of electricity per month. So far this calendar year, we've averaged about 750 kwh per month, even though we've had the central AC on for the last three months. The next couple of months are usually fairly low ones for our electric bills, so that should bring the average down. We've already replaced almost all the lightbulbs with CF ones. My next move to reduce our electricity use will be to buy another indoor drying rack and get a washing line set up to dry laundry outdoors.

Apparently "the average American generates about 4.5 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY." I weighed our trash before going to the dump this weekend. I don't usually weigh the trash bag, but I could tell as I lifted the bag that it was a lighter than average trash week. We had 2.5 pounds of trash TOTAL for the four of us for the week. We also had 7.5 pounds of paper recycling, and about 9.5 pounds of plastic and glass recycling. (I forgot to subtract the weight of the container for the glass and plastic so it was probably a little less than 9.5 pounds.) There was some other glass and plastic that was not included because they were returnable bottles with deposits on them. Any food waste that we could put in the compost bin we did, and I didn't weigh that. I'm not sure if it counts as trash anyway, but I suspect the other recycling does because many communities still don't offer recycling opportunities. So I took less than 20 pounds of stuff to the dump/recycling center - about 16% of the 126 pounds of trash the 'average' family of four creates.

There are many areas of our lives that we could make less wasteful, but it looks as though we're off to an OK start.

What a funny-looking donkey!

Several years ago, dear husband and I were driving to see some friends in northern Vermont when I saw an animal at the side of the road. There was a couple who had gotten out of their car who were quite close to it, taking photos. I said, (to my eternal embarrassment), "What a funny-looking donkey!" No, it was NOT a donkey - it was a female moose.



I was confused because I was not that close to the animal but it was standing fairly near to the people who were photographing it and looked pretty tame. So now it's a family joke that I can't identify animals, and even when we see animals like giraffes someone will say: "Ooh, look at the funny-looking donkey!" I can in fact now identify a moose (and a giraffe) quite easily, but I do occasionally have difficulty with other animals. The first time I saw a coyote, I was sure it was a long-legged fox. I knew that coyotes live around here, (I've even heard them howling at night,) but it still seemed wrong that they should. The word 'coyote' always sounds, well, foreign and exotic to me and evokes an image of animals silhouetted on a ridge at sunset somewhere in the wilderness. Maybe I'm just confusing them with wolves. I'm sure (I think) that we don't have any of those around here!

(BTW, the picture above is NOT the moose I saw that day.)

Bears in the yard

I've been meaning to blog about our bears for a while, but reading this post about a bear in Colorado prompted me to get started on it.

The first time I ever saw a bear near our house it was in the late afternoon when a fairly young bear was wandering down the middle of the road. A car came by and when the driver stopped to get a better look at the bear it climbed a tree in fright. It didn't stay there long though. It seemed to figure out that the car and driver were no immediate threat, and it climbed down again and ran off into the woods.

We've seen them quite a few times since, some occasions more memorable than others. There was the time a bear climbed up on the basement hatchway to get at the bird feeder on the kitchen window. We'd removed all the other bird feeders from the yard a couple of weeks earlier after a bear bent the metal poles they were hanging on through 90 degrees. We foolishly figured that if the bear had left the one on the kitchen window alone, then it wouldn't come that close to the house. Wrong! We should have remembered the story (not apocryphal) about a family in town who had left the kitchen door open and a bear wandered right into the house and started ransacking the cupboards! My husband almost had a heart attack. He was standing at the kitchen sink, when suddenly there was a bear right outside the window only a couple of feet in front of him grabbing at the bird feeder. It pulled the feeder off the window, shook out the contents and ate most of them. (Given that it had earned itself little more than a snack I was surprised the bear left so much seed on the ground.) Once it was done emptying the feeder, it seemed to consider coming up on to the deck before wandering off to the neighbor's yard.

(Yes, although black bears are really not very agressive, I was safely inside the house when I took this picture.) We thought the bear had gone, but a few hours later when my husband went to take something out to the compost bin, he surprised the bear coming out from under the deck! It was making itself altogether too much at home for my liking! We never saw it under the deck again, but who knows?

A couple of times since we've been living here, the kids at one of the local elementary schools have had to stay inside the school at recess because there was a bear wandering the grounds. Many of the bears wear radio collars so that the state department of wildlife can track them. One of the kids, seeing the collar wanted to know who the bear belonged to!

The thing is, these bears are not way out in the countryside. Our house is only a couple of miles from the center of town. I've seen a mother bear and cub scampering down a densely populated residential street even closer to the center of town. Apparently, despite the fact that humans have been taking more and more of the bears' habitat for development every year, the black bear population is still growing - from about 100 in the entire state in the 1970's to somewhere around 3,000 now! An orchard where we used to see them when we first lived here is now a housing development. It's sad to think that, despite that, the bears are doing so well that it is actually legal to hunt them and dozens are killed every year for 'sport'. Although I seem to have terrified my brother-in-law in the UK with the thought that we have bears walking through our yard, they are rarely a real nuisance. (There was that one bear though that got drunk in a local orchard on fermented apples and wouldn't leave for a couple of days, but it wasn't in our yard, so I found that entertaining rather than a nuisance!)

Proms for 7 year-olds?

Last year I was surprised to hear of graduation ceremonies in the UK for 4 year-olds, so I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised to read this about a prom in South Wales for seven-year olds. At least they changed the cultural context a little for the prom in Rhondda by having a tea party before the disco! What really surprised me was that many of the kids arrived in limos! (At least the photo reveals that they had parents in tow!)

Limos were banned as transportation to the prom at one of the private schools I worked at here in the US because it created a very clear distinction between those who could afford them and those who could not. Instead, the students were offered a choice of restaurants to go to and the school arranged the transportation. Not so 'classy', but for many of these kids a limo was nothing special anyway. In the context of the UK state school system where something like 85% of schools have uniforms that were always supposed to promote a degree of equity, it seems downright wrong to have a prom that encourages people to spend large amounts of money on limos and on prom outfits that will never be worn again. What about the kids on free lunches? I know some of the families were very proud that they 'only' spent £20, but it was an outfit that will probably never be worn again (except for dress-up.) A 'leavers' do', or 'moving up' party would have been just as much fun for the kids I'm sure.

Riot for austerity

I'm contemplating joining the 'Riot for Austerity'. Not sure how far I'll get, but the goals are worthy ones . . .

More immigration confusion

My parents recently paid us a visit from the UK. The immigration official at the airport told my father that he had a 'problem' because his fingerprint did not match the fingerprint they took when he entered the US last September. After sending him to another official, they decided that they had simply 'confused' my father's fingerprint with my mother's. He was actually expecting to have more of a problem with the fact that they never took his departure card when he left last year, so technically there is no record of him ever having left the country before returning last month . . . They didn't mention that.

And I was SO hoping that the INS' record-keeping had improved since I last had to deal with them :-(

The world's best chocolate

Many years ago someone told me that chocolate in the United States was formulated differently in order to improve its shelf life. I knew it tasted different, although I wasn't sure of the veracity of the claim about shelf life. This week Kim Severson of the New York Times said the world's best candy is British and explains the difference between American and British chocolate:

According to the label, a British Cadbury Dairy Milk bar contains milk, sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, vegetable fat and emulsifiers. The version made by the Hershey Company, which holds the license from Cadbury-Schweppes to produce the candy in the United States under the British company’s direction, starts its ingredient list with sugar. It lists lactose and the emulsifier soy lecithin, which keeps the cocoa butter from separating from the cocoa. The American product also lists “natural and artificial flavorings.”

Apparently the claim about shelf life is true as chcolate bars

from the United Kingdom are made from a better recipe, containing fewer stabilizers. They melt more quickly than a Hershey bar

When I was living in Taiwan I was delighted to discover that much of the candy was made to the British rather than the American formula. I wonder why in a tropical country they felt no need to use a formula for the chocolate bars that would give them a longer shelf life? I would guess it probably has something to do with the proximity of Hong Kong where there were lots of people who were used to the British version of the candy bars.

Immigration

After spending many thousands of dollars to get a work visa and then a Green Card in order to stay in the United States, it was amazingly simple to become a United States citizen when I finally became eligible.



When I applied for United States citizenship eight years ago I did not need a lawyer to help me, didn't need to take any classes, or study from any books. I think things have become a little tougher since 9/11, but there are lots of free resources such as public library websites or community based organizations. Even the US government provides information along with the application forms. There are plenty of people out there willing to take money to help you become a naturalized citizen, but as far as I know if you've got as far as getting a Green Card, the last step is easy and you really shouldn't need to pay for any help if your English is good enough to read and understand the application form.

I filled out the forms, wrote a check, and posted it all to the relevant address. Shortly afterwards I received a letter from the regional Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Office requesting that I report to my 'local' (2 hour drive away) INS Office. The reason: I had been granted permission to remain in the United States as a resident alien 5 years earlier but I had 'never been issued' with a Green Card and so I had 10 days to report to the INS office to rectify the situation. I was rather confused because I could have sworn I HAD a Green Card.

Not only did I have a plastic card with my photo on it that looked just like a Green Card was supposed to (no, it's not green!), but I knew it was a Green Card. How did I know this? Well, firstly, it had been mailed to me in an envelope that had a return address at the INS. Secondly, I had used the card to get in and out of the USA several times with no problems over the previous 5 years. Thirdly, I had gone on a 'backstage tour' at my local INS office just days after receiving my Green Card and one of the officials on the tour had (with my permission) entered my card number into her computer to pull up the INS computer file on me to show other people on the tour what kind of information they had. So I photocopied the back and front of my Green Card and wrote a letter to the regional INS office asking them what this piece of plastic was that had gotten me in and out of the country if it was not a Green Card and could they please reassure me, since I had just applied for citizenship, that my paperwork was in fact in order. I never heard back from them until I got a letter inviting me to the local INS office for my citizenship interview.

It was actually the tour of the immigration office that had made me decide that I would file my application for citizenship the first day I could. As well as pulling up my records on the computer, we asked if they could pull up the records of the 'designated officials' at a local university - people authorized to sign visa paperwork for international students. An international student accepted at an American university needs official paperwork showing that they have been accepted and have proven to the school that they have enough money to survive their course of study. Only a handful of people at any given institution are authorized to sign this paperwork, and their names are on record with the INS as Designated School Officials (DSOs.) So if an immigration official has doubts about the authenticity of an arriving student's paperwork one of the first things they can do is check that the person who signed the forms was in fact authorized to do so. So imagine the university officials' horror when they found that the official INS list of people at their university authorized to sign was TWO years out of date! As far as they knew, they had done everything they needed to to become a DSO, but if an official had questioned paperwork they had signed, a student who was legitimately accepted at their university could be denied entry to the country. Not good!

I also saw people filing paper records at the INS office and remember being told that when those records were needed again it would be impossible to find them unless someone knew the last date on which they had been accessed because that was how they were filed.

Having seen these examples of the INS inefficiency, I was not exactly excited about having to continue to deal with them for any longer than I had to. It is no wonder they have not been able to keep track of potential terrorists. My impression was that the INS were underfunded and understaffed and handicapped by a useless computer system. It was amazing things worked as well as they did. It would be nice to think that things have improved over the intervening years, especially with all the recent discussion about immigration and security, but sadly I doubt it has changed much. There are advantages to being a US citizen rather than a resident alien, but for me one of the biggest advantages is not having to deal with the INS any more.

Heatwaves

Watching TV last night, the weather forecaster commented that although today the temperatures would reach the 90's for a second day in a row, we can't talk about a heatwave because there is unlikely to be a third day of high temperatures. A heatwave in New England is defined (by one of the local TV station weather forecasters) as a string of three 90+ degree Fahrenheit (over 32° Celsius) days in a row. Two days of those temperatures would definitely count as a heatwave in the UK.

Some people laugh when people in the UK complain about heatwaves when the temperatures are only in the 70's, (mid 20's Celsius) and you see headlines like "Britain swelters in the seventies." It makes complete sense though that the official definition of a heatwave will vary from place to place. In the Netherlands it's classified a heatwave when there are at least 5 days with a maximum temperature above 25°C (77°F) of which at least 3 days have a maximum temperature above 30°C (86° F). (Source: World Health Organization)

Looking for information on the topic this afternoon, I discovered that depending on where you are in the UK, let alone where you are in the world, the temperature threshold is different. In a large country such as the USA, I would have expected that. 'Hot' weather in New England is not the same as 'hot' in the southern USA. I was surprised to find regional differences in the definition of a heatwave for the UK. The temperatures must be reached on at least two consecutive days and the intervening night.

Scroll down - for some reason the table below has decided it needs lots of personal space and nothing I do will persuade it to move back up the page :-(

Region	Threshold temperature
	Day max	Night min
North East England	28°C / 82.4°F	15°C / 59°F
North West England	30°C / 86°F	15°C / 59°F
Yorkshire and the Humber	29°C / 84°F	15°C / 59°F
East Midlands	30°C / 86°F	15°C / 59°F
West Midlands	30°C / 86°F	15°C / 59°F
East of England	30°C / 86°F	15°C / 59°F
South East England	31°C / 87.8°F	16°C / 60.8°F
London	32°C / 89.6°F	18°C / 64.4°F
South West England	30°C / 86°F	15°C / 59°F
Wales	30°C / 86°F	15°C / 59°F

In the United States, the National Weather Service suggest that a heat advisory be issued when the daytime heat index reaches 40.6°C / 105°F and a night time minimum temperature of 26.7°C / 80°F persists for at least 48 hours. Local definitions are used: in Dallas the medical examiners office define a heatwave as three consecutive days of temperatures over 37.8°C / 100.4°F - that's a good 10 degrees warmer than a New England heatwave.

I wonder how the definitions will change over the next few years as global warming takes effect and heatwaves become more common? Will we simply redefine what a heatwave is?

Marketing math - when 11 equals 15.25

Are they as honest on their 15.25 ounce cans? "Contains only as much corn as the 11 ounce cans." I think not.

Learning about America

in Nelson, New Zealand.

God Save my Country

The Little American is practicing for the Memorial Day concert at school on Friday. One of the songs they will be singing is My Country 'Tis of Thee which happens to be sung to exactly the same tune as God Save the Queen. I have now thoroughly confused her as every time she starts to sing it I join in, singing the 'wrong' words :-) She asked me to write down the words for her so that she could teach her classmates to sing God Save the Queen. (Hmm - I can see that going over well at school - NOT!) Unfortunately, she had sung My Country 'Tis of Thee so often that somehow pilgrims kept making their way into God Save the Queen! Now we're both confused!

But did you know that the same tune is used for the national anthems of Norway and Leichtenstein, and used to be used in Switzerland, Prussia and Russia?

Writers on America

I've just started reading the articles at Writers on America from the US Department of State. It looks as though there is some interesting reading there. I noticed that the site has been translated - but only into Arabic. Clearly a propaganda piece, yet not entirely 'rah-rah'. Julia Alvarez, for example, talks of the difficulties she and her family faced on their arrival in the United States, and I would guess some of the other articles are equally honest about the imperfections of the American 'melting pot'.

Attitude

I remember someone telling me once shortly after I arrived in the US that a big difference between the US and the UK is the can-do attitude over here. If someone in the UK said they were thinking about maybe writing a book, the reaction would be, "What, you?" If someone in the US said the same thing the response would be "Go for it!"

I wonder how much that has changed with bloggers like Tom Reynolds, Petite Anglaise and others getting publishing deals now and becoming celebrities?

The British Abroad

To balance my earlier post on why some Americans shouldn't be allowed to travel - the British on vacation abroad don't have a particularly good image. Charles Bremner wrote in his Paris Weblog

In the old days, the Americans stood out among the visitors, for dress and behaviour. Now les anglais often draw attention to themselves while the Americans -- on the defensive in France -- try to blend in more.

Magwitch writes :

"unfortunately the most hideous people I’ve ever met when travelling are ignorant, load mouthed Brits who won’t attempt the language, the food or the culture and are generally obnoxious to everyone."

NoJags Neil writes

The perception of the British abroad is not a good one, and the absence of pissed-up promiscuous British twentysomethings on our recent holiday to Egypt was refreshing.

I don't think it's so much the individual Brit abroad, or even small groups, but mostly the larger groups that create this poor image. The chances are much higher that a Brit on a tour versus one travelling independently will be an obnoxious twit. Ditto for other nationalities.


The dark socks with sandals - such an attractive look - not! And the lobster-colored skin - de rigeur when travelling to warmer climes. Do men really still wear knotted hankies on their heads though? I doubt it nowadays, though I think I remember my grandfather doing that when sitting out in the sun in his garden.

Adam Dalton has written a far more comprehensive article about the British tourist overseas than I have time to attempt: The British Abroad - Not a Pretty Sight!

Easter

I don't remember a bunny ever having anything to do with Easter when I was growing up. He may have shown up at other people's houses, but certainly not ours, where Easter was a religious holiday. We got chocolate Easter eggs, but from our parents and grandparents rather than a bunny, and there were no Easter egg hunts. Dear Husband grew up with different traditions, although Easter was still definitely a religious holiday for his family. The Easter bunny always brought him and his brother things like balsa wood airplanes or a kite - toys with an outdoor focus. They always got a chocolate rabbit too. I would bet they got Peeps most years too as my father-in-law loves them. Sometimes the bunny brought them a toothbrush!

For the moment, the Little Americans in the house think Easter is all about the rabbit. The Little American probably knows more about Passover traditions than the religious nature of Easter even though she does have a book of Bible stories that she enjoys reading, and often reads the stories aloud to her brother.

As the kids were going to bed tonight they wanted to be sure that their baskets were put out in the living room and some carrots left for the bunny. They then had a very intense discussion with each other about how the bunny is going to get into the house. "Well we don't have a chimney, so he can't get in that way." "He can't come in through the door because the alarm would go off. He must come in through the window." They are evidently unaware of the concept of a motion-activated alarm or what the little boxes with the red lights in the corners of the rooms are for. They also haven't noticed that all the windows are locked. Hmm - I'd better go and check and make sure they haven't UNlocked any! I wouldn't put it past them!

I've just finished filling plastic eggs to hide around the back yard in the morning. The raccoons would find them if we put them out now! I don't know what they'd make of plastic eggs as opposed to the real thing (which I know they love), but I'm sure they'd check them out pretty thoroughly!

Dear Husband is looking over my shoulder and comments that he had contemplated going outside to collect some of the wild rabbit droppings from the lawn and leaving them next to the baskets in the living room! Fortunately, he decided not to bother.

A nation of wasteful abundance

I remember being shocked in my first few days at university here to see the amount of food and paper serviettes (napkins) that were wasted at every mealtime in the Dining Commons on campus. It seemed as though everyone took half a dozen napkins instead of just one. Lots of people took far more food than they could possibly eat and then threw it away. My culture shock at this was nothing however compared to Mark Mathabane's. Mark is about my age but grew up in the black township of Alexandra in South Africa under the apartheid regime. He ended up studying in the United States too. In his book Kaffir Boy in America (sequel to Kaffir Boy , the story of his childhood in South Africa) he writes of his first few years in the United States. He too was (unfavorably) impressed by the amount of wasted food. His shock was clearly far greater than mine of course. I got over it to some extent but the memory of the shock is still there.

Occasionally as I look at our well-stocked pantry and wonder what we should have for dinner, I think how spoiled we are. We bulk buy because it's convenient. We can store far more food than we would be able to in the typical English house. Although we might not be eating what we wanted, we would have enough food for several weeks should something happen to stop us from getting to the stores.

It's not only food, but all the other 'stuff' in our lives that is embarrassingly abundant. I assuage my guilt a little by trying to throw as little out as possible. No, that does not mean hoarding! We recycle paper, glass, and plastic, and would even if our town did not require it. I pass on outgrown kids clothing to friends with smaller children, or to local agencies that collect such stuff. Recently we have used Freecycle as a way of passing things on that we have no use for anymore. (Freecycle exists in many other countries including in the UK too.) It's a small thing to do, but why throw things out when someone might be happy to reuse them? Enjoy the abundance, but cut down on the waste!

37% American

My quiz results from the blogthings "How American Are You?" quiz:

You Are 37% American

America: You don't love it or want to leave it. But you wouldn't mind giving it an extreme make over.

How American Are You?

Dear Husband (who was born and raised here) scored 44%.
I passed the blogthings US Citizenship test though:

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 7 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

Then again, blogthings says I belong in the UK:

You Belong in the UK

Blimey! A little proper, a little saucy. You're so witty and charming... No one notices your curry breath

What English Speaking Country Are You?

Chewing gum

Growing up in the UK, I always thought of chewing gum as quintessentially American. It was another of those nasty American habits, like not pronouncing words properly, that marked one as boorish and uncultured. I knew people who chewed gum, but it wasn't something I did. Chewing without eating seemed rather pointless and, anyway, my dentist had advised me not to bother as I had some problems with my jaw that he said chewing gum would aggravate. I remember noticing that French teenagers seemed to chew gum more often than the English did. (They smoked more too.)

My dislike of gum is apparently typically British - as Cadbury's starts a large advertising campaign to launch Trident gum onto the British market, the BBC reported today:

most people think it looks "common" and "uncouth", according to government research. And that includes the 50% of the population who chew it.

My issue with gum chewers when I was in school was the fact that they didn't seem to know how to dispose of their gum. Of course one reason my peers didn't dispose of their gum in more appropriate ways was because they weren't supposed to be chewing it in the first place. I worked for some years in a school where gum chewing was not allowed and the teachers seemed to be fighting a losing battle to stop the kids from chewing gum or to get them to throw it in a trash can when they had finished chewing it. Then I worked at a school where it was allowed unless individual teachers asked students not to chew gum in their classes. There seemed to be very little problem with finding it in places it shouldn't have been. Then a new regime changed the rules - no more gum permitted, and suddenly there was gum on the ground outside buildings, under desks, stuck on the walls . . .

Just as I've become used to American pronunciation, I've become used to seeing people chew gum without judging their social worth. I still don't do it myself, but I really don't think more people in the UK chewing gum indicates the decline in standards that some people over there are bemoaning.