Thanksgiving in Cambridge

I celebrated Thanksgiving in Cambridge with two of my really great friends from undergrad at East Central University, Collin and Candice.  Collin is working on his PhD from Cambridge, I have not seen them in a few years, mainly because they have been living here in the UK for the past couple of years.  Collin and Candice were a pretty newly married couple at ECU and were always inviting all of us from the church over for dinner and people would bring their laundry to their house and we would hang out often, so it was really great to see them and to hang out with them again.   They just found out that they are pregnant and just finished telling the news to their family and friends.

Anyway, we just hung out and talked and caught up for a bit before other Americans, a few Aussies, and Brits came over for a a Thanksgiving dinner of about 20 people.  So in this room were some of the smartest people I have ever met, all either working on their PhD.s from Cambridge or they already have their PhD.   Some have published books, one was a Chemist, another a Philosopher, but most were in the field of Divinity ..  or related.  The food was amazing and the conversation was even better, we all just sat around the dinner table eating, chatting, and drinking wine for a few hours.  It was a great night and am thankful that I had friends to spend my Thanksgiving with while I am away.

Guy Fawkes Day

So here in the UK they celebrate a holiday called Guy Fawkes day.  The story is a guy named Guy Fawkes was planning to blow up parliament and they caught him in the early 1600's and tortured and executed by hanging.  So every year they have a holiday called Guy Fawkes day..  I met a few new friends in a town called red hill on the evening of Guy Fawkes we had some coffee and headed out on a bus to a place where the celebration was going to be... I really had no idea what it was going to be like but I heard bonfire and fireworks so that was enough for me.

So here is some further detail of the celebration.

Started walking up to the place where the bonfire was going to be taken place and walked by a large group of about 50 people carrying torches and pulling a cart with a very life like 'dummy' that resembled Guy Fawkes tied up on the cart and they were chanting a chant of some sort, evident-ally they parade the dummy Guy Fawkes around the town for about 3 hours before the bonfire saying their chant. We made it up to the place where the bonfire is taking place and it was a huge pile of leaves trees all nicely packed about 30 yds wide and 50 yds tall.  With a ladder in front going all the way to the top of the pile of tender.  There were probably over 5000 people in this park drinking, eating some 'fair' food and just having a good time. 

When it was time for the bonfire a lady dressed in a devil suit, and about 10 'demons' got the dummy Guy Fawkes and carried him up the ladder and stood him up on the top of the bonfire, then did a little devil and demon show on the bonfire.  When they finished their show they climbed down removed the ladder and the torch people lit the tender.  When the fire made it to Guy we found he was stuffed with fireworks and while he was exploding from the inside the crowd was screaming, cheering, going crazy.  After that we turned our attention to a firework show that was ever bit as big as a firework show as most I have ever seen for a 4th of July celebration. 

All in all it was a lot of fun .. even a midst the morbidity of the celebration!

Off the beaten track

Highlights of the travels to London and my first couple of days

• The travels to get to London was interesting.  I did not book the travels, but will in the future so it will not be as many changes.  Left from Bolivar, MO at 11 am on the 1st to fly out of Springfield, MO.  Left Springfield at 1:30 to Chicago. Short layover in Chicago and was on the way to NY LaGuardia after arriving in LaGuardia I had to get a taxi to JFK to catch the flight to London (first ever NYC Taxi Ride), I had a 4 hour layover in JFK before flight to London.  Was on a Virgin Atlantic flight in Premium class from JFK to London, first time ever not being in economy on a flight and it spoiled me a little. I had my own TV with a selection of 100+ movies and tv shows, the seats were very comfortable and almost laid all the way back.  So I slept watched a couple movies and before I knew it arrived in London.  I was suppose to have a taxi man holding my name with a sign on it waiting for me... but he wasn't there, I called and he was on his way and showed up about an hour after I landed.  The taxi ride from the Airport to my Apartment was a little over an hour, the apartment was really nice, in a not that wonderful of an area, but only 3 blocks from a nice sized transit station.  After it was all said and done from leaving place in Bolivar to arriving at apartment in London it was just over 24 hours.
• On my first working day here the Public Transit people here were on strike so many of the undergrounds/tubes were closed, so my directions that I had did not work and instead of one change of a tube and a train ride it was a lot of walking and 4 different station changes. So the commute took over 2 times as long as it normally would.  It was a gorgeous day and because of not going the route that I had mapped out I was able to talk to a bunch of people (asking for directions and routes), learn quite a bit about the public transit in London, and walk across the Waterloo Bridge right next to Buckingham Palace.
• Things that I have learned so far:
• I understand the girls way more than the men with their British accents
• The rumor about all English girls have bad teeth and are not cute.. so not true
• I really enjoy not having to drive. just reading or striking up conversations with random people while I travel makes the commute very easy
• Tea Time = 5pm-ish
• Slap Head = Bald Guy
• Proper is used in place of real
• Mind the Gap = Watch your step