Christmas in England

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Well, as you can see it has been months since I've been able to update. I hope to fill you in on the semester, but I think it's best to start with the most recent and work back.

I'm back in Le Mans after spending the Christmas break with Ruth's family in Brigham, a little town in Cumbria. Cumbria is the very north-west of England. You can see Scotland from Ruth's window and the sea is a short ride to the west. Brigham itself is an adorable little town with houses that are older than America. It's the English village you'd picture from TVs and movies - large but simple looking homes, stone walls lining the small twisting roads, fields of sheep lined with hedgerows in the distance. Empty bottles waiting for the milkman on the front porch. There's even a little river through the area.

I left on the 20th at ridiculous o'clock in the morning, to borrow an expression from Fiona. Everyone but Leanna had left already so she came to the train station to see me off. That was a sad goodbye since she won't be back this semester.

I got to Montparnasse and onto the RER. I'd forgotten how long that ride is especially with people squishing on at morning rush hour. So I cut it a little close, asked for directions once at de Gaulle after almost taking off in the opposite direction of Terminal 3 and ran to check in. The running turned out to be unnecessary as the terminal was only about 300 yards away but I made it with 15 minutes to spare. Whew.

Thanks to the fog in England that even shut down Heathrow, my flight to Newcastle was packed with folks who were meant to go to Liverpool and Manchester and were being diverted then bused to their destination. The flight was fine though, I just pulled my hood over me the second I sat down and slept through the entire thing to the extent that I didn't get a landing card.

I'm sure the couple next to me thought I was afraid of flying and drugged or such.

I got the typical interrogation from the customs lady at Newcastle. Why are you here why were you in France where are you staying etc. Then she said "Well, maybe you'll have a white Christmas. Guess you don't get that a lot in California?" because it listed my place of birth on the passport. I assumed she didn't care to know that I haven't been to Cali in years and I was in fact born in a blizzard, a common occurence in the mountains of Lake Tahoe and just said, Yeah maybe I will. I in fact didn't- there was some snow on the hill tops in the area, but nothing significant.

Ruth didn't want to drive all the way to Newcastle in the fog so I got the train to Carlisle where she met me. I freaked out about 15 min before arrival, sure I'd slept through my stop because the ticket guy said we'd be there at 2 and my clock said 2:40 ish. After panicking and texting Ruth asking where I should change trains to turn around I realized I was on French time and it was in fact only 1:40.

I had a very nice break and Ruth's family couldn't have been any sweeter. They literally fed me, housed me and clothed me (I borrowed a skirt from Alice one night).

I spent most of the break just lounging around their house watching TV and reading. But we did get out a bit. Ruth, David (her brother) and I went on a beautiful drive through the Lake District National Park which reminded me of Devil's Den. Climbed up on this really big rock that had a pretty view (climbed the ladder, that is). The hillsides had magnificent coloring- there was a tall red grass growing that had such a wonderful, wintery deep color.

The first or second night I was there we went to a pantomime down the road. Traditionally a pantomime is a play for children that has cross-dressing and audience participation. Well, this one wasn't traditional. Instead it was Jack and the Beanstalk but it was well done and they had some kind of grant to pay for professional actors. It was a lot of fun watching how the kids responded- they seemed to think the funniest part was Jack getting basted for the oven. Little cannabals.

It was well thought out though- they had a little puppet dressed like the boy and when he was with the giants the actor narrated and the actors moved the puppet to do what the boy was meant to be doing and when the boy was with his mom he just acted it out himself.

Another day I went with Ruth's dad, David, her other brother James and his girlfriend Isla to see a football (- soccer) game in Carlisle. That was a lot of fun and the home team won. It was no where near as big as the Roma game, but I enjoyed the play better- less flopping around trying for penalties.

The Friday before Christmas - known there as Mad Friday - we went out in Cockermouth, a bigger town nearby, and went to a few pubs with Ruth's sisters Alice and Rachael and Ruth's friend Serena and Rachael's friend Rachel. Too many Rachels, but fun.

On the first Saturday I was there we went to a friend of Ruth's with some of her other school and fencing friends and ordered in some tasty Indian food (much spicier than you can find in France, but no where near as spicy as some of what I've had at home) and watched 10 Things I Hate About You and the Santa Clause and had some champagne to celebrate the engagement of her friends Del and Hannah.

Sunday was Christmas Eve - apparently another big night to go out. But Ruth's adorable 2 year old nephew Kieran (Rachael's son) brought a plague home from nursery and Ruth and I didn't feel like going out. So we rested up and went to midnight mass which was very nice - a lot of my favorite Christmas carols. The priest spoke about American televangelists and asking for money or something which was interesting but I forgot his point.

Christmas Eve dinner was so big I wondered what would be left to eat for Christmas. After mass everyone visited and drank tea for a while and then went to bed.

I woke up on Christmas to find that Father Christmas had left a stocking for me as well. The stocking was left in the room rather than over the fireplace as at home.

Everyone opened gifts and Ruth's family very kindly gave me some as well. I am looking forward to getting some of my own photos printed to go in the photo cube her mom and dad gave me. Kieran had about a thousand, but poor guy had a fever and wasn't feeling great. He did perk up and play with some of the things, but he got a lot more of a kick out of it all a few days later when he was back to himself.

I got to visit home via Skype which was really nice. Bec wasn't home for Christmas either and Dad had just had dental work done, so it was by no means a typical Christmas in Tulsa but mom did get a cute snowman tree.

Christmas dinner was ENOURMOUS. They brought in an extra table to put on the end of the regular one to fit everyone - Ruth, her mom and dad, me, Rachael, Alice, James, Isla, Grandma, David, and Kieran. Luckily the 5 cats and 3 dogs didn't need seats. :P

The first course included prawns, smoked salmon, melons and orange slices, pate, toast, and ham and cheese swirls.

Second course included rattatouille, carrots, potatos, something I'd never had and forgot the name of, brussel sprouts, bread pudding, mashed potatos and gravy, cheese and cauliflower bake, cranberry sauce, sausages wrapped in bacon, sausages wrapped in bacon and cheese, different types of sausage, 3 different types of stuffing, and turkey.

Then ice cream, christmas pudding, and triffle for desert. It was all delicious and I got an old 3 pence piece in my slice of christmas pudding.

Ruth and her sibilings and Isla and Suka (one of the dogs, starring as the donkey) put on a nativity play which was fantastic. They told the audience to shut our eyes (that would be her mom, dad, grandma and me) and we couldn't figure out what had changed when we opened them. But then when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary the curtain swang open and there was Alice in the window. It was priceless. She did the role with a thick Cumbrian accent which was also hilarious.

Kieran played the baby Jesus.

We spent the day relaxing and a transformer blew sometime in the night when only David, Ruth and I were still up. We sat around hoping the power would come back and finally gave up and went to bed about 2.

At least I was awake for that excitement- the first morning I was there the big news was a lorry (truck) driven by an Austrian who didn't speak much English getting stuck at the corner. David called the police to help who never came but he was able to show the guy a way to back up and get out of town in another direction. The guy gave him two Nastro Azzuros for the help. It was the big news of the week and I slept through it. Ha. Funny thing is, the guy was trying to get to London.... you can't get much further from London in England than Brigham.

I think one of the most exciting parts of my visit was having a big bathtub to use. I LOVE a hot bath and thought I wouldn't have one until I come home in June. These dorms are really well planned, but a micro-shower is by no means relaxing.

For New Years we went to her friend Serena's and spent the evening visiting her friends there and listening to music and then watched the celebration at Big Ben at midnight. Serena had a beautiful dog. At midnight they made Del run out back and come in the front door with coal. It's a tradition - though apparently not a widely known one - to bring good luck in the new year and it is supposed to be done by a male, preferably darker (as lighter hair/skin would denote a viking, ie not good tidings).

We went into Workington, another decent sized town nearby, to look for a dress for Ruth to wear to Rob's (her boyfriend) brothers wedding. We didn't find anything in the sales so Ruth and I went with her friend Hannah to Carlisle another day and had fun looking at all the shops, a nice French lunch and I found a cool journal for me for 2007.

In Workington we got fish and chips. Ruth ordered for me and just said fish and chips and mushy peas. Not large. Not grande. And yet, we got home and unwrapped it to find the biggest piece of cod I have ever seen. It was bigger than my head and after I ate all I could James and Isla had to work together to finish it off.

A few days after Christmas we (Isla, James and I) went to Trotter's World of Animals, a little bitty zoo near Ruth's. It was cute- they did a reptile show and had an albino Florida king snake. I also held a python. Oooh. We also got to see a flight demonstration thingy with an owl and a falcon. All of the monkeys seemed really fascinated with this shiney bird pin Isla was wearing. They would come to the window and stare right at it. If she walked off they didn't care about James and I and if she stood there they seemed to call the others over and all stare at it. ALL the different types of monkeys. It was hysterical.

The best part though: BABY PIGGIES!! Piglets I guess you could say? Born Christmas Eve so they were like 5 days old or so. 6 of them all pilled up by their mommy, or mummy rather since they are English piglets.

Rob, Ruth's boyfriend came to visit just before New Years and drove us to the grocery store where I was able to get Dr. Pepper, a bunch of spices I can't find in France, Ranch-like dressing, and an expandable folder I have also not been able to find in France. We also got cream of mushroom soup and I fried some onions and made a green bean casserole which came out pretty good. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

I also noticed that the groceries there seem to make a much bigger deal of fair trade and environment friendly merchandise, such as not over-fishing etc. And maybe it's just that group of people, I don't know, but all of Ruth's friends seemed to get an Oxfam donation as a gift from someone.

One of the last days I was there I decided to go with Ruth's brother David and his friend to climb a fell (hill). David and Ruth's dad had gone when I first got there and was too tired and had some fantastic pictures where they had climbed above the clouds. So we got up and ready to go but missed the bus so we biked to Cockermouth. Only my bike didn't shift gears right so I had to pedal a lot and quickly got too hot in my layers of clothing for climbing a cold, high hill. Also, the handle bars wouldn't raise so I had to ride almost laying flat down with my backpack on and couldn't raise up for momentum. The countryside was beautiful, but the ride was rough. Then the gear wheel tore my jeans. Not my most successful bike trip.

But we made it to his friend Chopper's house and left the bikes and went to get the bus out to near the fell and I decided I wasn't feeling as well as I'd like (the plague... or cold... Kieran passed around was still on its slow way out) so I told David I'd just stay the day in Cockermouth. I'd felt kind of sick to my stomach a bit the day before and again that morning and didn't want to get halfway up a hill in the middle of nowhere and wretch, so I just wandered around a bunch of cute shops, had lunch and some coffee and read a book I'd bought at the Oxfam store.

David tracked me down at one of the coffee shops when he got back (thanks to Ruth calling my cell) and we went back to his friends who made us stir-fry and we played Jenga with him and his sister and watched a really bad old game show and an episode of Made that was ridiculous but amusing.

We mostly walked the bikes back since it was dark and only mine had a light which was highly preferable to riding for me. I was hungry again when we got back and Ruth's grandma brought over some yorkshire pudding and roastbeef and veggies for us and Ruth and her dad who had just got home from work.

Then on the 4th it was time to go. I got up early in case I needed to take the bus, but Rachael was back with the car in time for Ruth to take me to Workington where I got the train to Carlisle and made a quick change to Newcastle. I got to Newcastle with plenty of time so I had some coffee and read some more until check in and for the first time I was in the first check-in group so I got a seat at the front of the plane which was nice.

I had to spend the night in Paris since my plane got in so late. I went back to the hotel dad and I stayed at which is about 10 min from the Eiffel Tower on the nice Rue du Commerce. The hostel I stayed at last year is just down the street. The weather wasn't so great the next morning, so I decided just to head back to Le Mans rather than wander around Paris like I'd considered.

So I got back to Le Mans in the afternoon, got some groceries and some sleep and then just hid in my dorm picking up and sleeping and skype visiting home until Alix finally arrived Sunday and Fiona Monday. We're back in our old habits of sitting around watching tv and movies which is nice. I think I have a class schedule that will work, I meet with my advisor Friday.

Tonight we met one of the new Brits. She seems very nice. I've also been having fun with cooking experiments- I made some fantastic broccoli potato soup by making up the recipe. I'm pretty proud. Also made up some pasta sauce the other day which was tasty and some good stir fry with my spices from England. Mmmm.

Speaking of food, Ruth's family made all kinds of good stuff for me to try. Cumberland sausage, christmas pudding, flapjack, and Yorkshire pudding were all good.

Well, that's all for now. I'll work back from here for a while and hopefully fill you in on my first semester in France.

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Photos

Ruth... way down there
From the top of the large rock

Me!
On the top of the large rock

Side of the rock
I think it looks like a face... do you see it?

Cool clouds
in the Lake District

Statue in Cockermouth
the Mayo Statue

Oh my Cod!
Funny fish and chips place in Cockermouth

Happy Christmas!
The backside of the statue

Scotland
The view from Ruth's window- that distant hill is Scotland.

the playbill
Made by Ruth

the playbill inside
Made by Ruth

Welcome
to the Bobers

the Corner...
Where the Lorry got stuck.

the Bober's
Ruth's house. The window on the top left is where I slept through the lorry getting stuck.

Comments

[Megann]

I've read about that New Year's tradition before..I had no clue it was still around. That's pretty neat! Glad you had a good Christmas!

[sarah]

england!!!
man, i hope the some of the brits i meet next year are as nice as your friends, as i will probably be kicked out of the dorm come winter break and will want somewhere free to stay. and a nice family to love me and give me christmas stockings. i'm about to post to the english as a second language group. go look.