Drunk on Americana

I read an interesting editorial in today's paper regarding a recent report stating that Britian should consider raising the drinking age from 18 to 21...

"The latest expert report states that we should restrict drinking to over-21s, following the US model rather than the more mature European way where children grown up with a healthier attitude toward drinking. The reason that we have so many young people hooked on binge drinking is because our society has, for too long, followed the US model of culture, rather than looked to our close neighbors for inspiration, or indeed stayed true to our own long history. We have all but become the 51st state of America. It has become normal for us to have a daily dose of Yankee TV and films, a money-making obsession, long working hours, a shopping mall fixation, car dependence, infatuation with shallow US stars and violent rap music. We have replaced the British identity with a poor copy of the US one and are reaping the rewards with a disilluisioned and unhappy youth. Let's just hand Britian to George Bush and be done with it."

One of the things I've found most interesting about living here is to find out what stereotypes exist about Americans. For example, I've been told that I'm quieter, more polite and skinnier than most Americans. It wasn't until visiting London recently that I began to see what the British see. The American tourists were very easy to identify because they were often being loud and rude.

I have yet to meet anyone that thinks the US is a good place to live. Many people do like to visit and they love watching American TV shows and movies...but never has anyone said they'd actually like to live in the US, which I find fascinating.

Vacation Time

I just got news at work that our number of vacation days is increasing! I currently get 26 days vacation, plus 5 paid holidays and the entire time from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day off. That will all stay the same except instead of 26 days it will increase to 29 days on January 1, 2008, then to 32 days in 2009 and finally to 35 days in 2010. Unfortunately, I won't get the full benefit of this new deal since we're leaving in 2009, but it's still very cool.

Do you know anyone who has travel insurance? I didn't until we moved here. However, it's something we recently had to purchase because a group tour we're going on this summer mandates it. Luckily it's fairly cheap, 80 pounds for annual coverage, and it covers just about any emergency you may experience while traveling. I'm still amazed by the difference in how travel is regarded here. Obviously in the U.S. we simply don't get the time off work necessary to travel the way Europeans do, but travel just seems ingrained in the culture here. In addition to the typical places, you can buy travel insurance from the supermarket or post office. Also, at the post office you can exchange 35 different types of currency!

It is very common for students to take time to travel after finishing what we refer to as high school, before starting college...and to some pretty distant destinations like South America and South East Asia. I often feel as though I'm playing catch-up because not only have the Brits been to more places in Europe than I have, many have also been to more places in the U.S. than me!!

I Miss Our Stuff

With the exception of dish duty, I tend to stay out of the kitchen as Chris is by far the superior cook. With Chris gone for the weekend however, I decided to make some jam bars tonight and found that it was quite difficult to do without a pastry blender. My very nice Pampered Chef pastry blender is stored safely away in my Mom's basement, where it will stay until 2009 when Chris and I return to the United States. Of course, we came here to travel, not cook, so it's totally worth not having access to all the things we're accustom to having however there is everyday life in between our travels :)

Speaking of traveling, I came across a great website today for European tours called Budget Expeditions. These tours provide a very affordable way of seeing Europe because you stay at campsites as opposed to hotels. For Chris and I, who both enjoy camping, I think this will be an ideal way to travel. We learned the benefits of being part of a tour in Egypt, where our accomodation and transportation was all arranged for us. I like to tease Chris about being "old" but in the case of these tours he really is because the maximum age allowed is 35 (minimum age of 18).

Other items I miss not having are my scrapbook supplies, however I've found that photo books are a great alternative. I recently ordered one through Shutterfly, which Chris' parents kindly let me ship to their house and then brought with them to give to us (ordering from U.S. websites is so much cheaper!). I'm very impressed with the quality and it was really easy to do...much quicker than doing a scrapbook. Of course, it's not possible to include as many items in a photo book but I was able to add many of our Egypt mementos by simply scanning them.

Back in Birmingham

I'm back from our road trip, as I wimped out to avoid the 11 hour round-trip ride to Scotland which Chris and his parents embarked on this morning. The timing actually worked out quite well however as our fridge stopped working today. I can only imagine the smell and mess we would have come back to late Monday night if we had all gone. Turned out to be a cracked plug, which our landlord quickly and easily replaced. I know nothing about electronics but it doesn't seem as though that would be possible in the U.S. The plugs here are very strange. He simply took a screwdriver to the plug and removed the cracked portion which was keeping it from staying plugged in.

Our landlord, actually it's a young couple (mid 30s maybe?) named Jim and Stella, are really nice and incredibly responsive to any problems that we have. Jim is always full of energy and has crazy hair that sticks out in every direction...but in a way that you can tell he's done it on purpose. He's a cameraman for one of the BBC channels and a very interesting guy. We don't know his girlfriend Stella as well, but she did bring us a bottle of wine as a Christmas gift, so we like her :)

Daylight Savings Time

Just a quick post to let you know that while you all will soon start enjoying "longer" days we don't change our clocks until March 25, so there will be an hour less time difference during those two weeks.

I'm happy to report that Chris' parents arrived safe and sound early this morning. We're spending the weekend in Birmingham, then going to London, Stonehenge, Wells, Cheddar, Bath, Monmouth (Wales), and Edinburgh (Scotland) over an 8-day period returning on March 19.

The European Look

We bought new glasses for Chris today (to replace his broken ones) and he ended up going with what I refer to as the European look. Thick glasses, that would probably be associated with nerds in the 1950s, but they're all the rage nowadays...perhaps back in the U.S. as well, but definitely in Europe.