Canals and Gondolas

Chris and I were walking the canal to downtown Birmingham yesterday when we saw a strange sight...a gondola! The canals are quite nice, but not nearly as picturesque as Venice. It just seemed so out of place.

Flowers in Stratford

We went to Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace) this past weekend with my friend Becky and the flowers we saw there were really gorgeous. As soon as Chris finishes up his Italy commentary, you'll get to see more Stratford pictures on our shared blog :)

Facebook

A friend recently introduced me to Facebook. Before joining, I had assumed that sites like Facebook and MySpace were for high school age people, but after joining I found that quite a few of my high school classmates are registered (and we're 10 years out of high school as of this year). Not only can you search by the schools you attended and year you graduated, but there's also a cool feature that allows you to scan the contents of your e-mail address book to determine who's registered…that's how I discovered that my brother is on Facebook :)

I've also discovered that many of Chris' labmates are on Facebook. Today, one guy posted the picture below on his page, asking "Where's the peoples?" After seeing how many labmates are registered on Facebook, I would venture a guess that they're all too busy at their computers to be in lab working :)

A Likeable Republican?

Rick Steves' is by far our favorite travel guidebook author and he's recently started a blog, which I've enjoyed following. He's currently in Italy and I had to laugh when I read the following excerpt...

"I met John Mica, a congressman from Florida, while dodging a horse carriage under a Donatello statue. He called himself a "knuckle-dragging conservative on economic issues who believes in funding the arts." He and his wife sneak over here with no fanfare (so he doesn't have to mess with security or any protocol). He was enthusiastic about a new "open skies" initiative leading to more transatlantic flights...and some funky little trattorias he wanted me to check out for my guidebook. For some reason he reminded me of salt on fresh pineapple (one of my favorite things). Meeting a likable Republican (like meeting a Catholic priest who challenges my intellect) reminds me that there's more than one way to skin an idea."

Click the following link for the full blog entry - http://www.ricksteves.com/blog/index.cfm?CommentID=66

I can relate to Rick's comment because of my despise for both Republicans and Catholicism, however also because I definitely agree that it really helps to hear others' viewpoints, especially from those people that you assume you will disagree with. I like having my ideas challenged because it makes me think more deeply about my beliefs. I always enjoy hearing Chris' sister Tess speak about her beliefs because she can articulate so well the reasons behind her convictions. Chris, on the other hand, hasn't convinced me yet as to why he's both Catholic (albeit non-practicing) and a Republican :)

Guns vs. Knifes

There's nothing like a school shooting to bring out the Brits true feelings about America. It's been a popular topic of conversation here and I mostly hear about how scary it is to think that every American has their own gun. I guess if you've never visited the U.S. and only had news reports to go by it could seem like a scary place. The same would hold true for any country though. I pointed out to my co-workers how many knife attacks there are here and they agreed and said they are scared of getting knifed. In fact, I just read a newspaper article saying that new Kevlar lined sweatshirts have been designed for kids to wear who live in rough neighborhoods in England...particularly London, where it seems there's at least one report each day of a child being knifed to death, often gang related.

It was quite amusing to hear some of my co-workers suggestions as to how we can fix the gun problem in the U.S. I heard...change your Constitution, only allow farmers to own guns, ban hunting, and don't allow police to carry guns (as is the case here). I don't really know what to think about school shootings, but the British certainly have an interesting perspective. For a good movie on the topic, I'd recommend watching Bowling For Columbine, if you haven't already done so.

Back Home

After being gone for a week, I'm just now catching up on the blogs I like to read. Jenn's is one of my favorites because she too is an American living in the UK. Her most recent entry (dated April 13) reflects on a topic that I have previously mentioned on my blog and that is the crazy system the UK has for rewarding single pregnant mothers. I found her perspective to be interesting - http://jennredd.typepad.com/

Chris and I had a very low-key weekend. He's been in lab catching up on work, while I sort through things at home. Laundry is always a tedious chore here due to not having a dryer, but being gone for a week really compounds the problem. We've been enjoying the weather here lately. Today was a record high...73 degrees. Keep in mind, this is a country where the temperature rarely rises above 60s even in the dead of summer. The warm weather, lack of rain and long daylight hours has been wonderful!