UK Crisps

I always thought that flavors of chips (called crisps here) were quite odd in the UK, but my opinion was sealed today when I saw turkey & stuffing flavored chips! I brought them home for Chris to try who was shocked to discover that they did in fact taste exactly like turkey & stuffing.


I think part of what makes the flavors so strange is how many are meat related. For example, they have the following meat flavors...
lamb & mint
gammon (ham)
roast beef
BBQ rib
roast chicken
smoky bacon
steak & onion

Other flavors that I find odd include...
tomato ketchup
worcestershire sauce
prawn (shrimp) cocktail
marmite yeast extract

Brits love their crisps and there is an entire half aisle devoted to them at the store (the only item that has more shelf space at the grocery store is alcohol!).

Religion

This week at work I've been doing a lot of data entry, specifically student registration forms. One question on the form asks students to state their religion and the most common response is "No Religion". I wonder how many people in their twenties & thirties go to church anymore. I don't have any friends who attend church, other than a few services before their wedding and perhaps a few before the baptism of their child. Chris, on the other hand, has two very religious friends who speak of Jesus quite frequently in e-mails and blog postings. kk

On the Americans in the UK web forum I read, someone recently posted the question – "Is Thanksgiving a religious holiday?" No doubt asked after attempting to explain to British people what Thanksgiving is. What I found interesting were the varied responses, split between those who thought it was and those who thought it wasn't. Those who said it was argued – you say grace before you eat and churches hold services on Thanksgiving. Those who said it wasn't argued – the pilgrims wanted religious freedom and it's not a celebration of Jesus' birth or death, therefore it can't be a religious holiday. Oh and my favourite, a girl who's Jewish argued that as a Jew she celebrates Thanksgiving, therefore it can't be a religious holiday.

A quote from the forum that I find quite amusing -

"Thanksgiving is about the Indians and the pilgrims having a meal to celebrate the harvest. Yes, they thanked god but they weren't celebrating a religious event. Jesus didn't come down and show himself and give them a bounty."

Pub Culture

Last night we walked to the nearest pub (it's cold outside!) and had a bottle of wine, while people watching and discussing our plans to return to the U.S. Chris is in the process of sending out applications now and just about every corner of the U.S. in being covered in his job search. For example, he's applying for jobs at...

University of Washington (Seattle)
University of Colorado (Denver)
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
University of Tulsa (Oklahoma)
Rice University (Texas)
University of Massachusetts (Boston)
Duke University (North Carolina)

Anyway, back to being at the pub. I've found that going to a pub here is quite different to going to a bar back home. What we've found most surprising is how many old people go out. Women in their 40s and 50s dressed like teenagers (revealing way too much flesh!). Also, men in their 50s and 60s looking and acting sleazy, attempting to pick up women half their age.

Pubs have various dress codes, the most typical is no tennis shoes and no football (soccer) jerseys. Last night we discovered a new one though. Another rule is no hoods, which my winter jacket has. The idea is that hoods are associated with "hoodies."

According to Wikipedia...
In the UK, hoodies have recently been the subject of much criticism: some shoplifters have used the hood to conceal their identities from CCTV cameras in shopping centres. Particularly when worn with a baseball cap, the hoodie has become a trademark of "chavs." Chav is a mainly derogatory slang term in the UK for a subcultural stereotype fixated on fashions derived from American hip hop such as imitation gold, poorly made jewellery and fake designer clothing, combined with elements of working class British street fashion.

I understand that the rules must apply to everyone, but being told I must remove my hooded winter jacket reminds me of being patted down at the airport to ensure I'm not an Islamic terrorist.

Taking Responsibility For Your World

Our friend Dario recently shared a blog posting with me that I now want to share with you. The author is a 24 year-old American guy.

November 14th, 2007

It always makes me laugh when people say they’re too busy or that they don’t have enough time.

Yes, many of us do have busy lives. But, there are 24 hours in each day, 168 hours in each week and 8,760 hours in each year (and an extra 24 in 2008)! Ultimately, we make the decision for how those hours are spent.

We may choose to spend 50 hours a week at work, or maybe we’ll choose 30 or 20. Many people will say that they have to work long work weeks to feed their family and pay their mortgage. Well, there are smaller mortgages and creating a family is a choice (even for straight folks).

Perhaps a $100,000 home would allow for more freedom than a $175,000 home. We all make choices, and how we spend our time is a consequence of those choices.

We have a tremendous amount of freedom, but we don’t always choose to see it. We are not slaves and the clock is not our master.

Ultimately, it comes down to priorities. We spend our time on the things that we decide are important.

Perhaps someone watches an hour of TV every day but claims that they are too busy for the gym. In reality, watching TV is more important to that person. And that’s fine. But it’s not because you’re too busy.

Perhaps another person spends 70 hours a week working but claims that they are too busy for a relationship. In reality, working (perhaps to maintain a large home, extravagant lifestyle or just to get ahead) is more important. And that’s fine too.

But we all have the time. And we have the freedom, through our choices, to spend it as we wish.

If we expand the picture, it’s not just about time. Our freedom doesn’t end there. We are so beautifully free. Every moment brings an infinite number of choices that we can take.

It’s all part of taking responsibility for our lives, and realizing the only brush painting our canvas is our own. We are the Michaelangelo of our own masterpiece.

Thanksgiving

It's cold, dark and rainy here tonight. Typical November weather I suppose. The sun is now setting around 4:00 and lately I feel as though I'm absolutely frozen while standing at the bus stop each night after work. I don't like riding the bus in general, but standing by myself in the dark leaves me hating the experience even more.

We're enjoying having our weekends free lately, as much as we do love to travel, it's nice to get caught up on life in between trips :) We're going to have a quiet Thanksgiving this year with just the two of us. We came close to having guests, which we were really excited about. Chris' cousin Margaret and her husband Carl recently moved to Belgium and planned to visit us, but Carl now has to be back in the U.S. to get his visa sorted, so they're unable to come. I'm so happy our visas were taken care of before we made the move! It sounds like Belgian laws are quite a bit stricter than UK laws. So anyway, we'll be having a Thanksgiving meal on that Saturday and we also plan to put up our Christmas tree :)


This is the first time that either of us has done Thanksgiving on our own and it's been interesting discussing what we should have to eat and what we should do that day (on the day we're celebrating). I want to watch the Macy's parade, which I'm sure I can find online, but Chris has absolutely no interest in that. He doesn't want cranberries and neither of us wants green bean casserole. His number one request is yams and mine is baking powder biscuits. He wants pumpkin pie. I'd prefer raspberry chiffon pie, but am unable to make it without our stand mixer (best wedding gift ever!), so we'll have pumpkin pie.