California Girl in a British World

Seriously, how did we ever raise children before TV ratings....it's a wonder they survived.

2007-11-21T10:53:00.001Z

I know I normally talk about things in Britain, but I just have to make mention of two things that came to my attention in the news today. It seems our TV and movie censorship and ratings systems have gotten out of control.

I was reading some news feeds I get online and came across a movie review for something called August Rush. Now it wasn't the review that, it was the reason stated for the PG rating. '"August Rush" is rated PG (Parental Guidance suggested). The title character was conceived out of wedlock.'

I thought it was a little funny so I mentioned it to my other half. He asked if I'd heard that Sesame Street is Adults Only. I instantly did a Google search and sure enough. Sesame Street is not for kids. You have to read this article. It's short I promise.

We are getting too sensitive as a country and allowing people to feel offended over the slightest thing. Soon we will be afraid to say anything to anybody.

Remember, remember the 5th of November

2007-11-06T14:55:00.000Z

The British may not have Thanksgiving and they may not do Halloween well at all, but they can offer me Guy Fawkes night which is also known as Bonfire Night. Always on the 5th of November, it celebrates the day when Guy Fawkes and his cronies tried to blow up Parliament and failed. Traditionally people would burn statues of Guy Fawkes in effigy, but it has since escalated into burning anything they are against. It is a day to make a political statement for the year.

In 2002 it was a statue of Bush and this year they had a papier-mâché hand holding a cigarette due to this years ban on smoking in doors. It is a holiday that is taken very seriously in England and for months we have heard fireworks being set off around town.

We went to Lewes with a friend where they are quite barbaric about it. They have 6 societies that all do their own bonfire. They start at the high street in town and have a big procession. Then each society separates for it's own fireworks display and bonfire. My friend was telling me that at one of the societies they have a person dress up like a catholic priest, but with fireproof gear, and the priest stands on a pulpit preaching and they throw lighted fireworks at him.

We followed the Waterloo Society which ended up being the best way to go because we got right up to the fire and could see the fireworks from all the other societies surrounding us. It was beautiful! At the end they burn their papier-mâché statues in effigy, they are full of a ton of fireworks that they set off from inside. I couldn't get any pictures of it because there was so much it was hard to see anything at all on the ground.
This blog I read has a great article about the beauty that is Guy Fawkes day. Below are the pictures that I got of the experience. It was definitely an entirely different kind of day from the fourth of July.

I swear it felt like we were in Vietnam!

By the firelight

Up close and personal

Fireworks over the fire

Swank and Circumstance

2007-11-02T14:56:00.001Z

Last Thursday I was meant to go to an art exhibition in London. I was really excited because I got to wear my new dress that I bought in an attempt to make myself feel better on day where I felt blah. :) Anyway, I got all dressed up and my friend and I caught a ride into London with her friend who has a flat there when he is in town. We ended up being an hour and a half late getting into London so we decided on an impulse to ditch the art exhibition and go out with her friend. I was all dressed up with no where to go so he decided to take us to see the very swankiest of London.

We wanted to go eat, but the only table we could get at the trendiest Chinese restaurant in London was 11:00 so we took the table and went to a place called Sketch first to have a drink. You can walk in off the street, but there are "members only areas" and he is a member. There was a new girl at the door that didn't know him and therefore wouldn't let us into the parlor. He was all embarrassed, but I was glad for it because while we waited for the guy who knows him we decided to get a drink in the bar that is open to the public.

The room is set under a dome like Griffith Park Observatory with bench seating all around the circular walls. The bar is set into the floor in a circle so the bartenders have to walk down steps to be behind the bar. When they do they are eye level with you if you are sitting down. I ordered an Etch a Sketch. The whole of Sketch is done in such a way that at first things seem normal, but when you look closer nothing is as it seems. I felt like I was Alice and I'd fallen down the rabbit hole. I started looking around and when you look beyond the lighting that made optical illusion patterns on the walls and actually see the white walls of this dome you realize that there are detailed pencil sketchings all over the dome. At the top of the dome you could see up through to the second floor where there is a dog on glass. If you go up to the bathrooms you can see the dog from above.

While we were there I swear a porn director and his minions walked in. He had to have been. He was carrying a case that looked remarkably like it contained a video camera. He was a creepy older guy wearing a floor length trench coat. The girls he had with him were wearing full leather red dresses that were so tight they had to take these little tiny steps. They had glittered fake eyelashes. It was fantastic.

After our drink we went back to find the guy that could get us into the parlor. The girl was still there and she said we could take a seat and wait on chairs that look like they are trying to fight to get through the wall. They had listening stations were you could listen to iPods while you wait. Soon we found who were looking for and were let into the parlor, which I have to say wasn't as cool as the dome. But there were a few things this room had to offer. There were these figures on shelves on one wall, one was a telly screen with an image of a bird and the screen was in the cage. Another was a face with a tv screen attached to it and had a blinking eye on the screen.

We were given complimentary champagne and my friend ordered some drink called the Quiet Storm for me. We chilled there for a bit and then I headed up to the loos. Now that was an experience. It was like Mork and Mindy. The bathrooms were these egg shaped pods. Each pod had it's own sound. He assured me that one pod had a porn soundtrack, but I went in every one and I couldn't find it. I did however find horse sounds, dripping water, carnival music, goats and what I think was supposed to be spooky music. It made me think of walking through the woods in a horror movie.

Around 11 we headed over to Hakkasan in a rickshaw. We ordered way too much Dim Sum and I was politely told they frown on cameras in the restaurant so I only got one shot from the front desk. The food was excellent, especially the ostrich and I know every one of you just cringed, but I am sorry it was yummy. :)

After dinner we took a rickshaw back to dance again at Sketch. We closed the place down. Gotta love it when the lights come on after you've been dancing for an hour and a half. At one point after two drinks and complimentary champagne and who knows what else I went into one of the pods and ran my video camera to capture the horse sounds. I must have been drunk because I was making some of the funniest faces into the camera. As we were leaving the guy that let us in came around and asked if we'd seen the crystal bathrooms. They were roped off to the public and he pulled it aside and let us run up to check them out. I have never spent so much time in bathrooms taking pictures as I did at Sketch. They were so cool!

Once we were done photographing the loos we went back to his flat. OMG what a view! It was such a beautifully done flat with this huge sculpture in the corner that was so my style I wanted to put it in my pocket and bring it home with me. Think he would have noticed? We hung out and went through his iTunes for a while playing songs and comparing musical knowledge. I didn't get home until about 5 in the morning....Oops. :) Oh well it was worth the experience.

Rocking out to the 80's and funny faces

2007-10-24T21:57:00.000Z

A friend took us out to a place called Vinopolis in London last week. It is basically a self catered wine tasting event. You get tickets for each station and you go around and pick out the wines you want to taste all over the world. I recommend avoiding wines from Thailand, specifically Monsoon! It was such a blast! After we decided to carry on and go to a club near Regent's Street. Despite the fact that the DJ would not shut up we rocked out to their 80's inspired night. For some reason every time a camera came out so did the looks.....You have to see to know what I am talking about. Check us out below!

They really do fry everything in Scotland...

2007-10-08T21:07:00.001Z

We set out after work on Friday to take the train to Gatwick airport. When we got to Guildford to change trains to Gatwick we found that our train was canceled. So with the next train not coming in time for us to make our flight, we were forced to take a taxi. It was like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. The cab took us through all the small country roads trying to take shortcuts to get us to our plane. We drove down these one lane roads moving for horses and other cars. An hour later we made it to the airport. We paid the guy far too much money for the ride and started running since our gate was technically closing in ten minutes. Luckily we only had overnight bags and had already checked in online.

We get to security and ask the woman if there is a faster lane to get through. After scanning Josh's ticket she says that she thinks the last lane is fastest. So we run over to the last lane having picked up a few followers who were also trying to make the same plane. They go to scan Josh's ticket again and she says, "I'm sorry sir, but you've already gone through. You have to go back to check in." I have never seen the look that was in Josh's eyes like that moment. It thought he was going to lose it. He was like, "Ma'am you don't understand I have to make the plane." Then the woman says, "I'm sorry sir, I can't let you through."

Before he freaks, I say, "Josh just go back to the old line, I will try to stall at the gate." He leaves and I proceed through security. I take my shoes, belt, and watch off. I am not taking any chances at this point. I go through the scanner just fine, but the woman frisks me any way. Then my shoes come back, my belt, my watch......But my bag is sitting by the X-ray. They run it through again. The woman takes it off the belt and sets it next to her without even a glance at me. I wait and I wait and I wait. No one makes a move to my bag. They are just going about their business. I finally ask in I'm sure what sounded like a 5 year old squeak. "Uh miss....is there something wrong with my bag?" She turns to me and says almost on the edge of rude, "Yes, it's going to need to be searched. I just kept repeating in my head, be nice, be nice, be nice. I wanted to lose it, but knew anger was not going to get me to my plane.

Meanwhile I see Josh's head popping up over the line behind me followed by a guy with a walkie talkie. He points and the guy pushes his way through to get to me. Josh is having a heart attack asking me why I am stopped. I super sweetly told the woman we were going to miss our plane and so she started rushing through the search. Apparently it's not enough to put your liquids into plastic, but you have to also put them through X-ray separately.

She gives me the a-ok so we begin our run once more. Turning the corner we check for our gate and what do you know.....the last gate in the terminal. Of course! So we flat out run. I got to the point were I was shouting, "Just go on without me, I can't make it!" Panting into the gate, they were just letting the last people on to the plane. We made it in the nick of time!

Despite a stressful beginning, we had a blast in Scotland! Check out the pics from our trip below!

Andy Warhol attacked Edinburgh

All through out Sunday we could hear bagpipes playing

Isn't my new boyfriend hot? Don't tell Josh he might be jealous!

This is where we started our literary pub tour. Which turned into a pub crawl.

Josh is going to storm the castle...think he'll make it?

Look at that sky...who said it always rains in the UK?

I needed some lunch...What do you mean there's not actually soup in that can?

Josh or Rachel? Rachel or Josh?
Ok I know it's kind of creepy.

Starbucks at Edinburgh Castle.

MMMMMM! Deep fried Mars Bars!

Like my hat??

Josh had to have Scotch, might as well go for the 21 year old.

Spell check is bound to create great mental distress

2007-09-12T09:41:00.000Z

Now that I am working in an office in the UK I am seeing the slight differences in the language and in the technology. It isn't much, but it is enough to confuse me slightly. I always have to check back and try to figure out why spell check is telling me that I have spelled a word wrong. It causes my typing to slow immensely.

First of all, I have a UK keyboard which in itself is different. The "@~#$ signs are all in different places. And of course there is the addition of £ and €. I send out emails all day with the @ sign in a different place. Then I go home and send personal emails and my fingers can't find that @ again on my US keyboard. Not to mention the size and shapes of the shift and enter keys.

But the thing that has really caused my brain to go all wonky is the spell check. I was typing an email in my company outlook account and typed 'color' which of course it corrected me to change it to 'colour'. Then later I was sending out a gmail email and I typed 'colour' which it then corrected me to change it to 'color'. I have this problem a lot it seems with 'center'/'centre' and even now blogger is going crazy with those little red dotted lines trying to tell me I have a typo.

Really I must come home to avoid all this confusion, it could be damaging in the long run. :)

VIP and me without my camera

2007-08-23T14:46:00.000Z

Through the wonderful connections that Josh has through work we obtained tickets to last weekend's V Festival, a two day music festival in Chelmsford, England. We decided to go for it and camp for the night and see both days of the concert. Of course, if you read my last blog you will see that we went out the night before. Which, I might add, was not the best idea I've ever had. Not only did I have a run in with the bouncer, but I also somehow broke my camera and didn't get to sleep until roughly 3 am. We were to be at the train around 9am.

So Saturday morning starts off with a bang...(in my head), we missed the train we wanted to take because we slept through our alarm so we got off to a late start. However, I took a nap on the train ride there and while I wasn't 100% I was better by the time we made it to the campgrounds. We checked in and it turns out we were full on VIP guests of the concert.

There were two VIP camping areas and it wasn't til the next morning when we realized we had full range based on where we were. There was a fence dividing the two campsites and the bathrooms were in the campsite on the left side and we were on the right. On our side was a nice little refreshment stand with hot food and drinks, since it pretty much was rainy and cold all weekend, gotta love the English summer. We could cross the fence to the bathrooms, but they couldn't cross to our side for food. While in line for breakfast we saw a lot of people get denied and sulk off. Haha, suckers. I'm only joking, but only a little since in all honesty it was kind of cool to have special treatment.

Anyway....We went to set up our tent and ditch our backpacks. That was definitely comical. We had bought a tent in a local camping store and let me tell you it is not the best design. After fighting with it for some time a girl came over and told us we were doing it completely wrong and that she had the same problem last year. The guy on the watch tower above us was having a great laugh at our expense. We were finally able to assemble our tent after too long trying and went off to see the first band.

At this point we'd already missed the first two bands I wanted to see, which sucked because as we found out later Foo Fighters made a special appearance at Juliette and the Licks, Juliette Lewis' band. So we started with Paolo Nutini. While there the cutest ladies walked by. I bought a disposable camera to use for the weekend, so forgive the crappy pics, but check out these ladies. They walked around all day with their little cart serving tea to the masses. There were three of them and they were all done up similarly and smoking constantly. Every time they walked by they had cigarettes in their hands, while serving their tea and biscuits. They were so hilarious!

After Paolo Nutini we checked out the Louder Lounge which is the area that our VIP tickets got us into. People were hanging outside hoping to see someone famous and trying to peak through the gate. I felt very important. :) Inside they had free food, a nice bar with free alcohol, pamper tents with massages and such and a DJ playing music all day and night. Of course the number one best thing about the area was clean bathrooms. Throughout the weekend we were able to go back to the Louder Lounge and use the bathrooms there rather than queuing up for the port-a-loos with everyone else.

They had a bar in the Louder Lounge that was sponsored by Red Bull and every drink was made with some form of alcohol and Red Bull. Josh is drinking the passion fruit version. They were tasty, mmmmmm.

Over the course of the weekend we got to see Paolo Nutini, Mumm-Ra (a UK band that I liked, well, when the singer was actually singing and not shouting they were awesome), Pink (who put on a great show with a nice tribute to Janis Joplin), Snow Patrol (not really my choice), THE FOO FIGHTERS! (WOO HOO--Awesome as always), Mutya Buena, Remi Nicole, Mark Ronson, The Fratellis, Mika, and Lily Allen (who ripped into Americans for her recent Visa problems. I quite enjoyed her performance, especially the song about her ex boyfriend's little willy...I bet he's kicking himself that he broke her heart).

My favorite part, however, was when we got bored of The Fratellis we went back to the Louder Lounge to get a drink before the next show. (Side note: I like their music, but their live show for whatever reason was not floating my boat at that moment.)

When we got back to the bar they announced that they were starting a special acoustic performance from a band that would be playing later. As there were 4 main stages on at the same time it was a band I had not scheduled for since I had never heard of them. So we sat down right in front of them and watched them perform a few songs. They are called Tiny Dancers. I LOVED them! It was so cool to see them jamming in this tent. It felt more like rocking out in a house party in someone's back yard. They were very cool and I am glad that I wasn't feeling The Fratellis at that moment. It made me regret not hanging out in the tent more often considering who knows what other special performances we had missed up to that point. :)

It was a very cool weekend and I am glad that we decided against Josh's home-bodied nature to camp in Chelmsford.

Anger's my middle name

2007-08-21T12:58:00.000Z

Friday night we decided to go out dancing and drinking with some friends. We went to Yates first because they have comfy couches and I like their food. Most pubs in Woking become night clubs at a certain time on the weekends. So after being there a bit the lights dimmed down and the music started to blast. We had been there awhile so we had a great spot with two couches and a table and a decent area to dance around.

My friend and I got up and were rocking out to the music and generally having a great time. We weren't drunk just enjoying ourselves. We were near a door that isn't used and while dancing we bumped into it, opening the door. There was a bouncer outside who waved down another bouncer that was inside and he came over to us. He asked my friend to come outside with him. So I went with her because I was the one at fault. He started laying into her angrily and telling her that he had been watching her a long time and that she was clearly "pissed" (means: drunk, for you non-english speakers, hehe).

I looked at him and said as nicely and emphatically as I could, "Sir, I'm so sorry it was me that bumped into the door. It was my fault not hers and again I'm sorry."

He wouldn't even look at me he just put his hand up and said, "I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to her."

I came back again as nicely as possible with, "Sir, I understand that you are talking to her, but you should be talking to me, I was the one who bumped into the door and again I am so sorry."

He looked at me and said in all seriousness "Do you even live here?!?"

I was a bit taken aback with the bitterness in which he spat the line at me and responded with "Of course, I live right up the street. What does that have to do with anything?" I was more surprised than upset at this point.

And he came back with, and I swear I am not making this up in anyway, "Go back to where you came from, you don't even speak English!"

To which I very politely screamed back with my eyes wide in amazement, "You've got to be kidding me, we're out of here!!!!" I think there were a few expletives in there, but I can't be too sure. I went back in and grabbed my things as quickly as possible without even looking at the rest of our group and walked out.

It's too bad, I really liked that pub.

I am now Lady Rachel

2007-08-06T17:57:00.000Z

I went online to buy movie tickets to see Hairspray and while filling in my information I noticed that there were way more options for title than we have in the states. Usually it is just Mr, Mrs, and Miss. Sometimes we have Ms and Dr as well, but here in the UK there are way more options. They also have Baroness, Col, Judge, Lady, Lord, Prof, Rev and Sir. I have decided that hence forth I will be known as Lady Rachel. I quite like the sound of that. Do you think it's allowed? Oh well if I get caught I will just claim to be an ignorant American. Tee Hee!

Cheers,
Lady Rachel

Planes, Trains and Automobiles...

2007-08-05T09:25:00.000Z

...and sometimes buses and ships.

After driving from Woking to Dover in a torrential downpour (England apparently was getting 2 months worth of rain in one day) we arrived in the latter as the sun started to peek out from the clouds. It was the perfect day to stroll around Dover Castle as there was no one who wanted to brave the weather like we did. As soon as we stepped out of the car we didn't even have a drop of rain. We were able to go into the secret war time tunnels where they hid soldiers and planned attacks in the second World War. After storming the castle, we went down to catch our ferry over to France.

We must have looked like a traveling circus. We had to return the rental car at the docks while trying to get an earlier ferry across to Calais. Mom and I dropped all the boys off to get us checked in and drove off only to go around in circles and find that we were meant to drop the car off in the same place where we dropped the boys off. Despite the run around we made it onto the ferry no problem and were in France by the evening. We had our first French meal in Calais, which was delicious and crashed for the night. In the morning, we hopped on the train to Paris.

We got into Paris at around 9am. We dumped our stuff and set out immediately to check out the city. It was beautiful!!!! We decided to get passes for the hop on, hop off bus that you can listen to facts about each place as you drive around. It was fun although the middle of tourist season is not the best time to be riding that bus considering we were always packed in.

At the Eiffel Tower we hopped off and decided to take the stairs up to the second level. Which by the way is 347 steps to the first level and 674 steps to the second level. So that was lots of fun! It was a bit unnerving for me since you can pretty much see all around you and down while you are walking up.

The second day we decided to check out the Louvre. It was quite impressive! Again the amount of tourists got in the way as we were pretty much herded through like cattle to see the Mona Lisa and then when you get there it is surrounded by walls and bullet proof glass and hard to see, but hey I can say that I saw it now. What was great was the rest of the museum wasn't crowded one bit and we were able to see what the Louvre looked like before it became a museum and we checked out the Egyptian area and of course Venus De Milo.

My dad had to work in Paris, so the boys and I took our tour bus up to check out the Moulin Rouge. Which was cool and all, but not quite as impressive as I expected it to be. While there we grabbed some gelato from a stand and this man approached me and asked if I was English. I told him I lived in London but I was American. He said, "Ugh! American!I hate Americans!" He made a gun with his hand and started saying bang, bang. He was saying how he hates Bush and I let him know that he's not my most favorite person either.

Despite the one crazy guy, I loved the people and the atmosphere of Paris. I would go back, but for a nice, romantic weekend with my husband.

Back in England

2007-08-03T10:05:00.000Z

We are finally back in England and I have to say it is dry and beautiful. Apparently the entire time we were away most of the UK was under water, but as I sit here catching up on my blog the window is open and there is a gorgeous breeze and the sun is shining. I have a lot of blogs to add in so bear with me as there will be an influx from me over the next day or so. I wanted to give you all a little photo recap of my trip to the wonderful US of A. I had a blast and can't wait to be back home for good. So check out the pics and keep watching for my entries about our Eurotrip "survey" course. ;)

Photo booth Rocks!

Don't know what's up with Josh there?
I think he's trying not to squint.
Chris' Graduation trying to brave the sun.

Woo Hoo! He made it!

How do I get off this crazy thing?

So would this be considered two points or three?

Aww!

Shhh! Don't tell anyone that he's in the captain's hammock.

I'm scared, are you?

Livin' it up at Cannibal Flower.

Check out my glasses!

Chillin' to The Hereafter!

Look at the drunkies!

Nothing like Bob's Big Boy after a long night of partying!
Bob, We salute you!

The night before I fly back they ambushed me trying to keep me in town.
Can't say I really put up much of fight. ;)

They promised to take good care of me. Yummy vino!

Homecoming!

2007-06-16T00:42:00.000Z

This Californian girl is on her way back to the sun and fun in LA!

Where's Josh?

2007-06-01T10:24:00.000Z

You get to hang out with me in two weeks if you can spot him...hehe

http://picasaweb.google.com/developerday/GoogleDeveloperDayLondonUnitedKingdom/photo#5070691572736353250

The Sweetest Gift

2007-05-29T10:47:00.000Z

So Josh has been working long, stressful hours on a big project for work. The guy that he is doing this project for sent me flowers on Friday as an apology for keeping my husband on the computer all hours of the night. It's funny since those of you who know my husband know that he would be on the computer all hours of the night with or without a project for work. A fact of which I have come to terms with long ago. I don't mind since generally I am on the computer all hours of the night as well. :) Nevertheless, the flowers were gorgeous and I am enjoying my house full of flowers. Check them out below!

-18 days :)
Rachel

A Perfect Day for the Beach...

2007-05-28T13:48:00.000Z

You can't hear me, but there is a hint of sarcasm in that title. This weekend was the perplexing and mysteriously undefined holiday, the May Bank Holiday. That's it, that's what they call it. Three day weekend because it's May and hey we haven't had a holiday in all of one month.

We had the pleasure of entertaining a lovely house guest, Felicia, who is taking some time off to tour around Europe. She added us to her list of must-sees when she found out we'd moved here. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed her time here. We walked around and shopped most of the time, while out we met a girl at the Body Shop who could not stop talking and to whom Felicia pimped me out and had us exchange numbers since I am a big loner with no friends. ;)

We went into London on Friday and shopped Covent Gardens and found an amazing store called Lush. (There are a few in LA if you ever get a chance to go! They sell complete organic bath products that are just phenomenal.) Anyhoo, we made a friend at Lush as well. Seems we like to make friends in girly product stores. Her name was Sarah and she told us all about her friend who was playing in Leicester Square (pronounce Less-ter) at a place called Sound. She told us how her friend grew up in Thailand and toured around. She sounded like just my style, so we called Josh and made him meet us in the city. Sarah was right, her friend was amazing. She had the feel of India Arie. We had a blast! (Plus we shopped way too much, which is always fun!)

The next day we planned on renting a car and heading down to Brighton beach. Great idea for the end of May Holiday right? Well sure except it was gloomy and cold and rainy, surprise, surprise. :) So we loaded the car with our picnic of sandwiches and Felicia's amazing guacamole and headed on down to the beach determined to enjoy it "irregardless". We ended up eating our picnic out of the boot (for you Americans, trunk) in the car park.

We walked around beautiful, gloomy Brighton. Despite the rain it was still picturesque. I felt like I was in a postcard from the 20's. The pier is so retro feeling. All we needed were big floppy hats and bathing suits to our knees and it would have been the perfect time warp. It was great. We took a million pictures and annoyed Josh as most often they were pictures of the same thing ten times. (Gotta get the perfect picture, right?)

Later, we ate soft serve cones in perfect blue and white striped chairs along the pier and looked out over the Atlantic while listening to Elvis tunes blare out over the loud speaker. Josh punked out and didn't ride The Scream(not sure on the name) which was a ride that basically was a big crane that throws you out over the ocean and spins around and all that good stuff that crazy carnival rides do. Of course, because it costs too much. Ah hem... It's like $16 bucks a ride.

We ate dinner at a place that was a family style sit down dinner and only served Fish and Chips. You can have it many different ways, but it all boils down to fried fish and french fries. I have to admit it was the best Fish and Chips I have had in England, thus living up to their claim of Best in the World.

We headed out of Brighton towards home. We had to stop by a petrol station to top up and I don't ever want to hear another Californian complain about the price of gas since it cost us $40 for a little over a quarter of a tank! That's QUARTER OF A TANK! So no more whining! We only went about the distance of half the trip to Vegas.

The next day we were going to hang out and drive around locally, but ended up waking up at noon and pretty much laid around lazy all day. Felicia and I have been inspiring each other left and right! I found my groove with my knitting and I have tons of ideas for projects that I want to try in the future.

We dropped her off at the airport this morning sending her on her way towards Seville where Josh and I spent two weeks for our incredible honeymoon last year. I convinced her that a more beautiful town you will never find. Hopefully she enjoys it as much as I've built it up.

Well that was our 3 day weekend and now it is just thumb twiddling and anticipation building rapidly for the 19 day wait until I will be able to set foot on American soil again. :)

Cheers,
Rachel

P.S. Click on the picture to check out all the pictures from our trip!!! You'll love them! Yes, you, I'm talking to you. ;) Click on them now!

London/Brighton

Geocaching, Take two.

2007-05-21T20:02:00.000Z

Despite a week with nothing but clouds and rain, the sun managed to peek itself out for a while on Saturday morning. This time around I actually pushed Josh to go out. We decided to go hiking and geocaching. Check out the pics below of our day!

This is my new friend. :)

Who needs a skateboard?

During this whole thing there was an old lady watching us and cracking up! She approached me after with the thickest cockney accent I've ever heard that was actually real. I couldn't understand her, but she was trying to tell us go to the playground. You can see Josh on the zip line in that playground in the video below. They have the most entertaining playgrounds ever. Check out the rope thing below.

Never let go, Jack!

This is what Josh had me traipsing through to find some box.

We Found It!!!

Josh signing the geocache log.

Josh Playing

2007-05-19T17:44:00.001Z

Do you think these get thought through properly?

2007-05-17T15:25:00.000Z

Only old people can cross here. The funny thing was a few feet down the road was a crossing sign with kids and an adult. Didn't realize there were different areas to cross the street depending on who you are...Or what you are according to this. Remember though only new zebras, no old zebras allowed. I have been keeping my eyes peeled, but I have yet to come across a zebra crossing. I hope to soon, what a great picture that would be. Maybe I will bring a lawn chair and a thermos of coffee and stake it out. :)

Rediscovering Woking

2007-05-15T22:52:00.000Z

I know I haven't been blogging as often lately. It just seems a bit on the pointless side to me. Who really wants to hear about my adventures in the Peacock Mall yet again? I don't even want to go let alone talk about it. Yet, since starting the art class I've had to walk in a completely different direction to get to school. I decided the other day to take a few pictures along the way to show all of you the pretty little views I have on the way.

In addition, Josh dragged me a few days ago, kicking and screaming I might add, to the back woods of our little town. The other side of the train tracks if you will. Actually that implies that there is a bad side of the tracks. There isn't. Most of Woking is actually quite charming.

Anyway, I digress. Josh dragged me out to the river and the woods on a geocaching mission. (Side note: For those of you who don't know, geocaching is a ... shall I say nerdy sort of hide and seek. Only with expensive toys. Basically, you log coordinates into a GPS and you follow the compass until you've reached the coordinates. People usually hide a film canister with a piece of paper and you sign your name. Something along the lines of Rage wuz here and all that jazz.)

So we traipsed out on what Josh assured me was a quick jaunt to find a film canister. We ended up at least a mile and half out into the damp woods near a deserted cemetery. Seriously, deserted. The only thing left there is a broken down brick wall surrounding what looks like a piece of land that may have once contained the dead.

I must say though there was something hauntingly beautiful about the area. I want to go back this weekend since the forecast, cross your fingers, shows sunshine for the weekend. I only had my digital and I am definitely looking forward to exploring the area further with my 35 mm.

So that was my week, in a nutshell. (Leaving out, the depressed, lonely, self-pitying moments.)
:)

Check out the pics below of our adventures.

My Walk To School
Pics from Geocaching

Has it been a year already?

2007-04-27T12:59:00.000Z

A year has flown by and not a day goes by that I don't think about you. My life has taken me on such an unexpected path since last April. I am living to the fullest potential and seeing the world as I know you would've encouraged me to do.
Here's a little tribute to you, my friend, sister and confidante. You were my cheerleader and my back up, my partner in crime and my shoulder to cry on. You are my inspiration. You were a part of our family and you will never be forgotten.
Your spirit and passion will live on in me. You rocked my world and for that I will never be the same. By the way, I never thanked you for wearing lavender at my wedding. I know that was hard for you. :) We really had a blast didn't we? See you in New Orleans at Cafe du Monde for some coffee and beignets.

Back in school...

2007-04-24T18:25:00.000Z

I started my class today. I am taking drawing and painting at the local college. I was hoping that it would be a great way to make friends in the area, but alas the class is full of older ladies and one older man. I guess I should have known. On top of it, all the people in the class have been taking classes together for two years and they all know each other well. Despite that though I had a good time. It will be a fun class to pass the time. I also have to walk a mile and a half to get there and a mile and half back. So the 3 mile walk is a plus.

Today we learned about line, about how heavy you draw parts of lines brings emphasis to the parts you show as important. For example she showed us a Picasso drawing where he only drew the parts he felt deserved to be shown, like he left out details on a pocket, but drew the hem of a coat. Anyway, I don't know if I really got it down right, but it was my first day.

What do you think?

She brought in a bunch of laundry related items. Can you tell?

Next week we start painting and I can't wait!!

We sadly say goodbye...

2007-04-12T12:33:00.000Z

A devastating day for the literary world!! My all time favorite author has passed on. I fell in love with Kurt Vonnegut first in high school when I was asked to read Cat's Cradle in my senior English class. It is when I truly fell in love with words. My second greatest moment with Cat's Cradle was meeting Josh. We fell in love over the fantastical world of Ice 9. Thanks to this book, and Lisa for introducing us ;) , Josh and I are now happily married. At our wedding, every table was adorned with our favorite books, our table of course bearing Cat's Cradle. Mr. Vonnegut, you will be missed! Thank you for the greatest things in my life, my love of reading and my lovely husband!

Found via:
http://weblog.cacas.org/blog/default/2007/04/12/Poo-tee-weet

My own Canterbury Tale

2007-04-09T18:20:00.000Z

This is a good representation of the roundabouts we dealt with all day.
They do not have just normal intersections.
It was the one part of driving in the UK that I haven't gotten used to yet.

Nice reminders posted along the roads.

This was our first view of Dover Castle.

Dover Castle from inside the walls.

This is from the drawbridge of Dover Castle.

Josh could not resist joining the children.
The hills surrounding the castle were calling to him.

I'm not sure the message here is really Do Not Climb.
It looks more like falling, but that's just me.

The not so White Cliffs of Dover.

This was the gate to some weird bunker carved out into the white cliffs.
I just thought this looked cool, this rust made it look almost cartoonish.

I could not find a hotel to reserve in Dover, so I settled for booking something in nearby Canterbury. It ended up being a better place to stay. Canterbury was such a cool city! This is our hotel. We were above the Starbucks and next to the gate into the Canterbury Cathedral. Our window is in the roof on the left. Can you see the room slanting to the right?

This was the view from our the hall outside the bathroom, the Canterbury Cathedral. It was gorgeous, however, the bathroom was shared with everyone on our floor.

The Cathedral at 2am Easter morning, again from the bathroom.

This was no trick of the camera. Our room was really that slanted.
Reina was afraid of rolling off the bed because it was downhill.
We hung out one night and played cards since the city closed
down for the Easter holiday. The drinks would slide down the table.
We had to keep it against the wall to collect anything that slid.
Walking from the door to the opposite wall was like walking up hill.

This is from our bedroom. Every time I look at these roofs
I wanna sing Chim-Chimney, Chim-Chimney, Chim-Chim-Che-roo!!

This trip was awesome! I look forward to exploring the cliffs of Dover once again with my parents this summer!! The only complaint I have about this bank holiday is that I wanted to take advantage having a car and actually buy things at the grocery store that I normally don't because I have to carry it all back to my house on a mile walk. Apparently everything shuts down completely for Easter. Ooops! So much for that. Other than that, it was great to show Reina a rare, yet gorgeous weekend in our temporary home town. She left today, leaving us with a lovely overcast sky....couldn't leave the nice weather could ya?

Hmmm, should I be allowed on the roads?

2007-04-06T08:25:00.000Z

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rachel DeWald
Date: Apr 5, 2007 4:26 PM
Subject: blog
To: me.myself@andi

So here I am sitting at the airport waiting on Reina's flight to get in. I am categorically the biggest dumbass because I failed to check online for flight status before I set out on the bus for Heathrow. Sure enough after the hour's ride I got here early to be sure we didn't miss each other and found her flight to be delayed. Not by a little, by a lot. Two hours to be exact and as I sat in the cafe sipping a blendy drink the time ticked later and later.

Surely it's been a half hour by now, glance to the watch, nope 5 minutes have passed. So I got up to walk around and found this little internet cove. Only my blog site is apparently blocked due to high porn content. That's news to me, last time I checked there were no nudie pics on my site. So I have resorted to typing a little email to myself in order to pass 20 min on the computer. It's like talking to myself, only the people around me in the airport won't know I am crazy since I am just typing away.

While I have a few minutes, let me tell you about my first driving experience in England. This morning I had to go pick up the rental car that Reina, Josh and I will be driving to Dover this weekend. They are closed tomorrow for Good Friday, so I had to go all by myself. I signed for the car and all was well until he handed me the keys. My mouth went dry and it felt like I was a teenager going out for my driving test.

First of all, the car is manual and it's on the other side. So I had to shift with my left hand. While being on the right side of the car. So I left the car rental place without a hitch. Actually I did great for the first mile or so which was just a straight shot. :) Then I came to my first roundabout in which I would have to not only make a right loop around, but also end up in the left lane at the other end of it. I didn't know who had the right of way in a roundabout so I just went for it, deciding that for the day, I always had the right of way. Second obstacle went by, surprisingly, without a hitch.

Most of the way home I hit no traffic, I actually never had to stop. That is, until I got to town centre. Now it would have been so easy to make a right onto my street, but you can't, so I had to take a loop around the town and back to get into my complex. For the first time I had to stop at a light. When the light turned green I tried to go, but failed to find first gear. Instead, I consistently found 3rd gear and kept stalling. Not knowing the car I could not get it turned on again. People were honking. Finally, I resigned to the fact that I would not be able to get first gear and I threw it into 2nd and just punched the gas.

Finally I pulled into our parking lot where I passed our parking spot on accident. No big deal right? I will just reverse. I can't for the life of me figure out how to put the car in reverse. So I had to pull the car into some empty spots turning as far as I could. Then I turned the wheel back the other and left it in neutral allowing the car to roll, very slowly I must add, backwards. Then I was able to go forward to the parking spot. I had to do this a second time when I needed to adjust into the spot. Pulling up the parking break and turning off the car, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I had made it home alone! Now I have to drive two hours into the country, this should be interesting. LOL!

Deaf Post Secret Cards

2007-04-02T15:52:00.000Z

It's very upsetting that this is a common feeling among parents of Deaf children.

But then there is this card from Post Secret. It says "I love how we use [sign] as a secret language." Let's not keep it a secret, more people should know that sign is as much a language as English and every other spoken language.

Do you like your potato naked or clothed?

2007-03-31T17:49:00.000Z

I'd say that if I were taking my potato to a nice restaurant I'd like it to wear a dinner jacket. Well here in the good 'ol UK I am in luck. While at lunch with a few of Josh's colleagues I queried as to what a jacket potato was. One of the guys shrugged and said "Maybe because it still has it's jacket on?" Seemed much cuter than just saying baked potato. I like it, I think I'll keep it.

Fancy a dip?

2007-03-29T18:40:00.000Z

I about died laughing when I saw this...Here's what you do...

Go to www.maps.google.com
type in New York to Dublin...hit enter

Ok...you there?

Scroll down to step 23...

Grab those arm floaties, it's gonna be a long night. ;P

*Found on http://www.gadgetopia.com/post/5824

Thwarted by Summer Time!

2007-03-25T18:02:00.000Z

Last night we met up with Josh's colleague and his wife for dinner. We went to this gorgeously charming French restaurant in London. It was a lovely dinner with the exception of my sea bass arriving to the table complete with head and tail. I thoroughly enjoyed the company and they invited us back to their new flat after dinner. We sat around and chatted and drank wine as the time flew by. We realized that it was getting late and unfortunately the trains stop running at a certain time of the night. So he went online for us to check the last train. The last train was at 2 am. So at half one they drove us over to the train station and we said our goodbyes. After walking around the train station and coming across nothing but closed doors we had to call back with profound apologies that we were not able to make it home that night. He came back through the train station and we went back to their flat. We chatted for a bit watched *ahem* a silly movie called Kentucky Fried Movie, which is not quite my thing, and crashed out shortly after. This morning when Josh and I woke up, Josh's friend was in the living room watching football (soccer). The cable box read 1 hour later than we thought it should be. Turns out the train was at the exact hour of the summer time change over (daylight savings) which we were at the time unaware. So we missed the train by an hour. It was the first time that the time change got the better of me. I am going to miss that brief few weeks where the difference between me and my peeps in LA was a mere 7 hours. Oh well, back to staying up past my bedtime to chat with home. :)

St. Patrick's Day in Dublin...

2007-03-20T11:13:00.000Z

Here's what I have to show from our trip in Ireland. Let's just say I went to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day. At least I can now say that forever. That and some cute boots is all I have to show for it. Everyone was really great and they LOVE Americans....of course until we got on the train home.

Here is a little picture highlight from the trip...

Our First drink of the day...I think was around 1 or so...There was girl already throwing up in the bathroom at this time of day. Good times!

Josh's great little hat

Look at that sea of green, the funniest part of this parade is they played the tune to America, America over and over again...wonder if we stole it? Or vice versa...

Woo Hoo, we now love rugby...just don't vote for England in this bar. We were Ireland "fans" for the game.

Aren't we cute? Awwww.....

I stole Josh's hat because I sold my shamrock boppers headband to some guy for a profit of 4 euros. Josh felt bad for the guy...feels I ripped him off. I don't feel bad, I got a drink out of it. :) (I have like the same pose in every picture, is this my good angle?)

This guy enjoyed a little Irish spirit as well.

This is Josh when I told him to smile, then Josh when I told him not to squint. Look at that gorgeous blue sky!

Too bad this is the weather we got 15 min later. It's very true what they say about Ireland going through every season in the course of a day.

This is the best day after party shot ever....wish my house looked like this on clean up the next day. That definitely indicates a successful party.

Here's the last pic of the trip, saying bye to Ben right before we headed off for the train ride from hell...(check out the train ride blog, what a nightmare!)

The train ride from hell!!!!

2007-03-19T23:16:00.000Z

"You want to fight? I dare any of you to step up and fight me right now!" said the skinny British girl in the aisle of the overnight train to Birmingham New Street.

Let's go back though in true Quentin Tarantino style, back to the beginning. The weather in Ireland this weekend turned rough thus causing all ferries to be canceled. We were moved to the 8:55 ferry into Holyhead. Now because of this it rendered our train connection at the port useless since there was no way to make it there short of swimming from Ireland to Wales. That was out of the question as we didn't have our suits. So we tried to change our train, but we were just told to show up and take our chances finding a seat. The ferry took 3 hours and we had to wait another hour for the train. It was due to leave around 1 am. We had a plan. Josh would find a seat while I would find a conductor to make sure my ticket would be valid.

When I couldn't find anyone to talk to, I hunted down Josh who was lucky to grab two unreserved seats. I was looking forward to settling in and getting some shut eye. It was quickly apparent that peaceful rest was out of the question. I watched in horrified awe as the family in front us, who must have consisted of aunts, uncles, grandma and multiple children, as they pulled out a brand new bottle of vodka and Budweisers. They were singing Irish songs loudly and started to light up cigarettes right on the train! The kids were running rampant through the train and the kid next to Josh was trying to light the seat on fire.

Through some malfunction in the system any seat reservations were canceled, leaving people who had previously arranged their tickets without a seat. Unfortunately, a few girls were assigned to the seats occupied by this family. They came up explaining that their tickets said that they were assigned those seats and were essentially told by this family to f#$* off. The first two girls that were in those seats were smart (or scared depending on how you look at it) and found other seats. One girl, however, decided to stand her ground while her friend went to get someone to help. She stood right in the middle of the family while they drank and smoked around her. The man kept touching her ass while the woman insulted her and told her to move her ass out of her face. The girl stood there and waited patiently. The children danced around her insulting her and one kid (who Josh has nicknamed "devil spawn") took his shoes off and put them into her face. The girl told him not to do that, much like a parent would and yet his father sat there watching and egging him on. Meanwhile, you must not forget that they were still drinking and singing through this all. The family kept at her and eventually she turned around and shouted back at them.

"Any of you want to fight me? Come on stand up and fight me."

No one stood. No one even responded.

"That's what I thought" she retorted.

Eventually the conductor came back and had to explain to the girl that unfortunately she could not ask them to move and she found the girls seats elsewhere. The woman came back later and handled that family with such amazing calm and ease. I was surprised at the way she handled the situation. She told them kindly that the next stop had a ten minute break and they would be able to go out and smoke at that point and asked them to please wait until then to smoke. Not that that stopped them.

They continued on in the same manner for a while. The kids were making us nervous because I kept envisioning them climbing around under the seats and stealing from our bags so instead of sleeping, I was on high alert. At some point the woman who had been singing the loudest sort of passed out drunk so a teenage girl of the family pulled her out of her seat and dragged her down the aisle to another seat farther down. When the drunk woman came to a bit she starting cursing at the man in front of me which in turn he stood up and started cursing back at her. Only he started throwing water at her and shouting that he was going throw his now empty vodka bottle out the window and he hoped the train crashed with all of them in it. The family that was on the other side of his anger got up and went to another car, sending the young boy back and forth to collect all of their things.

The man started screaming at the boy, "Jimmy, you leave those clothes here. Jimmy bring that stuff back here now!"

The kid ignored him and ran with the bags. The man plopped down in his seat so clearly drunk and angry. The "devil spawn" sat down with him and said, "Dad, why do you hate Jimmy so much?"

It was so sad! I felt like this kid was asking the wrong questions, he was so young that he didn't understand that his dad is really just a drunk imbecile and that it isn't that he hates Jimmy. So the dad asks the kid to go into the other car and see what's going on. So the kid runs off, meanwhile the dad is sitting there stewing in anger, I could feel him getting restless and he stood up to follow his son. All I kept thinking is, "Oh man this can't be good." Sure enough, at the next stop the train stopped for a few minutes. I could see people getting off the train to smoke and get snacks. It started to become too long though and we were all wondering what was taking so long. The little kid came running back to his mom who was passed out next to Josh. He started shaking her saying, "Dad's getting put off the train, mom, he needs his jacket." I thought it was so funny how this was the concern. Dad needs his jacket to get thrown off. The mom grumbled for a minute and then jumped up when she realized what the kid was actually saying. They went running off in the other direction to find the dad.

A few minutes later the kid was running back to the car to get their things and to rouse his two brothers who were sleeping on the floor in the aisle. He ran off again, leaving the two brothers to fall back asleep. The next time he returned it was with the lady conductor and two very frazzled looking men with walkie-talkies. I looked out the window and saw a few police men running around as well. The American students behind me were getting frustrated and kept asking the woman if we were getting under way soon as we all needed to catch the connection to London. She told them that she apologized, but that that man was getting arrested and that there was nothing she could do at the moment. She was trying to help the kid figure out all the stuff that belonged to the family. When they started to walk away I looked over and realized that they were leaving one of the brothers. I waved down the lady and said that I thought he belonged to them as well as the kid has tried to wake to tell him that dad was getting arrested.

Eventually they were all off the train and we were underway again. A huge cheer erupted from our car! Luckily we made the connection without a problem, and two more trains and an Underground ride later we were home. The moral of the story according to Josh, The US is not the only place with white trash families.

I'm going here for St. Patrick's Day!!!!

2007-03-12T09:53:00.000Z

Hunting Banksy in East London

2007-03-11T18:22:00.000Z

With a friend in town wanting to see London, we set out to pack as much into our Saturday as we could manage. Of course with engineering work on all the trains in the underground it hinder our touring quite a bit.

We set a plan, I wanted to see the changing of the guards which we have attempted to see many times. We got up early to go into the city and turns out they weren't doing the changing of the guards yesterday. Then I wanted to take the tour of Westminster and see the famous tombstones. We literally showed up the second they were closing the doors for the day. We walked around Buckingham Palace which was nice. We headed over hoping to catch some people shooting off their mouths at Speaker's Corner, which I might add we've been into London trying to catch three times now. Of course, there was no one there. Not so much of a loss though as when we were walking out I caught the picture above. I have passed this before and should have taken the picture. So this time I took the opportunity.

Next we went shopping and we found the area that is full of used book stores. I am on a hunt for first edition British Harry Potter books, I know, I'm a nerd. I didn't really want to subject Ben to used book stores. So we decided to go to our next step, which was Brick Lane in East London so I could hunt down some Banksy art work, since he frequents this area. With three trains closed for work we had to take the long way around. When we got to the third train we found the stop that we needed was closed permanently and because we didn't have time to find an alternate route I had to give up my Banksy search and take the train needed to catch our walking tour.

We had a plan to take the Jack the Ripper tour near the Tower of London. The tour was fascinating! I was really excited about it because I was disappointed about not being able to check out the Banksy spots. The guy that gave the tour was so animated and interesting. He added a lot of intensity and extra acting to an otherwise routine speech. While hearing about the many theories of Jack the Ripper we walked through the creepy cobblestone alley ways of East London.

There was one alleyway that the tour took us through, that had two pieces on the wall. The one to the right above is arguably Banksy's Jack the Ripper. On the left is also arguably Banksy. I loved the doves though. I thank Josh for this shot because we were walking through this very narrow alley with a group of about 30 people and I was on the far left. I saw the Jack the Ripper, but missed the doves. Josh grabbed me and we ran back to get the picture. I snapped them so fast and it was dark, getting them developed today I was so nervous that they weren't going to come out. With the exception of a slight shadow at the bottom corner of Jack the Ripper I was quite pleased with the results. We had to run down a few streets to find the group again. I almost ran into a few people on the run. :) At the end of the day, Banksy or not, I caught some of the street art I was hoping to find. I guess it just proves that it is better to happen upon things rather than searching it out.

Internet, sweet internet!!

2007-03-07T16:08:00.000Z

Ah! We finally have a decent internet connection. Virgin came today to install the modem. It took two and a half weeks for it to happen, but we are finally connected to the modern world. I feel good. I feel like I can stretch my legs and I feel like I am not isolated in my little flat. Now I can start blogging again. I will come up with something interesting to blog about soon. We are going on the Jack the Ripper tour in London this weekend. Unless you want me to blog about the TV I've been watching since that's all I've been able to do. :)

The Washer Disaster

2007-02-26T21:08:00.000Z

So I knew that the British electricity was slightly different, but I had no idea that it was so different that it would take me an hour and a half to get the washing machine working. When we finally got one load to wash it came out perfectly dry...I was so excited, but when I went to put more soap in for the next load I discovered that the soap had never been used. An hour and half and I didn't even clean the load. Three tries later and I had a clean load albeit a half wet load, but a clean load nonetheless. Now it has taken me almost a week to clean the two weeks worth of dirty clothes that piled up while we were in the hotel. The washer and dryer are combined into the same machine. It takes about 4-5 hours for one load to complete the cycle. Even after that it comes out of the machine slightly wet and wrinkled. So last night I DID THE IRONING. Like a 50s housewife. Today, I was an excited girl as I put in my last load of delicates. It was my first load without selecting the dry cycle (which doesn't tumble dry by the way, it sucks the water out) and when I opened up the washer all the water from the cycle poured out onto the floor. Apparently I must select even the most minimal of drying cycles for every load. Oh yeah and the first night we were here we bought stuff to make pasta, we ended up ordering pizza since we couldnt get the stove to work. So maybe two months from now I will have a handle on the British appliances.

Stonehenge!

2007-02-20T12:18:00.000Z

Here I am at Stonehenge and let me tell you this audio commentary is fascinating! The woman is currently telling me for the thousandth time that they have no idea how the people of this day got the stones there. They speculate many times, but then in the extras section they tell us that the stories they know about the stones are really myths and legends. So how did they get the stones there? We will never know, but hey it's cool nonetheless.

Josh and I took our first venture out to the English country side this past weekend. We started in a town called Salisbury which is about 20 minutes outside of Stonehenge. We wandered around the market place which was much like a flea market and surprises of all surprises we left with 5 new books. Well previously loved new books. : ) We found the busiest bakery in town and figured since the line was out the door that was where we needed to be for lunch. It was so good!!! It was well worth the wait.

Later we headed to Amesbury where our hotel was located to hang out for the night. Little did we know it was the smallest town ever and had nothing to do, except of course go to the local pub. So we did. That was fun, I ordered a Jamison and ginger ale and the bartender laughed and told me not to let Mary see me with my drink. Then he leaned over and told Mary about my drink while they gave me the crazy death look for daring to mix my whiskey. Thank goodness Josh followed with a nice big pint of Guiness to make me look better. It was kind of scary. Not anything like the American friendly pubs in London.

We then went on to find some great Indian food and crashed out for the night. The next morning we walked 2.5 miles to Stonehenge through the gorgeous rolling country side. It was interesting walking up to the stones with people taking their morning jog passed the stones like it's no big deal. They were truly impressive. It was actually cool to see them in person. But I must say they look exactly like the pictures I have seen all my life. Just bigger really. : )

Anyway, off to a safe pub for lunch.
Cheers,
Rachel

Smells like Teen Spirit?

2007-02-11T17:48:00.000Z

Check out Josh in Kurt Cobain's glasses. Yes they are the actual glasses in this picture I found of Kurt Cobain. Despite some reservations we decided to go eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. Turns out there was loads more history there than I first had thought. It is the first Hard Rock Cafe ever and was created by two American guys who decided to give a go of making a cafe in London, bringing American food to the British. One of their patrons was
Eric Clapton, who loved his food away from home. One day Clapton decided that he should have a table reserved for him and suggested such to the owners. They asked him jokingly for a guitar to put up by his table, for which he obliged. They put it up and that was that. Until they received a package from Pete Townshend with a guitar of his saying, "Mine's as good as his! Love, Pete." And thus began what we know today as the Hard Rock Cafe. We were passing by and decided to get some food. I saw the greatest guitar on the wall. It was made for the amazing Steve Vai. I asked the waitress if I could take a picture, (because Josh was so paranoid we'd get thrown out) and she said of course and gave us tickets to the tour of the vault. I thought hey, let's go check it out, why not. So we went and let me tell you it was so cool!!! Not only were we allowed to take pictures, but we were allowed to hold the guitars, play them, wear Elvis' sash, hold Miles Davis' trumpet. The only thing we couldn't hold was Stevie Ray Vaughn's because it is autographed and has since been rubbed quite a bit, so they discontinued that. Anyway, check out the pictures of us in the vault below. It turned out to be quite and experience. Stevie Ray Vaughan is directly below. The Joe Satriani is for Christopher. There are two pictures of me. The one on the left I am holding a Jimi Hendrix guitar while sitting on a bench from his apartment. The one on the right is Ritchie Valens guitar. Lastly, for you Beatles fans, and I know there are a few left. That is the army shirt worn by him given to him by a man in the army in the airport. The paper behind it is the original Imagine notes that he took into the studio with him.

Yet another reason Cochlear Implants should not be used!

2007-02-09T16:06:00.000Z

I read several deaf blogs and todays article really caught my eye. Why are we forcing CIs on children when they will have trouble with the simplest things in life? Children with CIs are not able to touch those electric lights the gives little currents and the light follows your hands. They are told to be careful near televisions. I mean come on, televisions. How can you tell a child to keep away from the TV because it may destroy their limited hearing or worse. Now they are not supposed to be in hybrid cars? The article is very informative. Check out the quote below. Also here is the link to the site where I read it. http://www.elisawrites.com/?p=349

"Hybrid cars are pretty new, they’re pretty expensive but they’re great for the environment and maybe later in the future they will become more popular and less expensive. However, people with pacemakers cannot ride these cars. Now, people with CIs are warned to not ride in these cars."

Shouldn't we find a safer alternative BEFORE we put them in our 6 month old babies?

Wicked Awesome!

2007-02-09T13:59:00.000Z

We went to see Wicked last night and I must say it was brilliant!! The costumes were so cool!! My favorite part was the Emerald City!! It was positively gorgeous! I wish we would have been able to take pictures during the show. It was such a cool story about how the Wicked Witch was really a misunderstood girl. It was very interesting how everything ended up answering how the tin man came about and the flying monkeys. We had a great little treat too! They surprised the cast after the show with awards from What's on Stage. It was fun. Josh splurged on great seats and I swear there wasn't a Londoner in sight. I felt like I was back in the states.

Holiday in Hogwarts!!

2007-02-09T13:37:00.000Z

A glimpse of our town.

2007-02-08T14:45:00.000Z

This church is on the street
where our new flat will be. I trudged around
all morning in the snow trying to find the flat
where we will be living to take a picture, but
I couldn't find it.....it should have been near the
church. I guess I was too focused on keeping the
umbrella over my head and trying to stay dry.
When I mapquested it later I realized I don't think
I went far enough down Heathside Road. Oh well,
when we finally get the keys and move in then I will
take pictures.

This is the main street in my quaint little town of Woking. This is what I joke as being called American Way since there is a Subway, a Pizza Hut, a KFC and I think a McDonalds. It is the main street in town. Behind me is a mall and beyond this street on the end in front of me is the residential area. There is a train station to the right beyond the building. This is pretty much the extent of the town.

We are the most documented generation......

2007-02-08T11:54:00.000Z

Anthropology takes on a new face. This video is quite inspiring and powerful. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

The Woking Martian

2007-02-07T15:18:00.000Z

So this is my protector! The Woking Martian. It is right in town centre. He keeps on eye on the enemy while Josh is at work. So no need to worry any longer. Say hi to Josh, that is his office in the background.

Hi Honey!

Shout out to my MacGyver Man!

2007-02-07T14:43:00.000Z

My hard drive arrived today, so Josh came home for lunch to get me all set up. Of course we have nothing with us, however, to use to take the screws out. All the supplies are in the boxes that will take weeks to get here. So he searches our hotel room. He comes up with a butter knife, a hair clip and tweezers. Between the three he final got the hard drive out. The noises made me crazy though. I kept thinking he was going to screw up my computer. So I hid my head like the a scary scene in a horror flick. I turned slowly to ask if it was over yet. Finally!! (pah) Success!! A brand new shiny hard drive and the ability to actually use my computer to its full potential. Thanks MacGyver! Sorry for the diminutive faith in your skills.

The Take Away Fiasco

2007-02-07T14:25:00.000Z

I don't know if people in this area generally do not deal with to go food, but last night we decided to go get a pizza to take back to the hotel. I was rushing to get home because it was 6:30 and my one tiny salvation in American TV, American Idol, was supposed to be on at 7. It's the only one of the shows I watch that I can actually get on basic cable. Unless I want to watch Everyone Hates Raymond, which seems to always be on. So we go to Pizza Hut. (Yeah I know, but you have to know there is so much American Food here!! There isn't anywhere else for pizza.) So we go in, and it is a nice place. There is a family eating at a table and they have cute little tea pots and there is a wine shelf behind the counter, just like a cute Italian eatery. There are two kids working behind the counter and we ask for the take away menu. The girl seems all flustered and hands us one of a stack of take away menus they have on the counter. So we decide what we want and place our order. Now we got the deal where you can get a medium and a starter for £9.99. Of course I pick the one starter that confuses the girl, even though it says salad on the list of things I can choose from. Finally she finds a salad bowl container. Then while we are waiting she brings us our drinks in glasses. Real glass, glasses. Josh asks for to go cups since they had given me a drink cup for my dressing, so he figured they had one. She brings us back a two liter bottle and says "Will this do?" At this point we are just thinking sure whatever. Then we asked for forks for the salad, she had to go and converse with her co-worker to see where they were. In the end, we ended up with the smallest medium pizza I've ever seen, a 2-liter of the wrong soda, and two very confused looking teenagers. Then when I got home and settled in, all ready to watch me some American Idol, I flip to the channel and it is not on. Turns out the hotel only gets iTV1 and American Idol is on iTV2. Go figure! Should have just gone to the pub.

Do we speak the same language?

2007-02-06T14:39:00.000Z

It's funny how we are all speaking English and yet we can't understand each other. I met with a lady from the rental agency today and she took me around to show me properties in the area. The two of us were cracking up. She kept asking me what I call things.

Ella: "What do you call that?"
Me: "The parking lot?"
Ella: "Really?" with a giggle.
(They call it a bay here.)

A living room they call a reception, while reading the flyers I thought that meant the lobby area, like a hotel. They tell you to alight the train. Simply means exit. Even the floors at the theater are different, like the ground floor is called the Stalls. Everything is also shortened. So if I want a 1 bedroom apartment to rent I would say, "Have a 1 bed let?" I swear I need an interpreter just to understand English. Hopefully I'll soon learn the lingo, too bad I can't gracefully adopt the cool accent as well. I wouldn't want to risk sounding like Madonna.
: )

Tea overdose and tour bus nap

2007-02-05T14:47:00.000Z

So here we are...I never thought this day would come, but we are in London. We live here now and it is so insane to say that out loud. It still doesn't feel real because we are in a hotel and let me tell you, it is tiny! I guess hotels don't really accommodate 3 stuffed suitcases. We got in Saturday afternoon and it took about three hours to get into Woking from the airport. We were so tired that we both fell asleep around 7 pm while trying to watch a movie. We woke up around 1 am. I was wide awake!! So we waited and waited and waited some more until 7:30, which is when breakfast is served. It was so weird walking out of there without putting a tip on the table, but it isn't their way. We went into London center and Josh gave me a little walking tour, which meant that we walked around in circles while he attempted to get his bearings back. About 4 cups of tea later, we decided to take a bus tour around the city, that way I could get a better feel for the lay of the land. It was so cold and I was so tired that most of the tour my head keep dropping as I fought off sleep. Once we started walking around again I was fine though. Today I think I am back to normal. Although my computer is not, my new hard drive comes on wednesday. So once we get it all fixed up I will have pictures to post. : )

Cheers!!