Curry Lunch

Today, I went to a Rotary curry lunch put on by the (infant) Exeter Enterprise Club. It was just started recently; in fact, they're still on their first group of officers. The lunch was held in East Budleigh (pronounced BUD-lee), which is not their usual meeting place; however, the Village Hall provided a nice venue for the lunch.

Attendees had a choice of several different kinds of curry: vegetarian, turkey, lamb, and two varieties each of beef and chicken. These were served with rice and lettuce. After lunch, there were fruit bowls and various cookies for dessert.

I was seated at the end of a table. On my left was the Rotarian that I rode with (he's from the Exeter Southernhay Club), who is an architect.



On my right was a guest of one of the Exeter Enterprise Rotarians who is a civil engineer, so the two of them had a bit of a conversation about their professions' rivalry. From there, the conversation moved on to topics of economics, which was fine with me as I know far more about that than I do about either architecture or engineering. The conversation turned to naval history a few times, but, for the most part, the topic quickly shifted back to something else. It seems that history is so interconnected with other things that it is difficult to stay on-topic when attempting to discuss it!

After the lunch itself came the obligatory recognitions of the people that made it possible that accompany any event of this type. Following that was a brief presentation about polio (one of Rotary's major charitable causes) and an account of a Rotarian's recent trip to Tibet and Nepal. The Rotarian I rode with, when unable to recall her name, referred to her as "The one with the O.B.E." She does, in fact, have an O.B.E. Her presentation was not very flattering to the Chinese, but was very flattering to Tibetan Buddhists. You'd think the Chinese were worse on the Tibetan Buddhists than the Taliban, from the way she talked, but that, of course, is not true, as any historian (or anyone paying close attention to world events in 1997) can tell you.

Apologies if the formatting on this entry is a bit odd-it's my first attempt to type a blog entry in Word and then upload it, and I'm not sure how it will turn out.

International Thanksgiving

Tonight, Will and I joined Christine Difato an several of her friends for an international celebration of the American Thanksgiving holiday. The group consisted of three Americans, three Turks, a Greek, an Italian, a German, a Saudi, and a Cypriot. With the exception of me, all are University of Exeter students, and with the exception of Will, all are currently working on PhDs.

The dinner was potluck-style, and Will and I made dressing. Our first attempt was aborted when we smelled it burning and removed it, in its crispy black state, from the oven. Fortunately, we had enough of all of the ingredients to try it again, and the second attempt was successful. We ended up arriving about 45 minutes late, but that wasn't a problem because some of the other participants were still busy cooking when we got there.

The food was tasty, the company was quite enjoyable, and the conversations were interesting. Among the topics discussed were the irritation caused by British sinks (Why are there separate faucets for hot and cold water, making it impossible to have warm water???), the excessive drinking habits of Brits, and the British habit of acting like the UK is part not of the EU. The Europeans in the group were especially keen on discussing what they perceive to be British oddities.

Overall, this was one of the most fun events I've attended for months. I am quite glad we were able to participate.

3 for 2

There is a British Christmas institution known as "3 for 2." It works like it sounds: You buy two items, you get the third free. Of course, it's only on selected items, and the free one is the cheapest.

Stores try to out-3-for-2 each other. For example, Marks & Spencer claims that theirs is "Not Just Any 3 for 2," and they go on to explain that they rank your items in order of price and give you every third one free, rather than giving you the cheapest ones at the end free (which is apparently the common practice).

I first saw a 3 for 2 sign a couple of weeks ago at Boots, and I assumed that they were just doing something special. Then the signs started to pop up everywhere: bookstores, department stores, outdoor stores, etc. I'm sure the grocery stores can't be far behind!

In other news, Cheddar cheese IS NOT American (despite what the Germans will tell you). It is British, and is named after a place called Cheddar. Who knew?

Cleaning Up

Today, one of my classmates, Dave, and I went back out to the Navy Records Society's warehouse in Marsh Barton. Our mission: Clean up the place! There are something on the order of 300 boxes of books (for a total of over 5,000 books), which were mostly scattered at random.

We began by cleaning out the outer room, which was no small task (it was home to about 200 boxes). That left us with all 300 boxes in the inner room, and we began to sort them. Ultimately, we got about 200 of the boxes on the pallets in the inner room, and the other 100 back in the outer room in something close to an orderly fashion. Now, we have a map of where all the books are located, and can actually get to almost all of them without having to move more than ten boxes. Previously, to get to some of the books required moving over 100 boxes. Needless to say, it's much easier to get around now!

I also picked up several new books, including the three that I accidentally left behind last time we were out there.

You may be wondering why Dave and I spent three and a half hours of our day on this. The answer is that the Navy Records Society paid us £100 for the job, which was £50 each, which came to over £14/hr. Not bad!

Exeter Xmas Parade

Today was the Exeter City Christmas Parade. Amanda and I duly took up station on the High Street, roughly across the street from Build-A-Bear, at about 20 minutes before the parade was due to begin at noon. We expected to see the usual mix of floats, marching groups, and Santa (known here as Father Christmas). No sooner did the parade begin, however, than we came face to face with Bearemy and Paulette, Build-A-Bear's two mascots! They were the first act in the parade, followed by a group of majorettes.



Behind the majorettes came a couple of charity groups collecting money. Rather than throwing candy into the crowd, parades here feature people walking along the crowd with buckets to collect cash for charities. Behind the charity groups came Father Christmas, who was followed by another group of majorettes (who knew they were so popular here?).



After the tail of the parade passed us, we scampered down the street to the courtyard of the Guildhall Shopping Centre (what was formerly Victoria Street before shops were built over part of it in the 1970s), and ran into Bearemy and Paulette again! We both managed to get some nice pictures with them, before they fled to escape the "snow" that was falling from the sky. The fake snow was made of soap bubbles, which could have made a mess of their fur. Shortly after they escaped, Amanda had to go to work at Sports World (which is located in the Guildhall Shopping Centre), and I went on to Tesco to go grocery shopping and then headed home to work on a book review.

Christmas Lights Switch On

Today, as I was leaving Sports World, I noticed that there were hundreds of people gathered on the High Street. Since there are usually not many people there around 6pm on a week night, I asked a bystander what was going on. He explained to me that Exeter's city Christmas decorations were about to be turned on. As I made my way up the street, I could see that many people, especially children, were carrying glow sticks and light-up swords, and other people were wearing blinking headbands and cardboard reindeer antlers. There were also some people in costumes, including one dressed as a robin and another dressed as a robot. Soon, the DJs facilitating the event led a countdown to the switch-on, and the decorations were powered up. The switch-on was immediately followed by a spectacular firework display, which lasted around 10 minutes. Following the fireworks, the DJs urged us to stick around for various live performances that were taking place in the area. I couldn't stay for long, because I needed to wash up and cook dinner, but I did catch a glimpse of a man twirling fire batons.

What a pleasant surprise it was to catch this huge, local event!

Rotary District 1170 Conference

Today was Day Three of the District Conference for Rotary District 1170. As Exeter is located within District 1170, the four Ambassadorial Scholars in the district duly packed into Peter's SUV and rode over to the Winter Gardens Conference Centre for the day. Although I was a little bit tired this morning (as I stayed up far too late following the scores of football games last night), I was able to make it through my brief introduction of myself without any major problems. However, I think I was probably way too fascinated with the coin vortex in the Hall of Friendship at the conference. On the other hand, I always find those interesting!

It was very interesting to get to see a formal Rotary event; the only things I had seen thus far were club meetings and the LINK Weekend, which doesn't exactly count as a formal Rotary occasion. Most of today's portion of the conference consisted of the general session's speakers and some award presentations; however, we were able to have lunch with the Rotarians. Lunch consisted of a choice of lamb or turkey main course (no secret which I had), with several choices of vegetable (all involving cabbage in one way or another), and a choice of potato (whole fried potatoes or boiled potatoes with carrots and something green). Dessert consisted of some sort of fried cream puffs, cheesecake, or choice of fruit crumbles.

After lunch, the four of us had our picture taken on the existing portion of the wharf. The wharf is featured on the front cover of the conference program, after a fashion. The wharf recently burned, so the picture bore no resemblance whatsoever to the actual wharf in its present state. We got a nice picture with some lovely grey sky behind us, though, pretending that "this is our island in the sun" to facilitate Julia's photoshopping efforts.

After the picture, we returned to Exeter, and I set back to work on my 4,000 word paper for Exploration & Interpretation (due on Thursday), which is currently about halfway written.

First Shift

My first shift at Sports World began this morning at 11:00 AM. I was asked to arrive early so that there would be time for me to try on uniforms prior to the start of my shift. I arrived around 10:45 AM and received my red Umbro polo shirt and navy blue Umbro trousers. The trousers are significantly too long for me, so I need to find some safety pins before tomorrow so that I can keep them pulled up.

My shift consisted of four hours of being taught to use the till (cash register). I was trained by Martin, another part-time employee who has worked here for over a year. Working the till is quite easy; however, answering customers' questions is not. Between the British accents and the new vocabulary (including "football boots" instead of "cleats" and "trainers" instead of "tennis shoes") and the fact that I do not yet know much about our inventory, I have a tough time with questions. I assume this will improve quickly, but it is frustrating to seem so ignorant!

Sports World

In addition to my Christmas temp job at Build-A-Bear, I now have a part-time job at Sports World, a retail shop that sells tennis shoes and a variety of other athletic shoes, clothing, and equipment. Today was my "induction," or training day. I was trained with two other new employees, Steph and Emily, both of whom are a lot younger than me. Our training consisted of reading various policies, hearing explanations of the policies, signing documents saying we understood them, and taking a tour of the store. My first shift is tomorrow, and I will receive my uniform right before it. I am quite excited that things finally seem to be working out in terms of employment here!

Pudsey Bear and Pub Quiz

The BBC, a large British news organization, organizes an annual charity appeal known as Children in Need, and one entire evening of its programming is set aside for raising money for British children's charities each year. This year, it will occur on 14 November. In the run-up to the broadcast, many shops are selling items featuring Pudsey Bear, the Children in Need mascot. Both Boots Pharmacy and Build-A-Bear Workshop are among the shop selling Pudsey merchandise. Yesterday, Will purchased me a smalled, stuffed Pudsey from Boots. It is adorable!



Another notable event from yesterday is that Will and I went to the Bowling Green, a nearby pub, for the weekly pub quiz. The quiz consisted of 40 questions which had to be answered by each team on a sheet of paper. The top two teams won prizes, as did the team judged to have the funniest name. Will and I came in last, probably because we had the smallest team and the least knowledge of local history and culture. Following the 40 questions and the announcement of winners, another 5 bonus questions were asked. Any team that correctly answered the five bonus questions would have received a cash prize, though in this instance, no one did. Thus, the cash prize rolls over another week and will increase by five pounds next Sunday. Despite our poor performance, we had a good time, and we are considering asking Kim and Chris to join us next week.

Naval Archives

Today, several of my classmates and I joined two of our professors at the archives of the Navy Records Society. We were expecting an organized, library-like room, with row upon row of books. We could not have been further from reality.

The archives consist of two small rooms in a warehouse. The first room is full, floor to ceiling, of boxes of books. The boxes are labeled; however, we quickly discovered that the labels were wrong as often as not. The second room has several wooden pallets with boxes of books stacked on them, but most of the room is taken up by other items, such as office chairs and other office furniture.

We spend about two hours trying to hammer through the maze of books, but we were only able to get to about 40% of them. Out of those, each of us found some books that we wanted. Personally, I got about 20 books; most of the others got five or six.

In the interests of cleaning up the mess, the Society will be paying Dave and me to re-organize and label the boxes so that they can let people come in and go through the boxes to find books that they want. We'll be doing that on the 21st, so this little adventure isn't over yet.

Master Bear Builder

Today, was my second day of work at Build-A-Bear. I learned how to use and fill the stuffing machine, received my "Master Bear Builder" name tag, and shadowed Checky as she led a party for 6 little girls. The party was a lot of fun. In addition to helping the girls stuff their bears, Checky led them in a series of games and activities. There was plenty of shouting, running around, and, of course, laughing. Then, while the girls were playing a game, we were joined by Sam dressed as Build-A-Bear's bunny mascot, Pawlette. Pawlette posed for pictures with the group and even participated in a few games before returning to her home. Personally, I was quite jealous. I've never had a 6 foot tall bunny come to MY birthday party...

The Poppy Appeal

In the UK (and the rest of the Commonwealth), Veterans' Day doesn't exist. Instead, the 11th of November is called Rememberance Day, which is commemorated by the sale of poppy lapel pins made of a foam-rubber like substance. I was discussing this with one of my classmates, and he explained that "We can't actually remember the veterans; we remember the events. If we remembered the veterans, we might show actual appreciation for members of our armed forces, and that would call into question the personal worth of the aristocracy, and we can't have that." He was being partially sarcastic, I think (I still don't quite have him figured out).

In a related area, there is a display in the cathedral yard (in front of the statue of Richard Hooker, to be exact) commemorating those who died in the various wars of the past few decades. There are sections for every branch of the military, and several other areas, such as the merchant marine and civil defense. Here's what it looks like:



In a completely unrelated area, I tried to exchange my computer today at Curry's Digital, but they didn't have the replacement in. Sadness. They promise it will be in tomorrow, though, so I can finally get the swap done!

NHS

Today was my first opportunity to truly experience NHS, Britain's National Health Service. On Monday, I registered with a doctor at the Mount Pleasant Medical Center. The process was quick and easy- I simply needed my visa and proof of address, which I provided in the form of my bank details. I was randomly assigned Dr. Clare Clarey as my primary care doctor. As soon as I had finished registering, I made an appointment to get some birth control and have my injured knee looked at.

Despite everything I've heard in the States about NHS, I was given an appointment for Thursday of that same week, which is, of course, today. After I arrived at the appointment, I had a very brief wait to see the doctor, and she was very helpful and addressed both problems in a quick and efficient manner. At no time did I feel rushed, patronized, or otherwise annoyed- something that I cannot say about most of my visits to American doctor's offices!

It turns out that I simply have a strained MCL, which is fortunately not dangerous to walk on, despite that it hurts. The doctor recommended that I put ice on it when I'm at home and that I use any anti-inflammatory for pain. She also prescribed me an appropriate contraceptive. I took the prescription to the pharmacy next door and waited about ten minutes while it was filled. Best of all, bost the doctor's appointment and the prescription were FREE! Most prescribed medications cost 6.50 GBP, but contraceptives are provided without cost.

Overall, my first encounter with NHS was overwhelmingly postive, much to my surprise. I can only hope all future visits are equally pleasant.

Bonfire Night

The evening of November 5 is Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night, in the UK. The event is an annual celebration of the successful foiling of the Gunpowder Plot of November 5, 1605 in which several Catholic, one of them named Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up both houses of Parliament. The festivities consist mainly of fireworks displays and bonfires, though I'm told that residents of a nearby town celebrate by running around town with flaming barrels of tar on their heads. Tonight, and for the past several nights, I've been able to watch various displays of fireworks out my bedroom window. Because Will and I live on the fifth floor and relatively close to the city center, we have an absolutely amazing view.

Election 2008

Finally, finally, election day has arrived! Regardless of the outcome, I will certainly be glad when this one is over. As a supporter of Hillary Clinton, I lost my enthusiasm about this election months ago. The ads and the constant bickering about America's problems are exhausting, and I cannot help but feel that this election has dragged on for far too long.

Will and I intend to stay up late watching the returns on cnn.com and foxnews.com. I am expecting Barack Obama to win handily. Nearly all of the British people I know will be absolutely overjoyed if this happens. My brother, Robert, says that all of the non-American students in his language school in Beijing feel the same way. One of them, a Khasak, recently informed him, "Robert, even I know that Barack Obama is the right choice for President!" It is interesting that the world is so certain while America is so divided. Why is it that millions of people who have never set foot in the United States, experienced our culture, or dealt with our problems believe that they can know with certainty that the Americans who support John McCain are wrong or misguided. While I certainly often have preferences about who I prefer to win foreign elections, I would never go so far as to say that one candidate is the "right" choice- unless I believe wholeheartedly that the candidate's opponent is downright evil. Surely the world does not view Senator McCain this way. If they do, that speaks volumes about the damage that has been done been Obama's propaganda machine.

Torches

Imagine my surprise when, on a recent tour, shortly after we entered a dark place, the guide mentioned that she needed to get her torch out of her purse. To me, a 'torch' is a lighting tool that uses real, live fire as its source of light. Here, though, the term is used instead of flashlight to describe a portable, electronic lighting device. In fact, I bought Will a "wind-up torch" just yesterday, for use in case of an unexpected power outage or similar circumstance. The wind-up torch can also emit a siren sound or charge a cell phone, making it and incredibly useful purchase.

Lunchtime Mint, Part II

Today, I went to the Mint's lunch at the pastor's home. It was a lovely lunch; it consisted of a Korean dish composed of rice, peppers, tomatoes, and olives (no idea what it's called, but it was good!), pasta, lasagna, and cheese and biscuts (ie, crackers). It was accompanied by wine, apple juice, and orange juice (and, of course, the obligatory tea and coffee). I spent most of my time lounging in a rocking chair in the office/library, talking to the other assembled students who gravitated to the library. One of the topics discussed was the recent Students' Guild meeting (see my post from 31 October for more details about that).

We also took a group picture, which was supposed to be in the living room. However, the living room wasn't large enough to hold everyone, as apparently more people had arrived than expected, judging from the shortage of plates, glasses, and chopsticks (which went very fast). Instead, we retreated to the garden, and lined up along the fence, where we were shot twelve times by five different cameras.

It was also announced that we would be having another Sunday lunch in the Common Room next week, which is to continue through the month of November. Apparently, the side that favored the extension of the October Lunch Programme won out, so we'll have to see how long these lunches last, and how frequently they take place.

In other news, Alabama is now rightfully ranked #1 in the AP and Coaches' Polls. I assume the BCS Standings will agree. Now, for dealing with LSU . . .

Exeter Autumn Festival

While walking home from an afternoon of shopping today, Will and I were lucky enough to catch a live outdoor performance of the City of Exeter's pipers and drummers. The performance was part of the festivities of the two week long Exeter Autumn Festival, and it truely was a treat.

Paracetamol

Throughout the entire time that Will and I lived in Germany and traveled across Europe, we never once found a pharmacy which sold acetaminophen, the active ingredient in the pain killer most of us know as "Tylenol." Aspirin and ibuprofen were easy to find in every country, from Ireland to Morocco, but we found literally no acetaminophen anywhere in Europe. I even tried describing the medicine to pharmacists, but none of them had any idea what I was talking about.

In England, however, we have finally been able to find it- except here, it goes by the name "paracetamol." At first we weren't sure it was the same medicine. However, the following facts let us to conclude that acetaminophen and paracetamol are indeed the same: 1) Paracetamol is quite inexpensive, often costing less than 1p per pill. 2) It acts as a stand-alone pain-killer but is also find in numerous more potent painkillers. 3) Any product containing paracetamol has very severe-sounding overdose warning, such as "Contains paracetamol. Do not exceed the stated dose. Do not take this medicine with any other paracetamol containing products. Immediate medical advice should be sought in the event of an overdose with this medicine, even if you feel well, because of the risk of delayed, serious liver damage."

We actually brought enough Tylenol with us to last for the entire year, but if we happen to need some when we're away from home, now we know what to look for!