On crackers

The word ‘crackers’ means different things in the US and the UK. In the US, it’s my favorite snack food, much better than potato chips (crisps) and often either cheese flavored or used as vehicles for cheese or other nice savory foods. Here in the UK this meaning is mostly the word I find confusing, ‘biscuits’ which can can be either like crackers or can be sweet and essentially like cookies. I am well-known on this blog for being obsessed with the American crackers called Cheez-its, which are my favorite snack food ever. They are amazing on their own, or are even better in a double-cheese configuration when dipped in cream cheese. This was the subject of my recent shock contest win from another blogger in the US, where I won a box of boxes of crackers mailed to me. The resulting bounty of snack foods are pictured here:

Yum. I’ll be busy for a few weeks with these, although as they arrived more than a week ago, I am already down one box of Wheat Thins and one of Cheez-its. Crackers don’t last long in my carb-craving household.

But as I was walking home from work today, I saw the seasonal British crackers in a shop window. I actually experienced this for the first time in Australia last Christmas, and there are pictures of me wearing a paper crown hat. Thank goodness for semi-anonymous blogs, as I have the perfect excuse not to post the image. But you can get the idea at the ‘Christmas Cracker Shop’ website. I looked downright silly. I can see how this is one of those holiday traditions that one retains from childhood, and I thank my Aussie friends for sharing their tradition with me last holiday season. Maybe I’ll even buy some this year to acknowledge my increasing adaptation to my adopted country. But on the balance, I think I prefer Cheez-its. And thank goodness I have another box yet to go.

I love Paris in the Fall

I have returned from my third ever weekend trip to Paris, all of which have taken place in either October or November. Just the way things have been. I would like to go in the springtime, but so far it just hasn’t happened.

But ah, Paris. What a great place to spend a weekend. First of all, you can take the Eurostar from London, and there’s nothing better about living in England than being able to take a train to France. Especially given how painful flying has become. And how much I have no choice but to fly to places like America and Australia for which trains aren’t an option. But the best thing about Paris isn’t Paris per se. One of my good friends lives there. My only expat friend who I knew back in the states. We moved abroad about 18 months apart, first me to England, then her to Paris. And in both cases, we were doing something that seems relatively unusual in the expat community: we moved as single women, solely for the purpose of jobs. We weren’t going to meet up with British men and live happily ever after. We weren’t moving with American partners to keep us company abroad. We are both living in 1BR apartments alone, working too much, and experiencing a slightly different sort of expat life.

I arrived at her metro stop in the 16e at 6 pm Friday, and we stayed up until 6 am talking. We did stop off at the Halloween party at the Australian embassy, but we only stayed for two drinks and then went to find food. The Aussies were only offering up sausages, and neither of us eat sausages (I’m a pescetarian and she’s a Muslim). So no go on the sausages. We ended up at an Italian place run by a Sri Lankan in St. Michel. And then back to her house for wine and gossip.

Saturday we rolled out of bed at about noon and got ready for ahem brunch, which ended up being coffee and omelets at a cafe at about 3 pm. We wandered through the Jardin des Tuileries, which was full of fall colors and I was a sleep-deprived idiot who had left my camera back at the apartment. Next we were off to the Louvre, where instead of going to the museum, we went to the museum shop and the other shops in the adjacent mall. This is part of our typical style; when she came to visit me in England, we got as far as Pizza Express and John Lewis. The point of these weekends is for us to talk, not for us to be tourists. Saturday night we walked up the steps at Sacre Coeur and then sampled some food and drink on the way back down. Again back to her place for more wine and gabbing. Again past 6 am. We really outdid ourselves this trip, 5 am had been our previous record.

After sleeping in again, Sunday noonish we did exactly what we had done the last time I was in Paris, and ran out to the market in Passy for fresh bread and cheese for brunch. I had to take the train out at 5 something, so it was one last trip on the metro before checking in for the Eurostar.

It was an amazing weekend for many reasons. We had so much fun talking about our expat existence. It was great for me to see and discuss with her the pros and cons of our very simple apartments. While she has a shower, I have an oven. She’s just in the process of getting a toaster oven-like thing that apparently is about the best that can be done in her kitchen. We both have washers but not driers, and we discussed the fact that after some time abroad, we are nesting and buying nice things to make our homes feel more like home. We’ve both been buying artwork. But the basics of the expat life are the same. We have to both do our jobs and enjoy our surroundings. As she said, “I may have to pick up my dry cleaning today, but I get to pick up my dry cleaning IN PARIS!” It was a good reminder of the things that expat life can hold. Admittedly she has it spectacularly well, her office has a picture window looking out on la Tour Eiffel.

The other funny thing that happened, and that was a big difference from my last visit to Paris a year ago, is that her French has become really proficient. Whereas last time we were two clearly American girls in Paris, this time she was a local. Her confidence had increased to the point that she spoke en Francais all the time, and even asked to speak in French when waiters or store clerks did switch over to English after hearing us chatting. She kept doing the “J’habite ici” thing, which then had a funny side-effect. I started listening to the French, and suddenly a few years worth of high school French kicked in. I really did not realize how much I had picked up, and never used, after so many years away. I laughed at a waiter’s joke without thinking. I chimed in with “moi aussi” (me too) at one point. Baby steps, for certain. But really, really fun. So I have a new expat life resolution: to start working on my French, so that the next time I get to visit my dear friend in Paris, I’ll be able to play along.

Brighton beach memories

No, not Brighton Beach Memoirs, totally the wrong side of the world. I was in Brighton, UK this weekend for the Brighton Festival, which had one of my favorite modern artists, Anish Kapoor, as artistic director and featured one of my favorite jazz bands, The Dave Holland Quintet, headlining a fantastic concert. Brighton was almost too zoo-y for me to enjoy the festival, with a seemingly endless parade of girls in 4 inch skirts and 6 inch heels and their tattooed boy toys. But I managed to enjoy it just the same. Did all the things one does in a different British town, which is to eat at the same restaurants that are in your own neighborhood and shop in the same shops that are on your own high street. But oddly enough for England, the weather was uncharacteristically gorgeous and I ended up sunburnt from long walks on the beach esplanade. Not a bad bank holiday weekend, not bad at all.

Happy Easter!

Bits and bobs

a.k.a. odds-n-ends in the states!

Brits have chocolate eggs for Easter while Americans have chocolate bunnies. I can’t imagine how it could possibly be satisfying to not have the ears to bite off! Also, apparently there has been an environmental call-out over the amount of chocolate egg packaging material, and today’s BBC magazine site had a whole article on the perfect environmentally-friendly egg package.

Earlier this week there was an article with ten key points on how to get served in a pub which seemed like making a complicated mountain over a mole-hill (although of course the academic study of British pub culture is part of the reason Kate Fox is famous…). I did chuckle over the whole paradox of Brits normally being queue-happy and how perfectly this contrasts, thus proving why being an expat is impossibly difficult in any country–the exceptions prove the rules. Regardless, if the pub is that busy, I’m probably at home, never having been one to like crowds and thus not a girl found in busy bars on weekend nights. I’ll also not get over the idea of buying a drink for the bartender instead of leaving a tip. But some of the new technology things sounded intriguing, space-age computerized pub technology to contrast the Victorian interiors?

Easter Parade from the brilliant 1948 Fred Astaire-Judy Garland movie of the same name:

I never, ever get tired of this movie, Holiday Inn or White Christmas not to mention a whole bunch of other oldies but goodies. These classic holiday musicals are timeless–if you haven’t seen this one, I highly recommend it!

Two small bits of admin, I’ve updated the Expat Blogs page but if you know of others I’ve missed (or if I’ve missed or mis-handled yours) please do leave a comment… especially for US/UK blogs out there. Also, a quick note on my twitter fiasco. I tried to join twitter a few months ago (time flies!) and ended up with the truncated name “notfromaroundhe” which I hated; last week I deleted the account and replaced it with “notfrmroundhere” which is slightly less worse. I then tried to install the twitterific app on my iPhone only to have my phone freeze and die due to some problem with the iPhone app store, which I think now was because my US credit card was frozen after I tried to use it to buy a plane ticket last week and had it declined. (Seriously, now my ever-reliable US card is not working? My luck with credit cards and banking is not so good…) So although I do intend to start tweeting, I’m still just trying to get it all organized. Talked to the credit people yesterday and now have to have another go with the app store. Ah, modern technology! So at the moment I’m mostly status-updating on facebook but eventually hope to obtain nirvana by getting that to read twitter too… it’s a technological challenge that I may or may not be up for!!!

Weekend of expat commiseration

My weekend plans include a black-tie dinner, par for the course in this crazy life, but for this one I have a good friend coming from Paris to be my “date,” she is also an American expat friend of mine from my last location in the US and so it will be an interesting and fun experience in expat comparisons on life abroad. I visited her in Paris in October and now it’s time for the return trip–my chance to show off my fabulous life in England to someone who has never been here. It should be great fun. In other news, I went to the gym on Tuesday for the first time in, ummmm, two months–oops! My months of January and February are the busiest of my work year, and this year the gym has really suffered. I intend to get back into the schedule I managed to maintain in September through November, where I was averaging 2.5 visits per week. And yes, that’s a real number because I tracked my progress in a spreadsheet. Blame me, I’m an engineer and I count things. It’s why I’m obsessed with cricket, the best ‘counting and statistics’ sport of all time. Speaking of which, this week has been interesting in cricket, the English were humiliated and the Aussies have done well, which is interesting since I saw the Aussies at their worst in Australia at the Boxing Day test. I was feeling quite down ahead of this year’s “Ashes” series (which is the regular grudge match between the English and the Aussies) but now as an Aussie fan I’m gaining confidence. Yes, this post has been a pretty random round-up of topics, but that’s where my life is now. Off to Glasgow on Tuesday for nearly a week of conferencing, then a pretty clear week home in England in which I’ve managed to avoid yet another trip by deputizing someone to go to Switzerland in my place–hoorah for the person who travels too much.

Yesterday was… ?

I was at meetings in East London yesterday, which I do about once every month or two, and these events inevitably end in the pub with the group. I managed to divulge one of those little pieces of Americana that I don’t even think about as being unusual, but it shocked the assembled Britain-dwelling (although not all Britain-born) masses into silence, and left everyone staring at me with their jaws hanging floorward. They were discussing “pancake day” (Shrove Tuesday) and how they needed to go home and make pancakes. I had been seeing signs in the kitchenware shop down the street from me advertising pancake day and trying to sell pancake-making implements, but I had certainly not heard of “pancake day” before moving here and it’s not something I would have thought of yesterday. I was, however, from reading American papers, aware that it was Mardi Gras. Someone must have asked me in passing if the Americans celebrated pancake day, to which I replied (too hastily), “No, but today there will be loads of girls in New Orleans for Mardi Gras drinking too much and lifting their shirts to flash strangers.”

Yeah, you could have heard a pin drop. Oops. But, it’s true, New Orleans is the only place I can think of where people plan in advance to go out drinking and purposefully not be wearing bras for this adventurous practice. I have not been to NoLa for Mardi Gras, although I was there one year for a conference that fell close to St. Patrick’s day, which I have been assured was very Mardi Gras-like, including a parade, beads, t*ts, the whole thing. The conversation moved on to discuss Carnivale and the fact that there were a variety of interesting things happening yesterday depending on where you were. It’s a pretty funny cultural commentary, I thought: the Brits are eating pancakes while the Americans, North and South, are flashing a lot of skin at passers-by. Hmmm. Not sure what that means. But Lent starts today regardless of what you did yesterday.

Sisterly visit round-up

My darlin’ sis will be leaving tomorrow although I do need to get back to a more productive life, probably! It’s been such fun having her here. In the end, my actual birthday (Friday) ended up being quite low-key, as I had a work thing to finish that just would not wrap up easily, and so it was good that we had our weekend adventure to look forward to.

We took off for Brussels on the Eurostar train mid-afternoon on Saturday. We had decided quite purposefully not to go too early Saturday morning, although in the end we were quite efficient and actually got to central London early enough to enjoy one of the new restaurants in St. Pancras Intl., a “build your own salad” place that we quite liked. We took the “normal” service to Brussels on Saturday (more on that in a moment) and got in on time. We were determined to brave the public transport to find our hotel, and thus managed to get on a tram heading south from Brussels Zuid (south)–oops. Three stops, turned around, back to where we started, and then finally to our destination.

Being Minnesota girls, I had booked us in at the Radisson and again everything was not quite right, first they put us in a room with a double bed instead of two twins, then we moved rooms only to find it was set up for one person (one set of bathrobe+slippers, this would not do at all!) and finally got it organized. We had dinner at a reasonably nondescript place, but managed to find moules frites and Belgian beer, which were our two requirements. Since it was dark and we did not have our bearings yet, it was good to stay close to the hotel. We picked up some more tasty tipples and hung out in the hotel.

We got up on Sunday morning at a decent hour and had the hotel breakfast before setting out on our adventures. Here’s where a slight bit of poor planning kicked in: it was absolutely freezing. It was windy, it was drafty, and although I was dressed okay for the temperate weather in England this time of year (more on that in a moment!), I was not at all prepared for the freezy Belgian winds. We soldiered on, however, stopping for coffee and the requisite Belgian waffle and coffee in the Grand Place. We wandered up to the upper town and decided it was lacking, and returned to the lower town where we found a much more authentic dining experience, and again munched moules frites and beer. We came back from Brussels on “Leisure Select” Eurostar this time, which was a total blast since the cabin was nearly empty and the steward plied us with champagne, at one point giving us an extra glass for “our imaginary friend”… he could not have known how accurate he was given the history there with my sister’s imaginary friend(s) from youth. Very perceptive. The train was delayed and we arrived to find the first of the big snow falling in London.

Ah, the snow. I had to get up and work Monday morning, and was cursing the importance of my 11 am engagement. The snow was falling hard by this point, and it was difficult walking to get to work BUT the temperatures felt downright balmy compared with Brussels! My thigh muscles were straining trying to keep balance even though I was wearing my Doc Martens combat boots for the first time in ages. I made it through a number of essential meetings and tasks, and escaped around 3:30 pm to try and get some shopping done with sis, only to discover that the high street shoppes were closing down early “due to inclement weather”… now note that by this point, the snow flakes were smaller and coming down much slower, and the roads were neither icy nor snowy any more. In fact, by the time I went to bed, it was raining and there was essentially no sign of snow on my street. I woke this morning to blue skies and sunshine.

We are now back to my sister’s last full day here, and I kept my work commitments again as light as possible, which means I will be putting in long hours the rest of the week and all weekend long–but totally worth it, of course! I have a more expat-related story to relay, but will wait to type that until my sister is no longer here to amuse me.

Happiness is…

My sister visiting AND cheez-its on my birthday

Sister love

Since my sister lives in China, and Monday was Chinese New Year, she is on her holiday break right now, whereas she had to work much of our Christmas holidays. She has been home in Minnesota for a while, but is about to board a plane for a nearly week long visit to the UK, hoorah! I have to admit, I forgot completely that compared with her last two visits, this time she is gainfully employed–I hope she was not too insulted that I had assumed I’d pay for her car-and-driver transport to my place instead of getting it herself! Really, she insisted. It was so cute. And there’s nothing better after the overnight international flight than not having to fight with tubes and trains.

Having visitors here is really good for me. It’s nice to see my life through someone else’s eyes, always makes me appreciate what I have here. It always causes me to clean my flat. And visit interesting restaurants or cook better than I sometimes do when alone and busy/overworked. And hopefully it will also cause me to start going back to the gym, since I know she is keen to see the place. We have our little adventure planned–last time she came it was a day trip to Dublin, this time we’re Eurostar-ing it for a brief visit to Brussels. We had to agree on someplace that neither of us had seen before, and we seem to have a long list of countries that only one of us has been to. I’ve seen Hungary, Italy, Greece (well, Crete). She’s done Norway and Spain. We thought maybe Scotland, but realized that January might not be the best time of year weather-wise, and I have to go there for work in a few weeks already. Since I have that plus Switzerland both on the horizon, this will be three new countries for me in just a few months, so that’s exciting–I’m soon going to switch over to the list of EU countries I have not visited being shorter than the list of places I have seen, albeit briefly in cases.

She promises she’s bringing work to do, which is good since I really can’t stop and laze around with her as much as I would like to, less than a month post-Australia. But it sounds like that will be okay. And really, in the grand scheme of things, is there anything better than having your fellow-expat baby sister floating around your flat when you get home from work? I think not.