More Travelling In One Month Then I Have My Whole Life

Just booked London train tickets and a hostel. We're staying one Underground stop from where The Who formed. There will be some exciting stalking going on.

Also just booked the Barcelona flight/hostel. We'll be staying from the 15th - 19th of March.

And to top this whole run we've got going, we'll be in Florence from April 3 to the 20th. Sounds good to me.

Sudden Strike of Patriotism

Did you know George Washington's birthday was Monday? No? Well, thanks to the American calendar, we had reason to celebrate.

The Pro-Obama Health Care Plan Team

Tonight concluded as we found ourselves in a pub down the street, Nancy's Bordello, playing an intense round of "Pub Quiz." So what is a pub quiz? It's a trivia game...in a pub. Sounds simple enough.

The quiz we did tonight was 4 grueling rounds of popular culture trivia, identifying celebrities, and general knowledge. The bartender, who acted as tonight's quizzer, started off by directing all of the attention to the wonderful table of American girls in the back corner. That was only the beginning.

We had met this bartender in our first few days in Newcastle; He was the first to ask THE QUESTION OF THE CENTURY: "What do you think about Obama's Healthcare plan?" Since that day, we've had to defend our hesitations of having National Healthcare to every Brit we've met. All of that aside, we must fast forward to today, and the pub quiz.

When choosing a team name, we contemplated on an assortment of names including:
Team U.S.A.
George Washington's Army
and the winner: The Pro-Obama Healthcare Plan Team
Every Brit we've met has thought very highly of Obama's new plan, so we thought we'd win some brownie points by choosing this one. Indeed it did. We won the "best team name" and a round of shots that smelled like pastries as our prize.

Round 1 required us to identify celebrities by picture. Ricky Martin, Kevin Bacon, John Cleese, and Carmen Electra were a few of the "stars" pictured.

Round 2 was general trivia of things that had been in the news this week. One question was "In which sport did the British Olympiad receive a gold medal? Unfortunately we have missed the majority of the Olympics due to lack of TV. Luckily though, I talked to my mom a few days ago and remembered her saying that the Brits won a gold medal...in skeleton. Phew.

Round 3 seemed to be historical and science based trivia. For example, did you know that a manatee was the inspiration for the mythical creature, the mermaid? Neither did we.

Round 4 was music. Luckily, our last minute British group mate knew most of the answers. I felt out of my element, seeing my expertise in music doesn't fall anywhere near the 1980s.

So that was the "pub quiz." We didn't win, but we did get 3rd place. Not bad for 5 Americans in England.

Future Posts

There are two posts coming straight at you, as soon as possible. One of these two include the classic "Why Is Your Money Worth More Than Mine? Because It's Bigger?"

Thanks to Justine for the suggestion.

Random Pictures That Have No Home

At Nancy's with Dave and Aaron (who were on business from the States) and the neighbors. Great round of Presidents -a card game- played here.

After Nancy's.

Having fun in the streets of Newcastle.
Pancake Day with the neighbors, Ash and Anthony.
Just like momma makes.

Getting ready for S Club 7.

Jail Guitar Doors

Jail Guitar Doors is a program created to serve prison inmates in England. Money raised through benefit concerts and film festivals is used to buy guitars for inmates in the prisons. The documentary we saw tonight was about the process of going into the jails and teaching inmates to play. After the showing, 2 of the graduates of the program performed on stage, as well as Billy Bragg, the founder of the organization.
Here are some pics of the show. The theatre was just gorgeous, as you can see.


Leon- Graduate of Jail Guitar Doors


Billy Bragg


Leon signing my CD


Billy Bragg - just after signing my shirt :)


On the way home!

Are You Ready To Time-Warp Back to 1999?

When people said "Newcastle has a great music scene" I didn't picture the "great music" as being Sisqo an S Club 7.

Okay, so it wasn't great music per-say, but it was a part of my childhood. When we found out S Club was coming to Newcastle, I youtubed them to see if I remembered any of the songs. The next thing I knew, D, Ash and I were screaming every single lyric at the top of our lungs as S Club -3- were on stage.

It's amazing the things we remember. When I was 12 I went through an Eminem phase, and to this day I can still recite every word of "8 Mile Road." (It's something I'm too proud of)

And why is it that I can remember lyrics to S Club 7...or Eminem...or Bon Jovi? But I can't remember things that I want to remember; like how to get home when I get lost in the city centre's twisty roads. It's a bit confusing for me.

I DID find my way home in case you were wondering.

Pancake Day

Today is Pancake Day, a wonderful national holiday where it is perfectly okay to eat pancakes all day. Tonight it will be American Pancakes for dinner and British crepes for dessert. Yum.

I will probably fall asleep before dessert seeing that I had 2 hours of sleep last night. Other than getting my project done, I also caught up on all the Disney Channel Movies we used to watch as kids while I was working.
Ready for the list of films I watched from about 7 pm to 7 am ?
Ahhem...
Zenon Girl of the 21st Century
Zenon 2
Johnny Tsunami
Johnny Tsunami 2
Motocrossed
My Date With the President's Daughter
and I also watched the Incredibles and Willy Wonka.

I have no life.

And Now, A Word From Our Sponsors

Sorry for this short commercial break, or rather, lack of blog posting. It seems I have a bit of work to catch up on. We will resume our normal broadcasting promptly.

Ramen Noodles?

There isn't one ramen noodle in all of Britain as far as I can tell. I am forced to cook.



Tonight's menu:
Breaded Basa Filet in a Strawberry Reduction
Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Panchetta and apple slices

When I went to the store I grabbed breaded chicken, or what my brain comprehended as breaded chicken. It turns out that it was A Fish Called Basa. -not related to the other Fish, Called Wanda-
So, long story short, I was working with a secret ingredient tonight. It turned out delicious. Iron Chef can eat my dust.

Choosy Mom's Choose Jif. As well as Purex, Elmers, and Gatorade.

Today a little bit of America came to Newcastle.
That is, a package from home.

So what did it contain? I know you are all dying to know.
Ahh hem...
20 packs of Gatorade G2 Purple Powder (it's an addiction)
3 cans of Rubber Cement
5 Elmers glue sticks
1 pair of jeans
40 laundry detergent sheets
2 teddy bears with valentines candy (One for me and one for D)
1 Sam's Club-sized can o' JIF
4 Paint Brushes
10 acrylic tubes
1 pencil box (with pencils, fine brushes, etc.
4 Magic Erasers
1 Camera cable
Quadrophenia DVD
1 Cheese Grater
Souvenir bag from New Orleans

Thanks to the fam.

A Family Outing

After many requests, here are the roommates!

D, Yours Truly, Jill, Aleia, Ash, Julien
Monica was missing today, as well as Merlin, and Fanny took the photo.
Thanks, Fanny!

Overlooking the Tyne River from the Baltic, a Contemporary Art Museum. Little history factoid for you to chew on: The Baltic used to host 2 flour silos, instead of art.

Lower right hand corner is a bit of the Millenium Bridge, Straight ahead is a bridge of which I do not know the name, and on the left is The Sage (where we'll be seeing the London Philharmonic soon).
And to give you some perspective of where we live from here, When going out of the Baltic from this angle:
-turn right
-walk over the Millenium bridge
-go straight for a block
-turn right, and there's our flat!
Also, the Baltic is actually located in the city of Gateshead. Just across the Millenium bridge, is Newcastle.

It's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

compared to Ohio.

This is what I woke up to, this morning.

"I saw Sisqo last night. What did you do?" -D

Yup, that's right. Sisqo. As in "The Thong Song" Sisqo.
I'm not sure if I should brag, or if it would be safer to keep this to myself.
...
...
Eh, what the heck. I haven't any dignity to lose.
Here's the vid. Thanks to Aleia.

The Superbowl - CBS + BBC = Eloquent Football

The Superbowl ended at 3 am our time, which would explain why not many Brits watch it. And that point explains why the BBC commentary was rather hilarious: They had no idea what was going on.

I normally watch the Superbowl for the half time show and for the commercials. And guess what. No commercials over here. Normally I would be excited for a show not to have commercials...like Lost. It would be great for Lost to be commercial free. But the Superbowl? It is the single greatest day for commercialization in the world.

The good news was they did show The Who. Loved it. It was rather insane to think that I've met a man that was performing in front of a 100,000 people (give or take a few thousand) and millions watching on their telly.

The Superbowl also gave us an excuse to buy the most American food we could dream up. By the time the game started, it looked like America had thrown up all over our kitchen. We had homemade tortilla chips, salsa, guac, sour cream, pizza, burgers with cheese and bacon, pickles, and loaded potato skins. Cheers!

You Can't Photoshop Deliciousness

Sometimes I feel like Julia Child when I cook. I catch myself talking in my head, like I'm in front of a camera explaining a scrumptious recipe. I would love to cook my way through Julia's "Joy of Cooking" and blog about each recipe. Oh wait. It's Already been done.

A little addition: My mother doesn't believe that I cooked this food myself. I have no way of proving it, so she thinks I'm lying.

We're In The Future...

...5 hours to be exact. And just to let you know it will get dark later.

Some other odd things about England:
There is no "hold" in life. There is hot and cold, but where's the "hold?"
The sinks literally don't have warm water. There is a faucet for hot. And faucet for cold. Could someone please come up with a device to join the two?

All of the outlets have switches on them. So when you aren't using them, you turn them off. What a novel, energy saving, idea.

Not one Hummer in all of Britain. In fact, there isn't anything bigger than a Mini Cooper.

And also, the way they park these toy cars. It is not abnormal to see cars parked front-to-front or back-to-back. Think of it this way:

============
<<<<<<<<<<<<

----------------------

>>>>>>>>>>>>
============

PARKING IN THE U.S.


============
>>><>>><><>>

----------------------

<><>>><><<<>
============

PARKING IN THE U.K.

Get it?

That's the thinnest pancake I've ever seen, but still you insist it's a pancake and not a crepe

Tonight we made pancakes. American and English. I hadn't realized, until now, how much I miss Aunt Jemima and Bisquik.

Missing Edinburgh Already

Yes, that is the National Library. And yes, that ad is flipping you the bird.
The Royal Mile. Once, by accident, I said "Magnificent Mile." At that point exactly, I realized how different America and Scotland are. A major difference between The Royal Mile and The Magnificent Mile: One leads to the Queen and King's castle, the other to Oprah's house. We don't know crap about "Magnificent."



Dr. Bob: "Well, let's see...we don't know her name. We're pretty sure she existed..." Dr. Jim "Well, we could just call her 'daughter.' No one looks at these posters anyway."
View from the castle's cannon.