Is it California?

On our previous excursions to the Kentish coast, we have found only pebble beaches with little watery ripples, interesting as an oddity but not terribly pleasant to walk along. To a beach enthusiast such as myself, only soft, smooth sand with rolling waves truly satisfies me. Fortunately, just such a beach exists approximately one hour south of us in Sussex near the picturesque town of Rye. Camber Sands looks like it's a happening place in the summer, but on a late Sunday afternoon in October it was fairly sparse. Note the beachy grass that grows on the dunes: As I told Zac, you'd never guess you were in England and not in California. I know where to go when I'm homesick!
The beach parking lot is surrounded by rather junky arcades, fish bars (that's what they call places that sell fish and chips and other fried items), and souvenir shops. Won't be stopping for a bite to eat, but I will be back to walk along REAL SAND!
An added attraction: just five minutes away is the town of Rye, known for "high dress shops" and tons of antique shops. We didn't get a chance to go into any high dress shops (selling what looks like old costumes) because they were all closed, but we did come away a few pounds lighter monetarily and a few pounds heavier antiqueily (new word).
See the pictures of Camber Sands (just a few) here.

The British Two-Step

You know how when you are approaching a person who is walking towards you sometimes there is that awkward moment when you both head the same direction trying to get out of the way? Over here it happens exponentially more. I think I realized why. My instinct is to go right, their instinct is to go left: I've had this go on for four or five tries. I blame them driving on the wrong side of the road.

The George Inn

When Erica and I first decided to move to the UK, I immediately began thinking of a job that I might acquire. I decided that one of two criteria should be met for the job to be considered desirable. The first criterion was that the job would be one in which I had been trained for in my education (e.g. youth worker, associate pastor, working in the schools). The other criterion was that the job should be something distinctly British (e.g. chimney sweep or working at a castle). Well, as of now half of my jobs are distinctly British. There are two pubs in our little village, the one is just two doors down, and features a bar in the middle, a slot machine in the corner, and nothing else; pretty much a typical American bar. I am working in the other pub exactly a half-mile down the road from us. The George Inn, has been around for a good 350 some-odd years, and is still thriving. It is a pub, and more alcohol is served than food, but most of our customers are not in looking to drown their sorrows in pints of oranjeboom, but rather sharing a pint with friends on the way home from work, or on the weekend. I work behind the bar, but so far always with an experience member of staff. I make myself more useful serving food and clearing tables, until I get a little better at the art of bartending (n.b. a Gin & Tonic requires the use of actual tonic water, not soda water). The staff are all very nice, and my latest hobby is answering questions about where my accent comes from. Most people guess Canadian. I figure either they think they are being nice by not guessing Usonian, or they are accentually acute enough to pick-up the fact that I'm from a part of the country that is near to Canada. I actually had one guy insuate that that's what he thought. The guessing the accent game is the closest I have come to any real conversations with customers, but I am hoping to have more once I get to know the regulars a bit better.
The fact that I'm making a little bit more than minimum wage (plus tips), can walk to and from work, can chat with real British people, and can maybe have cricket finally explained to me all add up to a positive experience. And less anyone be concerned, I have not sampled any of the wares at the pub since I started working.

yet...

Lille

So, our grand adventure to the Continent this weekend was slightly diminished by our missing the ferry on Saturday morning due to the fact that we had forgotten to pack our passports. Thus, we had to go Sunday morning instead. Saturday we were supposed to spend in Bruges with cousin Ardas and her friends and then Zac and I were going to stay the night at a b&b in Bruges, but that didn't happen. Belgium will have to wait for another weekend adventure (see another post for what we did instead!).
However, Lille was fantastic! My (Erica's) cousin lives there as an au pair and let us stay with her. We saw the old town and went into an old stock exchange building that is now a book market (of great appeal to Zac and I). Besides books you could buy old photographs, maps, stamps, coins, old postcards, etc. I did buy a few old coins including a franc from 1938.
From there we walked down the cobblestone streets to Meert, a famous waffle place with unusual storefront and interior decor, and got their signature waffles (2 very thin soft wafers with vanilla creme between) and to a bakery to buy (of course) French bread. Other food items purchased: Camembert (fantastically delicious cheese similar to brie), some Bordeaux wine from 2005 (purportedly a good year) and some little mints that Ardas said were "very French."
After this, we went to an exhibition hall with live music, story-telling and art displays, walked through a park and ate French fries (highly recommended).
The weather was lovely, the food good, and it was great to see cousin Ardas!
See our pictures here.

BritBars: Cadbury Twirl

We went to the Contenent this weekend. A post with more details and to follow. Here and now is my first installment of BritBars where I write about differnt kinds of British candy bars.

Many of the candy bars in the UK are made and or distributed by Cadbury UK. The Twirl is similar in shape to a Twix bar back in the states. Inside the milk chocolate coating however instead of being crispy is more milk chocolate in a wavy layer. Upon biting into it, I was expecting a crispness similar to a Twix, and was a little perplexed that all it was was more chocolate. The tag line for the bar is "The Intense Chocolate Hit" and that is what it is.

If you have any criteria for judging a candy bar feel free to give me it. I was thinking choclatiness, difference from US candy bars, overall taste, any others would be great.

As for now, I'm going to give the Twirl an overall ranking of 5 out of ten.

British Words Of The Day

For your benefit and enjoyment, may I present the first installment of British Words Of The Day.

Lor•ry ˈlôrē noun (American: Semi) as in "These lorries will crush our Micra"

Wick•ed ˈwikid adjective informal excellent, awesome as in "You will work for minimum wage? Wicked!"

Camp kamp adjective (American: Metrosexual) as in "Look at that scarf, that guy is pretty camp"

Pet•rol ˈpetrəl noun (American: Gasoline) as in "Can you believe petrol is almost a pound ten a liter?"

Gar•den ˈgärdn noun (American: back yard, property, lot) as in "Your apartment comes with a paved garden"

Footpaths in Leeds: A Verbal and Pictorial Mapping

I've been trying to make a habit of taking a daily walk (which so far is only about every other day) along the footpaths in our area. We've decided to name the four paths we've discovered in our area as Burgess Hall South, Burgess Hall North, (these border the edges of a housing development by that name) the Field Path and the Woods Path. Burgess Hall North is absolute rubbish, but the other three are quite excellent. Today I walked along the Field path, which goes between 2 VERY large fields and makes you feel like you are in Kansas. You can follow it straight across a lane and it connects with several other footpaths, or you can turn to the left and take it to a wooded area where it connects with the Woods Path. This wooded area can only properly be described as a glade and was probably inhabited by Robin Hood and his Merry Men by the looks of it (so Zac and I think). The Woods Path takes you into the playing field and from there up the street to our house.
Pictures are the village as seen from across the playing field, the Field Path, and the Woods Path (not that you can see a discernible path).

What To Look Forward To

My O so very observant sister pointed out that a blog not blogged is likely not to be read. Our current internet situation is poor. We have a pay as you go mobile connection, but live in a dip that seems to avoid contact with the outside world (especially via wi-fi signals). When we do have a good connection we tend to use it for things we really have to do. Thus the blog has been left to rot thus far.
What you can look forward to though from this blog is an update of how the Neubauers are doing job wise, school wise, ministry wise, etc. We'll have plenty of pictures. Like from our trip to Bruges this weekend, and other goodies, such as my search for the best fish n' chips in the UK, and my systematic experimentation of British candy bars. We'll also throw in odds and ends, like driving on the "wrong" side of the road, and other cultural peculiarities.
Hope you'll stay in touch.
Zac & Erica