Day 2

The Alliance Review 17 December 2011

According to the internet, Mark Twain once said, “If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.” In the case of my hometown, I would add, if you read the Alliance Review you are mal-informed. Being mal-informed is like being malnourished. In the instance of malnourishment food is entering your body, it just isn't the food that you need to live a healthy life. I would argue that a glove shaped (really a glove? more like a deformed chicken foot) is not the kind of information one needs to live a healthy life. Mr. Beach didn't grow it himself, he just found it "in a bag of spuds". And note the small print in the bottom right hand corner. It isn't a submitted photo. A Review photographer actually took time to specifically photograph Mr. Beach and his "unusually shaped potato"!

Granted, the picture occurs on page B8, amongst some local information such as the weekly school menus; and while not a strong candidate for a Pulitzer; it is edited well. It is nowhere near the prize for dumbest headline in the Review. A few years back there was a photo of some local senior citizens doing Christmas crafts. The headline?  "Alzheimer patients create Christmas memories". 

Day 1

All of my siblings are now in Ohio. Anna arrived from Geneva a few hours before our original flight was supposed to arrive. Alas, we missed our connection in Chicago and spent the night in a hotel and arrived about nine hours later than we were supposed to. Becky caught a flight from a conference she was at in D.C. and we're sitting around and chatting as the first snow of the year falls outside.

Clive is reacclumating himself to his extended family and to my parents' dog Maggie. He did okay on the flight, but is still a bit jet lagged. Last night he went to bed at 4pm and got up at 5am. I can handle that. Hopefully tonight we'll restore him to a more convenient schedule of 6 or 7pm to 7 or 8 am. He will have his hands full tonight though as we're having aunts, uncles and cousins over.

Erica and I ventured out into my hometown yesterday afternoon. For as much as things change, they also stay the same. Alliance is grim (as Simon Mitchell would say). We talk of England's weather, but the sky here is just a different kind of grey. We did stop by a charity shop though, buy some (non-alcoholic) apple cider, and stop by Heggy's for some chocolate.

Other highlights? My brother building an open fire in the fireplace last night, beating Anna at scrabble, realizing that I didn't miss Graham Crackers that much, and listening to my dad snore as he sleeps on the living room floor.

Until Day 2...

An Infographic

I (Zac) love information. I especially love when information is presented visually. They even have a term for this nowadays; infographics.

The above infographic shows how the various parts of the islands we currently live on relate to each other. The bluish (I hope) circles represent legal definitions and the other colour represent geographical definitions.

Enjoy.

Isn't She Something?!

Erica is a pretty darn special woman. Along with being the primary caregiver of Clive, she is also a freelance graphic designer. Our church has hired her on for four hours a week to handle All Saints' publicity, posters, brochures, website, etc.

Anyway, the new front page of the website has gone up and I must say that I am impressed! She's going to have this place looking good in no time.

Check it out at www.allsaintsloose.org.uk you can look at the rest of the site too, but Erica hasn't put her magic touch on those parts yet.

Black Friday

We just got home from having a Thanksgiving meal with our small group from church. It is an afternoon where we can relax, fellowship, and and take part in one of the best holidays that the United States has to offer. It is fun to watch our British friends resist the temptation to make roast potatoes and to instead mash them, to see two of our friends pulling on opposite sides of a wishbone, or watch our priest-in-charge try pumpkin pie for the first time.

Both years I have given an abridged version of the history of thanksgiving and we go around the table and share things that we are thankful for. All around it is a fun day; especially this year having homemade mulled cider.

The question I dread though is this, 'What is Black Friday?'

You see they don't have anything like it over here and the concept is foreign to them. There is not one high holy day of consumerism where people worship under the guise of preparing for one of Christianity's holiest days. It just doesn't happen. So they are shocked when I explain to them that stores/shops open at midnight and that you have to be one of the first people in the store or else you won't get the $2 toaster (that is regularly priced at $29.99). They are gobsmacked to hear that people camp outside stores for days in order to get the latest video game system or the ticklish new toy, and they don't know what to make of people pushing, shoving, and using pepper spray!?!?! to get a good deal.

My opinion of Black Friday has changed since being in England. I used to think of it as a slightly pathetic but harmless way to spend the day after Thanksgiving. I now find it to be one of the most embarrassing parts of the culture that I come from. As one of my English friends today commented, many of the people that go out are acting as strongly religious people, committed to their belief that bargain prices are worth their time and energy.

I know it is not the only 'religion' that runs amok in U.S. culture (God and I are still chatting about my fascination with professional sports) but it is one that saddens me, especially when I have to explain it to outsiders who are celebrating a day that at it's core encourages gratefulness.

Updates on Life

Clive is 28 weeks old today, (where has the time gone?) and we have been shamefully bad about keeping up-to-date, not only with him, but with jobs, family, future plans, etc. Here's my attempt to do better at that.

Clive has been eating real people food now for about 6 weeks, and it has made a wonderful (though challenging and messy) change in our lives. He seems to thrive on it. You may remember that initially he would only eat banana or banana+other stuff. Thankfully, he is past that stage (or he'd be 10 years old eating an In-N-Out Burger with banana smashed all over it) and now eats yogurt, cheese, meat, quiche, pizza, etc and he can reasonably feed himself bread and ravioli with his hands. We are so proud of our big boy! Plus, his weight has picked up dramatically with the introduction of food. I look back on the days when he was sick and losing weight and I'm so glad that now we a thriving and chubby baby.
He also sleeps through the night now, which is a HUGE improvement over waking every hour like he was doing only a few weeks ago, and taking more regular naps. Basically, he is happy, healthy, smiling and laughing, and to not risk sounding like an obsessed parent I'll stop there.

Zac had a big step forward last week, and that was starting the process of ordination in the Church of England. He meet with our Diocesan Director of Ordinands and the meeting went so well that the DDO said that he was confident that Zac should begin the process. The process is at least a year long and involves a lot of work, meetings, selection committees, etc, and there are LOTS of opportunities for them to decide not to advance a candidate. We are excited to have made this first step and praying that God will affirm for Zac his calling in ministry and make it obvious to the diocese people. Your prayers in this area are appreciated!

Erica (that's me, so I'll switch to the first person) I'm continuing my freelance graphic design work, which is very flexible and allows me to still take care of Clive during the day. I have only a few clients at the moment, which is good because I have only a few hours a day to devote to it, but I am looking for more (hours and clients!). I really love doing my graphic design, and I love being my own boss :); satisfaction definitely trumping financial success right now. Recently I've started doing 4 hours a week of work at our church, during which time Clive is watched by a friend. I'll be completely re-vamping the church website, you can see the final product hopefully around Christmas!
I'd also like to welcome my new nephew into the world, born October 28th (so a few weeks ago now). He was born to my sister Allie and her husband Evan, and we're thrilled to have another little one in the family (I love babies, can you tell?). Alexei Sebastian Friesen, you are very cute and we can't wait to meet you at Christmas!

And in case you hadn't yet heard, we are going to spend our first Christmas in 2 years back in the US! I love living here in England, but Christmas is a hard time to be away from family. We'll be splitting our time between Ohio and California, in Ohio from Dec 16-Dec 25 and California Dec 25-Jan 4. We can't wait to see everyone!

Just One of Those Things

Erica and I have been in the UK for over two years, have adjusted to/accepted most of the cultural differences and yet I am always surprised by how much it bothers me.

The zippers over here are backwards.

Here's what I mean.

When I buy a jacket or hoodie, I put it on and as I go to zip it up the pull of the zipper is in my left hand rather than the right.

This really threw me off at first when I would be out browsing at a shop such as H&M (where I am never quite sure what are men's clothes and what are women's).

While I now understand that it is backwards to what I am used to; it is always strange when I put on a jacket for the first time and I routinely use my right hand to grab for the pull even on a jacket that I have owned for over a year.

As opposed to other left-handed peculiarities this is one that is not limited to the UK. While we were in Ukraine last year we met up with one of the missionaries who was there in Kiev. He was wearing a nice custom made track jacket with the name of the football team that he coached on it. I jokingly asked him if it had an 'American' zipper or a 'European' zipper. He made clear that it had a 'normal' zipper and that the rest of teams jackets all had the American style as well.

I guess in the changing of cultures there are some things that you just can't let go of.



In other news, yesterday I met up with a DDO named Clive. Details to follow shortly.

Ooh. Bananas

Clive has been eating 'big people food' for two weeks now. The first few days we tried out some basics; rice cereal, bananas, pear and then got more adventurous with avacado and other veggies. He seemed to be okay with the rice cereal and pear, but was a big fan of bananas.

Two weeks later now he's eating three meals a day and every one has to contain banana. He loves them! If given the opportunity he will eat an entire banana in one sitting. So we've taken to mixing in bananas with other foods.




Bananas and Apples

Bananas and Rice Cereal

Bananas and Four Grain Cereal

Bananas and Yams (yep!)

Bananas and Carrots (okay!)

and tonight, the strangest of all, Bananas and Beets...

This kid is bananas for bananas.

The Man Drawer

I had never heard of Michael McIntyre before I arrived in England and I have to say he is one of the best discoveries that I have come across. He seems like a really decent guy and we even saw him on a random street in London once.
One of his most loved bits is his 'Man Drawer' routine. I have seen funnier bits of his, but this has to be one of his universally understood. I knew exactly what it was about just on the title alone. Enjoy...

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I just finished Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. If you have never read it, please do so. The final chapters are full of biblical allusions and the story is told very well.

One of the lines that stuck with me though is an allusion to a different ancient document; Horace's Odes. Translated the line reads;

but lame-footed Punishment rarely forgets the wicked man, despite his start.

As a church we are focusing on the prophet Amos and the thing that has really struck me hard is that punishment or judgment is a good thing. God's judgment proves that he cares about us, that he is just, and that he will right wrongs. Not only that, but God's judgment ultimately provides us with salvation, for without judgment we are left in the despair of our own created hell.

If you do decide to pick up this gem by Mr. Stevenson, please try to set aside what you might already know about the story. It makes it all the more enjoyable.

Marzipan and Other Unexpected Delights

Hell is where:

The police are German
The mechanics are French
The cooks are British
The lovers are Swiss
And the whole thing is organized by the Italians...

Heaven is where:

The police are British
The mechanics are German
The cooks are French
The lovers are Italian
And the whole thing is organized by the Swiss.

So goes the joke, but kidding aside I am been pleasantly surprised by British food.
Sure they have come up with some doozies like this and this, but allow me to list just a few items that I really enjoy.

Chicken Pie--As a kid I always loved the nights when we popped the little tins in the oven and out came deliciousness with a crispy delicious crust. At university I graduated to these (10 for $1 at Jewel if you were lucky). Now I have entered pot-pie heaven over here. Jamie Oliver has a great recipe that we use.

Cornish Pasties--Its a reoccurring theme over here, put meat and pastry together and it is hard to go wrong. Now I know you can make them yourself, but in all reality these are the best.

Marzipan--No, not her. Granted, marzipan is not British, but it is all over the place here, and I love it! This is kinda weird, but this is just tasty!

Cider--We arrived in Britain in the autumn and saw signs for cider all over the place. Wow just like home! Well, not quite. Note, if you want to try some British cider don't buy Strongbow, just a hint, they sell it by the 2 liter bottle over her. Instead try to find a Cornish brand or skip the British part and try to find a local cider. Alternatively, come visit, and we'll give you some of the stuff we just made.

One last note, fish and chips. I have been bitterly disappointed. The best fish and chips I have ever had are still located here. If anyone is in Chicago please stop by. In my day it was only $9 on Friday nights for all you can eat, but now they do it on Wednesdays and Fridays and it's only $10.25.

British Summer Time

Summer Time in Britain started today. Granted seven of the last eight days have been mostly sunny, but with a predicted average temperature this week of 52F and rain forecasted you can hardly call it summer.

Fortunately for summer's sake, British Summer Time is to the UK what Daylight Savings Time is to most of the U.S.

All in all, I think it is just a bit of deceptive advertising.

Groundhog's Day

Because of the Groundhog's Day Blizzard of '11 is covering most of the U.S. we are still in the UK.
A short recap...

We were supposed to fly out of Heathrow to Chicago O'Hare on Wednesday morning. Late Tuesday night we checked our flight status and saw that it had been canceled and that we would be on a later flight on Wednesday. Fair enough. Instead of getting up really early we slept in a bit, finished some cleaning around the house and got ready to leave to catch our 4.30pm flight from Heathrow.

We checked, double, and triple checked our flight status and finally left for Heathrow yesterday afternoon. We got to Heathrow, got our luggage out, found our ticket counter, and the girl's headed off to the toilet. As soon as they were out of hearing range the announcement came over the speakers. "American Airlines regrets to inform passengers that flight 91 to Chicago has been canceled. Please come to the ticket counter for more information."

We trudge to the counter and are told that Erica has been put on a British Airlines flight to Chicago via New York at 8.30am on Thursday and that Inga and I would be on the same flight that had just been canceled except on Thursday. Well that was no good, so we arranged for all three of us to be on Thursday's 4.30pm flight. The difficulty with the 4.30 flight is that we get into Chicago at 7.30pm which is too late for Erica and I to catch our flight to Cleveland. So we have to stay overnight in Chicago (very thankful for the Brankatelli's hospitality in this regard) and catch a Friday morning flight to Cleveland.

So now it is Thursday morning. We slept in a bit, finished some cleaning around the house and are getting ready to leave to catch our 4.30pm flight from Heathrow.

Again.

Woah!

The past two months have been a whirlwind roller coaster so we'll just have a few high (and low)lights.

+ On New Year's Eve Erica had her second scan and Clive Neubauer is a healthy growing boy ready to enter the world come mid-May.

+ Dave & Camille Ho moved back to Maidstone; we were acquaintances with Dave while we were at Moody and were astonished to find once we moved here that he was from Maidstone. He and his wife Camille just moved back. Dave and I were in the same major at Moody, and Camille and Erica were both in the communications department and they are expecting their first child in June. They have been a tremendous encouragement and help to us over the past few months.

+We spent Christmas Day with Steve & Helen Price and their daughters. Steve is the Priest-in-charge at our church and we attend the same home group. Our first Christmas over here in the Isles was tough, but a year of experience plus the Price's hospitality helped this one a lot.

+Erica has completed her final project and her thesis and just has an external examiner coming on Monday to grade her.

+We're coming back to the States for a visit on Wednesday. You probably know this already though...

+My admin job is going well. More about that later.

+Got to see Matt & Meredith Riordan (plus 13 of their teen aged friends) in London two weeks ago. Meredith was leading a Literary London J-term trip so we met up with them for an evening and enjoyed

Some not so hot news...

-Our 17 year old Nissan Micra broke down. It had been a bit rough going and we weren't sure if it would pass the next M.O.T. in May. Our transmission decided to put an end to any speculation though two weeks back, and left us on the side of the road. We have the British version of AAA and got home, but found out the car was going to cost more to fix than it was worth...
We struggled through two weeks of no car, but made an offer on a 2000 Toyota Yaris and are picking it up tomorrow. It is bittersweet as we definately were not planning on buying a car with our meager paychecks, but a couple from our church are trustees of a trust fund and that fund is giving us over half of the money we need for it!