Smell the Roses

Jeffery is taking the rest of our furniture up to Willits today. It's his only day off after a work week with half a dozen hours of overtime. I watched Dan in Real Life tonight. Good movie. I am so glad that I have found the man I love and after all of this I'll get to be with him for the rest of my life. Getting through the next 12 days with three assignment due and an exam is going to be a challenge for me, but I'm going to do it well, and after that I'll have a month to travel and see this amazing country. I am learning a lot, I already have, and I know I have more to learn. It is exciting to be where I am. All I do is look forward to the future. But I should really try to appreciate the present as well. Smell the roses and all that (there are no flowers blooming here. They won't bloom until Jeffery come in spring--how appropriate).

I appreciate having a warm room and bed, and flatmates that are easy and fun to talk to. I always look forward to going down to the kitchen, because interesting conversations always await.
I appreciate the girls on my team, and how hard they all work to be good footballers.
I appreciate the lengths my professors go to to teach, even if it sometimes puts me to sleep.
I appreciate the welcomed distractions of Jane Austen novels and films, and I look forward to the class I'm going to take next semester.
I appreciate the support of my family and friends.
I appreciate having free health care for the first time in my life.
I appreciate the opportunity to wear boots, hats, gloves, scarves, sweaters, and layers of socks.
I appreciate the opportunity to talk to people and establish friendships across the world.
I appreciate that San Francisco and all my friends will be there when I get back.
I appreciate the uncharted cities that await my arrival.
I appreciate the invitations to Christmas and the homes that will be opened to me for the holiday season.

♥

An English Thanksgiving

Undoubtedly the best Thanksgiving ever. It started with a 6-0 victory over Warwick. Colney Lane (the pitch where we play) consistently gives us gusty conditions followed by incredible skies at sunset. I love my team. I can't wait for tour in Rimini, Italy in April!


I decided to organize a potluck Thanksgiving dinner, with the help of my fellow American girls in Orwell Close. Rose (from Arizona) found an oven off campus and ambitiously took on Tallulah, a 17 lb beast of a bird. I prepared apple crisp the night before, macaroni and cheese the morning of, and stove top apple sausage stuffing.

It was the largest scale T-day meal I have ever had. And the most diverse. We 21 attendees, representing 6 countries. Other dishes included: sweet potato mash, nut loaf, Greek salad, broccoli salad, orange cranberry sauce, roast turnip and carrots, mashed potatoes, the best gravy ever, couscous salad, rolls, steamed spinach, vegetarian stuffing, mixed berry cobbler, mince pies, chocolate turkeys, and Christmas puds. Needless to say, everything was delicious and tasted like Thanksgiving. The most impressive part was that everything but the turkey was cooked without an oven.

From left to right: Ingrid from Norway, Kat from Colorado/Oregon, James, Jamie, Alex, Bianca (all British), Tim from Australia, and Rachael from Southern California.

We went around the table and gave thanks. The consensus was that we were all thankful to be with one another, and to experience the diversity of holiday traditions. It's nice to be part of a international community of students. We live in the oldest, smallest residence on campus, and we all feel lucky to be the chosen few.

After so much food I felt like the one in the middle.

See's chocolate turkeys and mince pies.

♥

Jane Austen

Last night I watched Becoming Jane, which was absolutely beautiful. The cinematography was enchanting, the costumes, set design and location breathtaking, and the acting divine. The story itself is heartbreaking. But the three British girls I watched it with agree that if Jane Austen had had a happier ending, then she wouldn't have found it necessary to write such great love stories. It was a sacrifice. It was filmed in Dublin and rural Ireland instead of Hampshire, England, the birthplace of Jane Austen. The reason being because Hampshire is now groomed and manicured and they were looking for a sense of countryside that felt more unchanged. It made me want to start reading Pride and Prejudice again immediately, which I did.

I already received my syllabus for the Austen and the Brontes module I am taking next semester. I need to have Pride and Prejudice read by the first seminar in January. We will also be examining Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre. I read Jane Eyre cover to cover the first couple of weeks I was in England. I think I am at the perfect point in my life to appreciate true romantic classics. Even if one has read a book before, every time they pick it up again it has new relevance because the reader has changed. I feel very changed, and I have only been here two months.

Watching the movie last night made me realize how 200+ years ago, everything was poetic. I am currently finding it difficult to romanticize my memories and write any decent poetry. Then again, I spend a lot more time thinking about how I have nothing to write about than actually attempting to write. I have to have a 6-10 poem collection in the first week of December, and a 15-20 poem collection for my dissertation next spring. Better get writing...

Norwich in November

On Saturday Lois and I ventured into the city center for groceries. Because it was a beautiful day we decided to go to the castle and the cathedral, which neither of us had seen. We were impressed.

The Norwich Castle was built in 1067 when William the Conqueror (1066 - 1087) ordered its construction because he wished to have a fortified place in the important city of Norwich. In the event, it proved to be his only castle in East Anglia. Ninety-eight Saxon homes were demolished to make way for the castle.

Archway to the cathedral

Standing at 315 feet, the cathedral's spire is the second tallest in England, and dominates the city skyline; only the spire of Salisbury Cathedral is higher at 404 feet.

The cloisters at Norwich Cathedral (engraving).

The cathedral was built between the late 11th century and about 1145.

Secret Garden

I have a seminar in the law building, and to get there I have to take a path across a field and through woods and some gables, hedged gardens, and greenhouses to this ancient brick building that has ruined arches and is covered in ivy. It looks like it is right out of Wuthering Heights. It is so charming. I think the seminar room itself was once a drawing room, with windows all around. There is also a student's lounge, that looks like it has been taken out of a Harry Potter movie. England is so beautiful in Autumn.