Lost in Translation

Location: London
Weather: It was beautiful and sunny all day!

Over the past two weeks, I have been struck many a time by how many words are different in UK english than in American.  To keep track, and I am writing a British-American dictionary for both me and all of you (so that when you come visit me, as all of you will :), you won't be completely lost).

British              American

Rocket              Arugula

Lift                    Elevator

Walking            Hiking

Crisps               Potato chips

Bangers            Sausage

Mash                Mashed potatoes

Aubergine        Eggplant

Bin                   Trash can

Loo                  Toilet

Bonnet             Hood (car)

Boot                 Trunk

Pants                Underwear

Biscuits            Cookies

Courgette         Zucchini

Surgery           Doctor's office

Flask               Water Bottle

Torch               Flash Light

Gherkin           Pickle

Give Way        Yield

Hob                 Stove

Jacket Potato   Baked potato

Jam                  Jelly

Jelly                 Jell-o

Jumper             Sweater

Knickers         Underwear

Ladder            Run in your tights

Lorry              Truck

Mate               Friend (not spouse)

Pram               Baby carriage

Queue            Line

Spanner          Wrench

Suspenders     Garter Belt

Fringe             Bangs

Coach             Long-distance bus

Caravan          RV

Tin                 Can

Closet            Wardrobe

Mere              Lake
Fell                Hill
Rigg              Ridge
Howe            Hill
Dale              Valley

Plus, there are a whole slew of words that are simply said differently.  For example, tin foil (aluminum foil) here is pronounced A-Lu-Min-I-um, syllable for syllable, among many others.  Kinda fun...

Post Hike: We made it!

Location: London
Weather: Surprisingly sunny!

We are back from our trip, and the good news is, we made it!  Even better, it was absolutely GEORGOUS.  Our total of 35 miles of walking in the lake district was chock full of electric green grass, adorable sheep, and thousands of miles of 300 year old dry stone walls crisscrossing the rolling hills and jagged peaks.  The weather was grey, but dry, and there are simply no words to describe just how wonderful the scenery was.  The bad news is that my camera was lost (or more likely stolen) while touring Dove Cottage, the Grasmere home of English poet William Wordsworth.  So, there will be no pictures for now.  But, check back soon!

I'm on my way!

Right now I am sitting in the airport restaurant, waiting for my flight to board.  We are finally on our way!  After much careful packing, I got pretty much everything I own, including bedding, towels, all of my clothing,some kitchen stuff, and all of my mom's clothing for her week with me into 4 carry-on sized suitcases and a backpack, weighing in at a total of roughly 200 pounds.  Its kind of strange to see 90% of my worldly possessions packed into four small suitcases and a backpack.  Its probably bad luck to even mention it, but what happens if they go missing?

Absolutely Scrumptious Granola

Last night I made granola so that we have tasty, homemade snacks to keep us walking along during out trek through the Lake District.  It was my first time making granola, but luckly it is really easy to make and turned out delicious!

Olive Oil Cranberry Granola
6 cups old fashioned rolled oats
2 cups pistachios, de-shelled with as much of the husk taken off as possible
1 1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cup real maple syrup (the fake stuff will taste strange)
1 cup light brown sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp plus a pinch cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

2-3 cups dried cranberries
1 cup dried apricots, chopped into smaller pieces
Any other fruit that you want to add in.

1. Preheat oven to 300* F
2. In BIG bowl (I used a giant wooden salad bowl, but if you don't have one, split everything in half) combine everything but the fruit and mix together well.  Make sure that all of the dry ingredients are well coated with the wet ingredients and that the spices are evenly distributed.
3. Spread thinly of a rimmed baking sheets (I needed two big rectangular ones and a round pizza one to fit it all), and bake for 45-50 min or until lightly browned and crispy.  Stir every ten minutes.
4. Remove from oven when done cooking and transfer immediately to a bowl.  If left in the pan, the granola will begin to stick
5. Add fruit

As long as you stick to the basic proportions between wet and dry ingredients and make sure you use old fashioned rolled oats, you can easily play around with the recipe, adding the nuts, seeds, and fruit that you want.  Enjoy!

British Films

In my very first post I described the three books that I am reading to mentally prepare for my year in London.  Though I am still chugging away at the two denser books, I have begun augmenting my escapism with British themed movies.

Love Actually (2003)
Love Actually is one of my all time favorite movies.  It follows 5 interlocking storylines about love at christmas time.  It features Hugh Grant as an especially yummy prime minister.  If only the prime minister was A. This young, B. This good looking, and C. single (and not sleezy and oozing politician).  I wonder if I will get to meet the Prime Minister.


Notting Hill (1999)
Because he was so good in Love Actually, I decided to stick with the Hugh Grant theme by continuing my escapiastic tour with Notting Hill.  In this film, Hugh Grant owns a travel book shop, and falls in love with an American movie star.  Wonderful.

Brideshed Revisited (2008)

Brideshed revisited is a rather serious, and kind of haunting story about Captain Charles Ryder, a captain in the British Army during WW2 and artist who is stationed at Brideshed Castel, once the family home of his college friend/(lover?), Sebastian Flyte.  The movie follows his recollection of the time he spent at Brideshed, and with both Sebastian and his sister Julia, with whom he ultimate falls in love.  Its a good movie, and also a book.  Read it.  Watch it.  Love it.

Location: Charlotte, VT

Weather: Sunny (as always), 70*

Tomorrow at 7:12 I leave for Chicago, the first destination on a whirlwind trip that will ultimately end at LSE just in time for the first day of school.  To celebrate my last day in Vermont I spent the last two hours trying to figure out how to draw arcs on photoshop (surprisingly tricky, even though I consider myself pretty well versed in photoshop) so that I could make all of you a map to illustrate exactly where I am going.  Its not all that pretty because I had to steal the original country map off of the internet, but hopefully it will at least help you picture the journey.  After Chicago mom and I are flying to London where Karen will join us.  After a few days in London, the three of us are taking the train to go hiking in Cumbria, in the beautiful lake district.  The itinerary is as follows:

Our Whirlwind Adventure

Thursday, 9/10, 7:12 AM: Depart Burlington for Chicago, arrive 11:30

Thursday 9/10-Tuesday 9/15: Chicago, visiting Nan and Gramps (Mom's parents)

Thursday 9/17, 11:30 AM: Depart Burlington (with Mom) for London, arrive 9/18, 7:10 AM

Friday 9/18-Monday 9/21: LONDON!!!!!  Karen will join us on Saturday.

Monday 9/21, 10:30 AM: Depart London for Windermere for our hiking trip!  Arrive approximately 3 hours later via train.  Stay in Windermere for the night

Tuesday 9/22: Hike from Windermere to Grasmere, approximately 10.5 miles.  Spend the night in Grasmere

Wednesday 9/23: Day hiking and other touristy things in Grasmere.  Spend a second night there- this is where Beatrix Potter's house is!

Thursday 9/24: Hike from Grasmere to Coniston, approximately 12 miles.  Spend the night in Coniston

Friday 9/25: Hike Coniston to Windermere, approximately 9.5 miles. Spend the night in Windermere

Saturday 9/26: Depart Windermere for London at 11:59, arrive in London at 3:00 via train.  

Sunday 9/27: Day with Mom and Karen in London

Monday 9/28: Mom and Karen Leave London, LSE Orientation begins!!!!!

This hike is true "princess camping."  Historically the trails that we will be hiking on were the main routes between towns and villages in the district.  For hundreds and hundreds of years people have crossed the fields, climbed the fells (what they call their mountains), and walked along the same dryrock walls that we will cross, climb, and follow.  Because until about 100 years ago people either traveled on horse, or more often, by foot, each major town is only about a day's walk or less apart.  Thus, though we will be roughing it by day, each night will be spend in a bed and breakfast  eating in the local town's pub, and taking hot showers to wash away the grime and mud (from all the rain that is so common in the end of September in England).  Even better, the walking tour company that organized our trip for us, Contours Walking Holidays, will take care of transporting out luggage from B&B to B&B.  Its truly the life of luxury.  

My Last Weekend In Vermont

Location: Vermont

55*, clear, you can see stars!

This was my last weekend in Vermont, and it was absolutely beautiful.  I crossed about three quarters of the tasks off of my to-do list, finished up back-to-school shopping, and hung out with my mom.  It was 75* and sunny all weekend, so to top off the perfect sunny two days, Mom and I decided to walk out to the lake on Shelburne Farms.  On our drive over we passed a sea of 25 or so hot air balloons floating towards the Green Mountains.  They were such an interesting addition to the classic Vermont early fall scene, cows in the foreground, mountains in the background, yellowing grass, and full of fall sun.  I'm really going to miss it here.  

Preparing to Go

Location: Charlotte, Vermont

Weather: 80*, Gorgeous, Sunny

Today marks the start of the two week countdown to my departure.  I haven't started packing yet(although I probably should), but I have begun all of the quintessential "I'm going away for the year" type activities- doctor's appointments, emails to college advisors, finally getting around to responding to the 30 or so backlogged facebook messages, and all of the other little things that have been sitting on my to do list for the past few months.  I'm starting to realize just how much I need to do before I leave, and as the list grows, I find myself rather unmotivated to actually start crossing tasks off.  Instead, I picked up a few new england-themed books to put me in an Anglophilic mindset, and have spent the last few days on the couch, immersed in long-past fictional worlds.

The first book I'm reading is the sequel to one of my favorite books, Ken Follet's British Historical Fiction Epic, Pillars of the Earth.  Pillars of the Earth, set 12th century England, follows the building of a cathedral in Kingsbridge, England, and the hundreds of people whose lives are effected.  World Without End picks up 200 years after the cathedral was finished, telling the story of Kingsbridge and its inhabitance before, during, and in the aftermath of the plague.  Its 1024 pages promises days and days of well-researched murder, lust, greed, ambition, and revenge, the essential components that make a truly great historical thriller while also teaching me about british history. A third book is out, as Nathan Schuur showed me at Nicola's books the other day.  It is called Fall of Giants. Nathan Schuur also wanted me to read Indignation, this new Philip Roth book.

The second book is significantly fluffier. Temptation of the Night Jasmine, the 5th installment of Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series, spins a web of romance and espionage in Georgian England (early 1800's).  Though full of enough "heaving bosoms" to be firmly placed in the category known as chicklit, it is written by a Harvard PhD in English History, and it is based somewhat on the actual history of the era (which helps justify its place on my "list of books I am reading to learn about England").  Moreover, after hours of descriptions of Georgian London, stately country homes, and sophisticated British aristocrats, I'm even more excited to see the real England than ever.  (Even though I know that the real 2000's England isn't anything like the 1800's England in the book)

And Finally, to fully understand why I am not British, I am reading the biography of John Adams, which traces Adams' life from his childhood (as a british citizen) through the American Revolution (and our break from Britain), his diplomatic posts (in Paris , and finally, his presidency.  Adams was one of the most vocal advocates for independence, and was part of the committee that was responsible for drafting the Declaration of Independence (although Jefferson actually wrote it).  Adams was the chair of the War committee that planned and orchestrated the Revolutionary war, and then was the lead negotiator of the peace treaty that ended the war.  He was also the first ambassador to Great Britain, serving from 1785-1788.