Champuru

Baklava… check!

2010-02-25T16:30:00.001Z

This year I decided that this was the year I was finally going to make baklava. I have always been a big fan, and when Ian and I moved out to New York, a really neat lady from my church and her son popped by my parents’ house before we left and surprised me with her recipe and all the tools I needed to make it! The past few years have been a bit of a whirlwind, and for some reason I just haven’t gotten to it until now, though I haven’t forgotten about that honey-gooey goodness. Surprisingly, it turned out really well and I was even able to give it to Ian for Valentine’s Day. Here’s the recipe!

Syrup:

3 cups sugar, or 2 cups sugar and 1 cup honey
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons light corn syrup (optional)
2 (3-inch) sticks cinnamon (optional)
4 to 6 whole cloves, or 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)

Filling:

1 pound blanched almonds, pistachios, walnuts, or any combination, finely chopped or coarsely ground (about 4 cups)
1/4 cup sugar
1 to 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves or cardamom (optional)
1 pound (about 24 sheets) phyllo dough
About 1 cup (2 sticks) melted butter or vegetable oil

1. To make the syrup: Stir the sugar, water, lemon juice, and if using, the corn syrup, cinnamon sticks, and/or cloves over low heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Stop stirring, increase the heat to medium, and cook until the mixture is slightly syrupy, about 5 minutes (it will register 225 degrees on a candy thermometer). Discard the cinnamon sticks and whole cloves. Let cool.

2. To make the filling: Combine all the filling ingredients.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12-by-9-inch or 13-by-9-inch baking pan or 15-by-10-inch jelly roll pan.

4. Place a sheet of phyllo in the prepared pan and lightly brush with butter. Repeat with 7 more sheets. Spread with half of the filling. Top with 8 more sheets, brushing each with butter. Use any torn sheets in the middle layer. Spread with the remaining nut mixture and end with a top layer of 8 sheets, continuing to brush each with butter. Trim any overhanging edges.

5. Using a sharp knife, cut 6 equal lengthwise strips (about 1 3/4 inches wide) through the top layer of pastry. Make 1 1/2-inch-wide diagonal cuts across the strips to form diamond shapes.

6. Just before baking, lightly sprinkle the top of the pastry with cold water. This inhibits the pastry from curling. Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 300 degrees and bake until golden brown, about 15 additional minutes.

7. Cut through the scored lines. Drizzle the cooled syrup slowly over the hot baklava and let cool for at least 4 hours. Cover and store at room temperature for up to 1 week. If the baklava dries out while being stored, drizzle with a little additional hot syrup.

VARIATIONS
Instead of brushing each layer of phyllo with butter, cut the unbaked baklava into diamonds all the way through, drizzle with 1 cup vegetable oil, and let stand for 10 minutes before baking.

Persian Baklava:
Using the almonds and cardamom in the filling: Omit the lemon juice and cinnamon from the syrup and add 1/4 cup rose water or 1 tablespoon orange blossom water after it has cooled.

Paklava(Azerbaijani Baklava):
For the filling, use 2 cups blanched almonds, 2 cups unsalted pistachios, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon ground cardamom, and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Crush 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads and let steep in 3 tablespoons of the melted butter for 15 minutes and use to brush the top sheet of phyllo.

The Anti-Valentine’s Day

2010-02-25T16:11:00.001Z

On the Friday a few days before Valentine’s Day, I had the following conversation with a few of my students.

Kid: You know, why do we have to have Valentine’s Day? Shouldn’t people just love each other all the time?

Other kid: Yeah! Shouldn’t we just have like a day instead where everyone is really mean to each other and then everyone would be nice to each other the other 364 days of the year?

Kid: Yeah, then people could get it out of their system or something.

Me: But what if you were born on that day? Wouldn’t it be terrible because everyone would be really mean to you on your birthday?

Kid: Hmm, yeah, I guess that’s true…

Other kid: Yeah, but you could be really mean back! It could be really fun, you know!

Billboard: Ian and Kristy’s Top Ten Hits of 2009

2009-12-23T01:42:00.001Z

Fresh from their sold-out 2008 tour of lip-synching to unpopular bands in the car, the self-acclaimed duo known as The Laidlawnmowers (allegedly often mistaken for The Who?), Kristy and Ian Laidlaw, embarked on an grueling and ambitious 2009 series of studio production hits and tour favorites.

Here is their [cue reverb] Top 10 Countdown.

#10: I left my tailbone in Carolina

While not strictly in Carolina (well, not in Carolina at all actually), the band travelled to the wistful Pocono mountains where they proceeded to spend most of their time in the sitting/recovery position while learning how to snowboard on ice. A good time was had by all, followed by months in traction. Rock and roll!

#9: Home is just a 20 hour plane-ride away

With the US economy crashing, the band decides to flee the country and donate their hard(ly)-earned tax return to the New Zealand tourism industry. There, they narrowly avoid disaster when forgetting that gas stations are not placed every mile, but have good times with their first experience with guns (pictured – strangely never having seen one in the US and with also strangely with Ian outshooting a police officer), seeing old friends, family, and with a fantastic surprise birthday party for Ian organized by Kristy and friend/groupie Lianne.

#8: We don’t not need no education

Just like in that movie where that guy goes back to school, the band, um, also goes back to school. Kristy aces her way through year 1 of her Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language and Ian starts plowing through year 2 of social work grad school, partially burning out in September and giving up on the mountain of readings, but still performing well by faking knowledge.

#7: Like a lobster over bubbling water

Summer vacation sees the band hook up with an actual musician (Kristy’s brother, Micah) for an epic tour of Maine and French-Canada. Highlights of the tour included cooking live lobsters at the campground in Maine, packing up the tent in torrential rain and confusing the tourists by setting it up to dry it out at the Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream factory, cycling the canals in Montreal, eating Poutine, and catching up with old friends.

#6: I love Rock & Roll [especially if it’s only $15 a ticket]

On the back of some very enjoyable concerts (particularly Wilco, Pete Seeger, and Danielson), the band decides to jump on the social networking bandwagon Obama-style by creating an online social group for other music fans as a way to experience the very inexpensive independent music scene in New York, relieve some of the stress of work and school, and make new friends. The Monthly Indie is thus born in October, and various people have so far hooked up to see a slew of variously-talented musicians do their thing in small music clubs around Manhattan.

#5: In the sunshine of your love of plants

The band causes a paparazzi media blowout in a shocking move of their garden from the back to the front of the house. Guest stars include Larry Lemongrass, Barry Basil, and Colin the Creeping Cucumber. This increases visual appeal, but the abundance of rain and lack of sun forces Tommy Tomato into a depressive wilt, and he drops out of the fruity festival with not a single tomato to show for it. Fiji the Feijoa from New Zealand does spectacularly well, however, due to the pampering star treatment (he gets his own pad and is carted from sunny spot to sunny spot, even having his own heater available indoors in the winter while the rest of the band is away). Rumors abound he may go solo.

#4: With a lot of help from my friends

The band would like to dedicate this song to all of their friends near and far! 2009 proved to be a good reunion year with a NY tour with singer-songwriters from the UK (Anna and her lovely mum) and Canadian tour with old friends from Japan (Baril family) and the UK (Shona). The band also teamed up with many new friends this year for river kayaking, camping in a torrential downpour, and other such shenanigans. With the help of their friends, our band also hosted their first annual charity brunch and gift-buying for those in need this holiday season. The band feels truly blessed to have such a wonderful group of fans, uh, I mean, friends.

#3: I think I’ve already turned Japanese

Three years in New York sees the band still savoring ties with the land of Mr. Roboto. Favorite restaurants and grocery items are still received with much giddiness, and the band regularly visits both American and Japanese church venues. This year, Ian and Kristy swapped their Les Paul Standards for Okinawa sanshins when they joined the Okinawa Peoples Association of New York. Incidentally, the summer picnic just happened to be located alongside the Kiwi Club’s summer picnic, so Ian was able to do a bit of networking. In other news, Kristy charms audiences at work and (hopefully) will be awarded tenure in the spring. Domo arigato!

#2: Start spreading the news

The band takes a bite out of the Big Apple this year by having lots of new experiences including seeing the New York City Ballet perform, participating in a midnight survey for the homeless, biking along the Hudson River, viewing NYC fireworks from behind a tree, and taking Ian’s clients to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show. Ian also organized a surprise night out for Kristy’s 30^th birthday featuring a Japanese yakiniku BBQ meal followed by a karaoke nijikai (second party) with friends where the band paid tribute to the recently deceased King of Pop.

#1: Happy Holidays (upcoming release)

Our duo heads to Philadelphia with sidekick Korean friend, Jack Daniel (actually his name!) to celebrate Turkey Day with relatives. Jack and Ian are introduced to the Macy’s parade and putting up Christmas lights while Kristy falls in love with the food processor. For Christmas they plan to pack the sleigh and head to Indiana to be with family. With this catchy tune, they wish you and your family a very joyous Christmas season and a New Year filled with love and peace. The band would like to thank their family and friends for all of their support, and God, who makes all of these things possible!

Much love,

Ian and Kristy Laidlaw

Thanksgiving with Jack Daniel from Korea and other stories…

2009-12-07T03:36:00.004Z

So we made this new friend who is here from Korea studying English until March. When I asked him what his name was the first time, he explained that his name was Daniel, or I could call him Jack… or Jack Daniel… or Joe. He’s from Korea, so he originally decided to call himself Daniel here so that it would be easy for people to remember… only they decided that Jack was easier(?). That’s how he explains it when people ask him about his memorable moniker. We’ve been having a blast getting to know him and teaching him all sorts of useful English phrases like what it means when you look at someone after they've been talking for awhile and say, "anyway," what being “full of yourself” means and what it means when you "get backed up.” When he offered to watch me pull out of my parking space in a crowded parking lot after dinner, he also got a good lesson on his use of, “Kristy, I’ll watch your backside, okay?” Aren't languages such fun things! Oh, this brings back great memories of all the times I grossly misused Japanese! Jack is such a good sport, and we have so much fun swapping stories.

My aunt and uncle invited us down to Philadelphia to join them for Thanksgiving weekend. We were so excited when they said they were thrilled to host Jack for his first Thanksgiving, too! Ian had arranged with Jack to pick him up at his dorm on Wednesday after work before we headed down to Philly. He soon discovered that he was in a little bit of an awkward situation when he couldn’t dial Jack’s cell phone because his room wasn’t picking up a signal, and had no idea of our friend’s real name! So Ian did the only thing he could think of: he walked into the school and started asking people, including a burly security guard, if they happened to know Jack Daniel. Of course everyone looked at him like, “Is this some sort of joke?” In the end, after a bit of detective work with the school administrator, they were finally able to narrow the search and find our Jack Daniel! Thanksgiving was a blast in the end with Ian and Jack getting to experience all of the traditional stuff like watching the Macy’s parade, getting wrangled into dinner preparation, putting up Christmas lights, and eating Philly cheesesteaks! (Wait a second…I thought it was turkey?)

Of course after all of that fun, we both caught colds the next week. On top of that, the grad school semester is wrapping up, keeping both of us busier than normal, so we were both more out of it than usual last week. One morning, I saw that Ian had forgotten his lunch just as he walked out the door on his way to work. I was still in my glasses and jammies, but that didn’t stop me from running outside after him. As I ran down the driveway after his car screaming like a banshee in nothing but my pajamas and fuzzy socks, a thought occurred to me. I thought if I could just thump the car with something, maybe he would hear me and stop. So, I launched his lunch at the car as hard as I could… but he just kept going! He must have really been out of it. Just as I bent over to pick up the lunch bag and an apple that rolled down the driveway towards me in defeat, Ian must have seen me in his rearview mirror and thought, “What is that?” So, in the end, I was able to give him his lunch even though the apple was a bit bruised on one side! That’s love, right?!

This weekend we also had a really cool experience of having a bunch of friends help us out with our first Christmas Charity brunch! We hosted a group of our friends for a festive brunch in the morning, and then we all went out to buy presents for people in need. It is such a great feeling buying gifts for people who really need them, and we had a lot of fun trying to find the best deals, ransacking toy stores, and finding cute sweaters for teenage girls at the trendy mall shops. By the time we left the mall it was already snowing beautifully to add to our Christmas joy! We were all totally in the Christmas spirit as we headed back to the house to “show and tell” the gifts we had found and wrap them up. Of course there was plenty of good food to go around as well as a cup of tea, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, or eggnog for every good “elf”! I can’t wait to do this again next year! Thanks to all of our wonderful friends who contributed!

Autumn in New York

2009-10-25T21:44:00.001Z

I love this time of year! Even though we have been busy being students, we’ve still taken lots of time to enjoy the changing leaves, cups of tea, apple-cranberry crisp, decorating for Halloween, pumpkin cashew curry, crisp, chilly evenings, lots of local apples, putting the garden to rest, homemade soups, walks around the lake, hot apple cider, yummy roasts and chicken pie, hikes through the woods, and breaking out our favorite fuzzy sweaters. Man, all I need now is a Snuggie…

We decided recently to start fully taking advantage of being so close to the city, so we started an indie-concert going club where we’ll go to see a new (and often totally unknown) band every month. This Friday is our first show. We’re really excited, especially because we have a great group of random people going including our friend Anna from the UK, a childhood friend of Kristy’s, and our new friend from Korea, Jack Daniel!

Go Canada!

2009-08-20T18:27:00.001+01:00

It is great living where we live now, because it opens up a whole new area to explore. With Canada so close, we couldn’t wait for an opportunity to go up there and look at the Canadians.

We rolled into Montreal at about sunset. It’s such a beautiful city on the water. We took our bikes so we could ride them around the city. Here are a few of the sites that was saw:

Well, first things, first. A little picnic lunch in the park.

The first day we rode the Lachine Canal path.

Saw some crazy looking architecture

Rode across the bridge to the island

Biosphere

Olympic Park

The old city

Of course, we also had to stop and try the Poutine! (Oops, first I accidently spelled it Putin; as in Vladimir?) Yum! We were also really lucky to be able to catch up with our lovely friend, Shona, from our UK days.

Next we listened to a bunch of Canadian bands on our way to visit our good friends Frederic and Chizuko and their kids in Gatineau. It is so good to catch up with old friends! We were thoroughly embarrassed by our lack of Canadian knowledge, so Frederic taught us all about how Ottawa is the capital and what a Quebecois is, and how to order a Beaver Tail, and why ours didn’t come with fur, and the meaning of the phrase “Je me souviens” (on the Quebec license plate – it’s very deep. If you know him, please ask him about it sometime if you get a chance.) Actually, my ignorance about Canada is so bad that I spelled Ottawa wrong the entire way through this post and then didn’t believe the spell check when it corrected me, so I Googled it. Turns out it was right. Americans. Anyway, Frederic promised that if we came to Canada he would find us a Mountie to take a picture with, and so he did!

Frederic also took us to Ottawa so we could see that Canada is actually its own country. It was really impressive! We got to see the changing of the guard, which was much more impressive than anything we saw in London. We also got a tour of the Parliament building. There were lots of statues of owls inside because, did you know, that a group of owls is called a parliament? Those Canadians are really deep.

Here are a few pictures from the very beautiful and impressive parliament building:

The library

The place where they walk

The place where they talk about stuff

Oh, sorry. This isn’t the Parliament. This is Micah and I fooling around with the camera.

The US even let Ian back in without any problems, even though they know what he is like now, so hopefully, we’ll be back to Canada soon!

Next stop: Vermont

2009-08-20T17:37:00.001+01:00

We had perfect weather in Maine, except for the waking up to a storm on the morning we were supposed to pack the tent up. The boys had fun trying to throw everything into the car in the rain, and of course it stopped raining as soon as they were finished.

On the way to Canada, we stopped in Waterbury, Vermont to see the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory. While we were waiting for our tour time to come up, we unpacked the entire car onto their lawn so we could air everything out. We had quite a group of spectators wondering what on earth we were doing. While I was throwing out some of our garbage, I heard a little girl ask her mom, “Mommy, are they camping here tonight?” On a side note, did you know that Ben and Jerry’s factory employees are allowed to take home three pints of free ice cream a night? That’s 15 pints a week! I guess it keeps them from eating on the job!

From the city to the coast

2009-08-20T16:47:00.001+01:00

Now that we’re caught up, we can finally tell you a bit about our vacation! Micah flew in from Wisconsin to join us. The first night he was here, we went out in the city for some delicious Ethiopian food and thought about all of our friends who have ties there. We got a bit delayed in the subway coming home and encountered a very funny scenario involving subway employees, a leaky hose, and a bucket that we’ll have to tell you about sometime, but basically the delay turned into a very late night which turned into a very lazy morning, which meant that we started our vacation at the very slothful pace of hitting the road at about 1pm. I love vacation.

And so our road trip began. Sort of. We ended up sitting in traffic for a lot of the first part. We sat behind this van for about an hour in New Hampshire on our way to Maine. Interesting.

None of us had ever been to Maine, so we really wanted to see what it was like, but the maine (yuk yuk) reason why Maine made the vacation cut was to be honest, the food factor. I think I need to take a minute to explain about my New Years resolution. I don’t normally make a big deal about New Years resolutions, but this year I decided to make a few fun resolutions of things that I really wanted to do. I love to cook, and I’ve always felt that cooking a lobster is just something that I needed to try; a kind of rite of passage or something. So, I told Ian that in order to do this, I thought we had better go to Maine to eat some of their famous lobster so that I could really get a good feel of what it was supposed to taste like (wink wink). Here are a few pics of some of the delicious food we ate in Maine:

I started out with a lobster roll at a local cafe

Micah was excited about the shrimp

The award-winning lobster pie from the Maine Diner, which was featured on The Today Show. We had some fabulous seafood chowder to start and followed it down with some homemade blueberry pie ala mode! Hungry yet?

Chef Ian’s campfire steak and grilled veggies with fresh, pan-fried Haddock. Yum town.

We decided to take advantage of the outdoors and camp during our time in Maine, so we came well equipped with everything we needed to attempt the lobster-cooking. (By the way, thanks to everyone who lent us stuff! This lobster is dedicated to you!) It was quite an experience going to the fish shack to buy our guys, then trying not to bond too much with them while we prepared for their imminent death, then putting them in the pot and eating them. It was a bit sad, to be honest, but they were just so delicious.

The lobster figures out something’s up…

We did it!

Can we eat yet?

Oh yeah, and of course, we also had s’mores

Here are some pretty shots of Maine, too:

Winter into Summer

2009-08-19T22:41:00.001+01:00

Ha. So I realized that we haven’t really been great about posting for awhile, so I’ll put a few things to give you a little idea of we’ve been up to over the winter and into the summer.

Ian experienced his first Superbowl party

Went to an ice festival…brrr

Participated in a midnight count of the homeless for NYC

Expounded numerous theories about LOST

Went to a movie marathon where we watched the 5 Best Picture nominees in a row. And survived.

Went to a birthday party where they had a buffet of every flavor of Doritos

Played a bunch of guitar hero

Took some of Ian’s clients to the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ate lots of snacks to ward off the study blues

Spent 4 hours setting up three display cases of work at the Japanese bookstore. Tore it down in about thirty seconds three months later.

Started playing guitar and drums in church again (K)

Tried to look cool learning to snowboard, but failed

Played a basketball game with the Harlem Wizards (like the Harlem Globetrotters)

Performed in a talent show

Ate some very delicious food and discovered a new favorite restaurant

We each threw each other a surprise birthday party

Did some MJ tribute karaoke

Joined Ian in doing the grad school thing

Finally succeeded in making a pavlova!

Watched NYC fireworks on the Hudson from behind a tree

Picnicked in the park (PICNIC, not PANIC)

Introduced egg creams to a few friends

Failed on a first attempt to grow a feijoa plant, now on child-plant #2 and so far, so good!

Saw some great concerts

Bought our bikes, “Queen” and “Charlie” and went biking with Uncle Ray and Aunt Gail

Ian bought me a waffle maker for my birthday and has made waffles every weekend since. Every time he does, he gives it to me and says, “Happy Birthday!” Love that guy.

Went to see the New York City Ballet perform

Joined the Okinawa Prefectural People’s Group (Kenjinkai)

Survived camping through a crazy storm/flood

Went river kayaking for the first time

Went on vacation with Micah! (More on that to come.)

Return to NZed!!

2009-08-19T18:25:00.001+01:00

Er, a few months late, but wanted to share some piccies from our Easter trip back to New Zealand! It had been about five years since we had been back and four years since we had seen Dad Laidlaw and Mary-Ann, so we were so thrilled when the Internal Revenue Service gave us an unexpectedly large return! We promptly made plans to leave the country and stimulate the New Zealand economy.

Here is a cute little guy we found hanging around the cemetery one day when we went for a walk.

And here is another cute guy hanging around his dad’s place. It is so incredibly relaxing to stay with Ian’s dad and Mary-Ann. The garden is gorgeous with a beautiful view of the mountains. Mary-Ann always has some sort of delicious homemade bread or cake on hand and the porch is a perfect spot to read a book with a cup of tea and forget all about the fast pace of life back in New York. We also really lucked out one day when we went for a little wander. Just down the street from Ruary and Mary-Ann’s place is a horse showground. We managed to sneak in and watch one of the jumping events. Very cool!

We went down to wine country to visit our good buddy, Sean, from Okinawa days and meet his lovely girlfriend, Claire. We left early on Easter morning so we could meet them by the afternoon, and soon had a few of those little slightly horrifying realizations. 1: There is barely any petrol in the car. 2: We have no idea where the nearest petrol station is. 3: All we keep seeing is fields and fields full of sheep and nothing looks even close to a town. 4: I don’t think we’ve even seen a sign for a town in ages… 5: Should we happen to find a town or a petrol station, it is Easter morning in rural NZ, so the chances of it being open may be slim to none. 6: I don’t even see any houses on this road…what if we run out? 7: This is really the sticks. Not only are there no houses, we can’t get any cell phone reception, either. 8: I don’t like the way that sheep keeps staring at us… Sooooo, despite the fact that Ian kept saying everything would be just peachy, I think we were both pretty relieved when we managed to roll into a town with a petrol station just as the car was about to run out. I also had to go to the toilet pretty bad by then, so I was doubly relieved.

Once in Hawkes Bay, we had a great reunion with Sean and Claire and got to relive the good old days through our various stories and the boys hassling each other. We decided to do something that I have to say is not really something that was on my Bucket List: go clay shooting. It was actually really fun and an experience! Ian actually turned out to be really good and I managed to get one by accident, so it was all pretty ironic that we left the land of guns never having touched one to go shoot some in New Zealand. Afterwards we went to a fabulous winery for lunch. Mmmm…

Ian and I did the Tongariro Crossing aka The Mt. Doom Trail on our way back. Last time we were in NZ we threw ourselves into a 4 day backpacking adventure without any real preparation or idea what we were doing and nearly crippled ourselves, so we thought this one 9 hour hike would be a cinch in comparison. I blame the fact that I turned 30 this year for the reason that the hike pretty much kicked my butt and that there were senior citizens passing me on the mountain while I “stopped to take in the view”. Sad, but true. Just to prove I did make it, here’s a pic of us at the top.

It was a beautiful trail; very different to any we have done before. It started out in grasslands, went up volcanic rock, through an amazing red crater, past aquamarine sulfur lakes, through the crater of despair (Frodo, don’t wear the ring!), through a hot springs area on the other side which overlooked a lush valley, and then back down through a forest to the beautiful parking lot.

What else…

Oh, you want more pretty pictures of New Zealand? Ok. The one above is from a walk we did with Ruary and Mary-Ann at this really cool enclosed park that has lots of native birds and freaky-deaky Weta. This other one is sunset on Lake Taupo.

Ian’s birthday was the same week that we went to NZ, so Lianne, Dirk, and I planned a surprise birthday party for him! Lots of friends came from near and far to shower him with New Zealand sweets. Good times! It was so great to see so many of you there, you mean so much to us even though we don’t get to see you often! Ian was so excited –-----> Look!

So, Ian, how does it feel to be back in New Zealand?

One last family photo! Cheese!

I love being a teacher

2009-05-01T22:53:00.002+01:00

Conversation between two of my students the other day:

Big kid: You know how I got to be so big?

Small kid: How?

Big kid: Well, I eat all of my vegetables, and I once slept for three days straight.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-16T17:14:00.004Z

Difficult past times have made us very grateful for a holiday that isn't in a traumatic context. The night preceding Valentine's Day we were fortunate enough to catch Clap Your Hands Say Yeah play at the Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn as part of the Sounds Like Brooklyn music festival. Fronting them were Chairlift, who I haven't heard of before, but they were excellent - kind of like an Indie version of a mix between Clannad, Blondie and the Cranberries.

On Valentine's Day we went back to Brooklyn for brunch at Dressler, a little Michelin-star restaurant (and yet very reasonable prices) serving creatively nuanced traditional new-American fare. Eating makes us both so very happy. Then we dropped into an amazing supermarket in Manhattan called Fairway to pick up fresh sea scallops, some astounding French sheep's-milk cheese called P'tit Basque, baguette and olives for an antipasti dinner at home (pictured). Eating is so great, and Manhattan is a wonderful place for food. We really are so fortunate to be here.

A major highlight of the day (this is a little insight into our personalities), however, was after we got home from Ikea, where we picked up some dishes and glasses and cups for a dinner party we are hosting on Monday night, and were trying to work out how we could fit all this extra stuff into our modest cupboard space, when we suddenly realized we could use the dishwasher as storage (since we never use it). So, now that's where all our pots, pans, and Tupperware sit, making way for loads of wonderful shelving for our eclectic dinnerware. It's funny how excited we feel about that. Also we are excited about our new glasses and cups since it's more fun to drink orange juice and tea out of them. It really is the little things.

Santa

2008-12-21T23:36:00.008Z

We popped into the city yesterday to meet some friends for dinner, and decided to head over to the big Macys near Penn Station to check out the fabled Santaland. Incidentally, it already seemed like Santaland outisde as we had a foot or more of snow in the last two days. Snow makes New York seem like a farytale. Except for the people - they really know how to use the parts of the English language that don't make it into most dictionaries if you don't follow the driving culture. Christmas shopping stress really seems to bring that out, but it's kinda fun since it is NY culture - feels like being on safari. Just smile back and take a photo.

We joined the long line for about half an hour and enjoyed people dressed as elves yelling at patrons to keep moving while trying to make it friendly by interdispersing "Merry Christmas" at appropriate intervals, and various parents not letting their children look at

anything other than their strobing blackberry camera phone. It reminded us of that classic scene from A Christmas Story. The display was amazing though.

Anyway, we eventually made it to Santa, and he was surprisingly friendly. I was just expecting to walk past and see him with all the kids, but we actually got to take a photo with him! It was pretty cool.

So, we have our Christmas tree up and lots of presents under it. We also decided to use some of the money we normally give to church to shop for people in poverty who really need stuff this year and help put some presents under other trees. It was a great experience and gave us both a sense of what Christmas probably should be more like - giving anonymously to people who have real needs. But it's still fun to share with people you know too, so I think we're finding a happy balance. We are a few hours away from the best present we will get this year, which is a visit from my brother who is flying over from England as I type. I hope we can show him a great time in the USA again, and we are looking forward also to driving to Indiana with him to have fun times with the family.

We hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

Christmas Card to You!

2008-12-19T22:39:00.009Z

Merry Christmas from New York, everyone!!! We’d like to send our love and thoughts to you during this holiday season, wherever you may be! Thankfully, this year has been blessedly boring compared to the last few. I guess you could say this year we officially transitioned from wide-eyed, stressed to a crisp, livin’la-vida-loca jetsetters to feeling much more stable and at home in our little cabin in the woods. To be feeling more at home in a time when we look around and are reminded that nothing is permanent and how fragile the daily living we take for granted truly is, has been a great gift to us. When we feel we might be getting too comfortable, we try to think back to those hard days of looking longingly with job-envy into the windows of telemarketing firms on our way to the grocery store where we would argue about if we could afford a 32 pence packet of hot chocolate for a treat!

We started off this year with Ian getting a job! In February, he started working for the Mental Health Association as a case manager for clients with schizophrenia. He’s also busy volunteering for a local counseling service and working on his Masters in Social Work. Busy! Kristy-news includes finally getting properly certified to teach in the State of New York four four-hour state exams later and surviving her first year of teaching middle school Japanese! We both are learning so much from our jobs and have enjoyed getting to know our respective clients and students.

We are starting to feel like real New Yorkers now, complete with an appreciation for good restaurants, a tendency to speed and/or road rage, and the ability to walk around NYC without a guidebook. We’ve made some good friends in the area and found a good church to be a part of. This summer we joined an Okinawan sanshin (instrument) group that practiced in Central Park every week. It was fun to have the tourists come and gawk at us! We also raised our first garden this summer, Ian-and-Kristy-style (which means, don’t actually know what you are doing before you try it!)

If you ever get a chance to come to New York, please let us know! Our house is always open to welcome you. Have a wonderful holiday season, and we wish you all the best in the coming new year!

Much love, Ian and Kristy

Snow Day

2008-12-19T00:10:00.004Z

Well, it's December 18th, and we are geared up for what is supposed to be the first major winter storm (and snow day) of the year tomorrow. So far we've barely gotten any snow or freezing temps - I think it was actually 60 degrees earlier in the week. So anyway, I learned today that according to my students (ages 10-13), if you really want a snow day, you have to do the following:

1. Sleep with your pajamas inside out

2. Do a snow dance around wearing your inside out pajamas

3. Sleep with a spoon under your pillow

4. Pray

We'll see if they still say it works tomorrow!

Ian and Kristy go golfing

2008-09-01T17:39:00.013+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, Ian took a Friday off and we headed to the golf course! We have always loved the psychological edginess of putt-putt and the therapeutic delirium of smacking golf balls silly at the driving range, so we had been hoping for an affordable opportunity to play on a real course for a long time now. Fortune had smiled upon us earlier this summer and provided two free sets of gently used golf clubs courtesy of our landlord's trash heap, so with our new clubs, pegs, and box of golf balls ("Now Kristy, we only have enough for you to lose one ball every two holes..."), we headed to nearby Rockland Lake State Park executive course. This was my first time playing on an actual golf course, so I was a bit nervous that I’d hold the up the 8 year old kid and his dad that we ended up playing with, but luckily, they were very nice. Also, Ian was a great coach! We had a lot of fun and hope to do it again soon.

Try not to get it in the woods... again!

The deer told each other to look out for my stray balls...

Ian, wishing it was par 12

Cooking Day

2008-09-01T17:23:00.008+01:00

It's nearly the end of Summer here, so Kristy is going back to work tomorrow and I am starting school. Kristy has been wonderful over her break by doing almost all of the cooking and cleaning, so I thought I'd spend a day cooking on Saturday as an expression of my gratitude for sacrificing a lot of her time to make my life a bit easier for the last couple of months.

I just wanted to share what I made because I found two particularly amazing recipes and had a great time putting them together. The first was a Gordon Ramsay recipe that changed my ideas about gravy. I was brought up with gravy made from the drippings of roasts fried with flour and butter, and then having water and stock and milk added to make a thick creamy gravy which was slathered over everything on the plate. It's wonderful stuff, but it does make everything taste like gravy.

James, my excellent brother, sent us one of Gordon's cookbooks for Christmas last year (Sunday Lunch). His recipes are challenging both in the complexities of preparation, but also in the way they challenge your preconceptions of how things should be cooked. On Saturday I embarked on page 70, which was a roast rib of beef with Yorkshire puddings. It was a mission tracking down a rib roast because everything in the supermarkets is boneless now, which is dumb because, sure bones make things harder to carve, but they are where all the flavor comes from when you roast. Boneless = tasteless. I finally found a wonderful Italian buthcer in Haverstraw who prepared a cut for me "that's-a nice-a piece-a meat!"

So, after roasting the beef, the recipe tells you to put it aside to rest, and then to briefly fry two red onions, some sprigs of thyme (from our garden!), mashed plum tomatoes, and unpeeled garlic in the drippings, and then to add half a bottle of red wine and simmer, and then beef stock to cook down. After it cooks down, you strain out the veges and herbs, and cook down the liquid further. You end up with a deep red gravy with a watery consistency. So I was thinking, maybe I should add this to some butter and flour to thicken it, but Gordon's stuff always seems to work out best when it's counter-intuitive, so I left it as it was, and just as well because it was the most amazing gravy I've ever had.

I learned that the real purpose of gravy is to enhance the flavor of the meat, not to make everything taste like gravy. So, when you add Gordon's gravy to the roast and eat it, you don't taste any gravy, you just taste absolutely amazingly delicious beef (on the right side of the above pic). It was quite the learning experience. The Yorkshire puddings came out really well too (on the left).

For dessert, I found an equally incredible recipe on Epicurious.com for a chocolate orange cake. It took the whole day to make, but is probably the most delicious chocolate cake I've ever had (though the chocolate gateau at Cinnamon Cafe in Naha, Okinawa, comes very close). It has thin layers of hazlenut orange chocolate cake, with a chocolate cream filling, and chocolate glaze over the top, topped with toasted hazlenuts, chocolate shavings, and candied orange peel (which I also made). It's amazing with espresso. It was also a late Birthday cake for Kristy since our neighbor made a cake on the day of the party back in June (it was her birthday then too). There's still a bit left if anybody wants to come over to try it - but you'd better hurry because it won't last long!

I love cooking (and Kristy)!

Ode to August

2008-08-23T23:40:00.019+01:00

Well, I have to say, we have had a great summer. We didn’t end up going on a vacation, but we were so busy doing other fun things that we didn’t really notice. Now it’s nearly time to go back to school, and for the first time, that actually applies to both of us! Ian will be starting his masters just about the same time that I start teaching classes again. I’m really going to miss my summer schedule of regularly meeting up with other teacher-friends for lunch, a walk around the lake, and tennis. For the first summer in a long time, I was able to do what I wanted, and now I’m so relaxed, refreshed, and TAN! Now the days are already getting shorter and cooler, and I even saw some leaves in the front yard already starting to (no) change colors. I had my first back-to-school nightmare about a week ago, which my veteran teaching friends tell me they still get every year around this time. Waiting for school to start feels a little like impending doom, so I devised a strategy for coping where every time a thought strays towards school, I start to think about of all the things I really love about fall instead. I realize now that this is actually a really long list that mostly includes things you can eat. When you think about it that way, it’s not so bad! :)

So, back to summer while I still can… Here are a few juicy pieces:

The Chibanas (Mom, Dad, Ryan) came for a visit at the end of July. We met in Philly to spend some time with the family down there. We did a bit of hiking together, hung out by the pool, and had a big family party to celebrate the baptism of my cousin's two little boys, Miles and Mason.

We took them back to our place in New York where they got to see a very different apartment than they remembered last year - this time, we actually had furniture! It was fun taking them around the area since they weren't been able to see much before. Last September they used their Labor Day weekend to drive the 14+ hours to New York to help move all of our junk from Indiana, then turned around and drove all the way back the next day! (Aren't they committed? They're pretty amazing.) This time we had a much slower, more relaxing visit. At least I hope it was relaxing for them... come to think of it, we did do a lot. We managed to hit the beach, tour West Point, walk around Piermont Pier at sunset, eat plenty of ice cream, go on a picnic, hike Bear Mountain, drop in on the zoo, feast on BBQ yakiniku and s'mores in our front yard, visit the Empire State Building and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, stroll through Central Park, sample some delicious Pomme Frites, takoyaki, and izakaya food… Ok, ok, I guess slow and relaxing weren’t the most accurate words to describe the trip, but we did have a good time together.

Every Tuesday night we've been heading down to Central Park to practice sanshin (Okinawan guitar-like instrument) with some friends. Every once in awhile, some tourists try to come up and take photos or ask us what we are playing. It's the weird-exotic instrument attraction, right next to the Hawaiian hula dancer practice (It's true! You never know what you will find in Central Park.) We thought about putting out a hat for people who might be inclined to throw money, but then again, we're really not very good!

I love being outside during summer. We've been blessed to have beautiful weather and have hardly closed our windows or used air conditioning all summer. We've gotten to spend some quality time outside dining al fresco, camping, whitewater rafting, working in the garden... ah, can you feel the serenity? A few weeks ago we went to an outdoor music and arts festival and got to see loads of great bands play all day and an amazing finale by Radiohead, all against the breathtaking backdrop of the city skyline and Lady Liberty on a beautiful summer's evening.

I guess we did kind of have a mini-vacation, after all. Last weekend we took a long weekend and went down to Tuckerton, NJ to my aunt and uncle's house on the bay. We learned how to catch mussles, went fishing, crabbing, kayaking, and went to the ice cream shop every night (do you see a recurring theme here?) One night we must have had a half dozen kinds of seafood on the table: mussels marinara, steamed crabs, grilled clams, fresh shrimp cocktail, kingfish (the one that I caught!)... Ok, I guess that's five, but to say the least, we feasted, and it was all delicious and freshly caught. Since this was our latest adventure and now we're into boring things like shopping for a washer and dryer, I'll finish with a little story:

Ian was having an uneventful day fishing.

Then, there was a tug at his line! It was a shark!

The shark said, "Ian, put me back in the ocean, and I'll send you a wee friend to keep you company."

So, Ian did. A little while later, Ian met a crab. "Hello, little crab."

The crab was very pinchy, so Ian called him "Pinchy the Crab."

See?

Even though Pinchy the Crab was a lot of fun, Ian had to put him back in the ocean because he was too small to eat.

The end

June and July

2008-07-22T18:20:00.005+01:00

Summerstage, Jones Beach, birthday, and Adirondacks camping pics.

Ye Olde Forgotten Post

2008-07-01T20:09:00.005+01:00

Ack, I thought I was getting all caught up with posts and realized I didn't put anything yet about Micah's (my brother) big visit to NY in April! We had a great time showing him around. Our exOkiJET buddy, John Branderhorst, also visited from San Fransisco. When are you coming?

Our First Garden!

2008-07-01T19:30:00.005+01:00

After an afternoon of digging, (they don't call it Rockland County for nothing...) we finally have our first garden! It's been really amazing and fun to put those tiny plants into the ground and watch them grow bigger every day. This new hobby is especially motivating for us seeing how we get to eat them when they're done!

Memorial Day BBQ

2008-07-01T19:06:00.007+01:00

Time to post some pictures! Here are a few pics from our Memorial Day BBQ at our place.

Our front yard

What would an all-American BBQ be without yakitori?

Beth minds the corn.

Master Chef Mike ensuring that his burgers come out better than Phil's.

Mmmmm...

Me and my next door neighbor, Lenka, in the hammock.

Smores

Mmmmm.....Our new Brit-American version of smores: toasted marshmallow on a chocolate covered tea biscuit

The boys seem to think it's better to catch them on fire

Work

2008-03-09T00:47:00.004Z

I finally have a job, and it's not at Starbucks. Lo and behold, after many years circling the airport of promise, I have finally touched down on the glorious runway of stability, and am now disembarking the aircraft of anticipation bleary-eyed through the customs line of confusion into the baggage collection area of some other metaphor and into the lobby of social work.

After 8 long months of unemployment facing multiple barriers as an immigrant with no local knowledge and unrelated overseas qualifications, I was beginning to think nothing would turn up and that I would have to take a lousy rent-paying job by pretending to be Italian and selling hand treatment lotions at the mall.

I must say that unemployment certainly gave me a lot to think about. Similarly to Kristy's experience with unemployment in the UK, I lost self-definition. It was difficult to have conversations with people without a work-based point of reference. Think about it when you next meet somebody new and see how long you can carry off a conversation without saying what you do or talking about your work. It really became easier not to meet people and not to talk.
I also gained a lot empathy for people who do not work. As a culture, we assign so much value to employment, which is fine, but we also treat people who do not work as valueless, which is wrong. But even in understanding this, it is difficult to redefine your own sense of self-worth and value aside from work, which makes me think we have somewhat lost our identity as people and replaced it with things we do. Who am I aside from my work? It's a difficult question to answer.

Fortunately, it is a question I will have much opportunity to think about thanks to the field of social work in which I have landed. I am working for the Mental Health Association with people who have mostly been diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizo-affective conditions at an institution. Most of them do not work, and most are now both externally and self-defined by their illness. In the past few weeks since I began working there, however, I have been very privileged to get to know these people as people, not as schizophrenics or mentally ill people as I had previously stigmatized them. I will be working with them to support them in their relationships with the professionals who are serving them, and also in overcoming stigma and the effects of symptoms in achieving goals they have for their own lives.

It is incredibly challenging and humbling, but very exciting. I love working with people to help them to make their lives better, especially when those people are from groups on the margins of society, so it is a perfect place for me to be. I think we will be giving a lot to each other in our work together.

Also, like everybody does at the Oscars, I want to thank God - he keeps pushing the message that he is sorting things out in the big picture and that I just need to work hard in the places he prepares for me. It is interesting looking back to see how it has constantly happened in my work - in Japan I ended up getting my first taste of social work when I was offered a counseling role that I didn't even know existed (supplementary to the role I was hired for) in the taxi after I arrived at the airport. It wasn't something I anticipated or could have organized. Then when I went to the UK I did a huge amount of work sending out resumes and job hunting, but ended up in another counseling role completely by chance after dropping into a random job fair Kristy and I happened to walk past one day. And now again, completely without regard to all of the research, applications, interviewing and everything I did to look for work here, I was offered the position out of the blue by somebody I met at another job fair without having formally applied for it. It's like, no matter how much work I do in trying to build a career path, it's all just closed doors except for the one that God opens in a direction in which I wasn't even looking. Perhaps he just has a sense of humor about it. I am grateful regardless.

Anyway, this is the first time I will be working with a view to a long-term commitment, so it's going to be great to really see what I can achieve as every time I have begun to see results in the past I've had to move on. Also, I'm applying to do a Masters in Social Work later this year at Fordham University, which I'm hoping will give me the local qualifications and knowledge to propel me further forward in this career. It will be interesting to see if God has the same plans.

Rice to Riches and other places of happiness

2008-02-25T01:27:00.039Z

Hi everyone! I don't know what winter has been like in your neck of the woods (if you don't have winter now, don't rub it in!), but here in New York, we've had a pretty mild winter with the occassional dump of snow. Even though most New Yorkers would say that this winter has been fairly tropical compared to what they are used to, Ian and I are grateful for the graduated transition to snow country after 5 plus years of combined Okinawan sub-tropical weather and Leeds weather, which I wouldn't exactly call balmy, but they did only have one or two dustings a year (which at the time, were cruel reminders of the beautiful possibility of snow days).

You'll be happy to hear that Ian and I take this transition to snow country very seriously (cough) and finally broke down but last week and purchased a windshield scraper for the car. This came about after a certain turn of events where we found ourselves having to use our shoes to scrape the ice from the car windows a few weeks back when we went to Philly to visit our family. The shoe-scraper incident taught us the valuable lesson that you have to be prepared when the weather ices up because you never know when it will happen when you are away from home and your trusty kitchen spatula is unavailable to do the job.

Oh, big news! If you haven't heard already, Ian got a job! This was a big answer to prayer for us. I'm sure Ian will want to write a bit about it on here when his head is done spinning from all of the information he has had to take on board during his whirlwind interview process and official first few weeks on the job. If you get a chance, write and congratulate him! Yay, Ian!

We've had a fun month - where did February go? Ian got his job, we just bought our 2nd car (since we both work in two very opposite directions), I've been busy giving midterms and preparing a big exchange field trip for my students down to a Japanese school and shopping mall in New Jersey and we've started going down to the city more often to explore and hang out with friends down there. Our friends Phil and Kumiko Goldstein (friends from Okinawa that live in Brooklyn) introduced us to a bunch of ex-Jet couples, so it has been really fun getting together with them and talking about the good ol' days in Japan. Here's a bunch of us at Phil's 30th birthday party post-Korean BBQ and pre-karaoke!

There's nothing like beating the cold weather by eating good food in the company of good people. Here's our takoyaki party at Phil and Kumi's place with Kayoko and Rob. Kumi and Ian and I broke out our sanshins for a bit - somehow singing about Okinawa makes me feel a bit warmer.

We've also been exploring the city a bit and scoping out some new eats. New York is great for a lot of reasons, but one reason we've come to love is the food! It seems like everyone loves eating here, or even just talking about food. For Valentine's Day, Ian and I went to a local Japanese place called Wasabi in Nyack that was fantastic. Think trendy nuevo-Japanese cuisine with techno playing in the background. We had the most amazing jalapeno yellowtail dish there with lobster tempura and a rainbow roll. Mmm.

This past weekend I had to go into the city for a Japanese test, so afterwards we went to Chinatown for some delicious noodles and dim sum. Later on, we met up with everyone and went to this rice pudding restaurant called Rice to Riches. I think they had at least 20 different kinds of rice pudding there, (!) which made me contemplate gorging myself to gain a few wintery pounds to keep myself warm (it was very cold this weekend). We also tried Burmese food for the very first time at one of Kayoko and Rob's favorite places, Mingala, in the East Village. We followed up with a bubble tea at Saint's Alp Tea House that sent me back to my Quickly days in Okinawa. All in all, it sounds like we spent all day eating (which we basically did - but hey, it was really cold out!), but honestly, I can't believe how little money we spent doing that. I love New York!

Hiatus

2008-01-20T02:54:00.000Z

Apologies for the long delay in posts. It has been an eventful couple of months. For most of October I was attending successive interviews for a immigrant-related job in Manhattan, which was a great experience. I made it to the final interviewing round, but didn't get the job offer in the end, probably because I lack the specific skills in assisting immigrants in the specific way the employer required (they are a startup so wanted somebody who could start with as little training as possible). It was encouraging to make it through the first three selection rounds though as it showed I have the experience and soft skills to break into the nonprofit job market here.

James, my brother, then came and visited in November, and we had a great month together. Saw Clap Your Hands Say Yeah play in the Bowery Ballroom in NYC, visited Mum's American family upstate, ate the biggest steak I have ever seen at an old popular mafia hangout steakhouse, saw the Knicks lose to the Magic at Madison Square Garden, visited the Chibana family in Indiana for thanksgiving, played golf with deer on the course, and generally had fantastic fun together. It was sad to see him go, but hopefully we will be back together again before too long.

Then we drove back to Indiana again for Christmas. It was really nice to have a happy family Christmas again for the first time in a very very long time - longer than I can remember. That's one of the consequences of living overseas for so long. We got to relax with everybody, eat obscene amounts of wonderful home cooking thanks to Mom, some excellent Japanese food courtesy of Dad, and spend lots of quality time together. The craziest thing I got to see was a nearby house with an uncountable number of Christmas lights all over the house and yard and trees, that all played synchronised to a radio station with a 10 minute Christmas rock mix that had been set up specially for it (you can see it on Youtube here).

In the meantime I have been networking to find work, which has been going quite well. I have begun training for a local voluntary counseling organisation, and should start training in February for another voluntary organisation where I can qualify to represent foster children in court, so that's quite exciting. At the moment I'm trying to decide if I need to go back to school to do a masters in social work in order to get where I want to be in the work world, so I have an appointment set up next week with a local university that was recommended to me by a very kind local who gave me 20 minutes of her time last week to talk about my career direction.

It's frustrating to still be out of work, but things are moving along. It's taking longer than normal partly due to the complication of being an immigrant with no local experience, and partly due to the recession and increasing unemployment in the region. However, a qualification in the field and a good amount of volunteer experience should set me up to get in, so we'll see how it goes.

Kristy is working very hard and doing very well at her school, some of her students say hers is their favorite class, which is very encouraging. She has been breadwinning for us for the last few months, but if I get into a course then I'll find some part time work to contribute. Despite the usual integration difficulties, we are both quite happy in this new place and it is good to be looking forward to setting up a long-term future here. We'll keep you all posted on how things turn out in this new year!

The Big Day Out

2007-10-07T21:10:00.000+01:00

We went to a fantastic concert yesterday on Randall’s Island in New York City. It is quite a big thing for us since we both love music, but for the last six years have been out of touch with the music scene having lived in Okinawa, where few bands tour, or England, where we had a bit of a hard time and didn’t really get organized to see anybody. So this was the first of what will hopefully be many opportunities to see great bands live.

It was quite horrifying to get there since it involved my first driving experience in New York City, during which I nearly got sandwiched between a truck and an SUV while changing lanes on the George Washington Bridge, and then played Frogger with our car, driving horizontally across five lanes, narrowly avoiding death again, in an effort to get to the turnoff for the island that we spotted only at the last second – vis-à-vis this diagram (click on it to enlarge):

We had booked to see The Arcade Fire, one of the best bands around at the moment and from Montreal, where all of the good bands seem to be originating from lately. Little did we know, however, that the event was actually a music festival, so instead of seeing one band for to hours, we got to see five different bands play for six hours. By far the craziest and most enjoyable was Les Savy Fav, a punk / post-punk indie band from New York City. The lead singer, Tim Harrington (see a pic here), was hugely entertaining, running out into the crowd during songs, wardrobe changing on stage, throwing cheesecake at people, getting tangled up in the wiring, and generally being more interested in having a good time than actually singing, while the very talented band played on seemingly oblivious to his antics. It made for a great show. If they ever come to an area near you then they are well worth the money to see. Here's a clip:

We left close to midnight and stopped at a diner at around 1am in Nanuet for a burger. We were starving since we had only eaten once that day (katsu at Mitsuwa, a large Japanese supermarket in New Jersey), and I wasn’t really expecting much, but New York is amazing for food and even burgers at diners are excellent with crispy fresh buns, fresh salad, hot fries, and lots of delicious melty cheese.

All in all, a great day. New York is certainly a fantastic place to live.

Bear Mountain

2007-09-30T22:22:00.001+01:00

Just thought we'd post a few photos from Bear Mountain State Park, where we went today for a walk. We are just amazed at the natural beauty of this area after living for about 6 years in city centres. Come and visit us and we'll take you around okay!

Hessian Lake

Hudson River

Monarch (I think) Butterfly

Our new home

2007-09-28T00:21:00.000+01:00

Just thought I'd post a couple of pictures of where we now live:

This is our apartment, in a converted old carriage house - we live on the right-hand side, and a nice couple live next to us on the left. It's two levels with a small combined kitchen / living area on the ground floor, and bedroom & bathroom on the 2nd. Bigger than anything we've lived in for the last few years, so it's great to have some space! No inside shots yet though sorry because we still don't have all our furniture.

One more picture of the environs:

This is a small lake in Rockland State Park, a couple of minutes down the road, looking back towards where we live. As you can see, it's a nice area, semi-rural, lots of trees. Nice and relaxing.

That's all the pictures for the moment, but we'll put some more up soon.

In other news, I have a preliminary screening job interview on Monday next week (October 1st) for a fantastic NPO that supports refugees and immigrants in finding professional employment in New York City. It's very exciting because all the different aspects of the job are things I have been gaining experience in for the last 6 years. It would be a dream-come-true to have the opportunity to put it all together in an organisation whose mission I strongly believe in and to which I can commit long-term. Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.

More soon!

Start Spreading the News

2007-08-22T15:48:00.000+01:00

After three months of stressful job seeking, we finally have a job! Well, Kristy does anyway. We haven’t ended up in Chicago as we had hoped, but have in fact landed in Rockland County, New York (about 20 minutes north of Mahnattan). Allow me to tell you the story. It’s only mildly interesting to anybody other than us so I’ll make it short.

Kristy has been looking for a Japanese teaching position, which is difficult to find given it is such a niche career. A couple came up around Indiana (in Indianapolis and Chicago), but the Indy one didn’t work out and while we were offered the Chicago job, it turned out to be in a school district with the lowest safety rating in the whole city and one of the highest rates of violent crime. We may have braved that two years ago, but after witnessing a murder in our first apartment block in the UK we decided it probably wasn’t a good mental health decision to take the job, despite no other position being on offer at that late stage in the school hiring year.

From a Christian perspective, I think we have matured from looking at single open options as God’s will (analogous to praying for an open door) and leaping off the cliff of opportunity trusting that God has put a trampoline at the bottom, not to mention a chest stuffed full of temporal rewards for our reckless faith. We are now much more aware of the importance of rationally considering multiple options and relying on our own strengths and skills for stability and wellbeing as well as God’s. If God wanted to make all the decisions, we would have been pot plants. So now we pray for help in making good decisions between options rather than just a mindless opening of single options.

It was in turning down the Chicago offer without an alternative that we first had to exercise this new perspective, knowing that even if God wanted us to turn it down, it wasn’t necessarily going to be the case that another job offer would be waiting in the wings. Perhaps a strong faith isn’t jumping when you think God wants you to jump in the belief that he will catch you, but rather with the knowledge that he might not.

However, catch us he did, and we are all the more thankful for it, so after three torturous 15-hour drives from Indiana to New York and back (and back) for interviews, and being selected from more than 1000 applicants to just 25 open teaching positions in the district, Kristy will now be teaching Japanese in one of the best school districts in the country. There is huge pressure to perform, but she is a great teacher (I am aware of my bias, but if you doubt me then I’ll have to ask you to join me in fisticuffs) and I know she will really excel in the position. It will be a great opportunity for her after years in teaching jobs with no progressive opportunities. Please pray for her or wish her luck or act otherwise according to your theological preference.

We also have found a cool apartment in a converted red barn and should be able to move in by the end of next week. In the meantime we are staying with a wonderfully kind teacher from the school and some equally wonderful family in Philadelphia, home of cheesesteaks and Tastykakes.

Then it’s up to me to make up my contribution to the family income, so I’ll be looking for refugee or other related non-profit work in the city and suburbs. It should be a great area to find that kind of work since New York is the centre for some amazing organizations like the UN, the International Rescue Committee, Human Rights Watch, and AFS etc. Hopefully I’ll be able to find something in line with my jagged career path before too long. If it’s anything like my last income, I’ll have enough money to pay for a luxurious cornflake and milk breakfast almost every day.

Come and visit us okay!

Jellystone

2007-08-22T13:57:00.000+01:00

Here's some pics from the recent Chibana/Laidlaw family trip to Yellowstone National Park and environs.

President someone

Miners

Gold Fever!

The Badlands

This means something...

Old Faithful

Rodeo peeps

Ridem Cowboy!

The Fam

Summer

2007-07-10T21:27:00.000+01:00

So far, it has been a great summer. During our time in the UK we almost forgot what it was like to get sunburned and mummified by air-conditioning. It has been great catching up with old friends, grilling out, camping, hiking, and taking a break from our nomadic lifestyle for a bit.

In June, my aunt and uncle came from Philadelphia to visit. Micah and Molly came down from Wisconsin, and Ryan invited his girlfriend, Jasmyn, and we all went hiking for the day. Afterwards, we had some pretty cut-throat badminton at our house BBQ where Molly whooped Dad, but he doesn't like to talk about it.

The next weekend was my birthday so we went to a local street festival where there were several different bands and the restaurants had set up food stalls in the streets.

We now have a car! This is a significant addage to our earthly possessions, so we've been like giddy new parents, spending plenty of car-bonding time tinkering with it (Ian's manly level is soaring these days) and washing it, and I regret to say that I think we may have even named it. Don't really know how that happened as I've always been fairly anti-car-naming. Anyhow, we've been putting our new purchase to good use by taking road trips. We've been to Chicago a few times since we've been back and last weekend we went up to Wisconsin to go camping with Micah and Molly. In Wisconsin, Ian got to try some new kinds of root beer (he's on a quest this summer to find the best root beer in America) and Ryan made a new friend.

Also last week for the 4th (Ian's first and my first in about five years) we were good Americans and got in a good game of tennis before grilling out and going to see the fireworks. Ian, Ryan, and I made this killer Italian ice cream-like dessert with pistachios, raspberries, and chocolate. Yum.

Back in the USA

2007-07-10T20:24:00.000+01:00

Ten points go to the family for their creative display of enthusiasm for having us back in the country. Firstly, upon arrival at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, we were greeted with the traditional American welcome dance with a balloon by Micah. When we arrived in Lafayette there was a massive sign across the porch welcoming us. When Ian and I eventually took our things down to our room, we found that a few very sneaky people had toilet papered it and left welcome presents! Very funny!

Since we've been back, we've had a lot of fun hanging out in the kitchen and experimenting our new dishes on everyone (insert evil laugh). We actually had to start running every day to keep up with American portions, plethora of snacks, (there are now ten different varieties of Ritz crackers?) and our new hobby of making desserts. We have our regular weekly cooking sessions, but so far, we've had the most fun doing special occasions. The first weekend back happened to be Mother's Day, so Ryan, Micah, Ian, and I pretended we were French chefs and set fire to the kitchen. For Father's Day, the boys and I got our Japanese on and made some sushi. Next we are gearing up for Ryan's sixteenth birthday party. Can't wait!

The job hunt has been going well, but no bites yet. It has been really nice just relaxing this summer and slowly getting into things. I'm thinking about asking my parents if we can just forget about getting jobs and stay with them. What do you think, Mom and Dad? (^_^)

Reflections

2007-05-28T21:37:00.000+01:00

Howdy. We’re now broadcasting from the USA heartland! In April, after a long 8 month application process, I finally received my permanent resident visa from the friendly people at the London US Embassy, so the last month has been a flurry of frantic activity. We finished up our jobs, packed up all our stuff, and went on a short holiday to the Netherlands.

Holland was absolutely beautiful. We did a week-long cycling trip from Amsterdam – Utrecht – Gouda – Delft - Leiden – Haarlem – Amsterdam. The weather was perfect, the Dutch were super-friendly and helpful, and the countryside simply stunning (all of the photos in this blog are from our trip).

We tend to be quite enthusiastically naive when it comes to traveling as we just get an idea and go for it without really knowing whether or not we can pull it off. Consequently, the first day of cycling was a little harrowing. All we had was a vague (often wrong it turned out) set of directions from a cycling guidebook and we couldn’t find one of the first roads onto which it said to turn. We went the wrong way and hunted for it for around an hour, and ended up quite lost, before finally backtracking and eventually locating the following road on the list (the one we were looking for turned out to have been removed by roadworks). We got back on our way, but then missed another turn and went a few kilometers on a different wrong road, only realizing it when the railway tracks we were supposed to cross weren’t there. And we got lost again in the confusing network of unnamed small roads in one of the towns we passed through. It took us about 8 hours to get to Gouda, so the next day be bought a map.

With a map it was plain sailing (who would have guessed!!!). Some of the highlights were the beautiful fields networked with small waterways near Gouda, the windmills at Kinderdijke, the awesome stroopwaffles and pancakes, the incredible cycling routes (almost the whole journey was on paved cycle-only roads), the route through the dunes between The Hague and Leiden, and the Keukenhof botanical gardens. It was one of the best trips we have ever been on – slow paced, beautiful, relaxing and sprinkled with great food, great places to stay, and wonderful local people. Simply amazing.

If you get a chance to go then we fully recommend getting bikes from Bike City in Amsterdam because it is really central, the staff are very friendly and helpful, it’s inexpensive, the bikes are not marked with huge signs advertising where you are renting them from so you don’t look quite as touristy, they are very comfortable, and come with excellent security. Some of the best places to stay are the Soul Inn in Delft (definitely one of the coolest places we have ever stayed), hotel Utrechtsche Dom in Gouda, and the weird Joops Hotel in Leiden. Avoid B&B Utrecht City Centre at all costs – that was the worst hostel experience we have ever had.

After a wonderful holiday, we went briefly back to Leeds to finish packing, and then emigrated (again) to the USA. We are staying with my lovely family-in-law in Lafayette, Indiana. It is wonderful to be here, a very welcome oasis from a two-year high-stress lifestyle in the UK. Things were getting quite bad towards the end and were beginning to seriously affect our mental wellbeing, so it was very good timing to leave, and it is so good to have this time between work to relax and recuperate. It is really our first sense of stability since we left Japan in 2005.

That is not to say that the UK experience was a negative one. In a number of ways, we both grew and benefited from our time in Leeds in some very major ways. We gained a sense of adulthood through moving to a country and building a life with absolutely no local connections and no direct support from family or friends. We both acquired some very valuable work experience, myself particularly in the refugee field which I hope to make into a career here in the States, and Kristy in some important contributions to the lives of isolated and vulnerable foreign residents through her teaching work. We had some amazing travel experiences to Wales, Scotland, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Holland. We saved up enough money to get ourselves started here in the States. We made some wonderful friends who we now miss very much. We found a great church and homegroup and learned a lot about the place of social justice as an important and valid part of Christianity (countering the popular idea that the only valid activity should be evangelical).

Where our experience in Japan was primarily one of comfortable integration, an enjoyable lifestyle and material abundance, our UK experience felt more like we got to know the real world - we lost absolutely everything that made us happy in Japan and that we had previously defined ourselves by (such as our jobs, friends, reputation and social connections etc.), we had to start working hard to survive, and we discovered a lot about what I’m coming to think of Christ in the dirt – not a detached middle-class spiritual life heavy on ideals and doctrine, but living with the people who God had always been with –the dispossessed, the poor, the outcasts and the invisible. Learning how to live when the spiritual legalism of clear-cut rights and wrongs that is so easy to live by when you don’t have to make hard choices no longer applies. More about that in another blog.

So, where do we go from here?

Kristy is now applying for Japanese teaching work in Indiana and Illinois. We don’t know where we are going to be yet since it depends on where work comes up. I’m searching out nonprofit organizations that do refugee related work, but am also looking into other types of charitable work with vulnerable groups. We have both had a few good leads, so it’s looking hopeful, but it will be a month or two before we know where we are both going to be. There is no hurry though, Kristy’s family is taking very good care of us, and it is so very good to be able to spend some quality time with them.

We are at the point where we would both like to start investing into our work for the long-term, which means no more moves for a while. Traveling between countries has been an incredible experience and has taught us an enormous amount about ourselves and the world we live in, but you can never really completely dedicate yourself to your work and community when you know you will be leaving in a year or two, and it is heart-wrenching to have to say goodbye to great people and friends over and over again, so perhaps it’s time to put down some roots. But who knows, perhaps we’ll be off to Africa in a couple of years – you never know.

Sour Cream Chocolate Bit Cake

2007-04-28T19:19:00.000+01:00

Shortcut to moist, delicious cake!

6 Tbsp (85g) soft butter or margerine
1 cup plus 1 Tbsp of sugar
2 eggs
1 1/3 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. sour cream
6 oz. ( 170g) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix butter with 1c. sugar until blended, then add eggs. Stir flour with baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Then blend with creamed mixture. Fold in sour cream. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. Pour in batter. Scatter chips evenly, then sprinkle remaining 1 Tbsp. of sugar. Bake at 350F/180C/gas 4 for about 35 minutes. Do NOT refrigerate (it will explode).

Need converstions? Check out this site.

Baby's First Webpage

2007-04-23T13:31:00.000+01:00

Hey everybody, look what I have created!! (^_^)

I made my very first webpage! Since I'm trying to get a position teaching Japanese when we move back to the US, I thought I'd make a Japanese learning webpage to show off a bit and hopefully get myself a job! It's not very complicated, but I feel pretty chuffed. The pictures are all from Okinawa, too!

http://www.geocities.com/kristychibana/

Technologically,

Kristy

Ian Laidlaw ropes in a visa

2007-04-17T18:22:00.000+01:00

Eight months and a stack of forms later, we have our visa! Just for the record, Ian ticked the "No" box for the question: "Do any of the following classes apply to you: An alien who seeks to enter the United States to engage in espionage, sabotage, export control violations, terrorist activities, the overthrow of the Government of the United States or other unlawful activity..." Now everyone can give up their suspicions about Ian.

Easter weekend started off with a trip up to Edinburgh for Ian's birthday (Friday). Yes, the flower of his youth is now fading as he has now reached the 30 benchmark. Can you believe he used to look like this? He does look a bit different with a full head of hair, although James hasn't changed a bit...

Note: James is the one in the little yellow top and then in the Ben Folds jumper. Just in case you were confused.

We spent the day on Friday walking around Edinburgh reminicsing about our visit in '05 just after arriving in the U.K. At that point we didn't have much money, no place to live, no jobs in sight, and only knew one person in Leeds. We had just signed over most of our savings to pay for six months of rent on a flat in Leeds (no references, so we had to pay all in advance). Everything was an unknown, and we were mildly freaking out. Now, nearly two years later, it was nice to visit in much different circumstances and get some perspective on our time here.

Friday evening we met up with James and our friends Matt and Jude Tindale for dinner, then down to the pub for a birthday whiskey. We spent the weekend spending quality time hanging out with Matt and Jude down at the seaside and watching "The Mighty Boosh" with James. Also, James took us out to an amazing restaurant called The Witchery where we ate like witches (?) Anyway, it was yum and our very first experience eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant, which we thought was very cool.

On Monday we trained down to London to meet up with ex-Okinawa friends, Phil and Bethany (not ex-friends, we just used to live together in Okinawa) and also our ex-Leeds kiwi buddy, Shaun. Tuesday morning was the exciting visa interview, which actually was pretty boring and not much like an interview at all. Basically, we sat in a big room with a bunch of people waiting for our number to come up periodically so they could ask some standard questions. The staff were nice and friendly, and you could buy potato chips while you waited, so all in all, all three hours of it was a relatively pleasant experience.

Afterwards we headed to Gordon Ramsay's (Gordon Ramsay is like a celebrity cook here) restaurant, Maze, for a little birthday and post-visa celebration. Maze was so cool! It's a kind of posh restaurant with really interesting and unique dishes like "Honey and soy roasted quail with Landes foie gras and spiced pear chutney." One of the most interesting and original things we had was a dish called the BLT: "B.L.T Bacon and onion cream, chilled lettuce velouté, tomato gelée." We even got to tour the kitchen and meet the head chef, Jason Atherton, who wished us well in our move to Chicago and even signed a menu for us. Thus concluded our Edinburgh-London weekend! We had always wanted to eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant, and this weekend, we got to eat at two! Now we both have stomach-aches...

So Long, Farewell...

2007-04-12T14:59:00.000+01:00

So the headliner is... as of next month we will finish our tea and biscuits, say goodbye to the Queen, and pack our bags for another adventure. Yes, we are heading off to the home of Krispy Kreme, Lady Liberty, and "The Hoff," the land of the roaming buffalo, Wee for a Wii contest, and spiky-haired kids in braces eating fast food! We're moving to the good ol' U.S.A.! We are very excited. (^_^)

Last week was my last week of work. It was quite an emotional week trying to finish up everything as well as saying goodbye to the students - we all cried like babies! I've said a lot of goodbyes over the last few years, and I'm starting to appreciate the feeling you feel when you are genuinely sad to leave someone behind. I think it's a good kind of sad to feel out of all ways of feeling sad because it means that the time you have had together has been that good. I'm really thankful for that. Despite the hard times we have had in other ways while we have been here, I'm so glad that I can look back at my work experience and say how good it was and how much I will really miss it.

Of course the students made my last days really special by bringing in loads of food and presents. You really cannot find any kinder, more giving people anywhere; they continually overwhelm me with their genuine love and appreciation. In the end I feel like I am leaving behind amazing people whom I am really proud to call my friends rather than students.

After one of my classes, one of my advanced students invited me back to her house to hang out with her family. In a lot of ways I feel like one of the luckiest people in the UK because I have gotten to do things like this. I have seen sides of life here hidden away that are so rich, I just wish there was some way for people who have any hesitations at all with misunderstood groups like Muslims or non-native English speaking immigrants to be able to experience what I have experienced in getting to know them as face with a name that smiles at me and shares themselves with me. I can't tell you how much I have learned from sitting around the table with a bunch of Muslim housewives; they have really given me a privileged inside view on everything from arranged marriages, growing up as a woman in a Muslim country, making a life in a country that isn't home, family life, loss, faith, and keeping traditions while adapting to new ways of thinking. I've learned so much from all of my students, each one with a unique story and background, some of them coming from places I had never even heard of before coming to the UK. I think the biggest thing I have learned in dealing with so many different kinds people is that every man is just the same, only living in different circumstances. The hopes, dreams, fears, sorrows, and joys are all the same, and are certainly more poignant when shared together as they have with me. This really challenges me to a new level of love for humankind no matter how misunderstood or marginalized a person or group is.

On a lighter note, I had my first Mehndi (Henna tattoo)! Here's a picture of Iram and I right after she applied it!

Learning a wee bit at a time,

Kristy

A New Post! Ahhh!

2007-04-12T12:46:00.000+01:00

A number of complaints filed against the management regarding a lack of recent posts have finally managed to cut their way through the bureaucratic process and instigate some action from the sleeping giant. Sorry it's been awhile!

First of all, a bit of a catch-up. We went to our first British wedding this January and even got to help out! Ian rolled some video footage of the wedding for Matt's gran, and I got to play photographer's assistant! We also got to put together one of our slide shows full of hilarious pictures of Matt and Jude. It was so great being a part of the wedding of two people who have been such great friends to us since we've been here in England. (And did you know that British people serve fruitcake at weddings? Me either!)

Here we are celebrating our 2nd anniversary! (Already?) We took a weekend trip down to London to see Les Miserables, which has since sparked many conversations regarding social problems, our faith, and what kind of people we want to be. Good stuff! It's interesting to consider all of these things together in a new way just as we are about to make a big move (oops - more about that later~!) Anyway, we had a great time watching the show, discussing the meaning of life, eating ramen, and visiting the St. Patrick's Day Irish Market! (Just look at the size of that cheese!) Ian also made me a fantastic homemade Ian-style gourmet dinner on our actual anniversary (Monday). What a guy!

I like marriage,

Kristy

Sayama Campaign

2007-02-07T13:01:00.000Z

I have been involved in Japan's Buraku liberation movement for the past decade or so. The Buraku people, despite being the largest minority group in Japan, are a little-known outcaste group who are discriminated against due to their ancestry. They suffer from a similar status to the "untouchables" (Dalit) in India. There has been a campaign running for the last 36 years to hold a retrial for a Buraku man who was falsely convicted of murder in the Sayama Case. He was arrested due to his outcaste status, forced to confess, and imprisoned. He was subsequently released, but the authorities have refused to grant a retrial since it would mean both admitting the existence of Buraku discrimination (which officially does not exist) and that it was a factor in the case. Please sign the online petition, which is part of a drive to gather one million signatures to request a retrial of the case:

http://www.petitiononline.com/sayama/petition.html

You can read more about the Buraku issue at the website of the Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute, and also at a homepage I built for my MA thesis research.

Ian

Etiquette for Eating Holy Dates from Saudi Arabia

2007-01-26T11:13:00.000Z

This time of year many of our students at college are returning from Hajj (a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia). A few weeks ago, one of my students gave me a matching ring and brooch set that she had brought back for me. (Aw, so nice.) I got talking with one of my colleagues about it and she started laughing. "You'll never guess what happened to me the other day," she said. One of the newly returned students in her class had brought back some dates and handed them around for everyone to eat. After my colleague had finished hers, the woman came back to her. "What did you do with your date stone?" she asked. "Um, I threw it away," my colleague replied. "Oh, we pray over those," the woman answered, to my colleague's horror. "I was so mortified that I nearly dug through the rubbish bin for it!" she said.

With that story in mind, I felt confident that I knew how to handle the situation when one of my students in another class offered me one of the aforementioned Hajj dates. As I sat munching and asking about her trip, other students filtered into the classroom and took dates to eat as well. Soon it was time for class to start, and there I sat with a date stone in my hand, wondering if she was going to ask me for it or not. I considered my options and decided that the safest way to go would be to just carefully place it on the table next to me with my things in case she wanted it back at the end of class. Then I began to teach. To my surprise, a few minutes later, one of the students got up and threw her stone away. ??? (What?) I suddenly got the slightest bit self-conscious that the students might be eyeing my little date stone sitting there on the table with gnaw marks all over it wondering, "Why doesn't she just throw that away?" I droned on about the reasons why you can't say, "What country did he comes from?" and re-thought my action plan in the back of my mind. After class, all the students left me alone with my date stone. I decided that it was now safe to throw it away.

As I walked back towards the college, I passed under a bridge. A huge hawker dropped out of the sky and landed on my glove (at least it wasn't my head!). While I was trying to wipe it off on a bush, I suddenly thought, "Could this be divine retribution for throwing away that holy date stone?!" When I got back to the office, I told a friend what had happened. "Oh no, I had no idea! I've been throwing away those date stones all week!" she said. "I'd better watch my back, or I might get spit on, too!"

And so, the correct etiquette for eating holy dates from Saudi Arabia has yet to be determined.

Slapping myself on the forehead,

Kristy

The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain

2007-01-24T21:20:00.000Z

After a spending a harrowing Christmas 2005 cuddled up on the couch together crying in a deserted apartment block in an even more deserted city centre, we decided to escape to sunny Spain for Christmas 2006 because, while Christmas is a meaningful time in and of itself, the fact is that, on a cultural level, nothing says Merry Christmas quite like good company, good weather, and great snacks.

Kristy's childhood best friend, Amy, (the one from the marshmallow story, the underwear story, the locked in the bathroom closet story, and many others…) welcomed us into her fabulous Madrid flat on Christmas Eve just in time to meet the whole gang for brunch and church. Ian immediately set about displaying his highly tuned sociability when half a bowl of pumpkin soup that was placed next to him somehow found its way into the handbag of one of the attendees. "It's fine as long as none got on the gift," she said. "…," said Ian (it was a baseball shirt she had brought all the way over from the States). However, the incident was not as it appeared, and Ian will tell you a tale of the horrifying facts if you email him and ask.

However, everything else went swimmingly, and we were happily invited to the home of the wonderful Cady family to sleep over for Christmas Eve and share the giddy excitement (they have young children) of Christmas morning. It brought back warm memories of what it was like when we were children on Christmas morning, waking up and running out to the Christmas tree to get all of the coal out of the stocking and play with it, lighting fires and trying to eat it and stuff, except these kids got all kinds of other presents too! (must be a Spanish thing) The Cadys were so welcoming and really made us feel like part of the family that day, which is such a gracious thing to do on a special family day like that. We were very humbled and grateful and will always remember the happiness we shared. And the fantastic coffee.

The following days entailed lots of lounging around at Amy's place, sleeping in, eating olives and cheese, getting beaten again and again by Ian at Uno, and taking the occasional trip to the local market to pick up ingredients for cooking. Amy gave us the insider's tour of Madrid complete with tips for navigating streets with the best Christmas lights, recommendations on the best olives, and introduction to the most amazing hot chocolate in the world (It is so thick, you have to eat it with a spoon like pudding!) It seemed like almost every day we were there some kind of random bizarre parade would go down her street featuring Hari Krishnas, people dressed like clowns on stilts, monks playing Christmas carols atonally, or even the grim reaper with a flame thrower. These parades often only comprised of 4 or 5 people.

We did a couple of day-trips to Avila and Toledo, some highlights of which were eating a weird pseudo-cookie made from egg yolk, sugar, milk & almonds invented by a (subsequently) famous nun; watching waiters pretend not to understand an impolite foreigner who was trying to pay for a meal by waving about a credit card while yelling "Mastercard! International language!" (priceless); walking the town walls at Avila; seeing the amazing cathedral at Toledo; and overdosing on chorizo.

We came home on New Year's Eve and had a wild night! Ian had a left-over party popper that he stole from a work function, so we counted down at 9pm for New Year in Uzbekistan or somewhere, pulled the party popper, nearly set fire to the bed, and went to sleep.

Oh, by the way...

2007-01-08T20:06:00.000Z

Welfare State

2007-01-05T11:35:00.000Z

I thought I would write about an experience I had dealing with British bureaucracy to give you a little insight into the kinds of difficulties refugees experience in the UK and how difficult it can be to resolve what should be very simple problems.

Ahmed (not his real name), a refugee, was seriously assaulted when two men broke into his property in early 2005. He was hospitalized with head injuries and has been unable to work since that date due to his physical injuries and subsequent mental health problems. A charitable organization kindly installed window locks for free and referred Ahmed to have window grilles installed.

However, the grilles were damaged late last year when contractors from the council's housing office were sent to the property to install new windows. One of the men began to remove the internal grilles by smashing the joins with a hammer. Ahmed naturally became concerned as the work progressed, but when he questioned the contractors, they just insulted him and continued the work. The contractors eventually assured Ahmed they would fit the grilles back in after the work was completed, but they failed to do so.

After visiting the property to see the damage, I telephoned the housing office to discuss the problem. They stated that they do not allow grilles to be installed since they are a fire hazard. I checked with Ahmed and confirmed that they had been installed with a fire escape, so I called the housing office back to state that they were not a fire hazard as a fire escape was in place.

The housing office then said they did not have any records to show that the council had granted permission to install the grilles in the first place. They said that since no records existed, and since the council “does not lose records”, we must not have obtained permission to install the grilles, so they would not pay to repair them.

Now, if somebody came to your house and smashed up your car, it's not like the court would say they would only be liable if you had a valid driving license, because the issue of compensation for damage done to your car, and whether or not you have a license to drive it, are two separate and unrelated issues. I explained this to the housing office, but they would not budge. However, I was sure we had been given proper permission, so I called the charity that referred Ahmed to have the grilles installed, and they gave me the contact information for the organization that conducted the installation. That organization turned out, funnily enough, to be a department of the council.

I called the housing office again to explain that they were the ones who had carried out the installation of the grilles and the reason they did not have records of permission is that, obviously, the council does not need to seek permission from itself, but they changed excuses yet again and said they can not reinstall grills once they had been removed due to health and safety legislation since the contractors were only qualified to install windows (despite the assurance by the contractors that they would reinstall the grilles).

I explained that it was really a question of reinstallation, but one of responsibility for repair since the grilles had been damaged during removal. The housing office responded by suggesting we make a compensation claim.

However, upon thinking about this, I realized it would be pointless to proceed with a compensation claim since it was likely the grills did not actually belong to Ahmed (the flat being rented from the council) and were therefore not his property to claim against. I called the council department that installed the grilles to discuss this, and they stated that it was the responsibility of housing office to maintain the grilles since they belonged to the housing office once they had been installed. They were unhappy to hear that the grilles had been damaged since they cost more than £1600 to be installed. They said they would be happy to speak to the housing office if I asked them to call.

So, I called the housing office again and they agreed to call the council and then call me back once he had done so. Of course, I did not receive a call back, so I called them again a week later. They said they had not called the council (despite having agreed to do so) and that the case had been passed the housing office’s head surveyor who had carried out the removal of the grilles. I tried to call the surveyor, but he was not in the office so I was unable to contact him until the New Year.

I waited until 2007 and then called him, and he stated that the housing office does not now reinstall grilles since the new windows meet security standards. I was beginning to run out of patience at this point, so I just asked him to call the council and to call me back when he had done so.

He called me back later in the day and said that he had spoken to the council and to various other people in his office and that they had decided not to reinstall the grilles for three reasons, which were:
1) They are a fire hazard
2) The new windows meet safety standards so security grilles are not necessary
3) The council no longer has a budget to install grilles

Obviously, the first reason was not valid since, as I had already discussed with the housing office, the grilles were installed with a fire escape and the council actually requested their installation and would not have gone against their own policy in doing so.

The second reason was not valid since the two men who broke into the property did so by kicking in the door. This was achievable due to the vulnerability of the property, which is not visible from any other property and can therefore easily be broken into if it is not effectively secured. The door had since been replaced with a security door and an internal door grille to secure it, but if the original door could be kicked in without anybody in the area noticing then it is not at all logical to conclude that windows could not.

The third reason was also not valid since the grilles are now the property of the housing office and not the council itself, so the maintenance and repair of the grilles is the responsibility of the housing office. The issue of whether or not the council still has a budget to install new grilles not relevant.

Finally, just yesterday, the manager of the housing office called me to discuss the issue and I had the opportunity to discuss the situation, which by that stage had stretched over two months, in its entirety. She was by far the most helpful person I had spoken to, and gave me an opportunity to respond to each problem the council had raised, considered them objectively, and decided that the grilles should be reinstalled. I received a call from the housing office today to apologize and they said the grilles would be refitted in the next 4 days.

The thing that bothered me about this who process was that the housing office, at every stage of the problem until I spoke to the manager, did not approach the situation objectively, but rather actively searched for reasons not to help, and each time those reasons were proven to be wrong, just looked for another reason or, if they could not think of one, passed the issue to somebody else in the office who would start from square one again.

But more importantly, there is no way that a refugee who is not familiar with the British bureaucratic system and who does not speak English as a first language could ever negotiate the bureaucratic minefield that these kinds of problems present to have the issue satisfactorily resolved. Ahmed is one of the very few refugees who has a support worker to help him out, but the vast, vast majority of refugees do not. If a problems as simple but important as this can be so complicated to resolve, then I despair when I think of the problems other refugees must face.

If only people's first reaction when being presented with a problem that a vulnerable person is experiencing was to attempt to help rather than just seeing it unwanted work for themselves and reacting by searching for a way to avoid it. How often do we do this ourselves?

Ian

Otley Chevin

2007-01-04T13:39:00.001Z

Take a look at these cool pics I took while hiking at Otley Chevin with Sarah a few days before Christmas. These were taken right before I ended up doing a few ballet moves to save myself from slipping down a mud-covered hill. I think I impressed Sarah, but unfortunately I ended up on my bum completely covered in mud. Ha! - Kristy

Christmas time is here...

2006-12-22T09:57:00.000Z

The Christmas spirit has been coming on strong here for the past few weeks! It's amazing how much you can get done with a little holiday momentum behind you. We've tick-boxed our way through the usual holiday/end of year stuff and are just about finished up with work! Tomorrow we leave for sunny Spain to spend Christmas with Kristy's childhood best friend, everyday playmate, and carpool ballerina, Amy!

Yesterday I took part in my very first British pantomime! All of the teachers at work decided to throw a Christmas/end of year party for all of our students in college. Rather than just tossing a Christmas tape into a deck, (well, we did that, too) we decided to put together some quality entertainment. It was also a good chance to get the guys to dress up and embarrass themselves! The students got a kick out of it, anyway.

My students are such great people to work with; I have learned so much from them! The last few days they've brought in amazing homemade biriyanis, samosas, picoras… you name it (and some things I can't name, but they were good, too!) On top of that, most of them (and even some students who aren’t my students – go figure that one out) gave me cards, gifts, and flowers. They are so generous and warm, it is sometimes overwhelming to be given so much by people who have so little!

Bubbling with Christmas cheer,
Kristy

Turkey Day

2006-12-21T17:03:00.000Z

I got to go back to the good ol' USA for a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving with the fam this year. It was an amazing feeling to be back! It's been four years since I've had a proper American Thanksgiving, so the turkey and pumpkin pie were even more appreciated than usual. I don't know any Americans or Canadians where I am living at the moment, so it was really nice to be back among my own kind (^_^).

Actually, I feel like the past year has really given me a new appreciation for Americans since there haven't been any around (maybe they are hiding?). Not to honk our own horn or anything (there are plenty of things to criticize, of course, nobody's perfect) but I really found the friendliness, openness, and cheesiness of Americans really refreshing to come back to! My family went to a Christmas lighting thingy in downtown Indianapolis the day after Thanksgiving, and it ended up being a huge deal: lights, food, a stage with a live band, loads of free stuff being given out, the streets full of Americans dancing and singing Christmas carols together and hitting each other with blow-up candy canes... it was great! You know, I had forgotten what America is like!

I love living abroad and meeting so many amazing people, but being home felt so great - I am so excited about moving over next year and starting the next chapter of our lives (which will hopefully be entited "Kristy and Ian settle down into a more stable life"). Ian and I have hung little postcard pictures of Chicago up on our wall, which we refer to as "our dream". For awhile "the dream" (which is just made up of post cards, some string, and some Blu Tac) kept falling down. Every morning I'd get up, and the dream would be on the floor, so I had to keep putting it back together and hanging it up again. When I talked to Ian on the phone from the US on Thanksgiving, he said, "Oh by the way, I've figured out a way to fix the dream!" How about that Kiwi ingenuity!

Happy Halloween

2006-10-31T17:05:00.000Z

Here are a few "true" (?) Japanese ghost stories just for fun.

Freaky Fish Shop
As told to me by Mr. Kameoka about his childhood friend

I once knew a boy who visited his friend’s house every day after school. The friend's family owned a fish shop that was attached to the front of their house. Everyone who entered the house always went in and out through the fish shop entrance, so no one ever walked down the dark lane that ran along the side of the building where the front entrance to the house was. The boy never thought much about it until one day when he went to visit his friend and the fish shop entrance was locked. He wandered down the dark lane to the side entrance and approached the front gate. As he paused for a minute in front of the gate, a very strange feeling came over him; he found that he couldn’t take another step forward. All of a sudden, he panicked and ran as fast as he could back down the lane to a nearby telephone booth to call his friend. He explained that he was trying to get into the house, but the fish shop entrance was locked. Once his friend had opened the door and he was safely inside the house, the boy forgot all about the feeling at the front gate.

A few weeks later the boy asked his friend why no one in the house ever set foot in the genkan (entry way) or walked down the lane where he had experienced the strange feeling a few weeks earlier. His friend explained that for years no one in his family felt like they could walk down the lane, because if they did, they would start to feel very sick. Soon after, the family decided to ask a yuta (a kind of Japanese witch doctor/fortune teller woman) to come to the house and get rid of the bad spirits. That day, the little old lady hobbled down the shady lane to the front entrance of the house. She walked right up to the gate, stuck her hand out as if to open it, retracted her hand, and turned around and walked right back down the lane and went home, saying that there was an extremely strong spirit force at the entrance to the house that was blocking her from entering. After the yuta left, the boy went inside the house and stood in front of the genkan. His friend’s grandparents were sitting in the room across from it, so he asked them why everyone avoided it. They said that many many years ago the family had discovered an older male relative after he had committed suicide there. He had hung himself from a beam directly over the genkan.

Kanashibari

The Japanese have a word, kanashibari, which refers to the condition of your body becoming so stiff that you can’t move. It almost feels like your body is sleeping but your mind is awake, and no matter how much your mind tells your body to move, it can't. According to the teachers I work with, only certain people get kanashibari, and it can happen for two reasons. Risa- sensei believes that it happens when your body senses a ghost or spirit around. Another one of my other teachers, who thinks that ghost stories are silly, believes that it happens when you’ve been exercising a lot and your muscles are tired and freeze up. Risa-sensei says that she gets it quite often because there are a lot of ghosts in her house. She told me several stories about it.

One time she dreamt that she was sitting in a room on a chair. Looking up, she saw a woman walking slowly towards her. She freaked out and tried to move or wake herself up, but she couldn't. All of a sudden, she snapped out of sleep, opened her eyes, and saw a woman’s face staring into hers. There was a ghost woman standing right in front of her. Her body froze up and she couldn’t move until the spirit disappeared. She also told me a story about her older brother. She had never met him because he died before she was born. One day, when she was standing in the genkan, her body froze up. In the mirror she could see a boy the same age that her brother would have been today. Her eyes locked with his, and she knew that even though she had never met her him when he was alive, the boy staring back at her was her brother's ghost. Finally she blinked, and he disappeared.

Freaky!

Kristy

Japanese Gyoza

2006-10-23T15:33:00.000+01:00

INGREDIENTS:
1/3 cup chopped cabbage (boiled)
2 tbsps chopped green onion
1/2 pound ground pork
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
2 tsps soysauce
1/2 tsp chopped fresh garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
20 gyoza wrappers
1 tbsp vegetable oil

PREPARATION:
Combine all ingredients other than oil in a bowl and mix well by hands. Place a teaspoonful of filling in a wrapper and put water along the edge of the wrapper. Make a semicircle, gathering the front side of the wrapper and sealing the top.
Heat oil in a frying pan. Put gyoza in the pan and fry on high heat for a few minutes until the bottoms become brown. *Makes 4 servings

I See London, I See France...

2006-10-07T14:26:00.000+01:00

Hey everybody. Sorry about the long hiatus for all of you loyal readers out there (Mom, Dad...). We had a little mishap where our computer bit the dust and rendered us technology-less for a month or so. But now, thanks to some creative thinking by everyone's favorite Ian, we have a spanking new laptop complements of our home insurance! He's great isn't he, that Ian? :)

Quick recap. It's been a busy month for us. I'm back to teaching at college and am doing a grad course part-time. Ian is as busy as ever with training new employees at work, volunteering with refugees, and even getting to set up and deliver computers to refugees in need. We also moved in with our friend, Helen. She has a really nice house that has a spare room with your name on it! And it is away from the murder flat in an actual neighborhood. It's been awhile since either of us have had that, so it is a big deal for us.

I never did finish up telling about our summer vacation with Micah and Ryan. After visiting the headless angels and Alexander the Great in York, we headed down to London for a few days. We saw everything: Big Ben ("I thought it would be bigger." – Ryan), Westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, London Tower (and all the Medieval torture devices), and oh, I can't even remember what else. We even took a day trip out to see Stonehenge. Ryan had his first meal of roast lamb at a pub along the River Thames, and Micah picked up some quality literature from a guy at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park who was waving a sign that read, "Don't believe anything I say".

We also got to take the Eurostar through the "chunnel" to Paris for a few days. We loooved Paris. We've always heard that Parisians don't like tourists and are usually stuck up, won't speak French with you, give you the rolling eye, etc. We experienced the exact opposite. We adopted a local bakery as our favorite lunch stop and the shopkeeper lady there was just so cute you wanted to hug her. She didn't understand any English, but was really patient and friendly to us. The last day she laid out all our utensils for us and delivered our food with a cute smile and a "Voila! Bon appetite!"

Paris was the ultimate way to finish up a fantastic vacation. We saw Mona Lisa at the Louvre, kissed at the top of the Eiffel Tower at sunset, wandered through famous squares, ate a hot dog wrapped in cheese and bread, tourist-watched, got ice cream from a French girl who thought we were German (?), sauntered down the Champ d'Elysee, saw real dead people's bones in the Catacombs, inspected Notre Dame to see if it was the same as on a video game Ryan played, paid respects at the graves of Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, and Chopin, got hassled by vendors in front of Sacre Coeur, and dodged traffic around the Arc D'Triumph. And of course, we ate lots of amazing food, including escargots! I don't know why I had the impression that they would be raw and slimy and gross. French food is amazing: they can even make your mouth water for snails.

Our last night we dropped into a jazz bar/restaurant for dinner and got a real taste of the local life. During our dinner, the waiter joked with us about all sorts of things. A jazz pianist accompanied by two singers set up in a tiny space in the front. The singers were both quite hilariously mediocre, but full of the heart and the energy of someone who loves what they do. The guy even tap-danced…in a very interesting and sometimes racy way! (He was kind of middle-aged, too.) It is hard to explain how funny this all was, but we and the other customers spent the entire night laughing and clapping; completely enraptured by them and loving every minute of their little show. We will definitely have to go back to France.

Viva la France,
Kristy

Murder

2006-10-07T09:58:00.000+01:00

I've kept this a little quiet until now because I was waiting for the trial to finish. I witnessed a murder in March - it happened a couple of doors down in our apartment block (from where we have now moved). The trial was on Monday this past week and, fortunately, I didn't have to attend because the accused plead guilty. I was one of the first people on the scene and met him in the hallway. I didn't realise what had happened until he pulled me inside the flat where the murder had taken place. I ran downstairs to call the police and then went back up to take care of the guy because he was absolutely distraught - I didn't realise he had done anything until a couple of weeks later when the police told me he was the suspect. He had been running around the halls calling for help so it came across like he had just been a bystander. Click here to read the article.

Ian

Everybody's Got Something to Hide (Except for Me and My Monkey)

2006-09-01T18:11:00.000+01:00

I just wanted to let our Mom know that we took good care of Ryan (youngest brother - 15) and made sure that he got plenty of exercise while he was away. After conquering Mount Snowdon we decided at the last minute to do a running tour the major Beatles sites of Liverpool on the way back to Leeds.

Yep, a running tour. Ian drove the car around and the three of us hopped out and ran to each site, took a picture, and then bolted back to the car! Very funny.

From infancy (ok, ok, maybe I'm exaggerating) Micah and I have been big Beatles fans, so of course, this was our big opportunity to do things like take our picture in front of the Penny Lane sign so we can tell everyone "We were there!!!" This is, after all, why we take pictures on vacations, anyway, isn't it?

After all that, I was totally knackered.

We also took a day trip to York so the guys could see the massive minster there. Micah got to spend some quality time with Alex (the Great). Also, is it just me, or are these angels signing out "Help"?

One night a few home group friends came around to hang out and show my brothers what sensible (hehe) British people are like. Alastair "Oh-my-hat" Morton brought along his camera and proceeded with a rather hilarious photo shoot of me and the bros in front of a blanket. With a monkey, of course. Still more to come...

Wales

2006-09-01T16:26:00.000+01:00

This summer Micah and Ryan joined forces with us to conquer the best part of this country : Wales (just kidding to all of you English, not kidding for anyone else). Wales is awesome. It seemed like at every corner we had to stop the car to take pictures and fully appreciate the complete incredible-ness of it.

Here we are chillin' at our campsite near the little village of Beddgelert at the base of Mount Snowdon. There is this really sad story about a dog that dies that we won't get into because Ryan will get choked up, but you can read about it yourself here. Anyhow, the boys got full trial by fire the first night with camping in what they call "summer" here. I think we were all wearing about three or four layers each and were lying rigormortis-like in our tents all night, too afraid to sleep because the tents might have blown away! Good times. We cooked our meals on a little stove by the river and sat on rocks while we toasted marshmellows over the burner (no campfires allowed, can you believe that?).

We visited Caernarfon Castle along with thirty or so eight-year-olds dressed up like knights, princesses, and even a dragon. They were just behind us in line and you could hear them clomping impatiently on their coconut "horse hooves" to get in. Then they stormed the castle. After some exploring, we decided to get our priorities straight and get the boys some proper fish and chips.

We also went to this really bizarre place called Portmeirion. lt is supposed to be this place where this Welsh arctitect was inspired to build a sort of idylic utopian village. The guidebook said that it was supposed to have "inspired novels, films and the Beatles" and was a setting for a Dr. Who ephisode. To us, it was just a bit weird and kind of creepy. Anyhow, we had a chance to walk along a beautiful beach, hiked the trails, and paid hommage at the dog cemetary (Ryan, don't cry!).

The day we hiked Mount Snowdon was perfect. Beautiful weather, plenty of snacks, and no lack of views like this:

This was by far a favorite day amongst the four of us for the entire vacation. Nothing like the breeze in your face and the world at your feet! ...to be continued

More About Me Than You Ever Wanted to Know

2006-09-01T15:08:00.000+01:00

Like many of you, I’m sure, I’ve recently gotten a few of those “About Me” emails where you fill in random information about yourself and send it on to a few of your friends for fun. Well, I feel like I kind of owe you guys an explanation or something for why you keep sending me these things (I do like to read them!) but you never get anything back from me! It’s because I think I might be a boring person or something! (>_<) I can never figure out how to answer the questions. Does anybody else have this problem?!? For example, I will give you some of the results from one of the latest ones:
1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:30, but fell back asleep when Ian left
2. Diamonds or Pearls? Not really a jewelry girl. I guess diamond for my wedding ring.
3. What is your favorite TV show? Don't have a TV, sorry.
4. What did you have for breakfast? Cereal (is this really an interesting question?)
5. What is your favorite cuisine? The delicious kind
6. What is your favorite CD at the moment? That question is too complicated
7. What kind of car do you drive? Nike (no car)
8. What are your favorite clothes? My birthday suit
9. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where WOULDN'T you go?
Middle of a minefield probably wouldn't be too much fun
10. Pepsi or Coke? Either is fine
11. Pedicure or Manicure? Not bothered
12. Favorite fast food restaurant? Our kitchen? (don't really eat much fast food)
13. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? I'm married to a debt counselor, do you think I'd max out my credit card?
14. What is your favorite color? Blue... I mean green!
15. How many tattoos do you have? None here

Help! I must be getting old and boring! (^_^)

On another note, we've just decided this week that we’re moving this weekend. Yeah, I know. But at least we are escaping the bloody murder, loud Frank Sinatra-blasting neighbor, mold coming in through the walls, lap-dancing club going in downstairs, holding my laundry hostage in the broken washing machine for a week flat! Pretty happy about it, really, if we can pull it off. Anyway, more details on that later. We should also have some pictures up from our vacation soon, too. Stay tuned!

Randomly,

Kristy

Crackers!

2006-07-26T22:02:00.000+01:00

Upon discovering a 20 year old pack of ryvita wholemeal crispbread crackers in an old picnic set, we did what any model citizen would do. We listed it on ebay.

Proceeds will go to support Matt Tindale as he raises money to work in Edinburugh as a staffworker for UCCF.

Bid here.

Travelers' Log

2006-07-21T12:42:00.000+01:00

In the past few months, we've gotten to see some neat little corners of this country, and we thought we'd bring you some of the highlights! So, grab yourself a cuppa and enjoy the virtual tour!

First stop, Malham, part of the beautiful world-famous Yorkshire Dales. It's only about forty minutes away from Leeds, so it's pretty easy for us to get out for some fresh air when we feel like we've been cooped up for too long in the city!

We noticed how England is really a nation of hikers. Everybody's got hiking boots, even Grandma! It was a good day to go for a walk, too, because all of the cute little lambs were out! (By the way, that is Kristy talking, not manly Ian, of course.)

Next stop, Fountains Abbey, Britain's largest monastic ruin. We explored the abbey and gardens through clouds, rain, brilliant sunshine, and yes, even hail (all in about 20 minute cycles)!

We went with a group of friends this time and had a picnic lunch in the ruins. Except for Ian and I posing with the Tupperware, this kinda looks like a band photo or something, doesn't it?

The final stop for this round of touring is Whitby, home of Whitby Abbey, Dracula, Caedmon, and Captain James Cook.

Whitby Abbey is gorgeous! It's set up on cliffs overlooking the sea and the town of Whitby. Since it stars in the story of Dracula, you can even ride the Dracula ride on the sort of "boardwalk"ish type area in town. It was also the home of Saint Hild, other important Anglican people, and the poet, Caedmon.

Whitby is also the home port of Captain James Cook, the guy who discovered New Zealand! Here's our Kiwi boys paying their tribute to the monument there.

And here he is with a bird on his head...

Me, Sara, and "Rod" enjoying the sunshine.

Not quite Okinawa, but it'll do!

Reflecting on the First Year

2006-07-13T18:40:00.000+01:00

Now that we are about a year into our UK experience, I'd thought I'd write to update people on what I am now doing. It has been an amazing year and it is incredible to look back and see how far we have come compared to the relatively desperate circumstances we found ourselves in during the first few difficult months after arrival.

As far as paid work goes, I'm still debt advising at the Consumer Credit Counselling Service and am enjoying that very much. They implemented a "flexible work week" which has allowed me to rearrange my full time schedule into a 4 day week, so I now work Tuesday through Friday from 8am - 6pm daily. This change allowed me to start volunteering at the Refugee Council on Mondays, which I have been enjoying very much.

Last week I interviewed for and got offered a position at the Refugee Council as a volunteer project worker. The job involves working at a drop-in centre for refugee clients who are experiencing integration, housing, destitution, legal and other problems. I am very excited because it is basically the job I came to England to do. It involves the same work as a full time project worker, but at a lower level. I am hoping it will allow me to build up my skills and experience so I can step into full time refugee work when an opportunity arises.

Also, I have started a project to get computer equipment from companies and organisations that they would otherwise throw away, rebuild the equipment into working systems, and then give it out to refugees and refugee related organisations for free. I gave away my first computer yesterday to a Sudanese community association, and have three more to distribute, but have a waiting list of around 20 people! I am trying to set it up as an official project through a charity to give me more authority when writing to companies to ask for donations of equipment.

With my other volunteer work for the Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network, I recently began to work with another refugee from Iraq since my work with the first Iraqi refugee is drawing to a close. It is very exciting to be involved in resolving problems on a one-to-one bases with refugee clients and it has been an absolutely incredible experience so far in the huge range of work I have become involved in with them. It has been a boost to my faith as well because we came to England in a leap of faith believing that it was where God was leading us, but then ended up doing debt counselling work rather than the refugee work I thought I would be involved in, but then ended up using my the debt knowledge I gained through my paid work to assist with numerous debt issues with the refugees I work with - issues I would never have been able to assist them with if I had not been trained in debt counselling.

It is amazing because if it had been up to me and I had simply taken the path I wanted then I would not have succeeded, but now I am succeeding because God lead me on the path I would not have chosen, but which turned out to be the necessary one to follow to get where I wanted to be. It's a great lesson in trust.

Finally, I have felt lead to use my debt counselling skills more in ministering to the Church, so I have been thinking (or God has been putting the idea into my head - it's hard to tell which sometimes) of visiting Churches to run debt and budgeting seminars as a means of assisting people within the Church who are in debt, and reaching out to people connected to them who are also having problems as an outpouring of God's love for them. Debt in the UK is an absolutely massive problem - every household actually owes an average of 7,000 pounds (US$14,000) now and I have spoken to people with debts of up to quarter of a million pounds. For people in debt it is all-consuming, destroying every aspect of their lives, so it is amazing to actually be able to help them escape. I have been in touch with a group called Christians Against Poverty to arrange a time to discuss the idea, which they seem interested in doing, so it's just a matter of finding some time to do it now. It's an exciting idea and I hope we can have a good go at it.

So, that's pretty much what I am up to. I must say that I can't stand living in Leeds because we have had so many problems with neighbours, racism, metropolitan isolation, rampant materialism, disturbing sexuality, and even a murder (I am appearing as a witness at the trial later this year). Certainly nothing like laid-back friendly warm Okinawa. However, the existence of all of these problems is what creates the need for the work I love to do. You can't help a drowning man unless you too step into the sea. But four principal things keep me going: the amazing work I have been given to do, my faithful God who blesses me abundantly, my wonderful supportive wife who fills me with joy like I have never known, and the knowledge of a better world that awaits.

God bless,

Ian

Hut, hut! It's Barbeque Time!

2006-07-01T18:55:00.000+01:00

Potato Salad with Toasted Cumin Vinaigrette

1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 pounds red-skinned new potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon salt
4 large hard-boiled eggs, peeled, coarsely chopped
2 green onions, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 heaping tablespoon chopped seeded drained pickled jalapeño chilies from jar, 2 tablespoons liquid reserved

Toast cumin seeds in heavy small skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Cool. Using spice grinder, coarsely grind cumin seeds. Transfer to medium bowl. Whisk in lemon juice, then oil. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)

Place potatoes in large pot. Add enough cold water to cover. Add 1 tablespoon salt. Boil potatoes until tender when pierced with skewer, about 8 minutes. Drain. Transfer to large bowl. Add eggs, green onions, red onion, cilantro, jalapeño chilies, and 2 tablespoons chili liquid. Pour dressing over salad; toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to serving bowl. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.) Makes 6 servings. Yum.

Streets of Debt

2006-06-24T12:49:00.000+01:00

In case anybody is interested in the job I am doing here in England, there is a BBC online video series called "Streets of Debt" that covers the issues I deal with and the people I help in my counselling role for the Consumer Credit Counselling Service. There are five 45 minute programmes you can watch, each covering a different aspect of the UK's massive debt problem. You can watch the series online here.

Ian

When the moon hits your eye...

2006-06-22T21:39:00.000+01:00

For the last part of our trip we traveled up to Venice. Everybody we spoke to said it was best to avoid the crowds and simply get lost, so that’s what we did. There is a main artery of tourists running from the train station to St. Peter’s Basilica, so we just deviated from this souvenir-lined road of strobing camera flashes and headed for the side streets. We wandered passed street musicians and local vegetable markets and even found a communist meetinghouse on one of our tiki-tours. Venice is basically a small island so you can wander off without ending up too far from where you are staying.

It really is an incredible place. One of the first things we noticed was the peaceful silence because of the absence of cars. The roads were just wide enough for pedestrians, only a meter or two in some places, and the buildings towered up a few stories on either side to make it a kind of maze, but every now and then we would stumble on a small bridge over one of the beautiful canals, facing down an alley with rainbows of washing strung between windows, or end up in a plaza with beautiful ancient buildings and statues. One of the funnier sights was a row of gondolas filled with tourists in a watery traffic jam with the gondoliers all yelling at each other in a scene of anti-tranquility that I doubt the tourists didn’t shell out €50 to experience.

The weather was beautiful so we spent part of the afternoon snoozing in the shade of the trees in a park right next to the ocean. Eventually we did head to the Basilica, which was incredible, but more interesting were the pigeons in the square. You could buy little bags of seeds and then feed the birds, but many people would hold the seeds out in their hands and the pigeons would fly up to land on their arms, shoulders and head to get the seeds. This led to an amusing incident later with Amber demonstrating a Pavlov’s Dog effect when, describing what people were doing, she briefly held out her seedless hands in an unconscious illustration and the pigeons launched an immediate offensive.

We concluded our trip by blowing whatever money we had left on an amazing dinner at a restaurant right on the water. Very memorable! We even got Brock join in on the oysters (and he ended up really liking them!) Wandering the peaceful Venetian streets together at night after a great meal was definitely a highlight of the trip. It comes in as a close second on the trip highlight list to hearing Italian people actually say, “Mamma Mia!

Will you still need me? Will you still feed me?

2006-06-18T11:42:00.000+01:00

We'd like to wish Sir Paul McCartney a Happy 64th Birthday today!

Read about Paul: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5087006.stm

or http://www.beatlesagain.com/bpaul.html (picture taken from here)

Birthday Girl

2006-06-16T12:16:00.000+01:00

Happy 27th Birthday Kristy!

Mission: Vatican

2006-06-01T21:20:00.000+01:00

Although our entrance into the Holy State wasn’t quite as stealth as Tom Cruise and company in Mission Impossible 3, Ian did manage to inadvertently sneak a cheese knife through the gamut of guards and metal detectors set up to protect the Pope from terrorists (oops). Sometimes you have to go to great efforts to protect your snacks. We, the Cheese-a-linis, (self-christened mafia names to make the whole Italy experience seem more realistic) rendezvoused with Mr. and Mrs. Pepperoni at about 0900 hours in Saint Peter’s Square as planned. On this bright, sunny day, the Square was filled with flag-waving people from all over the world. The Holy Father himself would be coming in a matter of minutes to speak, and you could feel the excitement in the crowd. I don’t mean to be irreverent, but as we sat there and watching the nuns parading in past the order of monks who wore hot-pink accents to their normal monk-ly attire, we had to remark at how much it all resembled some sort of holy sporting event.

(In Italian, of course):
“And now, we’d like to thank the nuns from the Holy Catherine of Notre Dame from Frankfurt, Germany for coming today!” Screams and cheers, presumably from the nuns, came from one corner of the stadium. “…And the nuns from the Convent of Saint Ignatius of Dublin, Ireland!” (More screams from another corner.) “…And the members of the Lion’s Club of Columbus, Ohio!” (Screams from just in front of us.)

Then it was time for him to come. People stood on chairs and craned their necks to see the white-clad figure as he entered the stadium in a car (Pope-mobile?) As he drove around the crowd in circles, waving, people pushed like a bunch of paparazzi to get a closer look and stood on anything they could find to get a picture worthy of taking back home to show Aunt Rhoda. Finally, the car impressively ascended the stairs to take the Pope up to his tent where he would begin the Invocation. The rest was in Italian, so unfortunately I didn’t get much out of it, except for the part where he threw in a little slap on the wrist for all non-Catholic Christians.

We decided to nip out a few minutes early to beat the crowds to the Vatican Museums. Evidently after about ten in the morning the line can get a mile or two long, but since everyone was waiting in line to get their items blessed by the Pope, we lucked out and walked right in. Between arguments on how to pronounce “Medici” (my high school English teacher wouldn’t fail me on this one!), we oohed and ahhed over corridor after corridor covered from top to bottom, including the ceilings and floors, with priceless, history-book-making artwork. I’m used to going to art museums where you walk into a room with about twelve pictures on the wall and stand in front of each one thoughtfully, so this just blew me away. It made us all feel quite small in our ability to even appreciate the love and dedication that went into the tiny details of each massive room. Brock mentioned at one point that Raphael spent four years of his life painting one of the rooms. Wowsa!

Finally, we made our way towards the grand finale, the Sistine Chapel. When you think of a chapel, what do you think of? Prayerful? Serene? Holy? Not this one! People had packed themselves in like there was a cart in the corner giving away free doughnuts. There was a lonely security guard who ushered people annoyingly through the room and screamed “NO PHOTO! NO VIDEO!” in intervals, followed by a loud “SHHHHH!!” towards the murmuring crowds. This became a regular joke for Team Stromboli for the rest of the trip. At one point later, someone even overheard us and said, “Oh, you’ve been the Sistine Chapel, then?” With that said, we couldn’t really appreciate much of the Sistine Chapel, although I did notice that the entire bottom six feet or so of the room was entirely curtains. Painted curtains. Every tiny detail and shadow. Probably some understudy of Michelangelo’s ended up painting only curtains for about five years of his life. I’d like to shake that guy’s hand.

All of that art-appreciation was making us hungry, so we dove into some backstreets to find the real thing. We found it! No tourists, no English-speaking staff, and no English menus, just a tiny little mama-and-papa-run trattoria with great food and a waitress who laughed good-naturedly with us (at us?) when Ian whipped out the Italian phrase book and uttered, “That was divinely tasty.”

After lunch, we wandered around town through famous squares and fountain-dotted piazzas, where artists hang out to paint your picture for a minimal fee. We saw the Pantheon. Then it was time for ice cream. Our friend, Helen, recommended a place near the Pantheon that has over 100 flavors of gelati. Yum town. Soon after we found it, Ian had to take back that fact that the gelati we had eaten the day before was the best he’d ever had.

We made our way back to St. Peter’s Basilica later that afternoon after all of the crowds had gone. Now that is a church. The inside is filled with artwork and statues and beautiful marble floors. You can even see the Popes of days gone by perfectly preserved in little see-through coffins. I don’t think I can really see any more churches, either in Italy or here in England after seeing St. Peter’s. As Amber so poetically put it, “Once you see St. Peter’s, all of the other churches are just kinda ‘yip yip’!”

Postcard from Rome

2006-05-31T22:09:00.000+01:00

For a New Zealander and an American, Rome is an incredible place to visit because an “ancient” building in our countries is considered to be any building without a broadband connection, whereas the Collins-defined ancient Rome didn’t even have dialup!

We traveled backwards in time to Italy via Nottingham earlier this month and were greeted with torrential rain for a couple of hours during which we stood under a tree near the coliseum while a guy tried to sell us umbrellas. It probably would have been a good idea to buy one, but you develop an instinctual “no” response to hawkers when you travel, so we just stood there in our raincoats developing both wet trousers and an understanding of why Caesar wore a miniskirt and sandals.

The rain quickly let up, however, and we were treated to beautiful weather for the remainder of our trip. We avoided the coliseum due to a colossal slow-moving line of tourists through a single gate, which was funny considering the building was designed to allow 50,000 people to enter in a matter of minutes, and headed through the forum to the Palatine, the prime real-estate overlooking the forum where the original rich-list built their mansions. It was almost devoid of tourists due to the entry fee and the lack of conspicuously tourist-attraction features visible from the outside, but it contained an incredible wealth of beautiful and extraordinary ruins of palaces, gardens and grounds, and a breathtaking view over the forum, the heart of the old empire.

Then we ate some snacks. To save money, we brought a bunch of delicious snacks with us from the U.K., stashing them in our backpacks to eat during our trip in order to avoid expensive tourist-site food. We did buy some snacks at a little cart to see what they were like, but ours were better. Half of good traveling is good eating.

After a few hours admiring how the Romans were able to build structures that lasted 2,000 years when we can’t even develop a light bulb that will last more than a week, we moved off to the Capital Museums to see some of the artifacts that didn’t make it into the Tomb Raider movies. Every room was an incredible experience. In one room we were avidly admiring the frescos on the wall, which I assumed were painted recently to add an authentic feel to the rooms, only to discover that they were painted more than 400 years ago! That’s older than my country. Turn after turn, we were astounded simply by the age of everything around us. The museum is also where I had my first authentic Italian espresso. It was actually quite a mission to find the café. I could smell the coffee from the floor below it, but it took us half an hour of going up and down stairs and looking at floor maps to work out how to get to it. But it was worth it in the end because it was the best espresso I have ever had. Sweet, rich and nutty. Definitely the highlight of the museum, espresso trumps fresco.

All this time we were wondering where Brock and Amber, Kristy’s friends from the USA, had gotten to since we had been due to meet them earlier that morning. I had a message on my mobile, but I was feeling too Scottish to spend the money to check it, so we just assumed they would call later, which they did. While I was on the WC in the museum bathrooms. Their plane had been delayed, but they had eventually made it in so we met up with them and went to have dinner, where we ate delicious Italian pizza!

After dinner, we went for a constitutional to see Trevi Fountain, but spent more time watching the hawkers amusing tactics as they attempted to sell roses and bubble guns to the tourists amassed there. Nearby, however, we had the most delicious gelato I had ever eaten up until that day, which was definitely the highlight of the Fountain. Gelato trumps Nicola Salvi.

The News Part Dos

2006-04-21T16:38:00.000+01:00

Here it comes...

The News Part Dos:
With the crocuses and daffodils popping out and the occasional drop of snow or hail (happened just a few weeks ago, believe it or not), spring has finally come to Leeds.

We've been doing a lot more exploring lately. Here’s a short tour diary with pictures.

I don’t remember when it was, but sometime in the last few months we went to check out the Bronte sisters’ house. Here's our favorite Ian checking out the Old Apothecary across the street from the Bronte Parsonage.

In March we went to Halifax for an artists’ book fair with our friend, Jo. We stopped in the little English town of Hebden Bridge for some tea and homemade scones with jam and cream.

Later in March we took a short trip to Liverpool for our anniversary. Just as we got off the bus and into the city, I saw a city bus marked "Penny Lane" in the destination slot. Wish I had had my camera out! Anyway, we paid respects to John, Paul, George, and Ringo by visiting a few Beatles sites including The Cavern Club where The Fab Four used to play back in the day. Fabulous. We also checked out some museums, stayed in a fancy hotel, and had a fantastic anniversary dinner. The only thing that wasn’t fantastic was that I caught what I was sure was the bird flu, and then I gave it to Ian! Nice anniversary present, huh? Both of us ended up calling off work and spent most of the next week cuddled up at home with the tissue box. Anyway, despite minor health issues, we had a great weekend seeing Liverpool, watching TV in our hotel room (we don't have a TV), and reminicing about the past year.

We had some time off this past week for Easter so we rounded up some friends and headed to Yorkshire Sculpture Park for the day to hike around. We forgot the camera, unfortunately!

Next stop… in a few weeks we are headed to Italy to experience Rome and Venice, stroke our chins at some great art, and eat lots of good food!

In other news, Ian has now made it to number 29. Last year in Okinawa we looked forward to taking advantage of things in the UK that we didn’t really have access to there, so we celebrated by going to the symphony and using our oven. We had a fun time trying to be gourmet for his birthday meal – I planned a menu that included New Zealand roast lamb (Ian supervised and it turned out fantastic) and a Pavlova (I made by myself when Ian wasn’t home and it flopped!). Oh well, at least it tasted ok. Last year I tried to make Ian a birthday cake in our little Japanese microwave-pretending-to-be-an-oven, and it came out with a big chunk missing, so I’m hoping that next year will be the year when I’ll be able to pull off a good cake. I’m learning!

More news later…

I am the walrus,

Kristy

The News Part Uno

2006-04-18T18:02:00.000+01:00

And now, our bear is crawling out of hibernation to deliver a few exciting blog entries (hopefully). It’s been awhile (insert two-tone “so-rry”) so there’s quite a bit of news! Stay tuned for the exciting second installment.

The News:
After finishing my course in February, I went back to supply teaching secondary school and hamster-wheeling the job search. Supply teaching is interesting, you know, never a dull moment. Some days a kid will threaten to kill you, and other days you’ll overhear a kid who cried in your class because he got in trouble tell his buddy that you were the best teacher he ever had. Most of the time you come home feeling completely wrung out from riot-control that day, and it doesn’t take long for the cheeky comments and flying projectiles to get to you if you’re not careful, but every once in awhile a kid would come up to me after school and try to repeat the Japanese phrases I taught him just for fun and make me feel like, “Oh, maybe I am supposed to be a teacher!”

Anyhow, I’ve been trying to get out of supply teaching.

The job search hasn’t really been a hamster-wheel in the traditional sense, actually. It’s that I’ve been looking and I just couldn’t find anything I even wanted to apply for…for months and months. The hamster got a little lost there for a while. Then, at the beginning of February, Ian and I ran away down to Burton-on-Trent to see James for a few days and when we got back, I found a job that I did want to apply for, but didn’t really expect to get. The application was due the next day, so I made use of the valuable life skills I learned in school and stayed up to get the application together in a few hours.

To make a long story somewhat medium-lengthed, I got the job! Now I’m teaching English to refugees and asylum seekers at one of the local colleges, and so far no one has thrown anything at me or made so much as a hint of a death threat! It’s been a bit of a culture shock, to be honest. I’ve started volunteer-teaching a refugee in her home once a week, too, and that has been an amazing experience. At the moment, I’m a pretty happy Kristy with the way things have worked out!

Whohoo,
Kristy

What British kids say when they get in trouble…

2006-04-03T20:06:00.000+01:00

1. Miss, that is well tight!
2. Whot!? I didn’t even do naught!
3. Miss, it were ‘im (him).
4. My name’s not Tom. It’s Bob.
5. Miss, what part of America are you from?
6. I’m not bovered! (bothered)
7. But Miss, I don’t know how to read!

He he,

Kristy

Engrish

2006-04-03T09:26:00.000+01:00

A photo we took in Kyushu a couple of years ago made it onto the Engrish website. Check it out here. It's super-funny!

Dust Beneath Your Feet

2006-03-12T13:26:00.000Z

I saw a man take something that could not be returned, and I feel something I never expected. I hurt for him. It was if he had been deceived. Did he hear poisonous whispers of a comforter, guiding his hand, only to recede forever when the act was done? Were his eyes only opened in time to see the last door swing shut? He was not the kind of man I would have imagined. Not without heart, not enraged. Not like they would have you believe. No, he was as a child, so horrified that all he could think to do in the face of such absolute futility was to find someone to show him how to erase the act. But how cruel is the passage of time. How horrifying the dismay to know it can never be undone. To never have thought yourself able, but then in the darkness of that day, to look down and see guilt staining your hands. Guilt that destroys not only the life you stole, but yours as well. One act that makes all the good you ever did as if it were nothing at all. Dust beneath your feet.

Ian

All the stars are projectors...projecting our lives down to this planet Earth

2006-02-23T10:54:00.000Z

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes people who they are. I wonder how many things you would have to take away from the modern person before they lose their sense of identity. If they were removed from family and close relationships, then stripped of their job, financial stability, and then the ability to enjoy hobbies, how would they survive in a conversation with the rest of us? Would we even be able to hold a ten-minute conversation with them, or would most of us quickly lose interest or start talking about ourselves? Without a sense of uniqueness (which ironically seems to come from the ability to be classified in an exciting way), how does the modern ego survive? What if you continued to take things away; safety, health, a sense of future, or even a person’s dreams for making any kind of difference… Without an outlet for the passions and causes that drive us and give us purpose, what would most of us become? Are all of these things – hobbies, interests, jobs, relationships, etc. - a conduit through which we express a personality that is already there, or do we actually find our identity in what we do and have? For the average person, after stripping all of these things away, what is left underneath? Is that the one thing we all have in common?

Ruminatively,
Kristy

Reconnoitring the Old Empire

2006-02-03T18:49:00.000Z

One of the more enjoyable aspects of cultural adjustment has been the process of integrating into the British work environment. I find myself in an unusual position because, despite having been born and brought up in a former British colony, my entire working life (all four years of it) has been spent in Japan.

Well, not quite in Japan, but in Okinawa, in fact, where rapid 20th century industrialisation, the continuing post-war occupation, and the overlay of mainland Japanese culture on the sub-pacific island culture of the subtropical archipelago has fostered a unique work ethic. This ethic is, generally speaking, deference of the will of the individual to the greater social good balanced with stubborn defiance in the face of external pressure and yet a familiar "she'll be right mate" attitude to it all. I cannot profess to be familiar with the British system after only two months of experience, but let me share two of my initial cross-cultural observations of the cultural peculiarities of a strange old empire compared with those of another even stranger one (you guess which is which).

Firstly, British meetings. In Japan, meetings are usually the forum in which decisions that have been made are shared with the group to build consensus and mutual understanding. The decisions are initially formed at the lower levels of the bureaucracy, and then filtered up slowly through the layers of management, passed back down for review, and percolated back up in a process of fine tuning before upper management approval, at which time a meeting is held to share the details of the finalised plan. In the Queen's country, however, people have a meeting to discuss an idea. The idea is thrown roughly into a verbal arena and then undergoes a barrage of debate until the weaker debaters tire and the victor has their idea implemented. If you liked Ben Hur then you'll love British meetings.

Secondly, if you ask a colleague a question in Japan then it usually puts them under pressure to give you the correct answer. If they don't know the answer then they will usually make thinking noises, which indicates that they don't know and gives you an opportunity to tactfully change the subject so they are not forced into telling you that they can't help. Foreigners, of course, don't initially know that this is what thinking noises mean and will keep prodding for the answer, eventually forcing the Japanese person into the shameful position of having to admit they don't know. In the United Kingdom, however, whenever I have asked a question that the other party does not apparently know, they tend to behave in one of two ways.

The first type of behaviour is to deny that the question is an issue. For example, if you have a sleeping tiger on your desk and you ask somebody "what do we do if it wakes up?" and they don't know then they might say something like "It was really sleepy yesterday old chap, so it probably won't wake up for ages, what!" Then you might reply, "Okay, but it will wake up eventually, so what should we do then?" They would then reply, "I say my good man, I had a stuffed tiger when I was six and I never had a problem with it. Jolly good show." They can avoid the question like that for hours.

The second type of behaviour is to just start talking. Again, faced with the sleeping tiger question, they might reply, "Right, well, I saw a tiger in Africa once when I was on safari. We has this driver from Morocco. Good chap, Gerald was his name. You see, his father was from France, but he always wished he had been born in Texas and had been called Gerald, so that's what he named his son. Ended up in Africa as a florist, I forget why. But I always liked flowers, my uncle was a botanist you see, even though he was colour blind..." and so on.

It's all very interesting. I'll keep you updated. If it gets too risky to post on the blog then perhaps I'll hide my communications in a rock.

Thoughtfully yours,

Ian

Supermarket Sweep

2006-01-21T20:41:00.000Z

We got a surprise letter this week to say that Ian had been paid 24 glorious post-tithe pounds for holiday pay from his temporary job that he did for not even 3 weeks last year. Since it was holiday pay, we decided to spend it on something enjoyable rather than crediting it towards something boring like rent.

We were therefore faced with a difficult choice. Do we use it to see Munich, the new Spielberg movie, therefore gaining a renowned director’s perspective on the human side of a significant historical and social event? Do we use it to sample some strange new cuisine in a rare opportunity to visit one of the region’s many excellent restaurants? Or do we blow it all on snacks? A complex and thought-provoking conundrum, but we went with the obvious answer for a couple of our intellectual and culturally attuned prowess. Snacks.

We made it to the supermarket with 24 minutes to go until closing. 24 minutes, 24 pounds. It was like winning a major award, a wild shopping spree! What, you may very well ask, did we buy? What would you buy if faced with the same pressurized situation?

Kristy headed directly for the Innocent Strawberry and Banana smoothie. Ian tossed in some hot cross buns from the bakery. We made our way through the store with uncanny swiftness and agility as if we had a premeditated dream snack list prepared months in advance. We took it in turns to venture into new and exciting territory; the bakery’s lethal array of tempting desserts, the potato chip isle (Ian’s promised land), and mysterious isle 9, shrouded in mystery and superstition, an isle to which neither of us had previously dared to venture. The snack isle. Strawberries, salt and vinegar potato chips, a box of microwave popcorn, and expensive olives all made their cholesteroley way into our basket, followed by a gourmet berry cheesecake, smoked salmon, and a can of rambutan. Before we knew it, we were down to our final choices with only minutes to spare. Ian swift made for the gingernut cookies, while Kristy sprinted down the drink isle for a decadent box of mint hot chocolate. With only 96p remaining and a “go home now we’re closing” vibe emanating from the surly store attendants, we grabbed two Cadbury cream eggs and slid through the checkout with our hoard. It was a beautiful display of razor-sharp decision-making and physical dexterity and we will taste the fruits of our success for weeks to come.

And the moral of the story is, when faced with a choice between education, experience, and gluttony, always go for gluttony, but rationalize it as an educational experience.

Being Glad for the Oasis

2006-01-04T09:23:00.000Z

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of coming to England has been, in an ongoing sense, departing Japan. There are days when we look back to Okinawa to see the life we had standing out in sharp relief, directly proportional to the extent that we don't have it here.

That is not to say that life in England is unpleasant or that we have made a mistake in coming here. For me, this has been a significant step forward with the new counseling job, some amazing refugee volunteer work, and great opportunities for study, training and further volunteering on the horizon that would never have been possible had we stayed in Japan. It has been somewhat more difficult for Kristy, but she has been selected for an intensive TESOL course this month and should soon have access new opportunities for work and development. It's just a matter of time.

However, perhaps the human tendency is always to look back. To see not what we have gained, but what we have lost in moving forward.

What are some of the things we have lost that I miss most? Friendship with people who shared our experience of living in a foreign country. Easy and inexpensive access to isolated subtropical islands. Being familiar enough with the region to know where the good restaurants are, and having enough surplus income to be able to frequent them. Freedom from many cultural expectations through being perceived to reside, to a degree, outside the dominant culture.

This is life at each major junction. We depart from a long-fostered familiarity brimming with memories, and turn to face a future empty but for the latent potential that exists within it. It is a cold move to make, but did the place we now depart not once appear the same? Dreams drive us ever forward, but if we do grasp at greater things, then why do we despair even as we climb? Why do we always look back to what we had in the good old days?

Perhaps it's because we reach forward not into light, but into darkness. The only thing we can know for sure is where we have been, and when we tread uncertain paths, it is not the pennies and dimes of the past that we desire so much as the solid ground. It is difficult to believe that the path ahead will be clear and safe unless we already stand on a guarantee.

But this is the life of the modern adventurer, the Alan Quatermains of the 21st Century. Venturing out from the stream of society into uncharted territories of experience and drawing the maps as we go. The lack of certainty is part of the attraction, for what would Everest be if every climber had assurance of a safe route to the summit? And to succeed is to conquer, to stretch out beyond complacency and grasp at a life that seems out of reach, to lay claim to the dreams we fostered before the realities of the world replaced them with tarnished shells.

The mirage of images past is but a temptation to relinquish the dream. It is an illusion that we could ever return, so let us instead be glad for the oasis where we rested, yet never look back, but to follow the star until morning.

Ian

A Very Merry British Christmas

2005-12-24T14:48:00.000Z

Different:
1. Lots of people say "Happy Christmas" instead of "Merry Christmas."
2. No Christmas cookies! Christmas cake and Christmas mince pies instead.
3. Not so many houses decorate on the outside for Christmas, but the city went light-crazy with about 15 miles of lights (which they started putting up in October)!
4. Boxing Day (day after Christmas). Reminds me of a sort of British substitute for the day after Thanksgiving.
5. German Christmas Markets, full of good things to eat, smell, and buy!
6. People freely and happily say "Merry Christmas" to each other, even to people they don't really know. I don't sense any of the paranoid PCishness we have in the States with wondering if you should say "Merry Christmas," "Happy Holidays," or just mind your own business. But this all seems funny to me because it seems much more international here.
7. No bell-ringing outside Wal-Mart for the Salvation Army here. They go out into town with a full brass ensemble.

Same!
1. Hearing Christmas carols playing in the stores and knowing that people actually know what it means (unlike Japan).
2. We're off to Christmas Eve service at church tonight.
3. Lots of good food. And plenty of slothing around.
4. Snow! (cross fingers, anyway)
5. Christmas trees. We didn't have many Christmas ornaments, so we improvised and used all of the keitai (cell phone) characters we amassed in Japan. Our tree is very uniquely decorated with the like of Hello Kitty and a goya-holding shisa, and is even topped-off with a ninja star.
6. We're very proud of the huge display of Christmas cards and letters that we received from our friends and family from all over the world.
7. At the root of it, Christmas is still Christmas, no matter how or where you celebrate it. It's easy to think Christmas is all of the fuss that we make it out to be, but really, it's as simple as sharing love with other people and remembering the amazing gift of love that God gave us over 2000 years ago. (Cheesy, I know, but true!)

A very Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas, Meri Kurisumasu, Feliz Navidad, etc. to you over there from us over here!

Kristy

Postcard from the Front Lines

2005-12-10T21:21:00.000Z

We saw the Narnia movie last night, which, besides being an excellent allegory of the Gospel, is also an interesting window into the world behind our world. The idea that just because you don't see something, doesn't mean it isn't there. A powerful example of this is the spiritual state of war that we exist within, a frightening picture of the potential invisible gravity of the consequences of our actions and the use (or misuse) of our gifts. Do we unknowingly stand in the midst of a raging battle? If so, who are we fighting for? Or are we standing there denying a war is on at all?

I have recently been blessed with a window into the war in two forms. The first is through my involvement with the Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network, and the second is in my new job as a debt counsellor with the Consumer Credit Counselling Service. I have always been aware that asylum seekers and people in debt exist, but it has never been more than that - a mere awareness. Until now, I have never sought them out, thought about what I could do to help, or really understood the immensity of their suffering.

Asylum seekers in the U.K. face a horrific trial in that the government and much of the population are so worried that the system could be used as a vehicle for terrorists (despite the fact that it would be much safer for a terrorist to get a fake passport and pose as a tourist than to run the administrative gauntlet as an asylum seeker) that they have constructed an absolutely inhumane system as a deterrant. There is no proof that the system has ever been abused to the extent that would justify this inhumanity, but fear drives a legislative hammer onto its ever-hardening blade. Asylum seekers flee here to escape torture, murder, rape and circumstances we could never imagine, and instead of compassion and assistance, they face mistrust, destitution and discrimination. The people we should be fighting for are the people we end up fighting against for no reason other than unfounded prejudice.

The issue of debt, which may seem comparitively trivial at first glance, is in fact another largely unseen major battlefront. The number of people crushed under staggering debt is increasing dramatically every year. Most of them are not in debt because of bad planning or a lack of knowledge, but simply due to changes in circumstances they were unable to forsee. Loss of income due to sickness or the death of a partner, redundancy, divorce. It is so easy to get credit to survive that it spirals out of control before they realise it, and suddenly they are in tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, often facing a defecit just trying to balance essential costs like food and rent, and unable to pay anything to their creditors. Can you imagine what it would be like to look at the future and only see debt that you could never hope to repay? To starve yourself trying to pay it off? Losing your home, your family, your friends?

People in these situations are all around us. We probably see hundreds of them every week and don't even realise it. It's not like everybody has to do something about it, but if you recognise a war is going on and you decide you have a responsibility to fight then you have to enlist, and this is where it seems I've been posted. I'll let you know how I get on.

Ian

Kristy's First Trip to London!

2005-12-06T15:39:00.000Z

Ahem, attention everybody… Kristy would now like to tell you about her exciting first trip to London! Everybody listen up! Beuller! Ok. This past Wednesday we went to London (my very first time!) London has been one of those places I never really dreamed I’d see for myself. It has that behind-the-television-screen-type awe to it… and I got to see that it all really does exist in real life! Good to know it all isn’t some Truman Show-type conspiracy by the government or anything like that.

And what is better than a trip to London? A trip to London for free! We got to ride down in style on a pair of first class train tickets that a friend gave us all for the low, low price of nothing! (Evidently, he gets loads of free tickets from the amount that he travels down for business. Thanks, Mark!) We started out by having some train troubles, though, and had to be re-routed, so it was about 3:30 before we rolled into St. Pancras Station. No problem. We were still ready to have a killer time (as they say in Napolean Dynamite).

We decided to take a walk past St. Paul’s Cathedral on our way across the mighty Thames. Unfortunately, they were doing construction on most of the outside, so all we got to see was the covering paper, which, funnily enough, was covered with a dot-matrix-type printout of what the exterior was supposed to look like. If you got far enough away, you might actually be able to fake to yourself that you were looking at the real and actual St. Paul’s Cathedral in all its glory.

After trotting across the Millennium Bridge and snapping a few photos, (unfortunately, since it gets dark here by 4pm, all of our pictures can collectively be called, “London at Night”) we headed on to the Tate Gallery of Modern Art to stroke our chins at some Andy Worhol and pictures of naked people. After that, it was into town for some exploring.

It is so cool when you can go to a place and find things you didn’t expect. We wandered down one of these alleyways to find a huge plaza decked with Christmas lights and a huge Christmas tree sided up to an ice-skating rink. Very Dickens-esk! Later, while walking through the government district near Big Ben, we saw this royal soldier guy with a saber opening a gate for an official-looking car. We got our value as tourists! Ian describes him as having a coat like the Spanish inquisition with a huge crazy red hat with tassels. He even did the walk - like he was stepping over huge puddles. Later, when he was standing guard, we wondered if he was one of those guards that aren’t allowed to talk, itch, or blink, and what he would do if we tickled him.

We had a match between Starbucks and McDonalds while we walked to Trafalgar Square. Unsurprisingly, Starbucks won with about eight sightings while McDonalds lagged behind with only four (it’s a new era, isn’t it?). After paying tribute to Big Ben and Westminster Abby (which was creepy looking in the dark – “Just as a good church should,” quoth Ian), we jaunted up to Soho, where they have Broadway shows advertised on every corner. Hopefully we can get down again to see one sometime. For dinner, we stopped at a little Japanese place creatively called “Little Tokyo” for some curry udon and donburi. Our last stop was Piccadilly Circus; then we were back on the tube to the station, and then home again. What a great day!

Ian's Champuru Thanksgiving Pie

2005-11-26T13:03:00.000Z

This pie is a modified mixture of recipes from Edmond's Cookery Book (the NZ cooking bible) and www.joyofbaking.com. We made it for Thanksgiving on Thursday in place of a pumpkin pie, because there are no pumpkins here right now (out of season perhaps?).

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry
1 and 1/4 cups flour
90g butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 and 1/2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup crushed gingernut biscuits

Sift flour. Cut in butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in sugar. Add egg yolk and water. Mix to stiff dough. Chill for 30 minutes. Toast pecans in oven and chop. Take chilled dough and roll out to line a 30cm pie pan. Press crushed gingernut biscuits and chopped pecans into base and return to refrigerator while making filling.

Filling
3 eggs
2 cups mashed sweet potato
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients. Pour filling into pie base and put in preheated 190 degrees C oven for 45 minutes to an hour. Pie is ready when crust browns and knife inserted into the pie comes out almost clean.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Mere Starbucks

2005-11-17T09:51:00.000Z

Saturday was a milestone in my barista growth.

One stumbling block I have dragged along over my first two years as a Starbucks employee, as I sit in the comfy chair with my latte, has been a lingering doubt that I asked for a job with impure motivations. Did I actually want the job, or did I just want to sit in the comfy chair? Of course, now that I am in the comfy chair, I am happy to have the job, but then I find myself wondering – is it a latte I hold, or just an empty cup? And if it is an empty cup, then am I justified in being here at all?

On Saturday I went to a nearby village for a Starbucks conference, which encouraged both current and prospective employees to ask lots of questions about the company and its ethos. My epiphany occurred as one of the team leaders gave a speech about a section of the handbook covering hiring, which states, “continue to work our your employment with fear and trembling.” Incidentally, that was written by a former Robert Harris employee who enjoyed getting Starbucks workers fired, but later became one of Starbucks most well renowned managers after a remarkable meeting with the CEO.

It turns out that there are actually three processes of employment. The first is justification, where you actually get hired. The second is sanctification, where you learn the ropes and work for the company. And the final stage is glorification, when you retire and get to meet the CEO. I realized that, as long as I kept worrying about justification, IM-ing the CEO every few minutes to check if I signed the contract in the right place, I would perpetually hinder my sanctification.

The CEO, who is a remarkably patient man, explained by showing me a picture of myself in a box underground. One of the unique aspects of Starbucks is that, while many cafes wait for employees to come to them and then put them through a rigorous selection and examination process, the CEO of Starbucks actually searches for employees himself and hires anybody who is willing to be a part of the company. The situation wasn’t about whether or not I had done enough to dig myself out of the box, because I was unable to do that anyway. All I had to do was express willingness to be out, for whatever reason, and trust that the CEO would dig me up. Which is what he did.

So, now I have that wonderful assurance, I can get on with my work.

Metaphorically yours,
Ian

Things my students said to me this week...

2005-11-15T19:34:00.000Z

1. Mum?! ...Oh! (smack on head) I mean, Mrs. Laidlaw!

2. Miss, are you American? Do you live in America? (Yes, I commute every day in my private jet.)

3. Miss, have you ever been abroad? (This was after the fact that we had established that I was an American.)

4. Kid: I wish I lived in America.
Me: Why?
Kid: It's so much better than over here.
Me: How do you know that if you've never been there?
Kid: From TV. And movies.
Me: What? TV is baloney. You can't believe half of the things you see on TV.
Kid: (Gasp) Mrs. Laidlaw! That's a dirty word!
Me: Huh?
Kid: You can't say that! We British love our television! Don't you dare talk bad about television!

5. Mrs. Laidlaw, are you American? Do you know anyone famous?

6. Kid: Mrs. Laidlaw, do all the people over there in America think we're posh?
Me: (pausing in case this means something different in British English)
Sorry, what exactly do you mean by that?
Kid: I mean, do they think we're really snobby and stuck up?
Me: No. Why? Do British people think Americans are snobby and stuck up?
Kid: No! Americans are like "Yeah man!" (in an a faked American accent complete with mock gang hand gestures)

7. Miss, my friend says she saw this movie last week called "(fill in name)" and you look just like the lady who played in it. Was that you?

8. Mrs. Laidlaw, what's it like in America? (How do you start to answer that?)

9. Kid: Miss, where do you come from in America?
Me: I'm from Indiana.
Kid: Oh, is that where Indiana Jones is from?

We don't need no education,
Kristy

Paradise Found

2005-11-13T10:59:00.000Z

It didn't really come as a surprise. We had so little work that we were forced to whit away the hours reciting Milton and reminiscing about those brighter days in Prague. Sweet Prague! Days filled with incense and art, and the lady who brought us the freshly baked cheese that we fed to the children. But not so, gloomy England! Your waters bitter and baguettes stale. On this bleak Friday afternoon, our team leader gathered us around and told us, since it hadn't been as busy as they anticipated, they were not going to ask us to come back next week.

Incidentally, at 11am that morning, they had a two-minute silence for Remembrance Day. And how were the beginning and end of this solemn period of mourning marked? With a lone trumpeter on the green? With the release of two doves? No, not with anything so crude and inappropriate my friend. The commencement and conclusion were indicated with nothing other than the gentle shriek of the klaxon fire alarm.

However, I do have good news. And what is my good news you may ask? And very well you may, for I do have good news. This is my good news, the news which I am about to give, which is mine. In a somewhat ironic development considering that I was just working for a stock broking firm, I have been offered a permanent (which is not to say "eternal") position as a counsellor with a national charity organisation established to provide assistance to people who are unable to escape from debt. Needless to say, I am very excited about this opportunity since I will be able to deepen the counselling experience I gained in Okinawa and help people who are in real need. I feel very fortunate to have been offered the chance to do something I am so passionate about and to earn a living (albeit a meager one) doing it.

The job starts on December 5. I will try to find some temporary work to fill in the three weeks before that date, but even if nothing is available, it is wonderful to know that we have the security of a regular full time job approaching. I wonder where it will lead?

Yours somewhat fictionally,
Ian

You believe my lie, I'll believe yours

2005-11-11T12:43:00.000Z

I’ve been thinking a lot about money lately. It’s not unusual considering that I am temping at a multinational stock broking firm.

An excellent book I recently read (An Introduction to Postmodernism) defines the workings of the modern economic system as consensual mutual deceit. Shares are offered by companies to support their growth and development, but are bought and sold by people who only care about a company’s wellbeing in terms of how it impacts on their profits. In other words, it is a system where people support other people for the sole purpose of supporting themselves.

“How can these monsters so recklessly gorge and sustain evil empire!” the indignant cry. But is this culture of fraud limited only to the financial sector?

Let’s say you are hungry, so you gallivant off to the supermarket to acquire some soup. Browsing the stocky isles, you spot a can of crème de cheval and hastily make your way to the checkout, clutching it wearily to your breast. The checkout operator, Hannibal, flashes a toothy smile and, clenching the can in his clammy hand, swipes it swiftly twixt the light and the steel. You pay with ten minutes of your life in the form of a few small bits of metal, and hail the bus with the advertisement for the new Ralph Fiennes movie back to your home.

Your purchase supports the soup company and Mr. Hannibal, but you do not buy the soup for that reason. You are only driven by a desire to sate your own hunger. Mr. Hannibal smiles at you, not because he likes you, but because his supervisor told him to and he wants to keep his job so that he too can buy the soup of his dreams. The supermarket monitors your purchase so it can stock more of what you want to make you happier, and even though you know the supermarket doesn’t really care about your happiness, you respond as if they do if it gets you more of what you want. The bus driver drives you where you want to go because it’s in his contract to do so, and you consent to the requirements of the bus because you can’t ride it if you don’t. The advertisers promote Ralph Fiennes because they were paid to, and Ralph Fiennes pretends to be somebody else to entertain you despite the fact that he doesn’t even know you are watching, and you consent to the deception in order to be entertained.

This is what you get when you mess with,
Ian

Three things I like about the U.K.

2005-11-02T21:40:00.000Z

1) Chimneys like in Mary Poppins.
2) People calling each other "duck."
3) Cups of tea.

Ian

Catch 22

2005-11-02T21:36:00.000Z

Exciting news! Ian and I have left the valley of the unemployed and are making baby steps of progress towards real permanence here (but don’t worry Mom and Dad, not permanent permanence.) We were worried that if we couldn’t “make it” here during the six month trial period, we might have to relocate again and start the whole process somewhere else. I wouldn’t say we’ve “made it” yet, but getting that first job has been a big step for both of us, and we are feeling pretty excited in a, “Let’s go see a movie and eat Chinese food” sort of way.

Now for the grotty details. Ian started work last week as a Customer Service Representative at an international stock-broking company called T.D. Waterhouse. Sound impressive? I thought so, too. He says it’s a fancy way of saying he answers the phone to change passwords that are actually numbers and not words for angry people. It’s not exactly his dream job, but we’re grateful for the money. (And now we can pay our Council Tax bill!) He’s got another interview lined up, more job applications to submit, and is busy volunteering, so he is perched and ready for any Refugee work-related action that might pop up.

Meanwhile, I have been buried in the paperwork of bureaucracy. Every time I thought I had all my t’s crossed and i’s dotted to line me up for work, the teaching agencies would come back with one more thing for me to do. The final state I found myself in was something like this:

Teaching Agency: Great, we’ll go ahead and put you on our calling list after we process A and B. That should take a few weeks. Do you have a National Insurance Number, by the way?

Me: Not yet. They said I needed to find a job first.

Teaching Agency: Ok, call them up and try to get one now. For the time being, ask for a temporary number. Then we’ll be able to process the rest of your application.

(I call National Insurance Number people)

Me: Hi, I’ve just found work and I need a National Insurance Number.

NIN Person: Ok, you just need to bring in X, Y, and Z papers and proof that you’ve started work or of the exact date you will start work.

Me: Ok, well, I can’t exactly get that because the teaching agency can’t write proof of employment for a certain day because of the nature of supply teaching. They have no way of knowing what is going to come up, and technically I won’t be employed until the day I start working. But I am theoretically working for them now. Will that work?

NIN Person: (getting frustrated) Well, you have to have proof of the date, otherwise you’ll have to cancel your interview! You can’t have a number without it!

Me: (whimpering) Ok. I’ll ask them. Can I have a temporary number for now?

NIN Person: Well, temporary numbers don’t exist.

Me: What? Everyone gets them. My husband just got one a few days ago.

NIN Person: Yes, we do give them out. But you can make up any number you like, really, because technically speaking, they don’t exist.

Me: ???

(Back to Teaching Agency)

Me: I couldn’t get a National Insurance Number because they said I need to prove that I have a job first. Will you a letter for me?

Teaching Agency: No, we can’t write you a letter. You can’t have a job without a National Insurance number.

So, I was feeling pretty frustrated by now with this catch-22 (which, coincidently, is the book I’m reading at the moment). Since my National Insurance interview is in two weeks, I’ve been feeling bound and determined to produce some sort of proof that I had work. Even if I had to drop the whole teaching idea for now and get a temp job, at least then I’d be able to get that stupid number and get teaching work later. Then, on Tuesday afternoon, aliens invaded and disrupted the bureaucratic order. For some reason, I got a call from the teaching agency saying that they had found a job for me, and could I start on Monday. I was completely shocked, of course, because I thought they had a billion steps to get through first before I’d even be eligible for jobs. I don’t have any idea how this came about, but I’m just glad that I have work teaching English and music now for three weeks, AND I can prove to the National Insurance people that I’ve already started working and secure my precious number.

In other news, I tried pomegranate and raspberry juice today. It was gross. But maybe you’ll be proud of me to know (and maybe you don’t really care, but I’ll tell you anyway), that I thought of the poor family with no goat in Africa and I gulped it all down anyway.

Employably,
Kristy

All you really need is miso soup

2005-11-01T21:28:00.000Z

Cheesy Kristy thought for you: The other day I was sitting on our couch looking out from our second story flat window when I saw an older gentlemen getting into his car. Initially I felt envious when I saw him sit comfortably inside his shiny Toyota and enjoy his Coca-Cola and Subway sandwich. Then I realized that it could be possible that he was eating in his car at dinnertime because he might not have a family to go home to and eat dinner with. Although I’m sure it’s probably more likely that he was just hungry or busy, it is possible that he has hardships I can’t see. I guess you never can tell what the states of some people’s lives really are, even if they appear to be well off, successful, or even happy. I might not have a job or much money or stability at the moment, but I have been feeling warm and fuzzy like a Hallmark greeting card about the things I do have. I’m incredibly blessed with an amazing family and extended family, I’m happily married to a wonderful guy who loves me, I have friends who are some of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met, I have experienced the reality of God’s love in my life… and that’s just the beginning of a long list of things. I have little money, but I am so rich! So hooray for all the good things in life! (Ian would somehow add food to this list, too, I think.)

All you need is love,
Kristy

Of goats and lip-gloss

2005-11-01T20:33:00.000Z

After giving/throwing away most of our belongings when we left Okinawa in what we have come to call “The Big Purge,” followed by our job-less arrival here in the U.K. where our yen and American dollars have been squashed by the strength of the British pound, we have found ourselves living a very frugal and minimalist existence. Even though this has been a bit rough on our over-inflated capitalist egos, we have really learned a lot about being thankful for the little things and how to be happy without money. I have harkened back many a time in the past few months to the story of our friends Max and Aidy in Okinawa and how they were so poor when they were first married, they didn’t even have a stove and had to gather wood and cook over a fire. We are a long way from experiencing poverty, but the reality that there are so many people in more dire financial circumstances than us has really caused a revolution in my thinking (and hopefully my actions) about how I view and treat poor people. I think it’s also changed my thinking towards who I view as rich. I was recently shocked to learn the average income in the UK puts you in the wealthiest 2% of people in the world! (I imagine this is similar in other wealthy western countries). I used to think that people like Bill Gates, basketball players, or even Bob Rhorman (Indiana reference for all you Hoosiers!) were the rich people, but now I see that even being “middle class” makes me a rich kid in the eyes of the world.

Anyway, the moral of the story is… When I have started to envy people with money to blow on Starbucks and potato chips (our day’s budget consumed without thought or care), I am confronted with the realization that they are me. Now on the other side of the glass, I see a glimpse of what homeless and jobless people might see when they look at us (all blame shifting, finger-pointing, and cynical observations on how we view them aside). I can just imagine what a starving family in Africa might think of people who spend 15 quid on a five-color set of lip-gloss at Boots that will probably end up being misplaced, unused, or forgotten about in a matter of time. (Maybe something along the lines of, “You mean, all it does is change the color of your lips? Why? I could buy a goat for that!”) I don’t want to become a soapbox preacher or an activist on the subject, and sadly it’s something that I’ll probably end up forgetting the poignancy of at some point, but I do hope personally that this experience has opened my heart up in a new way towards understanding people. Experiencing a taste of hardship has hopefully given me a practical course in compassion.

Be constructive with your blues,
Kristy

How not to start a friendship

2005-11-01T20:10:00.000Z

My error was born upon an attempt to instigate conversation with a person I had just met who said they were interested in visiting New Zealand. "Oh, do you like tramping?" I asked, thinking she might like to see the photos Kristy and I took when we walked the Kepler Track (which is probably going to be one of those things we only do once and yet go on and on about like a hamster on a wheel every time the family comes to visit).

Her mouth dropped open. She seemed shocked and echoed my question back at me. My move.

"Uh, tramping. Do you like ... tramping?"

There was an uncomfortable pause as she processed this and I wondered what the problem was. "You mean, like prostitution?"

Now it was my turn to be shocked. I tried without success to elucidate the connection. "Prostitution?" I echoed back (has anybody else tried to start a friendship this way?).

"Yeah, like a tramp."

"Oh."

So, apparently the acceptable terms here are trekking, hiking, or backpacking. Absolutely not tramping. It is not advisable to say "I hear the Queen likes tramping," or, "would you be interested in some tramping," or, "everybody in the office is going tramping this weekend." And I thought coming to England would spell the end of these kinds of misunderstandings.

Ian

Tea and cookies

2005-10-29T19:31:00.000+01:00

It’s a beautiful fall day here in Leeds, U.K.! We are noticing all of the details we’ve missed for the past few years; the waving trees with their watercolored leaves tumbling down, the smell of fall rain, and the crisp, starry nights. We’ve been choosing to liberate ourselves from the sidewalk to head through the piles of crunchy leaves whenever we can. Now we are getting ready to celebrate Halloween (in a very non-pagan kind of way) armed with a bag of candy corn sent to us by Micah (yay Micah!), and an orange balloon that I drew a pumpkin face on with a pen (^_^). We did carve a pair of Jack-o-lanterns for our window, but they, unfortunately, were invaded by a nasty form of mold-cancer this week and had to die a pre-Halloween death. That wasn’t before one of them burst into flame, and Ian leapt into fire-fighting action and saved our flat from certain incineration. Maybe we need to add a “flaming orange vegetable” clause to our insurance.

It’s been two months now since touchdown, and life in the land of the queen (God save her), is getting better all the time. I'm trying not to adapt these people's strange way of talking, which is hard, because Ian has a strange way of talking, too! I paused for about a half a minute the other day to remember to ask Ian to pick up some *laundry detergent* instead of *washing powder* (but I think it’s going to be awhile before I’ll want to call dish soap “washing-up liquid”). Still sticking strong to my *chips* and *fries* distinctions, but Ian has managed to get me to take one step toward further Britification in that he has figured out that I will drink tea semi-daily with him if he gives me a cookie with it. I think I still have a long way to go though, because I only manage to drink as much tea as I need to get through my cookie before abandoning the rest of it! I do think the tea after tea* thing is starting to grow on me, though! (*in British, tea = dinner. So confusing!)

Peace, love, tea, and biscuits,
Kristy

The Starbucks at the end of the tunnel

2005-10-23T14:10:00.000+01:00

Two months in and we still reside within society's marginalised minority, one of the many strata against which the majority defines itself. The unemployed.

That is not to say that we are unemployable. It's just a matter of time until we swing back into the view of the tax system. But it is certainly a rare opportunity to reevaluate life from a different standpoint.

For example, about four months ago I could quite happily take the Bentley into town and purchase a two-shot-latte, thinking absolutely nothing of it, but now I find myself on the non-metaphorical downward escalator staring longingly at people with their free trade cappuccinos and cloned chocolate gateaus, wishing I too could once again warm myself beside the fiery furnace of capitalism. And, without 40 weekly hours of contractually-defined responsibilities, there is a lot of time to fill. A lot of time to think about Starbucks.

The temptation is to just get a job. Any job. Materialism feeds my desperation. Last week I was offered an interview for a high-paying position in a community service organisation. It sounded interesting and somewhat connected with my past work, but the more I thought about it, the more I became uncomfortable with the nature of the role which, Without going into detail, would have involved compromising on my beliefs. My (ironic?) pining for Starbucks blinded me to the compromise as I filled in the application, but with the actual possibility of getting the job looming closer, I reluctantly concluded I could not prioritise financial stability to the detriment of my conscience. So, I opted out.

How many chances do you get at life? Unlike those lucky, lucky Buddhists (lucky, that is, except the ones reborn as bugs), Christians only get one shot, and this experience has boosted my motivation to aim high. And if I aim high and miss, then at least I gave it a shot.

So, last week I was fortunate enough to begin actively volunteering for a local refugee organisation as a support person for refugees and asylum seekers, before the completion of my training. My first day on the job came with the same feeling of elation I experienced working as a counsellor in Okinawa. Surely this is what I am meant to be doing.

It is going to be a hard road though because, although I have transferable skills from Japan, I have no refugee-specific experience or working knowledge of the U.K., which makes it tough to break into the highly competitive field of refugee work. However, my siege tactic is to prioritise volunteering while working part time (ideally at Starbucks), thereby preparing for an opening while building up my refugee support skills, and not becoming homeless.

I currently grasp one small ember of hope, however, in that I have applied for a job at the nation's major refugee agency. I should hear back this week as to whether or not I get an interview. Until then, I sit back and wonder if God's will is the same as mine.

Ian

Mensore / Welcome

2005-10-19T21:07:00.000+01:00

Fellow adventurers!

Welcome to our Duchamp-esque readymade blog, a limitlessly reproducible installation in the vast annals of the information museum. Join us, dear readers, as we set off on our dramatic quest for the fulfillment of our mysterious purpose in Times New Roman.

Tremble with awe as we battle the dragons of bureaucratic procedure with our swords of cultural unfamiliarity. Cry bitter tears as we lay siege against the stony walls of unemployment. Furrow your brow and stroke your chin in an intelligent manner as we tell tales of strange and weird lands. Yawn as we sit around talking about how much we like cheese.

Here is the edge of the table, the point of the pointy stick, the chocolate chip in the wiener schnitzel. Dare you don your mighty backpack? Dare you fill it with cans of Watties baked beans? Dare you read our blog? Only time and the hitcounter will tell...

Yours fervently,
Ian Rutherfurd (the third by all accounts) Laidlaw