English Things

This is my cuddle buddy for the first week.

To the right on the wall, this is a towel warmer hooked to the radiator system.

People store their eggs on the counter,

...and store their butter & jam in the pantry.

This isn't necessarily English, but it's worth knowing about.

Can you guess which Communist leader this is?

This is a tea bag squeezer (open).

Tea bag squeezer closed.

This is just pretty so I thought you should enjoy it too.

This is delicious yogurt! (add honey)

This is a clothes warmer attachment to my room's radiator. Brilliant.

Waking up to a warm day.

Yoga to wake the depressed body, lift the depressed spirits.

Sun Salutations.

Slang, English: "They go together like cheese and chalk."

Translation: They don't go together.

Slang, Equivalent: They're like oil and water.

Shopping in Coventry

Something must have clicked during the night, because I woke up this morning rested and warm for the first time since arriving. They didn't turn the heat on, my clothes and blankets were the same, I was just... warmer.

Vicki took me to an indoor/outdoor mall to do some shopping. I wasn't planning on buying anything, except maybe a snack, but then she showed me a Walmart-type of store (Primark) and I bought some necessary under shirts, running clothes, linens & a pillow for the my new bed.

I also think I met nearly every pregnant/parenting teenager in the village. It was sad, scary, and a little fun. Predictably, a small toddler was sick-and-tired of being in his stroller while mom was checking out. I noticed he wasn't really committing to his tantrum, just sort of looking for reactions. So I smiled, he screamed. I smiled again, he screamed. (all the while mom's back is to us) Then it happened, I saw him try to force his face into an angry-scrunchy-kid-face. What he didn't know was that I Know This Trick! So I rolled the dice and gave him the same angry-scrunchy-kid-face. He paused. (p.s. that's a legit win, anything that's not a scream is a win) He scrunched again. I scrunched again. BOOM! He giggled.

It was a triumph for moms everywhere. A trick I learned from my grandmother, mother, and of course, my own children.

Back to shopping. Left to my own devices for 3 hours, I walked around & was tempted to buy a lot more, all over the place, but window shopping proved to be just as enjoyable. The mall was a mixture of modern stores and old world shopping. Gothic churches to the south of the outdoor mall, like actually part of the mall. Open market with cheese, pastries, breads, wine, mobile service, meats (ACTUAL LIVE BUTCHERS!) as well as H&M, Marks & Spencer, Versace....

**Heads up ladies. The clothes seem to be a size smaller here, which means I needed to shop for 1 size larger than at home. Not a great experience for many egos, but you can't be shy about good fitting winter clothes.

Onesies for the men.

Don't worry ladies, there's some for you too.

My first hoody.

It feels like a skinned muppet (i.e. awesome)

Fully mobile cuckoo clock.

Open market inside mall plaza.