Pumpkins, Turkeys, Bonfires, and Fireworks

 

 It’s the holiday season!!  Time to decorate your homes, celebrate with friends and take time to really reach out to those you care about.  For the first time in my life I will be expected to go to school on Thanksgiving which is still a bit of a shock to me.  I know that the United Kingdom does not celebrate Thanksgiving and therefore have no reason to let me out of class but it is still a bit alarming that I will not be sitting at home watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, eating all day, and watching American football.  That is ok though, because while the UK does not have Thanksgiving they do have other holidays like Bonfire Night (Guy Fawkes Day).  For those of you who don’t know British history Guy Fawkes and his cohorts tried to blow up Parliament in an attempt to restore a Catholic monarchy to the throne.  The attempt, called the Gunpowder Plot, was unsuccessful but to commemorate the event every year there is a bonfire night (November 5^th) and fireworks that go along with the celebration.  I was able to attend one of these bonfires where they did a rendition of Chitty chitty bang bang complete with a flying car and some nice mulled wine.  My point in telling you this is that despite the fact that there is no Thanksgiving, there are other exciting holidays to partake in. 

In the United States everywhere you look there are decorations and “stuff” to buy and include within your holiday festivities and while there are holiday decorations over here there is not the massive commercialization that you see in the United States.  For example there are no holiday Oreos to speak of with a double stuff red center and a Christmas design.  But it is nice to not see a commercialization of a holiday that is supposed to have a non-commercial meaning.  So eat up your turkey and enjoy your holiday shopping as I enjoy the Christmas faires around the south of London.

"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other." ~Burton Hillis

All that was left of the Chitty chitty bang bang car

 

A month of changes

" All changes, even the ones most longed for, have their meloncholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." ~ Anatole France

The control freak has lost control.  In the month that I have been here, there has been one adjustment after another.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, and as my brother says this is probably one of the best places for me to be because it will force me to learn to cope without absolute control over everything and everyone in my life.  Whether he is right or not remains to be seen.  But the changes and differences that I have experienced have constantly amazed me.  I am a traveled person, I have been to most of the states within the US and I have been to at least two different countries, so while I have not been around the globe I have been to enough places to make me believe that I can flourish within another country.

In addition to my travel experience, I have never been a person that believed that the United States was the end all be all of the countries of the world.  My parents and the people that surround me have always taught me to embrace diversity so I never thought the United States was the most amazing country and there was nothing else out there.  I enjoyed my life in the United States, with a comfortable existence that my parents provided for me and I later provided for myself, but I did not realize how spoiled I was living in a country of opulence that rivals the ancient Romans.  In America you can get most people to do something for you, and it was not until I was standing in the grocery line waiting for a bagger that I realized that in other places people do things for themselves.  Or that I have to actually go into businesses and have face to face interactions when I want to receive services as opposed to ordering it online, or going through a drive through, or calling someone on the phone.

I have met a couple Americans, and one remarked to me on Sunday that most people from other countries believe that they are stepping up, but the lifestyle of America is such that we feel as though we are stepping down.  I disagree, I am not stepping down, I am stepping away.  I am stepping away from the extravagant lifestyle where I get everything that I want when I want and allegiances change based on what I can receive not what I can give.  I am stepping away from the hustle and bustle of the tunnel vision lifestyle where people are taught from birth that you have to work hard and get rich or die trying because that is the American Dream.  I am going to enjoy myself in a country that works to live, doesn’t live to work and take time to enjoy the people, places, and experiences around me. 

This experience is teaching me to appreciate items on both countries that I never realized that I took for granted.  I am reminded:

·         Not to neglect the people that love and support me or to take advantage of the people around me because there may come a time when they cannot be there for whatever reason- distance, time, or other commitments.

·         To be thankful of the comforts that I thought were commonplace such as a car, money, and nice items because there are some people that do not have those items and have to ride the bus and carry heavy grocery bags.

·         To have patience with people and situations and to learn that I do not have to have everything that I want immediately.

·         To not be so controlling-flexibility can be a very good thing.

·         To embrace other cultures and traditions from other countries and view them as a learning experience and not something to judge or look down upon.

And this control freak is learning that the only control she has is over the experiences that she takes away from this yearlong sabbatical.  Stay tuned for next week- I will share stories of language barriers. J