Thanksgiving in London

I actually had 2 Thanksgiving dinners...pretty good for being in England.
The first, scouted by a fellow American at State Street, was hosted by a website called MeetUp. They organized an American "expat" dinner - complete with all the trimmings and of course...American football. So I got to watch the Pats spank the Lions! It was held at a 200 year old Victorian Dockhouse that has recently been refurbished with stone and marble flooring. The crowd was a bit lame (the only table that actually watched the game was mine) and there was infiltrators (Canadians). I learned that they do in fact celebrate Thanksgiving...but it's Canadian Thanksgiving and it's in October (inferiority complex perhaps?)

The second was organized by this "friend of a friend" and her husband. They live in a beautiful mews with a cobblestone street and a great group of neighbors. (A mews is row of horse stables that have been converted into homes. The horses would live in the garage area, and the drivers of the carriages would live above it - they have gorgeous barn doors, now garages, and are typically narrow houses with three stories.)
They had the most massive spread I've honestly ever seen (aside from my mum's typical dessert spread of course). Everyone that brought a dish made something from their own family's traditions - so we had a first course of calamari salad and antipasti and about 3 other salads. It was so much food and wine.


Though it wasn't my mom's cooking and a day with my family - I was surrounded by good people and good food. 

A couple of observations...

...about Brits:
- They are very anal about "cueing" (standing in line). So much so, that during rush hour at the tube (subway) station - people line up, single file in front of where the doors to the train are going to open. Can you imagine that in Boston? We know that would not work...with the likes of the Quincy residents posturing and elbowing themselves to the front of the line!  It is so incredibly organized, it's amusing.
And even better is the sense of humor of the train drivers.  A few weeks ago, during an incredibly crowded commute, the driver was encouraging people to move "to the middle of the carriage" to make way for additional passengers. After repeating himself 3-4 times, he finally said "I think you'll find that the air in the middle of the carriage is much more fresh...because your face won't be in someone's armpit". And today, after a train stopped due to the emergency brake being pulled by a passenger...he asked everyone who was standing near the emergency levers to stand clear and make sure their jackets, purses, etc. were not at risk of catching on to the lever to stop the train...and if you have any children who tend to like big, red, shiny levers - please be sure they control themselves.

- They smoke and they drink A LOT. Almost every pub or restaurant has outside seating...and people are still sitting outside in 50 degree weather! At first I didn't get it...thought their skin was thicker than mine and more insulated or something. But i realized it's cause they all smoke. And drinking...well let's just say the pubs here will never go out of business. I don't know how they all do it! The country has recognized that it really has a binge drinking problem and therefore started a law that shuts down pubs fairly early - last call i think is 11 - thinking that would deter binge drinking...but I think it just made people drink faster :)  They call drinking it "getting pissed" - isn't that great?  I'll have to start a chart of my favorite British-isms...there are some good ones.

Not sure I'll be good at maintaining this...

but I thought this might be a good way to capture my adventures here for my own 'digital scrapbook' and to give all of my favorite peeps an update on what I've been up to. But on the flipside, I'm hoping it will be a place that you can post to me updates about what YOU'RE all up to - keep me from getting homesick, please! I'm still trying to figure out how this works - but I think you can post to me...you may have to sign up or something. I don't know....I'm gonna give it a try.

If you want proof of how bad I am at following through on things like this - ask my mom about her surprise birthday party scrapbook...or ask me about my godchild's scrapbook (though I bought myself 16 years for that one.) Well, maybe that I have some free time I can actually work on that stuff (yup, brought it with me).

In any case, I'm just sharing this with my family and close friends so that I can keep it personal. I love you guys and miss you all very much!  xoxoxo, Coley