British TV

When we first moved here and lived in our apartment, we were quickly indoctrinated into British TV via our "Freeview" box and three BBC channels. We watched some football (soccer), rugby, and some news shows (where the anchors are not required to meet the same attractiveness standards as anchors in the US-- can we say orthodontist, anyone?). There were some interesting documentaries, including one I liked about Ewan MacGregor and his mate (friend) riding their motorcycles around the world, and another one called "America Unchained" where a British guy tried to make it across the US eating, sleeping, and gassing up only at non-chain establishments. And of course, there were the comedy shows. We watched the British version of "Thank God You're Here!" and a few other improv kinds of shows. To be quite honest, a lot of these shows were really funny, but there were also some that were pretty vulgar. Let's just say that they don't have the same restrictions as the US for TV in terms of language and nudity. (There's even a show called, "How to Look Good Naked" where the host actually helps middle aged women find ways to well.... you get it). Of course, when we first got here, we were missing the US, too. Thankfully, the Brits love American shows, especially Friends. It seemed to be on all the time.

When we moved into our house, we decided to get not one, but two satellite systems (which means we have not one, but two satellite dishes on the side of the house). We chose SKY TV, because we heard that it had a lot of American shows including Lost, which I am a fan of. SKY has a ton of channels, and with all the selection, I do tend to watch American shows more than British ones. I can watch Lost, Dancing with the Stars, and Barefoot Contessa (of course). The kids have found a lot of shows that they like; again, mostly American shows. They love Scooby Doo, Tom & Jerry, and a lot of Nick Jr. shows. What I love, is that the characters from Lazy Town, Wonder Pets, and Backyardigans, all speak in British accents! They also like one British show called In the Night Garden. You can tell that it was made by the creators of Tele-Tubbies, but it isn't quite as annoying.

Our second cable system is the AFN- Armed Forces Network. It doesn't have a ton of channels, but it does have American sports. This way Ethan can watch his Yanks every once in a while. The AFN also has American sitcoms, movies, and late-night shows like Letterman. The best part about watching the AFN is the "commercials." They aren't advertising anything... they're more like promotions of Armed Forces propaganda. There are commercials reminding you to always be on the alert, to report suspicious behavior, to remember to vote.... they're pretty cheesy. If you copy and paste these web addresses, you can see a few on YouTube (or on YouTube, simply type "AFN commercials").

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bNrrQ7xhyQ&feature=related
www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Q-eTJWt_I&feature=related

So, with all of these channel choices, you'd think we'd be watching cable all the time. The truth is, we also signed up for Netflix, and have been pouring through the DVDs for season one of Heroes. Are there any other Heroes fans out there? We finally watched the season finale the other night, and will soon get to watch season two on one of our channels. We had better make the best of it - we had to pay a $270 licensing fee just for the privilege of owning a television in the U.K. (and this is an annual fee!!)

Finding a Church... Making Friends

For those of you who know us, you know that church is a very important part of our lives. We were so sad to leave our church back in Maryland. We had just begun attending Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, MD last May. This church was founded by Brian McLaren, a man who had written a number of books that have made a big impact on both Ethan and myself. We were of course, also missing our church friends, particularly those from Chesapeake, who undoubtedly left a large imprint on our lives.

So, it didn't take us long to begin our church search when we got to England. We visited 5 different churches during our first few months here. We focused our searches mostly on the more contemporary kinds of churches, and were pleased with what we found... modern worship, Biblical preaching, and wonderfully kind people. We know that we could have been happy and gained much from attending any of those churches, but we felt led to keep searching.

A few weeks ago, we tried out a new church called Mayfield Community Church. Again, we appreciated the worship, the preaching, and the friendliness of the people. But, it was what happened after the service that kind of "sealed the deal." We met and introduced ourselves to the pastor. Within one minute of the polite introductions, he asked us where we were from, and then proceeded to tell us how he had been to Maryland once to visit a church called Cedar Ridge Community Church to meet a man named Brian McLaren. We were stunned, to say the least. Within one minute of meeting the pastor, we found out that he had gone to our church back in MD. It certainly seemed like a sign.

We've been attending Mayfield for a few weeks now, and are starting to get to meet people, which is really nice. I was really beginning to feel "stuck" at home, and anxious to get to know people. The second week we were at Mayfield, I sat next to an American woman who told me about a women's Bible study that they do on base Thursday mornings. I've attended for the past two weeks now, and am so delighted to be making friends. God always knows what we need.

Driving in England

Ethan and I have put together a list of ways that driving in England is different than driving in America. We'll begin with the obvious:

• The cars are made with the steering wheel on the right side of the car, and you drive on the left side of the road. This took a lot of getting used to at first, but now it feels like second-nature to us. (Except getting into the car... if I'm by myself, I continue to try to get into the left side of the car to drive.... it's pretty embarrassing.)
• There isn't a straight road to anywhere around here. With the exception of the highways (called carriageways or motorways) which I assume were planned and built within this century, every road around here is narrow and windy. I mentioned in our last blog how we took a drive through the Dales last weekend. We took the "major" roads that even had numbers, but they were very windy, hilly, and narrow (sometimes only wide enough for one car!). Which leads me to my next point:
• A great responsibility of the driver is to simply get out of the way!!! The narrowness of the roads is only made worse by how common it is for people to park on one side of the road. As you can imagine, this makes the road only wide enough for one car. (In the photo to the right, I'm actually in the wrong lane, trying to go around the parked cars.) The road that Tim's school is on is really bad. There are two schools on this road, and many cars are parked on the side of the road. So, I always have to look ahead to make sure someone isn't coming, and if they are, depending on who has the right of way, one of us has to get out of the way! This could mean going up on the sidewalk, if necessary.
• One town that we always drive through has a spot so narrow that they had to put a signs for one direction to yield to the other direction. So, I have to drive up to a line, and stop to look and see if anyone is coming. Crazy, right?

• Roundabouts! "Look kids, it's Big Ben!... I can't get left!!" from European Vacation. Roundabouts are very common in the area. They are basically circular intersections, where everybody travels clockwise to their exit. There are roundabouts of all sizes: mini-roundabouts (like in the supermarket parking lot) to really big ones on the motorways.

• Watch out for pheasants! We really don't have any traffic in our "commutes," but what could cause us a delay are the pheasants. They cross the streets frequently, so you always have to be watchful for them. I also was delayed once because a sheep farmer was herding his flock across the street to another pasture. He basically stepped into the road to stop traffic, and let his sheep dogs do the work. There are also a lot of bike riders and hikers on the road to look out for.
  

• Know your pedestrian crossings. During the first month we were here, Ethan and I spent time preparing for a written drivers test that they offer on base. Most of what we had to study was straight forward and common sense, with a few exceptions. For example, we had to know the difference between the three kinds of pedestrian crossings: pelican crossing, zebra crossing, and toucan crossing (it had to do with the lights for them, and if a bicycle could cross there.... I think). I couldn't even tell you the difference between them now.
• No distractions. All of this boils down to the fact that we have to be a lot more focused as drivers in the UK. There are no cell phones allowed while driving over here, and it's a good thing. I barely feel brave enough to take my eyes of the road for a second to change the heat in the car or adjust my mirrors.
• We leave you with some of our favorite signs. Feel free to leave your interpretations as a comment.

Day Trip to Wensleydale Creamery

We thought we would take a road trip today, so we decided to drive up through the Yorkshire Dales to a small town called Hawes. Hawes is the home of Wensleydale Creamery which makes cheese, butter, and other dairy products.
We had heard so much about the Yorkshire Dales, and weren't quite sure what to expect. The Dales are basically a collection of river valleys and hills that extend as far as you can see. There must be solid rock under much of what we saw because there wasn't much vegetation... just grass. As with most of Northern England, there were sheep everywhere, enclosed in stone fences. The area we first drove in was pretty high in altitude, and snow could be seen on the tops of the hills. It was a truly scenic drive. The only difficulty was the narrow and windy roads (which were the main roads).Wensleydale Creamery was a great place to visit. If you are a Wallace & Gromit fan, you may remember that Wallace is a big fan of cheese, particularly Wensleydale cheese. There is a small museum at the creamery, which includes a video about the history of Wensleydale cheese and artifacts such as a variety of butter churns and cheese presses. After the museum, you can then go into the actual factory, and watch the cheese being made! It was really neat! We could see 4 huge vats, which each showed part of the process. The first two vats held milk which the starter and rennet had already been added to. It was being mixed, and you could see the curds separating from the whey (the liquid). The other two vats held the curds where the whey had already been drained out. They cut them into big chunks, and then into smaller chunks. We didn't get to see the rest of the process, but they then salt the cheese, chop and cool it, and hand pack it into tubs to be pressed and aged. It was really neat to see the process... we all learned a lot.

We then went into the gift shop and deli, and were able to sample different varieties of Wensleydale cheese. We each had our favorites, and we ended up buying three different kinds.

We went home via a different route, and found the town of Masham. There are two breweries there, Black Sheep and Theakston- both of which Ethan really likes. He would like to do a tour of the breweries at some point, but kids aren't allowed. So, today he opted for a pint instead.

Spring Lambs

Although the weather is taking its time to warm up around here, there are signs of spring all around. Our favorite sign of spring has to be the lambs.

About a month ago, the spring lambs started appearing in the pastures along the road. They really are so cute. We were able to watch them up close one afternoon as we were driving down a dirt road on a farm. My favorite thing about watching them is how they run... it's sometimes more of a spring than a run... so cute!!

We've been waiting for the sheep that are sometimes across the road to return, to see if they have lambs with them. Well, they haven't returned yet, but we did notice that there were sheep with lambs just down the road (we could see them from our front windows). The kids and I took a little walk down to that field today, and watched and listened to them for while.


In completely unrelated news, I was able to go for an ultrasound this morning to establish the age and due date of the baby. As always, it was a completely magical experience. We found out that I am almost 16 weeks along now, and the due date is September 26th. The baby looked wonderfully and incredibly developed already. It was easy to make out the head and body and fluttering of the heart. The baby seemed to be moving around, and was even waving its hand to me at times. Ah, there's nothing like it. I know it's blurry, but here's baby Stryker #3's first picture.

Road Trip #1- London

"Madeline, Madeline, where have you been?"
"I've been to London to see the Queen!"
-from "Madeline in London"

Well, the Strykers have survived our first official road trip. Tim and Maddie had 2 1/2 weeks off of school for an Easter holiday, so we thought it would be a good idea to explore London for a few days. We drove down last Saturday (about a 4 hour drive, not including stops), and we returned on Tuesday.

We found a Holiday Inn Express to stay in in the Docklands area of London. It wasn't the nicest of areas, but the hotel was great, and we only had a 5 minute walk to the Tube station (the Tube is their subway system, also known as the Underground). We used the Underground to find our way around the city the whole time we were there. Besides being overcharged one day, we found that it was a great system... clean and reliable. The kids had a blast riding on the subways, too!


When we first go to our hotel, we settled into our hotel room for a few minutes, and then headed to London. Our first stop was Leicester Square and London's Transport Museum. This museum basically followed the history of transportation for London since the 1800s. It included information and models of the first double-decker omnibus (powered by horses) up to the present-day double-decker bus. They showed how they dug the tunnels for London's Undergound, and how much it has improved and expanded over time. We all loved it. There were a lot of interactive displays for the kids, and Ethan and I actually got to read some of the information, which is always nice.



We started off our next day, Sunday, by heading to Buckingham Palace because I had read that the Changing of the Guard was taking place at 11:30. We followed the crowds and found a spot by the road to watch the guard band and guards marching towards the palace. We watched them go into the gate, and then we couldn't see much for a while (all the while, I couldn't help but hum the "Oh-We-Oh" song from the Wizard of Oz). We could hear the band playing, but all we could see was the top of the tall, fuzzy hats going back and forth. About 45 minutes later, the band and other guards marched out, and that was that. It was pretty cool. Buckingham Palace is located adjacent to St. James Park. We took a stroll through there, and headed back to the Tube.

Our next stop was the museum of Natural History. It was HUGE!! We were able to see a few of the exhibits, including the dinosaur, ecology, bugs, and bird exhibits. It was a great museum, and the best part was that it was free!
After the museum, we were tired. We thought we would head over to Piccadilly Circus, and try to get on one of those double-decker London sightseeing tours. We took the tube over, and enjoyed a nice stroll around Piccadilly Circus. It reminded us of Times Square in NYC. We found a bus tour, but decided not to do it after finding out the price (19 pounds per adult = $38 each). We opted for some ice-cream instead.

We kept walking, and before we knew it, we had reached Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. We spent some time at the monument at Trafalgar Square, during which the kids had a blast chasing and scaring away some poor pigeons.

We then headed into the Gallery (also free), and spent an hour in the impressionist wing, enjoying seeing works of art by Van Gogh, Monet, and the like. Maddie fell asleep in her stroller, and Tim walked around with his hands folded behind his back like he'd done this a thousand times... it made for a nice experience.

We were able to find a pub for dinner that night. Ethan was happy to try a new hand-pulled beer called "London Pride" to have with his Bangers & Mash, and I was pleased to try a very British-sounding (and very yummy) dessert called Toffee Pudding (a warm sponge cake dripping with toffee sauce, and served with vanilla ice cream).

We started off of next and final day of London by heading to Westminster. When we stepped out of the tube station, we were greeted by Big Ben. The kids loved hearing "him" chime! We walked around taking pictures of Big Ben and Parliament, and then crossed the street to Westminster Abbey. We decided to pay the admission fee (10 pounds per adult), and we did an audio tour of the Abbey. It was really incredible! Westminster Abbey was originally built in 1050, and is the place that just about every British king and queen has been crowned, including Queen Elizabeth. It is also where many royal funerals take place, including Princess Diana's. There are tombs everywhere! Kings, queens, authors (including Charles Dickens, Lewis Carrol, Jane Austin), scientists (including Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin), generals, politicians, etc. I found it hard to believe that I was observing such a sacred place, walking on tombs, seeing the coronation chair that kings and queens have sat to receive their crown. It was a really neat experience.

After the Abbey, we decided to walk over the river Thames towards the London Eye. The London Eye is basically a HUGE ferris wheel that overlooks the whole city. We had heard that there were usually long queues (long lines), and that it was expensive. Well, the expensive part was right, but the line was short. We decided to go for it!

The London Eye was an incredible experience. It really was an amazing view of the entire city, The ride took about a half hour... that should give you some feel for how big it really is.

From there, we took the tube to the London Bridge. Did anybody know that London Bridge isn't the fancy one you see in the pictures? We didn't know that either. We started to cross the bridge, saying to ourselves, "This isn't it!," only to look down the river and see the Tower Bridge. Well, at least we were able to get good pictures from there.

We decided to walk for a little while, and we headed to the most famous dome in London... St. Paul's Cathedral. We weren't about to pay more admission for anything that day, so we just sat on a bench for a while, and enjoyed the scenery. We eventually walked to the front steps, where again, my kids had a blast annoying the pigeons. I tried to remind them of Mary Poppins, how the lady sat on the steps of St. Paul's, saying "Feed the birds... toppins a bag" to get them to be nice.... it didn't work.

From St. Paul's we walked a short distance to the river, and walked across the Millenium Bridge which took us to the Tate Modern, a (free!) modern art gallery. It wasn't our favorite. I guess neither of us prefer nor understand modern art that much (especially when Maddie could replicate a lot of these pieces). I enjoyed seeing a few Jackson Pollack pieces, but that was about it.

So, that was our trip. Overall, it was wonderful. We had a very full time, and got to see a lot of the major sights. The hardest part about it all was the expense. We tried to do a lot of things that were free, like the museums and galleries, but we had to eat! Thankfully, breakfast was included with our hotel, and I brought snacks to hold us over. Next time though, PB&J for lunch everyday!