The Fox in the Garden

A good share of Mary's energy this week has been expended on the house, both interior and exterior. Out in the garden there has been a lot of weeding, trimming, digging, de-mossing, and a bit of planting. Oh, and care of livestock, as well. Or perhaps better, avoidance of livestock. There is a stray cat that hangs out in the neighborhood. Like most Brits, it has gone out of its way to be friendly. Mary, however, is having none of it, as she does not particularly want a pet.

The other livestock to be avoided is the fox that sometimes sleeps on the compost pile behind the garden shed. This fox looks a little mangy, but appears to be harmless enough. I spotted him first. Mary didn't believe me, I don't think, until she walked out in the yard and met him face-to-face.



While Mary has been working on the garden, I've been working hard at some repairs in the student flat, figuring out administrative stuff, and driving. The program now owns a "sat nav" (as a GPS is called around here). Ms. TomTom has a crisp English accent, and is even polite enough to point out which exit one is to take from the roundabout ahead. This, and the fact that I am beginning to get my bearings in general, have given me confidence to take a few short shopping trips solo -- or with Mary, which is nearly like going solo, since she is just as lost as I am. Ms. TomTom, however, does not remind me to look both ways before making right turns across traffic. No mishaps yet, just the honking of horns.

Today was a beautiful, sunny day. We walked to the nearby Anglican Church, St. Margaret's, where people were, as always, unfailingly friendly (especially the Rector's wife, who happened to sit right behind us -- probably on purpose -- Mary could relate). The service, however, could have been in America, complete with a guitar group up front and the words to less-than-inspiring praise songs projected on a screen. Not our cup of tea.

In the afternoon we and the sat nav dared an excursion out of town to visit Sherwood Forest, the supposed lair of Robin Hood. The movie in the interpretive center said that the forest was 100,000 acres in the Middle Ages, but after Henry VIII broke up the church lands, the agricultural revolution, and the industrial revolution, the forest was down to only 37 acres when the national park was founded in the 1960s, and has since been expanded to about 400+ acres. So it's less than half the size of the small state park near Cedar Falls where we used to ride our bikes. Robin and his Merry Men would have been rounded up by the Sheriff in no time in a space that small!

It actually hit 27C today (which is 81F, for those who don't speak Celcius), by far the warmest day here so far for us. That made walking in the woods a warm experience. A cold beer in the shade of the back yard provided relief. The fox was nowhere to be seen.

Tied up in Notts

Lest anyone think we fell off the planet, an update. I can't possibly tell everything, as we have been on sensory overload, but here are some quick bullets on our first days in Nottingham:

• Our cottage is very cozy, more spacious than we had anticipated. It's a little odd moving into someone else's house -- especially when the "someone else" is a series of my faculty colleagues, a different family each year, going back decades. Everyone has left something here, so we want for nothing -- we just have to find it. Our contribution, I think will be getting rid of some nasty old carpet. The house has a beautiful garden (which Mary has already adopted by expanding the vegetable plot). The view of the garden from our bedroom window is below. It's long and narrow (ours is the part between the hedges, the rest is the neighbors).
  
• We have a cute little Toyota to drive. However, driving in the left lane in city traffic is a harrowing experience and extremely stressful. I concentrate so much on driving that I can't navigate. My predecessor rides shotgun and tells me where to turn, but having gotten somewhere I could never get back, because just keeping the paint on the car has required my full attention. I've driven in the UK before, but out in the country. This is different. I bought a couple of magnetic "Learner" signs to put on the car, which is supposed to warn other drivers that this car may be about to do something stupid.
• Navigation is a challenge in itself. No one laid out this town, it just occurred haphazardly. There is no such thing as a straight road running North-South or East-West.
  
• Good Lord! but we have a lot to do before the students arrive! At some level I knew this, but it is becoming reality now.
• Brits are extremely friendly and helpful people who are very curious about Americans. This is not a tourist area, so many people here have never actually met a real, live "Yank." If our American accent is overheard on the street or in a store aisle, it's very common for people to "chat us up," ask where we're from, tell us about their cousin's daughter who lives in North Carolina, or whatever.
• There are probably more people of Indian or Pakistani descent in this neighborhood than of native British descent. Our welcome dinner was at a very good Indian restaurant. The proprietor came over to the table to ask how we liked the food, and asked if we'd been here before. I said, "No, but we've had Indian food before." His reply was, "This is not Indian food. It's British food, and we make them think it's Indian."
  
• England is a long ways north. It's midsummer, and so it's still light past 10 o'clock at night, and the sun wakes us early in the morning. But it's not very warm -- it got into the mid-70s the other day and Brits were complaining about the heat. Our neighbor welcomed us to "one of the two days of summer we have each year." Highs in the mid- to upper-60s are typical now, and into every day a little rain must fall. Fortunately, we're told it seldom gets below freezing in the winter, but the days get very short.
• My predecessor has been extremely gracious and helpful in helping us in every way. I don't know what we'll do when she leaves next week.
  

More later.

Iceland -- WARNING: Long post!

We are used to traveling lite. I've spent a couple weeks in Europe with nothing but a large back-pack, and nearly a month in China with one carry-on bag. Going away for a full year is a different matter. We each have one large suitcase, one large duffle, a smaller carry-on suitcase, and a backpack! Icelandair would not let us take our carry-on bags as carry-ons (they were too heavy), but were kind enough to allow us each to check three items at no charge, at least as far as Reykjavik. And they were even very polite about it! Great airline! They also seated us in an exit row at no extra charge. Security was fast, with no line. It was a very pleasant flight, and we got some sleep. The only downside is that Icelandair no longer serves meals in economy class, even on international flights. So if one wants to eat, it's best to have the credit card handy.

So who knew that June 17 is Icelandic Independence Day? We arrived to find Reykjavik a ghost town. There was little traffic on the streets, very few stores were open, we had no clue what was going on. Our hotel didn't have an ATM, but they told us we'd find one at a nearby shopping mall. We walked quite a ways to the mall, but found it shut tight. We kept walking until we got to the Hilton -- people there were much more helpful than the single, stressed-out, overworked desk clerk at our hotel. We found out about Independence Day and how to take part, and they also helped us make reservations for our excursions. After a long walk in mist and light rain, we arrived in the city center, where there were indeed people -- lots of kids with red balloons, many waving flags. There were parades, bands, and all sort of activity.


We visited Hallgrímskirkja, the church of unique architecture which dominates Reykjavik's skyline, and there was a free Independence Day organ concert going on, so we rested our weary legs after so much walking, and listened for awhile. A fancy sandwich and decadent dessert at a bakery along the main shopping street also helped to revive us. But after a bit more of parades and festivities, we decided it would be best to go back and check into our hotel (we had arrived too early for our room to be ready). We took a short nap, then packed our swimsuits for our trip to the Blue Lagoon.



The Blue Lagoon is a man-made pool carved out of the volcanic rock, and fed from the same hot springs from which Iceland gets most of its heat and electricity. It's a turbid blue because of all the minerals and some blue algae, and it's huge. Saunas, waterfalls, and pots of silica mud for self-administered facials surround the pool. And of course, there's a swim-up bar (which we avoided due to the prices -- though we later discovered that beer and wine are just as expensive everywhere. The giant hot tub was great, but the people watching was even better -- young and old, European, Asian, and American -- it was a crash course in intercultural communication. Watching people of all cultures struggle with the high-tech lockers in the dressing room was also fascinating. Upon admission, one is given a plastic bracelet with an RFID chip. Closing the locker and putting the bracelet up to the scanner closes the electronic lock. They scan the bracelet at the bar or snack bar, as well as for massages and other fancy stuff (renting towels, bathrobes, etc.). Then the bill is settled after a last scan is done at the exit. Great marketing.

After a good night's sleep we had breakfast in the hotel dining room. An elderly American woman, apparently alone, and rather feeble getting around on her cane, was loudly chatting people up. Her opening line was, "You speak English?" From there it was a little scattered. She asked one couple if this place was part of Canada (she didn't seem certain where she was), and asked some others about conventions being held here (this is not a convention hotel). It gave appearances of early-onset dementia, and we really hoped she wasn't there by herself. But we didn't hang around to find out. We had tickets for the Golden Circle Tour -- a full day excursion to see the sites that must be seen in the Icelandic countryside. We soon found there was an ugly American on that bus, too, but I'll not go into that.

The Golden Circle took us northeast of Reykjavik to a settlement that centered around Iceland's first cathedral. Skálholt is barely a wide spot in the road now, but was the center of activity when the island was Christianized around 1000 AD. There is a nice, medium-sized white church there now, with a school and guest house nearby. There are also the ruins of an old sod church that served for several centuries into the 1800s. And there is an archaeological site where foundations of an even older church and school have been unearthed. Next was Gullfoss (Golden Falls), the Niagra Falls of Iceland. The day was so perfectly clear that, in the sunshine, we could see the giant glacier Langjökull some 60 miles off in the distance! Then, Haukadalur Valley, the home of The Great Geysir (the first geyser ever described in a printed source and the earliest geyser known to Europeans). Geysir is extinct now, but we saw others spouting and boiling. Finally, we visited the national shrine at Thingvellir, where the Icelandic Parliament was founded in the year 930 and where it continued to meet until moving to Reykjavik in 1845. The Viking chieftains who gathered there in 930 to elect the first "lawspeaker" didn't know it, but the site was formed because it is the rift valley at the exact location where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet -- thus the root cause of the volcanic activity that makes Iceland what it is. So it's truly the foundational site of Iceland. [Mark at the overlook]


We got off the tour bus at the city center and had a nice (but expensive) dinner (everything is expensive here due to the 25% VAT, but there are no other taxes or tips to add to the bill). Then, because we'd been sitting on a bus all day, we decided to walk back to the hotel -- a good three miles or more. But there's a great system of walking and biking trails here, so on the way we passed through some neat residential neighborhoods, beautiful parks, and stopped at Perlan ("the pearl") which is a huge ball for storing hot volcanic water located on a hill overlooking the city. An observation deck is open for free and there's even an elevator (and a very expensive restaurant at the top, of which we did not partake). We also took time to walk through a local supermarket -- not much different from home, with one exception: Instead of rows and rows of coolers for meat and dairy products, there was an entire refrigerated room! The door slides open to let shoppers in, fill their carts, then slides open to let them hit the frozen food aisle on the way to check out. I guess when electricity is nearly free due to volcanic steam, it doesn't cost much to maintain a room-sized fridge.

A Moving Experience

The last few weeks have been extremely hectic. We've had to make sure bills are paid, services are discontinued, mail is forwarded, and a thousand other details. Mostly, we've had to pack boxes -- dozens and dozens of boxes! And we've fill our trash barrel (and those of our neighbors) many times over. Multiple trips were made to the waste transfer station, as well. There were also many things to put in order -- when something was moved there were often cobwebs hiding behind, and occasionally a nail hole or scrape that needed a bit of touch-up paint.

All came to culmination on Tuesday. The movers were there a little after 8, and finished before noon. It doesn't take them long to load a truck! Then they were off to unload our worldly goods into a climate-controlled warehouse, while we were left behind to clean, and clean, and clean. By mid-afternoon we finally had our two cars loaded with the last items to go to self-storage, and the suitcases we'll be living out of for the next year. We arrived in Decorah late afternoon or early evening to unload and catch a bite to eat, then on to the Twin Cities.

It was "a dark and stormy night" as we drove through Minnesota. We arrived at our daughter's and son-in-law's home about 9:30 p.m. and promptly crashed. It was actually the first full night's sleep we've had in weeks. Now that all was out of our hands, we could finally rest without waking at 2 a.m. to worry about what we had forgotten.

A good share of the next day was spent arranging to get rid of our cars. We didn't get quite as much for them as we'd hoped, but the proceeds have already gone to a few of our favorite charities. We also enjoyed a couple of nice meals out, as we always do when in the Cities. Our daughter dropped us at the airport Thursday afternoon, and we lifted off from MSP, likely not to return for a year.

Vacating

Yesterday was my last full day on the Luther College campus for a year or so. I'll have to stop by once more in the next couple weeks to tie up some loose ends, but I'm essentially done with my responsibilities there for the 2010-11 school year, and can turn full attention toward Nottingham.

A meeting with Luther's director of Global Education (the new name for the Study Abroad office on campus) revealed the secrets of my budget in the UK and the in-s and out-s of the banking set up there. The challenge is to feed 14 people and to pay rent, utilities, tuition, transportation and fees for all programs on a fixed number of pounds.

I also vacated my apartment in Decorah yesterday, and the keys have been turned in. I always thought of myself as just camping out there, with very little beyond necessities of furniture or other "stuff," and yet it was amazing how many loads of "stuff" had to be removed, and how empty the place became when all was gone.

We humans seem to collect ridiculous numbers of this world's goods along the way. Traveling light is never as easy as it would seem. This has been underscored even more at home, where 26 years of accumulated belongings are still being sorted -- some packed, many discarded.

Nevertheless, it's daunting to consider how much remains to be done in these next few weeks. Hopefully, Icelandic volcanoes or other eruptions will not hinder progress.

The Countdown

Exactly four weeks from today we shall board a plane in Minneapolis to begin the journey of a year in the UK. This is such a hectic time that I doubt I'll be posting much:

• I'm just today wrapping up grading final exams and posting grades
• I have a stack of papers to read and evaluate for the Couch Award
• I have two book chapters of my own to write, and a book to edit
• Our house is not yet sold (yikes!) and there is much to pack and prepare
• I'm vacating my Decorah apartment this weekend
• I have to change to a new office on campus next week, and also...
• ...Prepare not to be in the office for a year, leaving it to my replacement.
• Oh, and we have to pack our bags for the trip!

So, there are a few things on the plate. But our excitement is building and we are very much looking forward to the adventure.

The college just bought a new car for the Nottingham program -- a Toyota Auris (the European version of the Corolla) -- which will be ours to drive around Britain for the year. I just got my "International Driver's License" (which is quite a joke -- it simply shows I have a DL in my own country, which I still need to carry with me -- no knowledge of driving on the left or reading European road signs required!).

In my zeal to pack things, I have managed to misplace some of the things we actually need. One item was found neatly inserted in a box. Others I've not yet located. Chaos is contagious. More later.

update

I'm getting ready to lead a group in England for a year. I thought I should make sure this still works. More to come.