Bananagrams, Biscuits, and Beethoven

How do you fill time that is too long to do nothing, but too short to really get  much accomplished?  Play bananagrams of course!  On Mondays we have an hour break between lectures.  We have to walk from Highfield campus to Avenue. By the time we arrive there is an awkward amount of time.  It is also one hard lecture followed by another, so the desire to study is very low.  Manthan carries a game with him in his rucksack.  The bag is shaped like a banana and it has letter tiles in it.  You guessed it, bananagrams.  It's a high intensity scrabble type game.  He's been trying to get people to play it with him for weeks.  So Monday as we sat in the corridor lounge waiting for the Description of Language lecture, we decided why not? So we cleared off the small coffee table and he explained the rules.  You get 13 tiles.  You have 10 minutes to build  words in crossword puzzle style in front of you.  The object is to use all of your tiles.  If you manage to use all of them before 10 minutes, you say "peel" and everyone has to grab another tile.  If you are struggling with the tiles you have, you can announce "split" and trade one for two.  Apparently Gina and I gave Manthan a run for his money.  Gina, won both rounds and I managed to stay in second in the scoring.  Manthan was proud of his use of the word banter and wanted to know if I knew what it was.  He says its a very British thing. So he was surprised that I was very familiar with it.... I guess that makes my family British?  So he seeks for redemption Monday.... we'll just have to see.

Wednesday my friend Margaret invited me to come to her house that afternoon with my sewing to chat and stay for tea. (dinner) So I grabbed my English paper piecing, hopped on the bus and took her up on it.  Every now and again I go a bit stir crazy with my four walls and just me.  It was nice to sit and work on my hand sewing and not focus on reading research or dissecting English grammar which I had been doing before going over. It was fun to chat with her and her husband about a myriad of topics. Dinner was lovely and delicious. Of course like good Brits, we had to have pudding (dessert) and I had a wide range of things to choose from.  I was a bit confused with the offer of meringue.  The only meringue I know of is on top of pies.  This is different. It is hard.  So at my confusion as to what it is, Margaret brought it out to show it to me. Oh.... very large divinity! Though a bit lighter.  That got us talking about food and names for it.  Their biscuits are cookies.  So I was trying to explain what we call a biscuit.  Don, her husband, had a great mental image of biscuits and gravy with his definition of a biscuit.  So I grabbed my phone and googled images to show him an American biscuit.  That in England is a scone.  I don't think they have an equivalent to the American scone, at least not that I've figured out yet.  They eat scones with creamed tea.  They put clotted cream and jam on them. Did I loose you again? More homework for you... ;) I had someone the other day tell me there are four things Americans are lousy at making, Chocolate, bread, butter, and cheese (the first three I know are right the fourth I'm not so sure... if I find I have remembered wrong I will let you know.)  I have to agree 100% with him. 

Saturday was the Southampton Philharmonic Choir concert.  I sing with the SuPhil which is the student section of the choir.  It happens to be the 50th anniversary of SuPhil, so we had a group photo in the program and other highlights.  It is fun to be in a choir again. And great to sing with the orchestra.  For years I was in the orchestra so it was nice to switch that up.  We performed in the o2 Guildhall.  It is a cool old building and fun to sing in.  I had a "My Fair Lady" moment when I came out of the hall from the afternoon rehearsal. The building has the big pillars out front. As I stepped out by the pillars and started down the steps, it started to rain.... Henry Higgins however was not standing there....otherwise he could have had fun with my English instead.... I digress....  actually he could have picked on my Latin since that was what we were singing in.  We performed Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.  If you are not familiar with this piece don't worry, many people aren't. To give you a feel for this piece, here is a blerb from our advert for the concert:
    "HIghlights include a gigantic fugue at the end of the Credo that was thought to be impossible to sing or play, and at the other extreme the hauntingly beautiful violin solo that accompanies the solo voices in the Benedictus."
The first chair violinist was amazing and played the solo beautifully.  I had a perfect seat to watch him and to appreciate his skill and musicianship.  It is wonderful to be involved in classical music again.  I am also very grateful to my classmates, flatmate, and friends who came to support me.  It is always more fun to perform when there is someone in the audience that you know.  

So go play some bananagrams, while eating biscuits and listening to Beethoven! 

A British Thanksgiving and other odd things

This week has been one of those "I'm glad this week is over" weeks.  So I won't go into the whys behind that, instead I will share some positive moments and little things that bring happiness.  

Monday Christmas became official on the Uni campus.  They had little booths with things to buy and eat, a turning on the lights ceremony, and snow making machines!  

 Here is one of several making snow. :)

The effect it gives when you stand under it. 

 if you look you can see it shooting snow from the middle left.  Students thought it was great. :) 

Some of my classmates. from left to right: Gina, Navila, Malak and Manthan. 

The lights on this tree were blinking in time to the music that was playing. 

I needed video of this one, but the lights run down in series so it looks like the lights are dropping like water or snow. 

As you can see it wasn't snowing naturally, in fact about 2 hours later is was pouring rain....

Oh someone asked about the red phone booths, This is the closest I have seen to date: 

It is inside of a construction zone...

I discovered some new flavors of Fanta...This one brightened a rather difficult day this week: 

This is the gym I work out in.  Not too many people in it at 7:30 in the morning.  However late afternoon and evening it is packed. 

Bacon here is different.  These are bacon rashers and as you can see they are quite large. 

I found crumpets.  They are kinda like English muffins.... possible the same thing, but the texture was different.  So I made egg McCrumpets...

Apparently this is the food post week....

 I've always like a good bowl of hot cereal.  Oatmeal here is porridge.  If you add unrefined cane sugar  with double extra thick cream.... comfort food.  

 

Yesterday our ward had Thanksgiving Dinner.  I guess on occasion the British will adopt some American celebrations.  It's not a UK wide thing and no I don't get next week off of classes, but the ward I guess every year about this time will do a Thanksgiving Dinner.  I had someone ask me when Thanksgiving is really supposed to be.  :)  One lady in line turned and asked "are you American?"  My accent usually gives it away...  However the food was divine and fairly accurate with a bit of a British twist.  The stuffing was packed and cut into squares, not sure how they did that. The missionaries of course were having a great time and like me taking pictures of the food.   I got through the line and over to the drinks and was pondering what on earth I wanted when a missionary came over to the table carrying a big pot.  It had orange slices in it and I could see cloves... the scent was heaven.... someone had made Wassel!  This is a family favorite that we make every year for the holidays.  I don't think this one had the limeade, but the rest was in there.  It was indeed the finishing touch to the dinner.  When it came to the desserts there were donuts. chocolate cake, pumpkin and apple pie.  I decided I wanted Apple pie.  The guy who brought it works for Costco.  I guess normally they don't put in the cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar on the top.  However since he was doing the baking, he did and set them aside to bring to the dinner!  I went mid line with the topping.  There was ice cream, cream, and custard.  I thought hard about the custard... but since it was a piece of home, I put cream on it instead, just cuz I could.   I shouldn't need to eat for a week..... ;) 

 

So Happy Thanksgiving!  Take the time this week to remember all of your blessings.  Even when life is hard, there is always something to be thankful for.  Tell you family how much you love them and enjoy the time you have with them.  Look for the good in life, even if it's just your favorite drink, that the day is over and you can start fresh tomorrow, or that you are yet alive to live one more day.  Find joy in your journey and give thanks for the blessings however great or small in your life.  

My "British" family

Yep, my British family.... 4 Chinese, 1 Indonesian, 1 Palestinian... and me in a Thai restaurant no less.  This is a landmark picture, we were all together in one place at the same time for the sole purpose of socializing together.  So we took a picture of it in case it didn't happen again... I actually skipped my Irish dancing so that we could do this.  (ouch, bad pun.... so sorry!) We are a quiet group, well mannered and unobtrusive. I never hear my flat mates, other than the main door opening and closing since my room is the closest to it.  This get together was the brain child of Zahra who decided we needed to be more social with each other.  The layout of our flat makes it hard to just have those 'how was your day', and whatever about classes and assignments unless you happen to be in the kitchen at the same time.  Our bedroom doors are fire doors and you can't easily prop them open,not to mention we aren't supposed to, so you can't just stop by their room or wave as they go by.  You have to knock if you want to interact and you have no idea if they are even in their room!  

Let me tell you what I know about my family, besides not much....We are all on MA 1 year programs.  I'm the only one planning to stay on and continue with a PhD, the rest will go back to their countries next Sept at the conclusion of their programs. So, sitting next to me is Agnes.  She is from the South of China.  She, Mavis, and Monic all study at the Winchester campus which is an hour bus ride from here.  I guess the accommodations in Winchester aren't that great, so they opted for the commute.  I think all three of them are studying Fashion Management.  I'm not really sure what that is, but I get a mental image of Fashion police, which is not good, cuz they will probably arrest me at some point... ;) The most Agnes says is hi when she comes into the kitchen and bye when she leaves.  However her and Monic are tight and much Chinese is spoken in our flat.

Next to Agnes is Mavis.  (We won't talk about the different movies that go through my head with their names.... however I am grateful that they have 'adopted' English names cuz otherwise I'd be in real trouble!)  She is from Northern China. Mavis is super chipper and cute.  She is always smiling and willing to chat when I see her.   

To the right of Mavis is Monic.  She is from Southern China.  She is quieter than Agnes if that is possible.  She tends to be the cook for her and Agnes and is always cooking something in the kitchen. In the mornings she comes stumbling in with a headband that has a HUGE bow on it, her slippers and night shirt.  I don't know if she sleeps with that thing on, or if it is to just cover "bed head".  Not a real conversationalist, mostly hi and bye... 

Across the table from Monic is Zahra.  She is from Indonesia.  She is a sweetie.  We chat a lot and and enjoy the little time we see each other.  She went around and got everyone's phone numbers and decided we needed to act like we live in the same flat. :)  She is older than she looks (cuz she looks 14...) .  She is studying something to do with Marine Biology, I think.  Something science related in that kind of a field anyway.

Next to Zahra is Yolanda.  Yolanda is from Northern China and is quite tall.  (so is Monic for that matter.)  She actually is married and has a 15 year old son.  Her husband is still in China helping to support her coming to study.  Her son is here at a boarding school. So when the school is on holiday, like the last week of Oct, he stays here with her.  She is studying Statistics.  She tends to mother the other 3 Chinese girls and in fact calls them "the girls".  We have philosophical discussions over meals, since she and I seem to be the only ones who eat at the table.  Yolanda attributes that to the distance from our rooms to the kitchen since her room is next to mine.  We have many things in common and it is nice to have someone who is somewhat closer in age to me.  At least she is old enough that I couldn't be her mother....

Across from me is Samar.  She is from Palestine.  She actually is a professional and works in a clinic.  Their clinic needed an audiology expert and since she has an interest in it she was 'volunteered'.  She has decided that I'm alright.  We've gone to the city center a couple of time together.  She will ask me cooking questions and we chat.  The first several days in the flat she wore, don't know what it is called, but it was like a big sheet with sleeves and a place for her face. Once it was determined that our flat was all female (she wasn't guaranteed it would be even though she requested it,as did I) she now wanders around within the flat without even a head scarf.  I think that shows a large level of trust on her part.  However, twice this week her room door decided to lock her out.  Meaning the door wasn't' locked when she went out to go to the kitchen, but was locked when she tried to get back in. (Yolanda has managed to lock herself out of her room twice already too.) So she came up the hall and knocked on my door.  She explained her plight, so I handed her my phone so she could call the reception desk to send security up to unlock her door.  The first time she was in her night shirt.  She looked at me, I went to my wardrobe and handed her one of my wide scarves (I knew I kept them around for a reason, haven't worn them much yet, not cold enough) and my Japanese robe which is floor length. She looked eternally grateful.  She hung out in my room (we had to call again, the guy forgot he was supposed to come do that....) and after he opened her room and left, she returned my stuff.  This morning I had just put my coat on to go down and catch my ride to church when there was a knock on my door.  It was Samar again.  I told her she needs to put in a maintenance request because I'm pretty sure there is a problem with the lock. She was dressed, but no headscarf.  So I handed her the scarf again and my hoodie.  I told her to just give them back when I got back from church.  She told me that as she was walking up the hall she was praying I hadn't left yet.  That made me feel good, there are 5 other roommates, but well, she needed mom I guess.

So now you have met my family.  The most unlikely group you'd expect to be living together in England.  

'Tis the Season....for assignments

Six weeks have flown by in my course work and we have hit what would be termed mid-terms in the US.   And true to that thought come the first of the assignments.  All of the reading and discussing and listening gets to be synthesized and regurgitated back in the form of essays and oral presentations.  I am to write an academic paper the British way.  Which means thoroughly scrutinizing the literature and research and applying it to the theories and discussing it in very full detail usually in answer to a posed question.

 We had one of our professors warn us about the grading system in the UK.   Especially those of us coming from systems that 90-100 is an A, 80-89 B, 70-79 C, 60-69 D and anything below a 60 is failing.  We were told that high marks are 65-69 and marks with distinction are over 70. High 70's are rare and almost no one gets an 80 or higher.  Passing, so getting out of here with a MA degree, is anything over 50.  However if you want to get into a PhD program classes better be scored over 65 and your dissertation over 70 (or visa versa).  Whatever marks the convener gives is not the final mark.  All of your work including the dissertation will be sent to an outside source to be graded and given a final mark.  Also deadlines are out of the professor's hands.  If you miss the deadline you will be docked 10% of your grade for each day it is late- no excuses.  The university controls this and they rarely make exceptions.  It has to be something extreme and it must go through an appeals process.   Bottom line, work hard, turn it in on time and pray for a score I would never in my life would have thought I would be happy to see.  

On a similar but unrelated note, I now understand how my students could spend an entire year in my classroom and not know the names of their classmates or who was actually in the class....you are forgive.  

Unrelated to school.... I am impressed with Britain's honoring of veterans and the fallen war heroes.  In the US we call it Veterans Day, here it is remembrance day.  The official day is the same: November 11.  They honor it the Sunday before, so today.  For those who don't know why Nov 11 it is because it was the signal of the end of WWI 11/11 at 11 am.  People wear poppies in honor of Flanders's field.  They have commemoration ceremonies and everyone at 11 am stops and has two minutes of silence for respect for all who have fought to maintain their freedoms.  Which means that at church today at 11:00 am we all stood for two minutes in silence.  If you are not familiar with the poem or the story behind Flanders's field and the poppies that is your homework assignment.  Then as you contemplate the freedoms that you enjoy remember that freedom is never free.  It has been paid for in lives.  I stood proudly today with allies remembering all that has been sacrificed.  Because of them I can be here studying. We need to raise our title of liberty and give thanks to our God for our freedoms, and remember the lives of those who have bravely fought to defend them.  

Now go do your homework and I will go do mine. ;)



Here are some random things in my world. 

The computer generation...?

Life is often full of ironies; well, mine is anyway.  I am at an age that for most people the technological revolution has left them in the dust.  This has never been true for me and often people are amused to know that at one point in my undergraduate schooling I was actually studying computer science and had taken several programming classes.  The computer languages that I learned are now all obsolete, but I have a general feel for the machines.  It also helped that I have been surrounded by computer geeks all my life, and so I kinda pick up on the stuff.  For some of my kids it's a point of pride for them that their mom is technologically savvy.  So I can hold my own for most things.  

So as it happens, Thursdays seminar for our Research and Inquiry (spelled Enquiry in the UK) was held in one of the computer labs on the Avenue Campus.  We have an assignment that is due in a couple of weeks that requires us to transcribe 5 mins of classroom dialogue.   This workshop was to help us learn how to transcribe so that we don't fail the assignment.  Our tutor for the seminar is a quantitative researcher. She deals with numbers and statistics.  Transcribing tends to be used by qualitative researchers.  We downloaded a program that helps with the transcription process.  The professor told us to play with the program and figure out how it works.  Then we would share what we discovered so we can help everyone.  Aka she has no idea how to use the program so we get to figure it out and help each other with it. 

 First I had to help my neighbors download the sound bite so they could upload it into the program to even start working with it.  The program is fairly simple and straight forward.  After about 10 mins I had figured out all the buttons and controls and meanings of the tools.  It is a pretty handy tool.  It sets things up so that it will repeat segments how ever many times you want and then move to the next one.  You can set how long it waits before it replays and then if you want it to rewind slightly into what you just listened to when starting the next section.  

So the teacher asks us to share what we learned about how the program worked.  Now I'm old enough to be just about everybody's mother in the group, so I waited for the technology generation to state what they had figured out.  Not much.  The speed of the recording (chipmunk sound was fun....) and how many times they could set up to repeat.  Really?  So I raised my hand and explained what I thought was the obvious slider bar.  No one else volunteered.... so I raised my hand again and explained how that one related to the one next to it.  The professor asked about the other two controls...... no one???? So I raised my hand again and explained those...  

Now we were to try to use it.  Suddenly I had 3 of my classmates asking me questions.  I ended up standing up and explaining  again the different tools and how they worked together.  Most of them now understood how to work it.  Then the tutor said to look at the task bar tools... yep got it..... One guy explained how to save your settings,  oh good not me..... wait..... ok I'll explain the rest of the options on the tool bar...  By the end of the lab, I had typed two utterances from the sample transcription recording. The tutor made a statement about finding a friend who can help you  as you work on transcribing the recordings.  Most of the room turned and looked at me... "Vicki!"  I was flattered and slightly overwhelmed.  

Later that evening on the WhatsApp  group page many of my classmates thanked me and praised me for saving the day.  Some one told me to stop my MA program and be a seminar tutor....  I guess years of teaching came in handy. They are sweet to be so emphatic about it. I like to help and I thought it was easy, so I shared what I knew.   Pretty sure the professor was happy I figured it out, because she really had no idea, and she turned to over to me to help and answer questions. 

 I'm still confused at how the oldest one there was the technically savvy one.  I thought the younger generation was the one that you hand them technology and they figure it out and have it working in  10 mins.  I guess age and experience won out over youth and talent this time, ironically in an area that is supposed to be their forte.  ;) You're never too old to learn.