English Word of the Day...

Fortnight...

Now, I know this a word we've all heard before, but when saying your doing something in two weeks or for two weeks, do you really say that "I'm going on holiday for a fortnight." or "In a fortnight's time we'll be in the new year"? As it seems, the words that we've adopted from the British but dropped in the days of Lincoln, are still alive and well here in the mother country.

Okay, okay we were struggling for a word of the day...

Tomorrow we leave for Helsinki, Finland and I promise to have more interesting things to blog about on Tuesday when we get back!

Scarves--What are they good for?

So, one thing that is very noticeable in the limited wardrobe of the Brit is the scarf. Young or old, male or female, it is a staple. The thing we find strangest about it is the men that wear scarves without a coat, looped around their neck in a rather feminine fashion whilst being INSIDE. For instance, tonight we were at a sushi restaurant INSIDE the mall our tube stop is at. The manager of the restaurant was running around, making sure all of the patrons were happy wearing a HUGE wool scarf around his neck wrapped tight--as if he were wearing a neck brace. C'mon, he's got to be hot! This is not an isolated incident, we see it all the time--the British obsession with scarves! I must admit, in my efforts to 'fit in' and 'look like a brit' I have tried to wear a scarf and I just get hot and itchy. Truthfully, I don't even zip my coat here because it's just not that cold! Yesterday was the first frost for God's sake! It's JUST NOT THAT COLD! In relation to the scarf is the is female's wearing the pashmina. They wear it much like a scarf, but again, they're all wrapped up in it, and it's JUST NOT COLD! Maybe they have some kind of iron deficiency or something that causes them to be cold, but frankly at the quick pace that these people walk at, they should be breaking a sweat!

English Word of the Day...

The English Word for the Day is PUDDING...

Now, you may know what you think is pudding--the chocolate or vanilla, tapioca or my favorite rice variety. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to pudding here. They call dessert pudding--most every dessert is called pudding. There is a "Pudding Table" at a buffet, or you get pudding with your coffee after a meal. This time of year, especially, there are lots of different puddings out, most notably he Christmas Pudding, which, though I haven't tried it yet, seems to me to be a cross between a fruit cake and spice cake.

Socialized Medicine is the DEVIL!

Last weekend, some of our expat friends told us their woes of getting a General Practitioner (GP) so I decided before we actually get sick, I should sign up with one. How it works here, in the land of socialized medicine, is that you have to sign up with a GP within a 2 miles zone of where you live. Then, that's the doctor you go to for everything. There's no Ear, Nose, and Throat Guy, or an OB/GYN or an orthopedic. So I went on the NHS (National Health Services) website and found a doctor in my zone. Called, and they told me I couldn't register because I hadn't been in the country yet for 6 months. I didn't think that was right, so I called the NHS...yep, I went right to the top! They told me that there was no such rule, and to call back the doctor. Well, after trying to impose my English politeness and later my American pushiness, I still wasn't registered. I then called the local Hammersmith and Fulham Health Authority and reported them. They suggested I try another doctor, which I did and they said I could CERTAINLY come in to register, and that the were open from 2-7 that day. I went at about 10 after 2 and was told that the office manager, the only person in the whole practice that can register someone was out that day. Wouldn't that have been some good information to tell me over the phone? So, now I'm going to try again today to get registered. We'll see how that goes...All I know is that I get strep throat at least once per year, and I better be registered by the time that hits me!

You know, people rave about this socialized medical system they have over here, and I suppose it is okay once you're in, but all I know is that in the states I wasn't limited geographically, and I could go to any doctor I wanted as long as they were covered under my policy. And even if they weren't covered under my policy, I could still go, I'd just have to pay for it! Honestly, I feel like it's almost like communist Russia, having to wait in line for a loaf of bread or something...

English Word of the Day...

I realize I have been slacking on my English Word of the Day since Thanksgiving. Many apologies as I'm sure you've all been anxiously anticipating the next ridiculous phrase that we hear every day coming out of these Brits' mouths. Today's is a "Phrase of the Day":

You 'LOOK LIKE DOGS BREAKFAST'. This phrase basically refers to something being bad. In the example, the person is probably referring to someone who looks ill. It can also refer to an inanimate object such as a report or spreadsheet that is poorly done.

It may seem as though this is a one off, and perhaps it's just someone's thing to say. Maybe you're thinking of Paris Hilton's "That's Hot", but we've both heard this phrase on several occasions in different company.

Ah, The Laundry Crisis

As you know, if you've either read my blog or spoken to me, we bring our laundry out to get cleaned. Well, right now, we probably have more laundry than we ever have at the cleaners and it won't be ready until Saturday. I think it was the combo of being in Berlin and having lots of wet, gross clothes that caused the overload. Nonetheless, we have now run into somewhat of a laundry crisis. Mike is quickly running out of pants (underwear) and I am down to one pair of jeans--I'm good in the pants department. The clothes won't be ready until Saturday. Herein the problem lies! We leave for Helsinki at 5AM on Saturday and will be gone until Tuesday! Those who knew me in college remember that I also refused to do laundry there and would adopt a policy when I ran out of underwear (pants)--just buy more! Some I'm headed out today to get Mike some underwear. I know what you're thinking, wouldn't it be better to just do the laundry yourself so you always have your clothes in your house? NO! It's still better this way, and Mike makes out like a bandit and gets new stuff! Everyone's happy in the Racano house!

Springsteen Live!

The other day, Mike found out that Springsteen tickets were going on sale yesterday at 9AM for this show at the O2 Arena here in London. O2 is a mobile phone company here, and their customers get first dibs at tickets, so we weren't sure what would be available come 9AM, but we were able to get them! We're so excited to get to see all of these "American" things while over here. All we need in BonJovi to tour over here between now and July '09 and we'll be all set!

In other news, the countdown is on--14 days until we come home for Christmas! We've got pretty hectic lives until then, so it will be a welcome break to get to see everyone!

Danke Sein, Darlin' Danke Sein

We're back from Berlin! What a great trip it was. I think that every high school student should take a trip there when they learn about the Iron Curtain in history class. It definitely brings it all together and helps to understand what really went on there! We arrived on Saturday morning, and went to work at the Christmas Markets! Germany is famous for its Christmas Markets and that's one of the biggest reasons we chose this time of year to go there. What a great choice it was! The Christmas Markets were fantastic! They had wonderful food---we sampled Bratwurst and beers, Pretzels and mulled wine...We ate and drank our way from one end of the city to the other! The crafts were fantastic, but like everywhere else you had to watch out for the cheaper stands as many of there wares donned the "Made in China" stamp! We started at the Alexanderplatz and worked our way back to the hotel going from market to market...just what Mike loves---watching me shop! That night we were both so tired from shopping and walking the city that we had a lovely dinner in our hotel restaurant, Mike had a Wienerschnitzel and I played it safe with a steak. I just was too tired to play games with food I wasn't sure about! On Sunday we took an all day (8 hour) walking tour of the city. Preston, our tour guide was an American from Oregon who was living in Berlin doing his master's in Modern German History. While his humor was a little questionable, we couldn't have picked a better tourguide for Mike and I. I guess you could call our tour "semi-private" as only Mike and I and one other Australian couple showed up for it. Our guide was really knowledgable, and like I said the whole experience really gave us some insight into how East and West Berlin were set up, how they interacted, how the Berlin Wall had two walls, with a death zone in the middle. We learned that the "New" synagogue actually survived the Nazi occupation and WW2 thanks to 1 man. Berlin is an interesting city. It is actuall 64 thousand million Euro in debt ($64 billion). Their city slogan is "Berlin--Poor but Sexy" and you can really see just how poor the city is. World War 2 ended over 60 years ago, and you can still see the destruction the allied forces caused. The city just doesn't have the funds to repair everything. There are empty, vacant lots all over the city, where they just can't afford to rebuild anything. Fronts of building that were blown away, have stayed blown away, just the rubble has been cleared. I think this is one of the reason why we liked this city so much. This was a city in Europe that actually had something to see. There were no fabricated tourist traps as in other cities we've been to. There was SO much to see that a weekend just wasn't enough. We're looking forward to going back in the Spring/Summer timeframe. We also got to see the square in which they burned the books in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade---today there's an ice skating rink on it--we had a beer there! We learned how families that were separated by the wall interacted--those on the West side, were able to obtain 1 day visas, and were able to visit their family in East Berlin for one day--the only catch was that the visas could only be obtained every 2-5 years. One this that really interested in us was that 80% of anything to see in the city is in East Berlin. I saw where Katarina Witt was given an apartment in East Berlin after winning her figure skating medals for E. Germany---the apartment stands on the lot where Hitler's bunker was. We got to see the hotel (Hotel Adlon) where Michael Jackson dangled his new son over the balcony all those years ago. I really could go on an on about the things we saw, and realy all the things we want to go back and see! I'll stop here though!