a little bit of homesick-Ness

Ok, I've been here for almost a month and I haven't really wallowed at all, so allow me 5 minutes to let me languish in the things I miss.

I miss (in no particular order):
*big bookstores with comfy chairs and a place to get something to drink, where you can read 15 magazines without paying for them
*said magazines, especially Bust and Vanity Fair
*Whole Foods vegan chocolate mousse
*sushi
*eel sushi (separate mention)
*Law&Order
*places to go and hang out besides home
*a bedroom that's heated when you wake up in the morning
*black bean sauce that actually contains black beans

Ok, I'm done complaining now. Thanks for listening.

Moonrise over Broad Bay

Back, Isle of Lewis, 8:20 am

The advantage of being so far up north is that you can be awake for sunrises!

Straight from the Shtetl to Stornoway

I just found out that this year's Christmas musical at the school where I do research is going to be Fiddler on the Roof. I am already amused by this, and can't wait to see the rehearsals, especially when they are going to try to adapt the story to local conditions. I mean, you probably all know how I really feel about musicals, but this one may just be too bizarre to pass up.

Actually, what a great sociolinguistic research project! I can't wait to see what they choose to be the equivalent of Yiddish phrases and what identity categories they see as equivalent to Yentl. What a fun chapter that'll be in the dissertation! (Or maybe a good presentation for Michicagoan?)

I just thought y'all would enjoy the image...

PS on the last post: I just discovered a TV show called "Too posh to wash" in the TV guide, in which they apparently go around convincing people who don't wash to do so...sometimes you wonder if social darwinism wouldn't take care of these things! :-)

British Hygiene

Just when you thought Britain had joined the modern world, what with mobile phones everywhere and digital TV and other technological advances, the Britain of old comes through: On ‘Fat Nation’ -a weird, feature-length public health message telling Britain to lose weight on TV- they were demonstrating toning exercises one can do in the bathtub. Ok. Then the presenter says “Since everyone takes a bath at least once a week…”. Oooooh-kay! And knowing the precarious state of British showers, we all know that weekly bath is the only time people are getting clean. Similarly, my washing machine has a setting called "worn once". What does that mean? Less soap and water? There is the perennial European fear of drying out your skin by washing too much, but does that apply to clothes as well?

Reminds me of that Mike Myers skit on Saturday Night Live of the British commercial advertising toothpaste containing 75% sugar. I’m just waiting for the day when they figure out that it makes sense to have hot and cold water running out of one faucet so you don’t have to make a choice between getting scalded or frozen to death when washing your hands.

While we’re on the topic of helpful tips: In today’s police report published in the weekly paper, there was the story of a young man who was arrested on the streets of Stornoway while walking around town at 3:30 am carrying about 50 hits of E and 390 pounds in his pocket. Here’s my thinking: it’s probably not a good idea to be walking down the street in Stornoway at 3:30 am –that in and of itself is highly suspicious.

Ok, enough with the snarky comments. I don’t know what’s gotten into me.

I think it may be time to get one of those sunlamps. Once we change back from Daylight Savings tomorrow, it’ll be dark by 6 pm, and if the weather continues as it has been recently, it won’t really matter whether it’s light or dark outside because I’ll be spending my life inside.

The beauty of epoxidized soy bean oil

We all know that British food is bad -I think that stereotype is a stereotype of itself (an icon of itself, so to speak). I'm actually not quite sure I agree, simply because I have a strange affection for Brussels' sprouts. In my opinion, Brussels' sprouts must be about as close to the perfect food as you can get -even if they are completely overcooked from frozen, they are still tasty. And I don't want to catch any of saying "Ewww"!

But what I find astonishing about British food, based on my recent trip to the supermarket, is the amazing range of potato chip flavors. Now, I know this isn't the most original observation of the culinary craziness of the Brits -we've all heard about ketchup-flavored and mushroom-flavored crisps. I just want to highlight the recent expansion of potato chip flavors to include such things as "roast beef and Yorkshire pudding" and "pad thai". It's as if they are trying to come as close as possible to the idea of non-food food that was so popular during the 50s and 60s: potato chips are nothing but the carriers of a complex mix of chemicals that make you think you're eating something that, at least in some places (i.e. on the Isle of Lewis), is not actually available. I'd love to be able to eat some actual pad thai, rather than encountering the exotic in a serving of sweet-and-sour pork served with French fries at the Chinese restaurant.

While we're on the issue of complex chemicals, I'm also amazed by the detail with which foods and other supermarket items are labeled. We all know sausages contain all kinds of things that wouldn't be sold at the butcher counter by themselves, but I found it hard to pick up a package of something that was described as containing "beef connective tissue". And who knew that something as seemingly simple as plastic wrap actually contains, in addition to polyvinyl chloride, "plasticizers, epoxydized soy bean oil, anti-fog agent, stabilizer, additive." One has to wonder what that nameless additive may be after all the detailed descriptions before it -crack? DDT? Embryonic stem cells? It's a mystery to me!

In any case, my quest for an edible black bean sauce continues, and until then, I've picked up a gargantuan bag of Brussels' sprouts to last me for the week.

My house and the view from it

My house and the view from it

Bounce-Hebridean Breeze

So I’ve been ‘in the field’ for one week now. I think I’m doing ok. First of all, hallelujah to pre-field visits. As painful as it was, being here for 6 months 6 years ago and for a month 2 years ago was a great investment, because I’m now able to move around with much more confidence and get myself out of the house by visiting people.

Of course I kind of got sucked into the bottomless pit that is Sunday on the Isle of Lewis. I’m very proud of myself for going to church all by myself, and sitting through an entire fire-and-brimstone sermon that I could actually understand since the preacher didn’t know any Gaelic. The regular minister was in Edinburgh for the opening of the new Scottish parliament, at which someone had decided there should be the ‘traditional’ singing of a psalm. It was a bit bizarre –the acoustics were horrible, so the singing sounded even more distorted than it usually does (it’s always struck me as the human equivalent of bagpipes), and I bet the Queen, who was there, had never even known of such a practice existing in her kingdom.

Anyway, I’ve always credited my experience sitting through Lewis church services for my ability to sit through long boring seminars, and so this time, I whiled away the time by checking out the hats [If you can believe it, I also wore a hat –a nice navy conservative one out of my collection of three hats specifically purchased for this purpose). My favorite number this time was a leopard-print polarfleece hat that was worn by a woman of about 70. Next to the candy eating that’s still rampant during the sermon (sometimes it’s hard to hear the preaching over all the rustling of candy wrappers), you really can’t fault people for being overly comformist.
The time after church was a bit of a drag, because there really isn’t much you can do. The beach is a bit too far fro my current accommodations to slink away for an unobtrusive walk on the beach, but at least I could turn on the TV without worrying about incurring the wrath of God –or rather, without anyone expressing this possibility to me. At least they don’t padlock the swings on the playgrounds any more.

But now it’s a regular weekday, and Lewis is back in the secular world for a bit. And the most amazing bit of news may just be the fact that it hasn’t rained since Friday. As a matter of fact, yesterday the sun was out and my laundry dried in a couple of hours on the line. I have to say, no chemical engineer will ever be able to capture the smell of laundry dried in the fresh sea air for the creation of Bounce-Hebridean Breeze.

Scottish optimism...

...is when someone on the Isle of Lewis owns a convertible!

I've arrived on Lewis and slowly things are coming back to me. The place is more familiar than I remember.

This morning I woke up and it was raining so hard that I didn't think I could leave the house. Then it stopped for the 2 minutes it took me to dash to the bus. But now the sun is out. Go figure.

All I can say is thank God for Marmot and their waterproof jackets!

Strange fact of the day

I just discovered that it is easier for me to go to Dunkin' Donuts in Berlin than in Ann Arbor. Why is there no DD in Ann Arbor?!

I know, I know, it's because there's Tim Horton's, but that can't be all there's to it. There must be a deeper conspiracy. Anyone have any theories?

The sun always shines on German TV...

It's Saturday night in Germany, and I'm watching TV with my mom. German TV is so weird. They (still) have the big Saturday prime time variety shows. They have "live" lip-synched music performances in them (usually by people who make no other appearances except on German TV anymore, like Joe Cocker -and probably David Hasselhoff), and a big audience, and they're live, and so if they run over their allotted time, they just push all the other shows after it back.

This one that was on tonight strikes me as particularly German. The basic idea is that these ordinary people come up with crazy things to do, like climb up 100 yards on a rope with their bare hands, in 5 minutes, and then they have celebrity guests who place a bet on whether these people can do it or not. If the celebrity loses the bet, they have to do something "funny" or charitable or whatever. I'm always fascinated when they have foreign celebrities, because you wonder how much about this show has been explained to them. Plus, they have to sit on this couch for at least 3 hours during the show, and I don't think they have an interpreter the entire time. What must they be thinking?!

They also always have a challenge posed by someone in the audience to the host of the show, who places a bet as well. The challenge has to be accomplished by the end of the show, although the host has been known to drag out the show just so he can win his bet. Tonight, the challenge was to set up a genuine Octoberfest in Berlin (where the show was being broadcast from), with 100 people in lederhosen and 50 Japanese tourists, and an oompah band and beer. The host bet they couldn't do it, but then they did. Heaven only knows how they found 50 Japanese tourists who would find about about the challenge and go down there to make it happen.

All of this is just so bizarre. And people LOVE it. The show has been on for as long as I can remember. Who knows what effect watching this had on my brain growing up -to some of you, this may explain some things...