The English Countryside; The President

Last week I had my first trip outside of London in the UK. I went to Bradenham Manor, the GTUK's training facility, which is literally this English manor house in the country. The trip there is only about an hour's train ride, and I decided to make the trip the morning of my training, you know, since we don't start until 9 am (every time I mention the fact that the workday starts at 8am in the US people gasp likes it's the most inhumane thing they've ever heard). I'm so glad I did b/c it was a perfect morning and it was my first glimpse of the English countryside. The fog was just beginning to lift so it was still covering some of the hillsides, there were sheep-dotted pastures, and in one pasture there was a herd of horses galloping along with the train. I know this sounds like a story, but I'm being serious. It was just that perfect. The houses were cute and quaint (I didn't see any actual thatched roofs, but there were houses in the English Tudor style).


Bradenham itself is a complex of several buildings, including the giant manor house and then several outlying buildings like the stables, and I'm sure what used to be servants' quarters or something. I know all of you GTUS people are cursing right now b/c I get to go to this place for training and you have to go to the awful Q Center. On the first day, they made some general housekeeping announcements, including notification of the place to gather in the event of a fire: The croquet lawn. Awesome.


Everyone kept telling me how great the food was at Bradenham, but I quickly realized that there was a caveat: The food is good if you like English food. There was cottage pie (ground meat with mashed potatoes) for lunch, and lamb and potatoes for dinner, amongst other things. I've realized that the English diet is not that far off from the American diet - meat and potatoes. Except the English eat about four times less of it. Seriously, I think I've seen one obese person since I've been in London. I know we hear it all the time, but I've had that sinking realization since I've arrived that America really does have a major obesity epidemic. On TV the other night a comedian made the comment that Americans have the gold medal in being fat. Sad. But I digress.


The training itself was good, it was a soft skills course which I haven't had before, so loads of role playing and such which I really loathe, but good b/c you get to know the people in your training course better. Met some lovely people from other offices and departments.


I was at Bradenham last Tuesday evening, during the election. Needless to say I got next to no sleep that evening and was utterly worthless and cranky for the second day of the training (training was Tues-Wed). I know I've mentioned it before, but I just can't get over what a big deal our election is to everyone here. It's all that was on any news channel, and pretty much every other show mentioned it as well, and it was all anyone could talk about, especially to me being an American. It was like nothing else was happening in the rest of the world. When I was watching BBC while getting ready on Wednesday morning, there was a massive banner going across the bottom of the screen that read, "Barack Obama - US President Elect", and literally during the hour that I had it on, they did about two minutes on some train crash in Mexico, and then straight back to the election. Insane! On Thursday morning on my way to work I passed by a newsstand and had to stop and stare b/c every single newspaper had something about Obama on the front cover. Not being one bit sarcastic here. My favorite: "The Day America Became a Little Bit Cool Again". Brilliant. (Oh yes, I've been using the word brilliant non-stop lately, just like a local. I sound like those Guinness commercials back in the States where the old dudes just sit around and say, "Brilliant!").


A few more comments on the election and then I'm done. I've realized that although people here are interested in the election, they are only interested to the extent that the media covers it, and form their opinions over what the media tells them (I know, it's not that much different for most people in the States, but I will ignore that since it's so irresponsible it makes me sick). Anyway, when people would start to ask me about the election (and most would then start to sing the praises of Obama), it would always give me a tiny thrill to really engage them in an actual discussion about American politics. Save for one person, none of them could make it past the first sentence. Of course, I can't blame people here for supporting Obama, they live in a country where the most conservative politician is still not as conservative as our most liberal (being Obama). All they saw in McCain was a man who looked like Bush in physical appearance, but when I started to discuss his stance on the issues vs. the Bush administration, they would get all glassy-eyed. On the positive side, I am proud that we have elected our first black president and hope that now everyone will realize that most white Americans are not racist and never were. I'm excited to see where Obama takes our country with his energy policies. I just hope his magic wand doesn't run out of pixie dust too soon.

This weekend my flatmates and I, along with a couple other friends (Andrea had a friend in from Mexico) played kings in the flat before going out to a club that no one had ever been to before. When we were paying the cover I asked the doorman why I couldn't just bat my eyes and get in for free ("I'm American, that's what we do in America!", I tell him), he just laughed, told me that I was beautiful but that I was going to have to pay. I was disappointed until we walked upstairs and realized that it was a gay club and my eyelashes weren't going to get me anywhere in this club! It was really fun - I mean we could have been anywhere and had fun in the state that we were all in after playing four rounds of kings. The unisex bathrooms were something of an adventure though...

Saturday I stayed in (still recovering), and Sunday morning I tried a new church. They were doing some renovations and had just done the floor but hadn't stained it yet, so everyone had to remove their shoes at the door. A bit of a weird impression for my first time. But the service was great, and it's much closer than the other one that I went to (it's actually another branch of that one), so I think I'll give it another go. Hopefully next time I'll be able to keep my shoes on. Thank God I didn't have any holes in the socks that I was wearing on Sunday!

Had a sick day yesterday, just a little head cold. It's amazing what a few extra hours of sleep will do for you. I don't think I've mentioned it, but here, there isn't an allowance for sick days, and they also don't count as a vacation day. You just take one if you need one. It's so lovely and it made me realize that the US firm vacation allowance really isn't that much better than the private sector's standard 2 week allowance, b/c in the private sector they usually also get a sick allowance, which at GT has to come out of the vacation time. Here we get more vacation time (only slightly more), and sick days don't cut into it. More and more I feel like I was just a slave in the US firm. Probably not as much as people working in the Asian firms feel like that though.

Some fun new words and phrases I've learned:

A muppet = an idiot/silly person
A Richard = a douche bag
What's the chat? = What's up?
This is a good one - I hear the word "chat" quite a bit, and you are jokingly judged by your "weak chat" or "strong chat", as in how interesting or witty your banter is
You got the wrong end of the stick = You took that the wrong way

Must go, but I miss you all so much!