Lauren got a Job! (well, 2 really)

It is with much fanfare, hubbub, and general gaiety that we announce the formation of Lauren Burdette International Consulting. Soon to operate on both sides of the Atlantic, Lauren is taking the inefficient quagmire of British commerce by storm. Armed with her mall-machine-printed 20 for $4 inkjet business cards and 3 years of consulting experience she’s ready to help over-worked Brits fit 8 hours of work into their 7.5 hour days.

Continuing the post with the same level of honest realism it started with, Lauren met with two different marketing/advertising firms in Birmingham last week to sell her skills as an Industrial Engineer (‘Management Engineer’ here). The one firm is about 16 people and is led by a friend of ours that we met through church, and the other is a self-employed friend who is thinking of growing his business.

Lauren met with Ollie and Oliver, the two directors of the larger firm, ie design, on Wednesday and gave a presentation overview of her skills, experience at Maynard, and specific services offered. She gave the same talk to John of morsebrowndesign later that week, and everyone was really excited about the things that Lauren could do for their operations. It looks like she will be working 3 days a week with the larger firm, and 1.5 days with John – fantastic! She’s going to try to keep volunteering 1 day a week, making her 2007 schedule very different than England 2006.

These projects should last 2-3 months, and both companies have already begun to think about ways to recommend Lauren to others. With process improvement like this being so unknown here, the market for Lauren’s skills in the small business community could be huge. We’ll see where this all leads, but for now it is a huge answer to prayer and really, really exciting for us. As our life here fills up more, we’ll try to stay up with the blog as best we can, and there are plenty of adventures on the horizon for 2007. Thanks for reading!

PS: Check out the websites of the two firms, it’s funny how different some things are than American companies. They talk a lot about the importance of a ‘work-life balance’ and using green energy and a bike to get everywhere—not major headings for must companies in the States.

Literary Sterotypes

In addition to documenting our own adventures and cultural insights, this blog seems like a great place to share insight from other sources. I am currently working my way through the 15 books that my friend Claire lent me because I don’t have much else to do (a situation that, praise to God, is changing and I’ll post more on later). So far I have read The Red Tent, The Time-Traveler’s Wife, Life of Pi (so good! One of my favorite books I’ve read in a while) and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. The last is particularly engaging and interesting, as it is written by a British author of French heritage about an Italian unit that is stationed on the Greek island of Cephallonia. Although I haven’t seen the film adaptation, my impression is that the novel is more complex and more richly nuanced. I was especially struck by the cultural characterizations he offers throughout the course of the book, including the two below:

The Greek doctor Iannis is expounding to the Italian capt. Corelli: “I know you have not thought about it. You Italians always act without thinking, it’s the glory and the downfall of your civilization. A German plans a month in advance what his bowel movements will be at Easter, and the British plan everything in retrospect, so it always looks as though everything occurred as they intended. The French plan everything whilst appearing to be having a party, and the Spanish…well, God knows.”

Also from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin: “In those days Great Britain was less wealthy than it is now, but it was also less complacent, and considerably less useless. It had a sense of humanitarian responsibility and a myth of its own importance that was quixotically true and universally accepted merely because it believed in it, and said so in a voice loud enough for foreigners to understand. It had not yet acquired the school boy’s habit of waiting for months for permission from Washington before it clambered out of its post-imperial bed, put on its boots, made a sugary cup of tea and ventured through the door. Accordingly, the British were the first to arrive, the ones to stay the longest, the ones to do the most and the last to leave [in the rebuilding of Greece after the earthquake of 1953].”

I don’t know about the first quote, but the second matches up pretty well with most people’s attitudes about the British government, in our experience. We watched Out of Africa the other night, which also eloquently captured England’s self-proclaimed power and influence near the end of the colonial era. I believe there is some bitterness about the change from ‘the most powerful empire on earth’ to taking the backseat to Washington.

Our 1st Wedding Anniversary

January 21, 2006

January 21, 2007




We can't believe a year went by so fast! A year ago we stood before our beloved friends and families, and pledged to love and support each other for the rest of our lives. At that point in time, we had turned down England and were looking forward to building a life together in Pittsburgh. We were then and are now amazed at the outpouring of love we were shown by all of you that day, and the support you've given our marriage since.

Now almost countless twists and turns to the story later, we spent our first anniversary in the Malverns (beautiful hills and a village about 45 min from here), walking in unbelievable gusts of wind with new friends. Needless to say, we'd never imagined that's how we would celebrate our first anniversary! It seems especially fitting though, and a sign of good things to come for the year ahead. The fall was especially lonely for us as we tried, and seemingly failed, to connect with people and establish friendships. It all felt like so much work, and we became pretty insular. There's been quite a shift since we've come back, however. We've been busy with new friends every weekend so far, whether it is for dinner, a movie, games, or walking in the countryside. It seems things are looking up for us here!

For more pics of our day out, click here. Also, thanks for all the happy wishes through emails, phone calls and cards! They truly made our day!

Holiday Highlights

We’re both really and truly back in England!

Nick’s already done a great job capturing the bittersweet feeling of being home (aka the States). For me, the hardest part was the short amount of time we had. It felt that we were constantly saying ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ to our best friends and family. It was a joyful visit and a painful reminder of what we miss.

The trip home will sustain us in phase 2 of the England Adventure. Just some of the memories we savor are:

• Watching Arrested Development with the Burdette brothers
• Making bridges with kindergartners (surprisingly both more stressful and more fun than it sounds!)
• Cooking Christmas dinner for the Burdette family
• Watching traditional Christmas movies: White Christmas with the Burdettes and Muppet Christmas Carol with the Horstmans
• Christmas Eve party and first annual drumming circle
• Getting hugs from extended family members
• ‘Home Day’ in Springfield – included mad Mad Gabs, trivia games, and a turkey dinner
• Food we’d missed: Frozen Javas, good ice cream, lots and lots of pizza, good coffee, Yuengling, Lydia’s and Monterey Bay…..
• Oh Hell: the game
• All kinds of Cranium (Turbo, Pop 5, Conga – and making up new rules to make it even harder!!)
• Dez and Eric’s wedding – so beautiful! And saw so many people!
• Crazy, 12am Auntie-Anne Pretzel making
• Friends, friends, and more friends
• Learning that people read our blog

So that last one may sound a bit cheesy, but we were really surprised and encouraged by the number of people who told us they read this thing. It is such a link for us to you guys, and it means so much to know that we are actually meeting our goal of connecting with people. We’re also newly committed to start posting more frequently….er….starting this weekend!

You are Being Watched

Here’s a post that I have been meaning to make for awhile, and since I have hijacked our England blog until Lauren gets back on Friday, this seems like a great time to write. One of the most surprising/disturbing things that we have noticed here are the incredible number of Closed Circuit TV cameras that line every street and public space in England. The BBC reports that the average citizen in the UK is caught on CCTV cameras 300 times a day. That’s got to mean that most of your waking hours you are being watched by some camera somewhere. England has by far the most cameras per capita of any country in the world, and it’s hard not to get nervous about so much state observation.

Cameras catch everything, and with thousands of them on motorways automatically snapping license plates and mailing tickets they seem to have replaced police in many instances. In 1996 CCTV accounted for more than three-quarters of total crime prevention spending. What has been unnerving as I looked up some articles on cameras is how little opposition there seems to be to them. There are a few independent sites contending that cameras are not the same as a human police officer, but in the standard press towns seem to be trying to out-do each other in their Big Brotherness with no mention of the huge reduction in personal privacy.

The next stage here is talking CCTV cameras, where operators watching a screen miles or even countries away can chastise people over intercoms. One forward-thinking town is actually using the system to monitor their main streets, and if anyone drops a piece of trash, the loud speakers kick in and they are properly taunted from above. If you have to read this to believe it, click here. I mean, make a few minor changes, and it might as well be a POW camp in the jungles of Cambodia. The striking part about the article is how there is no dissenting view offered, and these cameras are held up as the answer for crime. Where is the debate?

I understand that this is something that law enforcement thinks will give them an edge, and I’m sure it helps in prosecution, etc., but at what cost? Recording the lives of law-abiding citizens on this scale seems kinda totalitarian regime-ish and is certainly a slippery slope, as questions of who can use this information for what emerge. If you were at the right level in the government now, maybe you could read this through a window as I type it? Woah, that’s pretty scary. What are we DOING here??

Anyway, that is my “dark side” of modern English society for the night. Maybe we will start another blog about how England is becoming the world of 1984 to provide a forum for Brits to stand up to the man. Ehh, I doubt it though, we only have time for one blog, and this one sounds more fun. Until next time, hold on to your precious, precious FREEDOM!

Bachelor’n It

As you can see, with Lauren in the States with her family until Friday, I have kind of let things go a bit around here. Sure showering, cleaning, and civilized table manners are great, but sometimes it’s nice to go back to my old grad school days of wearing warm-ups, eating out of cookware, and letting the laundry pile up around me. Throughout all of this though, you can be assured by the logo on my bright orange PennDOT shirt, that I am “thinking safety”—no domestic accidents on my watch, despite the beer and hot cookware. Yep, this bachelor life is pretty great…pretty great. Yep, yep, I’m livin’ the dream.

OK, when’s Lauren getting back?

A USA Christmas

We had an amazing time at home for Christmas, and it was wonderful to see our family and friends after our last 4 months in England. We spent time with Nick’s family first, and got a chance to go and be ‘mystery readers’ at his mother’s kindergarten class. Lauren read a book about bridges all over the world, and then Nick led the kids in a bridge-building activity. After a great ‘Christmas’ dinner with the grandmothers, we set off to spend some time in Ohio with Lauren’s family.

This was Nick’s first year attending the preimer annual Springfield event, the Horstman Christmas Eve party, and he thoroughly enjoyed the chili and Frito pies, as well as the caroling and drum beating. It was a very musical Christmas Eve. After a few days of game-playing and relaxing in Ohio, we took to the road again to spend an all-too-short time in our beloved Pittsburgh. After 4 days of games, lunches out, weddings, late nights, and New Years Eve parties, it was time to leave again. The whirlwind trip certainly brought to focus the people that we miss dearly from back home and made it really difficult to get back on a plane.

We posted some photos from our time with our families on picasa here. It was great to see everyone at home and so hard to leave again. If we didn’t see you, or barely saw you we’re sorry! So little time! As always, our door and guest room in England are open, and we look forward to spending lots of time with our family and friends when we come back. Happy New Year and keep in touch!

England Take II

Well after a marathon day of travel leaving Pittsburgh at 7am on New Years day for Ambler, New York, Brussels, and Birmingham, I made it safely back to this crazy island that we call home for now. As I drifted in and out of consciousness during my trip back, I thought about how different this trip was than our first trip here together 4.5 months ago. In many ways this trip was harder, since in August we at least had Christmas to look forward to and the idea of living in another country had quite a bit of mystery, excitement, and wonder about it. There is still some of that excitement, though being with family and friends in the States really reminded us of what we are stepping away from for this adventure.

Being home was wonderful, strange, and frightening for me in unexpected ways. It was glorious to eat American pizza, burgers, and fast-food, to have friendly and talkative cashiers and waiters, and of course, to spend time with the people that we love. But through all of this I kept feeling like things were different, like America and those we knew best had changed. I see now that home didn’t really change, I did. My whole bank of recent experiences and “England existence” seemed discordant with the life of friends and family that I embraced while home.

As I often do when I feel things and have no idea what’s going on, I talked to Lauren who noted that it seemed like I had real culture shock. A seasoned world-travel, Lauren talked about the strangeness of coming home after her summers in Mexico and traveling the Pacific. It’s hard to recognize and understand the changes that happen when you are immersed in another world, and I found answering the common questions “how is England?” obviously overwhelming and difficult to communicate. “Who are you?” is more like the question I would have to get through to answer the first one well.

What is perhaps hardest for me in my cultural schizophrenia is the timidity that I feel here and felt even in the States. I have always been a pretty confident person socially, but it seems that confidence is dependent on being at ease in the culture I am operating in. Here we are still very aware of being “the Americans”, the outsiders, and are somewhat guarded in social settings. What was frightening for me was that when we came home to everything we remember and love, I still felt the timidity of an outsider. If I can’t feel ‘myself’ in the places I was born, grew up, worked, when will I get that confidence back for good?

This is complex process and something that I’m sure anyone who lives in another culture wrestles with at some point. To be fair, a crazy 2 weeks back in the States trying to see everyone we could is probably not enough for me to adjust and ‘come back’ to my confident old, grin-flashin’, sarcastic-line-slinging self. I hope that with more time in both places, I will learn to feel comfortable and ‘myself’ again. I suppose this experience is making me look at myself in new ways and forcing questions that would never have been asked otherwise. It’s one of the many things we are learning through this adventure, but certainly not an easy part of our experience abroad.

-Nick