Coucou! We’re back after a lovely long weekend in Paris. Mon mari has already written his version of the travelogue here, so I thought I’d tell my version with pictures: Here is Sam getting settled in her window seat for the train ride from Brighton to London St. Pancras. Imagine our surprise when our usually reserved …

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Earlier this week I came back to the flat to discover that my laptop couldn’t see out to the internet. I put Sam to bed for her afternoon nap and then tried the few things I know how to do to debug such problems. Nothing worked. I picked up the phone to call AC to see if he could help me troubleshoot the problem. No …

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The Fifth of November. Sr. Mary Hyde, my senior year English teacher, drilled that phrase into us when we were reading Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native, whose story begins on the fifth of November, Guy Fawkes Night. So far, Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire Night as everyone here seems to call it, consists of lots of …

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Many Brits told us that Halloween is not be a big deal in the U.K., at least nothing like it is in the U.S. That may be changing, as retailers have figured out that they may be able to push Halloween products and candy and the like on youngsters. In the final days before the 31st I did see more and more plastic jack …

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We’re just back from a weekend in Cambridge. AC’s colleague’s parents offered us the use of their flat for the weekend while they were away. Flat does not do it justice. It was a three-story house–enormous– with large and winding carpeted stairs, which prompted Sam to remark again that “England has a lot of stairs.” …

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I told the wife of one of AC’s British colleagues that I am getting to know English culture through the playgrounds. It’s really true. Being in a foreign country with a small child means that we do fewer adult touristy things and more hanging out in parks and gardens. So what have I gleaned so far? Playground …

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Tonight while I was making dinner, Sam came into the kitchen with her backpack on. She explained that she was going on a trip. Me: “Where are you going?” Sam: “To the United States.” Me: “Oh, I’m from the United States.” Sam: “This is a different United States.” Me: “Oh?” Sam: “Yeah, it has an east coast. It’s called …

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This was on the label of a bag of seasonal vegetables I purchased the other day from Waitrose– our nearest grocery store. I love browsing the aisles of grocery stores in other countries. Food is probably my favorite gateway to culture and you can learn a lot from a grocery store. In France, for instance, the yogurt …

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It feels like it’s been a long week, even though we did lose a day. I’m remembering now that on the day we arrived, I told Sam that it was Monday and she corrected me, “No Mommy, it’s Sunday.” Alas, in the UK it was indeed Monday. So here’s what we’ve been up to since we arrived, bleary-eyed and wired, in Brighton: …

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This was Sam’s first observation about England. Not that it’s grey and cloudy nearly every day. Not that the driver’s seat is on the other side of the car, and certainly not the linguistic differences that amuse her parents so much (we live in a flat not an apartment; we take the lift not the elevator, etc.) No, the …

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