Snow Blizzard

Well, I will begin Germany pictures right after this, but here are some photos from the blizzard that just occurred here in Cranford, NJ. Sorry London, but 20-30 inches is actually a good reason to shut down airports, not 5 inches.

Sunday night

The Princess out in the snow..she couldn't smell anything, she got confused

Dad's new car survived it's first snow

Paddington wanted to play in the snow 

Some of the snow drifts from the upstairs window 

Paddington explores Germany

I'm sorry I have been missing in action lately. After my liverpool trip I was sick for quite a few days. I was pretty bummed because it was my last week in London to do some sightseeing and I could hardly get out of bed. I managed to get a lot of my stuff packed up and my mom came. We spent a day in London then went to Germany to travel to a few cities to check out the Christmas markets. Pictures to come... We came back to London to pick up the rest of my stuff (I had an extra suitcase worth of clothes) and then we were scheduled to fly out from London to Munich, and from Munich to Newark. Well we arrived at the airport Saturday the 18th, and it felt like we stepped into hell. We waited an hour to get our bags checked, and once we were through we noticed it was snowing heavily out. It turned out our flight was cancelled along with everyone elses. We immediately booked a hotel, but had to go downstairs and wait 3 hours for our luggage to come back. It was quite a nightmare. Our airline was not helpful and we had problems booking a flight. The earliest we could get was Tuesday morning. Turned out to be a blessing because there were so many cancellations Sunday and Monday. We spent a few days in the Hilton Heathrow Hotel and Tuesday we were one of the few flights that wasn't cancelled. It was quite a nightmare but I am glad to be home now.

Ours was the first one there that doesn't say cancelled or please wait. 

It was so nice to finally see some blue skies. It had been way too long.

So Germany pictures are to come but first I would like to share pictures of Paddington. I bought him towards the end of my London trip, so Germany was his first adventure.

First Hotel bed in Nuremberg

 The window from the hotel 

Driving around Bamberg possibly

At a Christmas market

At the Carousel in Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Hanau

At the Glockenspiel in Munich 

Now Paddington needs to go to more places!

Beatlemania! part 2

Behind this building is where John and Paul met

Strawberry Fields... gate

House where John lived with his Aunt. Connected to another house-I wish I lived there.

 Paul's childhood home

Paul's childhood home

 Inside-the original was torn down but they recreated it almost exactly

Liverpool-Beatlemania!

I really enjoyed my day trip to Liverpool. First I went to see "The Beatles Story" - a museum about the Beatles. They had some neat artifacts and some replica rooms of important places in the story of the Beatles. After the museum, I took the Magical Mystery Tour. The tour guide knew a lot about the Beatles, and we saw some cool places like birthplaces and childhood homes, and places from songs. I'm glad I got to see the city where they grew up! It must be so cool to live there.

Replica stage of the Cavern Club 

Penny Lane!

The bus! embarrassing but awesome!

 John Lennon lived down this street for a bit

House where George Harrison was born-so strange that normal people live there now! how crazy!

"oh hey guys...um"

"what are you all looking at!?"

The street name that George Harrison used to check into hotels with

No need to be PC around the holidays

Growing up in NJ and close to New York there has always been a huge Jewish presence in my life. As I got older, people began to be more "politically correct" around the holidays so as not to insult or leave out our Jewish towns members. In the center of town we'd have a Christmas tree and a Menorah in December. It was always important in school music concerts to play a holiday song or both a Christmas and Hanukkah song.
I've noticed that in London there is no need for being "PC". There are no "Holiday trees" or Menorahs. It is Hanukkah right now, and you can not tell. I thought there must be some Jewish people living in London...but it did not seem like there were any at all. I figured since it was Hanukkah, I would be able to find a few special holiday foods in the grocery store, but I was wrong. Instead, there are already rows of Christmas goodies and Christmas dinner specials.

Yes, of course there are Jewish people in London, but they make up only 2% of the population-below Muslim and Hindu -by a lot. Compared to in New York where they are 12% of the population. The second largest population of Jewish people besides Israel.
(statistics from UK 2001 Census and wikipedia)

As I come to the end of this journey in London, I'm really beginning to notice the major differences between here and "home". For one, London is hugely diverse, but it has a different make-up than what I'm used to at home. I may have taken that Jewish section in the grocery store at home for granted, and of course the bagel shops and delis that I so enjoy.

I walked through the grocery story tonight on a mission to find potato pancakes -didn't quite find exactly what I was looking for, but they'll do. I am ready to see familiar things. Familiar brands, familiar foods. Going grocery shopping is always quite depressing- I'm not going to lie, I don't find British food that appetizing-there are only so many days I can have a shepards pie, so instead, I try to gather ingredients to make some of the foods I'm more familiar with- for example I got things to make BLTs today.

It's not that I don't like it here, but I got more of a culture shock than I expected. It's wrong to assume that since both country's speak English, that they are very similar. Yes, we're both modernized 'western' civilizations, but the UK is very different than the US. Traditions are different, words are different, food is different, ect.

Not sure I would find this at home-quite strong too. 

Closest I found to Potato pancakes...I would say they taste like Onion rings... 

Closest I could find to American Bacon :)

The Sandwich-a proper sandwich. Sorry, but I'm just going to say this, they do not know how to make sandwiches in England. Sandwiches here are thin and measly (think of what you get from Subway compared to a true Sub Shop). They don't put toppings or dressings on it either, and the bread is usually plain.

So here is my BLT. Delicious. and the potato things 

Snow!

Okay, I don't have too many pictures because honestly, as soon as the snow fell, it got dirty...sidewalks-streets. yuck. it's pretty where its untouched.

View out my window at night. quiet streets. This is not New York, this city sleeps.

Just a quick shot out the bus window

And I promised Grandma, not the best picture-but here I am ice skating!

Next will be a few posts on food in the UK and culture.

Ice Rink at the Natural History Museum

Since I was working on the paper this term, my photo story was not my main focus. As I began to run out of time, many of my complex ideas could not be executed. I decided to go with a simple and cute story, and did a little piece on the Ice Rink at the Natural History Museum.

The Ice Rink is in its 5th year, and the profits go towards funding research at the museum.