Land of Poultry and Potatoes

The first time I came to England (9 years ago), I made postcards with a nifty little computer program for crafts. It was basically a glorified version of Microsoft Word and Paint, but that didn’t matter to me. Anyway, on these post cards was just a clip art of a chicken drumstick next to a baked potato with butter. All that I knew about England was that they ate a lot of meat and potatoes, so I thought I’d play that up in my postcards to my friends and family. Of course, I never used any of them.

Of course, now I know quite a bit more about Great Britain, especially after that trip and then after spending another week there.

I was obsessed with trying to get to London before the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. Having spent two months without television in a country that seemed to care much more about the Eurocup than the centuries-old world championship ,however, I was convinced it started on July 25^th. Little did I know as I went round to baggage claim that they were actually starting the night I got in—July 27^th. And then I cursed my folly for having booked a flight on what was likely one of London’s most traffic-congested days ever. Luckily, I only had to wait a few extra hours for my uncle (who had gotten stuck in traffic) to come get me and take me back to his home in Farnborough. Ironically enough, the ceremony started far too late (12 am fur the UK, but 2 am Tanzania time), and I ended up falling asleep after a couple of hours of struggling to stay awake. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t yet watched more than the brief recap. All you really need to see is the lighting of the torch, right?

From there I moved on to Derbyshire (which a very kind Brit we happened upon in Musumo informed me was pronounced “der-bee-sheer,” rather than, “der-bee-shy-er.”) to visit another aunt, only narrowly missing a reception being held for the Cameroonian Olympians that my Farnborough uncle had been invited to by the Cameroonina ambassador (just my luck).

Anyway, I’ve been having a great time thus far, and have been doing my best to live off of scones, Cadbury, meat pies, and fish and chips, with the occasional Nando’s here or there.