mobile clubbing

I went mobile clubbing tonight with my coworkers. What is mobile clubbing? Good question! Picture 300 mostly 20's year olds in Paddington Station dancing to music coming through on their ipods! To set the stage, Paddington is one of the main commenter train stations in London and the express train from Heathrow comes into Paddington. Tons of old British men stared at us, but mostly everyone had a good attitude and seemed cheered by the dancefloor interrupting their commute. Even some moms with their kids joined the fun. Everyone was sober, so the police didn't really care. I danced to "How to Grow a Woman From the Ground." I was probably the only one with bluegrass coming through my ipod.

It's time to tidy my flat! My sister's friends are staying at my flat this weekend. I'm going to Cambridge to see Jed. :)

Work A Miracle

Work a Miracle. That's the title of the current campaign for Tearfund, a Christian relief agency that works in the poorest countries. Tearfund is based in the UK, right outside London, and is hosting a fundraising/awareness raising event tonight. My sisiter and I are going.

Work a Miracle is Tearfund's effort to stop the transmission of HIV from mother to child in the world's poorest countries by 2015. Yes, it's a big goal, but we all know that it's quite worthwhile and actually not too idealistic. If mother to child transmission can be stopped in developed countries it should be able to be halted in developing countries. I am by no means an expert on this and I have only spent 14 days of my 8,395 days (that's 0.16%) in Africa. However, those 14 days did "change my life" and have showed me that HIV/AIDS is devastating communities and families. The mother and daughter in the above picture both have HIV. When I was there last October neither of them had progressed enough to need ARVs, but the undoubtedly will need the drugs. When I was there the little girl and I (I can't remember her name, but it means Peace in Amharic) and I really became friends. We would play bubbles, catch, colour, and just hang out. Towards the end of the trip she would speak to me in Amharic and I would speak back to her in English. How different would her life be if she were born HIV-free?

23 November

Over here it's 23 November, not Thanksgiving. Today at work a client brought us a pecan toffee tarte. They wanted to bring us a pumpkin pie, but you can't find those in England. You can though find cans of pumpkin, but they cost 3 quid--that's about $6 for a can of pumpkin! I still bought the pumpkin and made pumpkin pie.


We had a nice Thanksgiving at 31 Bronwen Court. Jed showed off his master turkey skills and made a delicious bird. JB and TB came over and made mashed potatoes and green beans. My sister and I were talking about past Thanksgivings and we realised that we don't really have any traditions! Mom, I don't mean this in a negative way. My family just always does something different for Thanksgiving. The first Thanksgiving that I remember was 6th grade (what kind of a memory do I have?) and we went to Dahlonega, GA to the Smith House for supper. At the Smith House you eat family style at big tables. Ironically, the son in the family at our table was in my sixth grade class at Westminster! We had a couple of Thanksgivings with neighbors, one in Florida with my Grandma, and last year we went to an inn in South Georgia also with my Grandma.

After dinner Jed and I watched Match Point, the Woody Allen movie that came out earlier this year. It's such a depressing movie. I'm really not sure why I pushed for it other than the fact that it is based in my current city. I've seen it twice and I always wish that the main character would get some help rather that going to such extremes.

I'm off to watch an archived show of the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour.

Thanksgiving

Hello, welcome to my blog! I've enjoyed reading the blogs of my friends and I want to make my own.
Two more days until Thanksgiving! This is the first Thanksgiving that I haven't spent with my parents. They are still in Atlanta, but my sister and I are in Merry Ole England. For Thanksgiving Jed is coming down from Cambridge and Julia and her boyfriend are coming over. Yes, a double-date Thanksgiving. Jed is in charge of cooking the turkey while I go to work in the morning. I bought the turkey yesterday. First I went to the really big Sainsburys at the O2 center but they didn't have any turkeys! I thought oh no, we are going to have to roast a chicken. Fear not Americans, I went to another grocery store and we now have a bird.