Heat...PLEASE!!

Ok...so you can laugh but it was so cold that day and I did not bring a proper coat. Of course this was a day when we were outside 90% of the day!

Moving right along...

International night at Shrewsbury Rotary Club in Shropshire

Today we move to Stoke on Trent. I will miss Shropshire dearly. There have been several times this week when I've been brought to tears by the beauty of this region, especially when we had occasion to view the countryside from high ground.It's emotionally overwhelming to be in the midst of such magnificence. I'm sure I'll enjoy the rest of my trip, but the people and beauty of Shropshire will never be forgotten.

Vocational Day!

Yesterday was our first vocational day and I was able to visit Tesco, the UK's largest retailer and ASDA, Wal-Mart's UK subsidiary. I obtained information about associate incentive programs that will really be useful at my job in Kansas. I hope I'm able to introduce some of them in my store.

Because of my interest in environmental sustainability, I was also able to visit a company that tries to encourage residents and businesses to reduce their carbon footprint. It gave me several ideas to bring home and incorporate into our community.

Ironbridge and Wenlock

Today we had breakfast with the Darwin Shrewsbury Club. Here we are with Rosemary, the President.

Below is a pic of us at the Guildhall in Wenlock, birthplace of the Modern Olympics

Here we are at Ironbridge, home of the Industrial Revolution

British phrase of the day: Mind the step=watch your step

There are signs everywhere that say "Mind the step". I generally trip over the step as I'm reading them!

Have you hugged a tree today?

I have! I love the nature here. Everything is so green, some of the trees are hundreds of years old, the grass and flowers makes even those who clip their lawn with scissors jealous. I can't describe it. I never was one for descriptive writing but the best way I can put it is the lawn is as soft on your back as velvet, there are hardly any bugs to keep you from enjoying the nature here, the flowers seem brighter and green seems greener.

Excuse me, where's the bathroom??

You may wonder why I chose to talk about toliets but I learned a lot form looking at this bathroom today.

Today was a vocational day in which I had the opportunity to visit with Paul McLoughlin, a property developer. He showed me around a few commercial contruction sites. My 6 hours of work went by so quickly because I learned so much! Developers are heavily regulated here in the UK. Increased demands for environmental purposes and handicap accessibility have come into effect within the last year and have made it more expensive to build. This bathroom was designed to not only be handicap accessible, but the colors are specifically selected so visually impaired people can differentiate the wall from the floor. Light sensors installed in the bathroom turn on lights automatically to save electricity and to make it easier for disabled people. Toilet seats have a backrest to make it easier for them to recline, a red emergency pull cord is installed so an alarm and lights display that a person is in need of help. Additionally, regulations are now demanding thicker insulation, energy efficient windows as well as sensors throughout the building so unused portions of buildings are not wasting any electricity. Pressure tests must be conducted to measure the level of CO2 emissions from every building and disposal of plaster sheets (sheetrock) has to be handled as hazardous material! BREEAM (environmental assesment methods) specifications have to be met for a developer to get an go ahead to put a building in operation.

Most commercial buildings here are constructed with steel framing but use no plywood, mostly cement planks and timber. Which also leads me to say that I was taken to the first building ever made with steel framing. Originally designed to store flax seed, steel framing came into birth when storing flax seed in wood-framed buildings was no longer practical due to its flamability. Needless to say, it is not the most pleasant building to look at but to the right is the very first steel framed building in the world. Pretty amazing. On my next blog I will talk about the works of William Telford, a master in architecture and development in these parts dating back hundreds of years.

Phrase of the day

"You be Mum"=Pour the tea, cut the cake, etc

We were at our host's house for tea and the cake needed cut. He looked at Maria and said, "You be Mum"! How charming! They frequently use that expression to tell someone to serve the table.

I noticed today that all the speed limits are still posted in miles per hour--how strange! Apparently they've only been on the metric system for less than 50 years. It's taking a while to adjust everything.

Today I learned that the UK lottery has a commission that awards grants to various museums, non-profits, olympic training, etc. What a fabulous idea! Proceeds from the lottery are given to these organizations/programs based on an application and public good they provide.

Newport and Lilleshall

In the 16th Century Guildhall in Newport, Shropshire England with Rotarian hosts Derrick and David

Ready to give our presentation to the Newport Club. We met at the Lilleshall National Sports Centre for olympic training.

Phrase of the day

Shutt=Alley

"We'll meet at the shutt between Princess street and Fish street"

I read a bit of the paper today and realized that maligning politicians is an international phenomenon! The approval rating of the current Prime Minister is very low. They have a much hastier way of ousting an infavorable leader though. We'll see how Gordon fares in a few months!

We visited Wales today!

Above is a Rotary Plaque from the Ellesmere Rotary Club. It hangs in a cottage by the Canal Boat in Collmere. It denotes Rotary's involvement in a project that provides funds for disabled people to enjoy rides on the canal.

Here we are in the cottage--you can tell how tiny it is by the way our heads nearly touch the ceiling! The cottage was like an oversized doll house--so charming!

Above shows Ellesmere Rotarian Phil putting me on the chopping block outside a castle in Ellesmere.

Here we are on the canal boat Maria wrote about!

This will hang in my home when I return

I'm the king of the world!!!

You may remember from the movie Titanic the famous line by Leonardo DiCaprio as he leaned over the front of the ship and yelled this. I did something similar today with a small exception...this was not the Titanic and we were definitley nowhere near the ocean.

The boat was 11 ft wide and the waters were less than 6 ft deep, a canal really...what's so amazing?

This boat took us through this hand-dug canal, then over an aquaduct bridge! The aquaduct located in Llangollen, Wales is over 170 ft tall. Pretty amazing stuff, of course DiCaprio might be too chicken to actually hang off this pretty ship but I did it...for a total of about 1 second.

Above, the team glad we made it through the aquaduct in one piece. :)

There's no place like home

I am fascinated by all the architecture, history, clulture here! I must say when it comes driving and using electricity...there is no place like home! So far, I have burned my hair and feared my life a few times on the winding, very narrow streets of Shrewsbury. Yes, indeed...I lost a patch of my hair but that'll grow back. Tonight I came to the realization that...their streets don't have street lights only those of the cars driving so there is no telling what car is coming behind the ever winding paths and tall hedgerows.

Meeting Madame Mayor and Phrase of the day

Above is a photo of me with my host family, Dick and Pat York, outside of Stokesy castle. They are the most wonderful people!

Here we are with the Shrewsbury Mayor

Phrase of the day: chinwag=idle chatter, gossip

"The ladies came over for tea and we had a good chinwag"

Pat (my lovely host) also uses the phase "natter" for chat. She's the most adorable thing I've ever seen!

Rotary Everywhere!

Signs of Rotary are all around! Above is the plaque outside Lord Hill Hall, where the Shrewsbury lunch club meets.

At the library

At the Council House, where Justin is staying

Steps galore!

Today we climbed to the top of the world's tallest Doric column. It's located in Shrewsbury. The district governor even came along for the workout!

We met with the mayor today too. It's interesting to learn that England grapples with the same local government issues as we do in the States. Their borroughs are similar to our counties and they have both borrough and city government. This, of course, leads to duplication of services and talk of consolidating the two. This subject arises frequently in Hutchinson, KS. So funny how we are an ocean apart but really dealing with the same problems--both locally and nationally.

They have a housing shortage because of the limited size of the country. All the houses are very close together for this reason too.

Gas in $10 a gallon!!!! Of course it's sold in liters here. The measurement differences are fun to learn. I stepped on a scale to find out I weigh 8 stone. What's a stone?!! So neat to try and decipher it all.

On the food side, I tried black pudding today...ok, I'll admit I spit it out in my napkin (serviette they call it) but I had it in my mouth! I felt like I was on an episode of survivor!

That is sooo naff!!

I can officially use this word to not feel bad about saying "stupid" in front of Emily anymore. Thank you Jeremy and Eileen for the fabulous contribution to my American vocabulary!

Interesting...

I don't think this is a nice thing to say...but...I am sort of glad to hear Americans aren't the only ones suffering through a mortgage crisis. Although I do feel bad hearing that most English people believe the problems in lending are due to some British banks buying loans that have defaulted from American banks. It will be interesting to research that and see the extent of how true that is.

It was also very intriguing to learn that British soldiers are actually quite scorned here as people oppose the war so fervently. It was sad to find out that they do not receive as much respect as we give our American soldiers. In fact, British soldiers aren't even welcome in pubs (bars)!

We had a very busy and full day today...much too much to mention on the few minutes I get to journal on this blog! I will say,however, that we spent over an hour on a huge, post-battle burial ground and St. Mary's Church was raised over it specifically to pray for all the souls lost during battle!!

My camera died after this spot so I can't upload pictures of us meeting the mayor (how cool is that!?).

I like this place already!

Need I say more?

Castle Tours and a "Joint" of lamb

The Rotary Crest for the club of Ludlow

The Castle at Powis, Wales

Justin and Me in Ludlow, Shropshire

Today I travelled to Wales to visit the gardens at Powis Castle . Every single inch was gorgeous! My hosts are close with Justin's hosts, Grace and David, so we had Sunday lunch together at their home. It was interesting to see the differences between our table manners. They eat with their knives in their hands and the tongs turned down. The refer to a leg of lamb as a "joint." They have a variety of jellies they put on top of the lamb, including a mint one and red currant. We tried a British dessert called sticky toffee pudding and another called a trifle and both were delicious.

After a long lunch the Yorks took Justin and I to see a charming little castle here in Shropshire called "Stokesy" Then we went into the town of Ludlow and walked around to see the buildings.

The roads here are very narrow and winding so they tend to make me carsick. The sidewalks (pavement or footpath is how they say it) are small too. I went for a jog into town today and was terrified of getting run over!

First day in the UK!

Several Rotarians from district 5690 met us at the airport to see us off. Maria's daughter Emily is posing with us in Wichita.

It's impossible to pick a word of the day--I feel like I'm learning a whole new language there are so many different phrases!

Queue=Line

"The queues at the airport were dreadful"

My host family is FABULOUS!!! I feel as though they picked the perfect personalities to mesh with mine:)

Duseldorff

We stopped here before heading to Manchester...it was baffling to me that their caffe lattes are served in a glass with no handle. I burned my fingers twice! But...it was good latte.

Need I mention that water can not be brought into this airport...not even from the plane!

Leaving tomorrow!

I'm super-excited about starting our trip tomorrow--I doubt I'll sleep at all tonight! I've been reading about what to expect and there are more cultural gaps than I thought. Although both countries speak English, we use a lot of different terms for things.

British word of the day "Collect"

"I'll collect you and your team at the airport on Friday"

Less than a day away!!

I have to admit anxiety is slightly setting in as we prepare to depart tomorrow. I still feel as if I don't have all my ducks in a row...actually they are quite scattered (or so it feels).

On lighter terms, I want to get used to using the word "rubbish." I hear it is quite popular in Great Britain. With that said...I think it is a bunch of rubbish that I am so stressed out about htis trip!