What we did in Europe

As most readers will know, it's been well over a year since Fred and I decided to quit our jobs and move to London, England to pursue our Masters – he in Environmental Management for Business at the University of Hertfordshire and myself in Health, Community and Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

 I never dreamed I would end up as a Master of Science of all things but now that is exactly what I am, since my program was within the Institute of Social Psychology.  So yes, I am a Master.  Of Science.

Handing in my thesis...so much sweat and tears!

It was an amazing year.  Not always in good ways.  Eye-opening.  Troubling.  Exciting.  These are some words I might use to describe it.  I made amazing friends, the 20 international students in my program were some of the most inspiring people I think I will ever meet, and I know we will keep in touch even though we are spread across the globe.  I know they will do wonderful things to better this world, whether as doctors, academics or community development professionals.  

The HCD gang.

Much changed back home in Canada while we were away as well.  My sister began building her career as a lawyer.  She now has a dog and a house and even her very own car (which to me remains an ever-unattainable mark of adulthood).

Two elderly family friends passed out of our lives; strong Northern Ontario women that I grew up with and have so much respect for that will stay with me until the end of my own days. 

When they passed I cried for days and I still can't believe they are gone.  They left behind faded images in my mind's eye of summers on the lake, around the campfire at the tourist camp where I grew up; listening to grandma’s stories about women running tourist camps and defying gender norms out of necessity when such things were frowned upon, when women’s strengths and capabilities were lesser known – or at least less appreciated. 

My amazing Grandma - thanks Auntie Marsha for the pic!

And life also came into the world while we were away on the other side of the ocean; four new smiles have arrived within our family and close circles of friends.  Some friends have married and others are now engaged.  I guess we’re at that age. 

Some couples went their separate ways, and it was hard to not be there to offer salty-shoulder hugs.  When I heard the hurt had largely passed – it was by that time nothing more than a look then in their eyes, still smouldering but already beginning to be forgotten.

Over there we saw another part of the world, another culture, similar but entirely distinct from that of Canada in ways both good and bad.  We saw the chalk cliffs of Dover, forever England’s untouched beacons of white hope. 

The White Cliffs of Dover and the English Channel, just across from France!

We saw slick dolphin backs crest among Ireland’s Aran Islands’ salty waves while we rode the churning seas in a tiny ferry.  We experienced the incredible warmth of people drawn together over centuries through song and dance in hamlets tucked into the greenest hills of Ireland. 

Huge tree in a wooded glen in Ireland

Connemara, Ireland: unbelievably green and beautiful

The beautiful village of Doolin, Ireland; my favourite place!

 We took in pastoral views across England memorialized by Hardy, Austen and Bronte: thatched cottages, cobbled streets, austere castles crumbling under darkening skies.  We watched red-jacketed hunters hunting for red-jacketed foxes; aristocracy embodied, prancing across Dorset’s tidy farms. 

Following the fox hunt in Dorset

 We fell and fell and fell again down the snow-covered hills of Switzerland, and drank warm gluwein with dear friends across the strangely familiar landscape of Germany, where everywhere people are outside skiing, hiking, or otherwise enjoying the natural world more enthusiastically than probably most any culture in the world.

Me at Mount Titlis in Switzerland

Out for a stroll at our friends' place near Ellwangen, Germany

New Years in Berlin with the lovely Maria and Hannes!

 We were dazzled by magnificent architecture in Budapest, much of it still and empty, not yet out from under the weight of World War II and communism - then relaxed....in the amazing public baths, in the courtyard bars, and in the warm spring sun sitting along the Danube listening to the lilting tunes of a flutist entertaining his friends as if it were the most natural thing to do in a park, in the dusk, in Eastern Europe.  

Looking over the Danube toward the Parliament Building from Buda Castle

In London we went to open-air markets to buy local produce, fresh bread and cheese and olive oil, flowers and wild game from the Scottish Highlands.  I shopped for vintage treasures in Brick Lane and marveled at the unbelievably beautiful street art of Shoreditch. 

Broadway Market Produce

Poetry as street art?  Yes please!  In Shoreditch.

Birds on a wire street art along the canal by Broadway Market

We picked plums and raspberries from our garden where the foxes played nightly at our last flat in North London.

Our English garden

Fred harvesting plums

 We visited museums and galleries, and wandered through centuries-old cemeteries including the one where Karl Marx is buried. 

Karl Marx's grave in Highgate Cemetery

We rode the big red busses and Fred even managed to become familiar with the mind-boggling tube map. 

Fred waiting for the Tube with Megan, our Toronto visitor!

We made our way to northern England to visit the Lloyd clan, and were astounded by the beauty of Yorkminster Cathedral in the lovely city of York.

Fred with my cousin Marc and Uncle Ian on a walk to an old Abbey

Yorkminster...a photo can't do it justice

We went to Scotland and visited my old haunting ground - St. Andrews, where I had studied for a year during my undergrad.  It brought back memories - both good and bad - from when I had rubbed shoulders with the aristocracy and was named the "socialist Canadian" - which was decidedly not a compliment! 

We took a train through the Highlands and trekked part of the West Highland Way in some of the worst weather that area had seen in years, for which we were thoroughly unprepared.  But when the sun peeks through in Scotland, it is a blessed place indeed.

Last day of our West Highland Way hike - looking toward Ben Lomond

Looking over Loch Lomond

We visited pubs and went out dancing until the wee hours of the morning.  And of course we read, and read, and read…and wrote.  And locked ourselves in our house and went mad writing our theses and emerged.  Victorious. 

Qualitative research = going insane hand-coding 12 hours of transcribed focus groups

Fred graduated with Distinction, and I am so proud of him.  He worked incredibly hard. 

As for me, although I graduated with Merit I was awarded a Distinction on my thesis, which was based on the youth-led photovoice project I facilitated with an amazing group of young artists in Blind River. 

The photos from the project were then featured as the only display of youth art at the Creative Communities for Children and Youth Symposium at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, and I got to take six of the youth photographers there to see their work on display. 

The Photovoice Project on display at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto

Some of the youth photographers with their exhibition in Toronto

I am currently working on publishing my research in a real academic journal!  So I guess all that painful, hair-pulling, torturous hard work was worth it.  And believe it or not, I'm already thinking about how I can get myself back in school again.

So yes, it was a good year.  A great year.  A life-defining year. 

And now here we are back in Canada, and here I am once again in Toronto and there Fred is once again in the Soo. 

And everything is eerily familar....but, my lovelies, that's another blog post entirely!

London is Beautiful

Every now and then you have a day that restores your faith that there are good things in this world.  Such days have been hard to come by recently - with a new, looming war in Libya, the terrible loss of life in Japan following the tsunami and the ensuing nuclear threat there that is keeping us all on edge - with all of this weighing on the world's conscience, it's difficult to find any beauty or positivity in anything.

In the face of these global worries it seems trite to even name my own concerns, namely the fact that I only have five days before I leave London for Budapest, and shortly after that for Canada where I'll be running a photography project in Blind River for six weeks for my Masters thesis.  It's been a lot of work to try to plan something like that from so far away, while also working out my ethics approval, finishing up class assignments, and trying to get a handle on my literature review.  To say the least, recent weeks have been slightly stressful!

Which is why this morning has been such a welcome change.  Given that London usually looks like this:

 as soon as I opened the curtains this morning and saw that the sun was actually shining and the sky was actually blue - I knew it would be a good day!

 Even though it's Saturday, Fred had left around 7:30 for class and I couldn't get back to sleep.  So after some internal debate about the coziness of bed versus the virtuousness of morning jogs, I decided to get up and head to Hampstead Heath.  For the first time since moving to this area, I finally managed to jog directly to the park without getting seriously sidetracked by London's sneaky, windy side streets.  Once there, it was obvious that I wasn't the only one in London that wanted to enjoy the sun in the city's greenest space.  The park was alive with kids on scooters and bikes, joggers, families playing tennis, and dogs, dogs, dogs! 

I panted my way up to the top of Parliament Hill, then paused to soak up the sun and congratulate myself on making it all the way to the top of this...gently sloping hill.  An accomplishment nonetheless, for which I was rewarded with this great view of the city, shared with a number of other Londoners:

Breath more or less having been caught, I started to run back down the hill when my iPhone's motivational running soundtrack was interrupted by a call from one of my favourite people - my mum.  She proceeded to tell me all about their upcoming trip to Italy, which sounds like it's going to be great.  It's so awesome to see my parents getting the opportunity to travel around all fancy-free since Mikey (my step-dad) has finally retired this year.  After so many years of hard work, they really deserve it.   After their trip to Italy we'll all be returning to Canada together, which I'm very much looking forward to.  It's been a while since I've breathed the fresh Northern Ontario air! 

While I was talking to my mum, I took this photo of a beautiful willow just coming into leaf.  Ah, spring!

After we hung up, I noticed a sign for the Parliment Hill Farmer's Market.  I had been intending to go to the market near Archway Station on the way home, but thought I might as well check this one out instead while I was there.  I'm glad I did.  These markets really make me feel like I'm part of a community.  And there was a great selection of fresh produce, home-baked bread and pastries, free-range chickens and eggs, and - my favourite - fresh cut flowers.  There's nothing like a vase of tulips or daffodils to raise your spirits!  So I availed myself of some market goods, and went on my way.  Here they are: kale, radishes, spinach, rhubarb (because when life gives you rhubarb you must make rhubarb crisp) and a home-made steak and ale pie, complete with a sweet pan that I can use afterwards to bake my own goods.

Walking home, the sweetness of this day came to a palpable head when I came along this touching tribute to the Japanese people hanging from the flower-laden bow of a cherry tree, which is a beautiful symbol of the Japanese culture:

On one side is the photo of the Japanese military person holding a young baby which has become so iconic of this tragedy.  On the other side is a poem that reads:

If you will let me,
I will wipe
Salt tears from your eyes
With these fresh leaves

-Basho, 17th Century Japanese poet

Now, isn't that beautiful?

Germany, Switzerland, Christmas & New Years

It was great to be able to take a break from school and London, to widen our perspective and once again see the forest for the trees. It’s funny how wherever you are in life, you can become encumbered by the trifling concerns of the present to the point of forgetting how lucky you are to be where you are, and to appreciate what you have.

We began our trip in Germany, where we visited the Spreng family in their beautiful home near Stuttgart. Neither Fred or I expected to see as much wildness and uninhabited open spaces as we found in Germany, and it was warmly welcomed. The landscape and flora of England – with the fields and neatly trimmed, well-kept hedges and tiny roads – were left behind for a wildness and openness of Germany, complete with a considerable blanket of snow, wild boar tracks and deer sightings. Participation in outdoor sports seems nearly universal in Germany; we saw so many people out on skiis, or just walking around the plentiful trails and woodland.

The food was amazing – so much wurst (sausage) and fleisch (meat) to be consumed. So much good cheese, and mouth-watering homemade Schwaben food, which is traditional for the area of South Germany we were visiting. I (unsurprisingly) fell in love with the raclette, a kind of Swiss cheese which is melted using a grill on the table, and then drizzled over potatoes, onions and other deliciousness.

For Christmas Dinner, which is eaten on the 24th in Germany, we had meat fondue, where you dip cubes of raw meat into a broth or hot oil to cook it, and then into one of many delectable homemade dips. We were also treated to an amazing home-cooked Indian meal, prepared by two friends who were also visitors, taking a break from their studies at the Prague Film School. We were also treated to a film screening of their student-produced films one evening, which were all exceptionally well done.

Other activities included visiting the local castle for some mulled wine (Glühwein) and traditional German Christmas treats; walking through the fields and forests; cutting down a Christmas tree in the Sprengs’ yard; visiting Ellwangen, a beautiful little village nearby (pictured above); and of course sharing Christmas Eve with the family. It was quite difficult for us to be away from our own families for the first Christmas ever, but this was lessened by having each other there, as well as tearful skype sessions and phone calls home.

After Christmas we travelled north to Berlin by train, which – due to snow and train cancellations – ended up taking a ridiculous 16 hours! We landed in our hostel at 1am and were warmed by good conversation with an American expat and some whiskey. Then we explored Berlin for two days, learning about that city’s interesting and dark history through World War II and the following years being split between Soviet and US rule. More interesting still was to visit my friend Maria and her family who live just north of the city, and to get some first-hand insight into what it might have been like to live in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Here's Fred standing by what remains of the wall, now the East Side Gallery, covered in artwork.

Also while staying with Maria, we were taken to a huge wellness centre, where hundreds of Germans come to be naked and steamy together in a collection of outdoor saunas and heated indoor/outdoor salt-water swimming pools. It was my and Fred’s first foray into public nudity, and despite the initial discomfort it was overall a relaxing and freeing experience to be so very exposed and have it feel so natural and unexceptional. Still, not something I think I will get into the habit of doing on a daily basis any time soon.

We spent New Year’s back in Berlin with Maria and her boyfriend at his friends' lovely dinner party, where we had another excellent raclette experience and then set off a number of fireworks. It seemed a bit dangerous to me that everyone in the city set off their own fireworks in the streets all night while consuming copious amounts of alcohol, but it seemed to turn out alright.

We also partook in the New Year’s tradition of dropping spoonfuls of melted lead into cold water (we're doing this in the photo above). Whatever shape your lead turns into can be interpreted as what the next year will bring – Fred’s took a very phallic form, while mine closely resembled a collection of mouse droppings. Any suggestions on how to read that are welcome!

Saying goodbye to our more than gracious hosts, we then returned south to Stuttgart, where we were picked up by our friends Flo and Anna (who we had visited at the beginning of the trip), and were driven into the Swiss Alps, to a small skiing village of Engelberg. Words can’t describe how beautiful it was there, or how amazing (though painful) it was to learn to snowboard in such an awe-inspiring setting. We were a group of about 20 twenty-somethings representing an eclectic mix of nationalities, ranging from Serbian to Indian to Columbian as more of Tim’s friends had joined us from the Prague Film School. After two days of falling down the mountain, my tailbone was bruised beyond belief and I switched to skiing, but Fred picked up snowboarding very quickly.

We stayed in the Alps for 5 nights and then flew back to England, to move into our new flat in Highgate, where this picture was taken, in our sweet new kitchen!
 

And so dear friends, that is a quick and dirty recap of the past two months! And so begins 2011 – or as the Deutsch would say, "zweitausend elf". Personally I think any year that has an elf in it is bound to be a good one!