zeke and wendy

autumn weekends

last weekend we met up with our friend katherine to hang out in chorlton where her new apartment is.  she took us to some cute shops, a candy store where we bought tons of liquorice, a vegan grocery store called unicorn, and a great pub called pi (with great pies, of course).  the weather was nice enough for us to enjoy being outside, and the nice staff at pi offered to warm up and serve wendy some food from the unicorn grocery (since the menu, like most, wasn’t too wendy-friendly).  

wendy was super excited when in the grocery store katherine reminded her, “you can eat anything in here!”  sounds kinda stupid, but it was a great feeling to see all the options and not feel so limited by being a lactose-intolerant vegetarian.  

see the excitement?

after choosing some savoury wendy pies, we went back to order at the pub.  all three of us were so excited to see them serving pumpkin beer!

it was of course an american brand, so much for sampling local beers… but it was so good!  saranac pumpkin beer- highly recommended.

zeke had a delicious meaty pie and wendy enjoyed the mushy peas. above, we are posing with the pumpkin we bought at the grocery that was finally cooked this weekend.  finding pumpkins to cook is a bit more difficult here in england, and canned pumpkin is nowhere to be found, so we were quite excited.  we had a really great autumny saturday with katherine.

then after another busy week and a fun camp reunion day on saturday (yesterday) we decided to have a really relaxing sunday.  we slept in and then made proper american blueberry pancakes that were delicious! (we have to specify that they are “american” pancakes because british pancakes are more like crepes- which has previously led to some disappointing misunderstandings at restaurants…)

then wendy used the pumpkin we bought in chorlton to make pumpkin bread! (the recipe is a lot like my family’s favourite apple cake)

zeke is excited to watch tim tebow’s first start for the broncos whilst enjoying it.  but in the meantime he loved cleaning up the batter:

a day in the life of the smiths…

this morning zeke went to work early to play football (american soccer) with the staff that play twice a week before school. then he took photographs of visiting teachers from taiwan and worked on the school’s magazine. today’s lunch was an exception, in that he didn’t eat with dan (of hello america). in the afternoon he made changes to the school’s website.

at home wendy read up on the material to be covered in the class she TAs for and then headed to university for office hours.  

since no students came this week (they’ll be coming soon for guidance on their essays) she chatted with katherine, who is TAing for the same class.  they are super happy that they get to lesson plan together.  then wendy and katherine went to a departmental staff meeting before attending a lecture by irish novelist, colm tóibín. after chatting with colleagues at the lecture’s wine reception and a tipple (british slang for a drink) at the ducie arms with fellow phd students, wendy met up with zeke for dinner.

we tried a chinese place that zeke has had his eye on since we moved here.

yes, that says ‘pig’s kidney and squid’! no, he did not order it.  the menu was full of really exotic food.  some of the pictures were quite unappetising to wendy, the vegetarian.  so she stuck with more predictable options.  zeke’s entree was marked with 2 chillies, but was the hottest food he’s had in manchester so far! overall dinner was very good, and we found ourselves reflecting on how our 21 year-old selves might be pleased with the days we had.  we feel so happy and blessed these days, even through our bouts of homesickness.

after dinner, since it’s been raining almost non-stop for the past 6 days in manchester, we splashed out (british for splurged) on a short cab ride home.

Lots Happening in Manchester

Life has been crazy since we both returned from our time in the US. There’s been a new job for Zeke, teacher training for Wendy, and even a weekend visit from Zeke’s mom!

here are a few pics from the last week and half:

we had a good bye dinner, hosted by soon yi, for our friends vincent and tamanda, and their new baby who have just moved back to malawi.

last friday we were lucky enough to have charlotte (zeke’s mom) as a visitor for the weekend, since she had been visiting family in the Netherlands and decided to stop by Manchester on the way home from Europe. wendy picked charlotte up from the airport and took her around west didsbury for the afternoon.  she couldn’t resist the allure of and the dish ran away with the spoon.

then friday night we went to the opening of the exhibition dark matters at the whitworth art gallery where charlotte took lots of pictures (including one with wendy’s supervisor carol and american phd/GTA buddy katherine).

charlotte also videoed us playing with one of the interactive pieces by daniel rozen.  our friend dan, of hello america fame, went with us and saw his first performance piece.  he liked this interactive one much better.

then we took charlotte to the curry mile for indian food, but mainly for the pranks our favorite restaurant plays on its new customers.  she let out a scream when a rubber chicken popped out of a covered dish the waiter brought.  see below her “small beer”

and below charlotte stars in another installment of hello america, morning edition.  see her verdict on crumpets (it completely makes up for crunchie bars):

on saturday we went to MGS, the school zeke works at, for their open day.  we were lead on a guided tour by two 15 year-old students.  they were pretty hilarious, and happy to be leading around people that they could joke with and be their goofy 15-year-old selves. our friend dan later described one of the boys as “a nightmare in class,” but to be fair that’s probably how most of our high school teachers would have described both zeke and/or wendy, so there’s plenty of hope for him yet!

here’s the drive leading up to the school:

and the main quad area, built to look and feel like one of the prestigious Oxford colleges (since hopefully that’s the type of place the boys are headed next):

in the classics dept. at school we learned that harry potter has been translated/published in latin. speaking of which, mom said the school definitely had a Hogwarts-type feel, which we took as a compliment.

after our visit to the school on our way to the historic John Rylands Library, we randomly spotted a giant display in the city centre being put on by Major League Baseball. who knew? (also, side note: watching British people attempt to play baseball, even for a few minutes, is pretty funny and entertaining)

once at the library, we stopped for tea and desserts in the cafe before touring around:

charlotte loved the scone with clotted cream.

after a great visit inside the library we headed home for a nice relaxing evening making Mexican food and chatting.

on Sunday we woke up and went to church together before heading to the city centre with our friend Dan Smith to see an art exhibition. on the way we snapped a few pictures:

mom took a picture of wendy, zeke, and dan that we concluded would make a nice cover for our music album someday. too bad the band name “The Smiths” was already taken by some other Manchester dudes…

we got lunch at the restaurant in Manchester Art Gallery before seeing an exhibition of Ford Maddox Brown’s work, an artist that lived in Manchester in the 19th century and was a big influence on the pre-Raphaelite movement.

we sent mom off the next day after a great visit (thanks for coming mom! love you!), and thought of her several times over the next week as zeke wore his new suits that mom helped us shop for:

on monday we had dinner with our friends Jen and Ellie before meeting up with Rich and Abi at a concert in the northern quarter.  we saw an american group called The Civil Wars, who were absolutely incredible, not to mention we had a great vantage point close to the stage.  the opening group was a band of 3 sisters with gorgeous voices called The Staves.

needless to say, we’ve been fairly busy and it was great to have a relaxing weekend to sit back, recover from the colds we’ve both been trying to shake off, and watch some football. 

back in the saddle again

with the fall semester officially started now at the university for wendy and at MGS for zeke, schedules are filling up as the days get shorter.  it’s quite a change for us now that we both have jobs outside of the house and aren’t working from home (in our PJs) all day. 

wendy got a tour through MGS and watched zeke play in a staff vs. parents football (soccer) match at school last week.  it was a little like hogwarts… minus the girls and flying. she also met the high master (yes ‘high’ not ‘head’ master).

our friend dan (of hello america) works at MGS too, so he and zeke have been catching up at tea and lunch.  since dan loved reese’s pieces so much (see above video link), we decided to take a trip to sam’s club to get his birthday present while we were in america.  yes, it is a sam’s club box of reese’s pieces.  he was pretty happy about it.

we have also seen a lot of our british friends that we missed while we were away.  we finally got to meet josh and rose’s baby, cora mae thorp (i think it’s just cora, but because i’m southern i’ll stick with cora mae), and we had a great time at jon and lois’ wedding last weekend.  zeke was their photographer and though he’s a veteran here it was actually the first british wedding wendy had been to, and it had a ceilidh.  she has a bruise from being stepped on, but nonetheless enjoyed it thoroughly.

it was nice to have such wonderful people to come back to because homesickness is always looming about, especially when there are no pumpkin lattes or american football games, and a bit less sunshine.

(wendy’s picture from golf at the beach in NC)

at the end of this busy week we are looking forward to charlotte (zeke’s mom) coming to visit.  she is spending the weekend with us on her way back to the US from holland.

wendy’s virginia time

after sending zeke off to manchester…

i headed back to VA and spent a day with my mom running vineyard errands and having soy pumpkin lattes and pedicures.

then i spent the next day with my dad getting some family history tours through scottsburg.  we met ericka at a mexican restaurant in town for dinner.  there is a picture to document that dad actually did eat mexican food (a rare sight)!

that’s his ‘yum’ face.

then some girl friends came down for the weekend to hang out.

we had a fun time and took lots of silly pictures when we went into the small town of halifax:

so gangsta, girls.

UNC

in the “baby old well” downtown.

we had a delicious dinner at molasses grill, a local favorite.  we couldn’t resist a few dessert pics:

ashley with pecan pie and jack daniels chocolate ice cream

maria with the legendary coconut pineapple cake

it’s been a super fun week in virginia!  i’m headed back to the UK tomorrow and will land wednesday in manchester.  see you british friends soon!

happy labor day weekend

after spending a day with zeke’s family in greenville, wendy drove to down to the beach to meet up with her mom, milt, david, and rhiannon for the holiday weekend.

from wendy:

after mexican food for dinner (yay- getting as much as we can while we’re here) we hung out and watched a little sportscenter.  today has been orchestrated around the start of the college football season.  so the day has been awesome: breakfast, football, lunch, football, beach, football, driving range, football, dinner, football.

after a casual morning we headed to a sports bar in southport to see the 1st half of the virginia tech vs. appalachian state football game (i have alumni brothers from each school!).  since VT had a hefty lead, we left for the beach without much worry.  the weather was perfect- a breezy 81F (27C).  after laying on the beach for a couple hours we picked up groceries to make dinner tonight so we can stay in and watch the ECU vs. South Carolina football game (dave’s fiancé rhiannon’s alma mater- she even has him wearing gamecock apparel!).

we took a snack/ football watching break before going out to hit golf balls at the driving range.

after a super quick round (over the past 8 years i’ve only hit for an hour) we came back in for the night.  my crew is rooting for south carolina and zeke’s crew is in east carolina pirate country.  luckily zeke’s team, UNC, won their easy matchup today (hilariously enough, against a different brother’s alma mater).

now i’m off to sample my family’s ( hunting creek vineyards) latest blends!

american summer

we had a nice time visiting wendy’s family in southern virginia for a couple of days and then headed back to the triangle area to have a cookout with friends, graciously hosted by cam.  we had a great time visiting with lots of college friends.  below see precious little lillie enjoying corn on the cob and being just like her daddy, brad.

then on saturday we drove to asheville for zeke’s 10 year high school reunion.  the rental car we’ve got has lots of nice perks to make the driving pretty enjoyable (see the slightly embarrassing video below)

we got to visit with a lot of zeke’s friends from a.c. reynolds and hear stories about all the mischief he got into.  even some of his favorite teachers dropped by to say hello. (ms. cooper introduced herself to wendy by saying “zeke was my nemesis.” and coach gladys even brought his baby.)  we were really excited to see zach who came all the way from oregon and fletch who came all the way from chile!

on sunday fletch’s family hosted a wonderful brunch in their beautiful garden where we got to visit with friends.  perhaps the funniest bit was when we watched a VHS tape made 10 years ago where as 18 year olds they sent messages to their 28 year old future-selves.  we think 18 year old zeke would be pretty happy with 28 year old zeke.

sunday evening we drove to charlotte to spend the evening with maria.  we had a casual night of chinese takeout and really american tv- extreme home makeover muppet edition (yes, they really did have the muppets on and it is, in fact, impossible not to cry when seeing this show), pre-season football, and food truck wars (a food network competition).

below is maria opening the journal we brought her from venice.

then monday morning we went on to concord to visit with wendy’s grandmama.  this may have been the first time wendy didn’t get a sun drop slushie in concord.

we drove on to carrburro and met katherine (yes, the same manchester katherine) and her fiancé grant at our favorite burrito place- carburritos.  while we were eating grant got a message that he will be flown to new zealand for a job interview!  how exciting!  grant even made the home alone face. 

then we went back to cameron’s where we’re staying for a few days and had some hang out time with her and her sweet dog, oso.  he is always very chill- kind of an old man dog.

after all this running around we had (as our british friends would say) a bit of a lie in this morning before we head out for more visiting.