American Football = the real football?

The Superbowl parties are finally upon us, but for those Canadians & Americans in the UK, watching the Superbowl can be a real challenge.

Help your fellow ex-pats out by sharing where you’re watching the Superbowl in the UK this weekend.  Leave your comments below!

And if you’re rooting for one team over another, share your allegiance here too.

So this is my final call out to fellow bloggers – especially Canadian & American bloggers who are living anywhere in the UK.  If you want this blog to keep going, and you think you have something to add – please send me a sample blog post to victoria AT classroomcanada DOT com.  If I don’t renew www.canadiansintheuk.com by February 4th, it goes out to the world as a domain for sale.

I’ll post your article, with a brief bio & your headshot & even link back to your blog if you like.  I’m happy to post for you!  I just don’t want this blog to die a miserable blogger death.  But I am producing independent movies these days, while also running Classroom Canada while also doing workshops, seminars & workshops across North America. Help!

Thanks all. I really do love the fact that you still keep coming back here.  Makes me realize how much of a community of expats we really do have in the UK.

Dear Victoria,

I am writing to you from The Garden Productions, an independent production company founded last year by the team who made the BAFTA award-winning series One Born Every Minute and more recently, 24 Hours in A&E on Channel 4.

We are currently making an exciting new documentary series for Channel 4 about love, and are looking to talk to couples where one person is planning to make a big change in their life to be with their partner, for example relocating to the UK from abroad.    This intelligent and sensitive series will reflect relationships throughout a lifetime – from the first kiss to the final farewell and everything else in between.

We are trying to spread the word as widely as possible and as people from North America that are planning to relocate to the UK may well visit your ‘Canadians and Americans in the UK’ blog, I wondered if it might be possible to mention

our search so anyone interested can get in touch with us direct?  I’ve attached a flyer which outlines who we are looking to talk to and includes some contact details.

Any help you could offer is much appreciated.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Anna

Are you changing your life for love? Are you leaving your home, family, or friends to be with your partner?

The BAFTA award-winning team at The Garden Productions in the UK is making a new
documentary series for Channel 4 about love and relationships.

We are looking to talk to people who are planning to make a big change in their life to be with their partner.  Perhaps you are relocating to the UK from another country?
Maybe you’re changing your lifestyle or giving up something important?

Whatever your story we would like to hear from you.

Please email anna.dangoor@thegardenproductions.tv or call Anna on (44) 020 7645 3324  to find out more.

Calling does not oblige you to take part in the series.

We have quite a few Canadian and American readers who move to London to be with their partners, so I hope a few take part in this unique opportunity.  Please spread the word to others as well.

Just a shout-out to a fellow North American in London. Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving! 

 I’m actually state-side right now (Colorado), just making our plans for November American Thanksgiving Dinner back at The Marksman pub. I’m wondering if you would consider mentioning our event on your site please with a link? The page is here: 

 http://www.marksmanpub.com/?page_id=347

 Here are some details about the event itself. Last year the event was so popular, we were convinced to host a 2nd seating on the Saturday after. It’s really a sweet celebration in our friendly (and tiny) pub.

 2011 Thanksgiving Menu – 3 courses  

STARTERS

choice of 1 of the following starters:

Chicken Gumbo Soup – cornbread fritters

Twice Baked Goats Cheese Souffle – red wine poached pears & watercress

Poached Maldon Rock Oysters – lemon butter & rye bread

MAINS

Mains served family style. Guests are welcome to seconds (or even thirds):

Roast Bronze Label Turkey & Gravy

Mashed Potatoes

Roast Pumpkin

Green Beans & Almonds

Creamed Leeks & Prunes

Butterd Carrots

cornbread and fluffy buttermlk biscuits

Stuffing

Cranberry Sauce

DESSERTS

Pumpkin & Bourbon Pie

Pecan Pie – clotted cream

TEA & COFFEE

Hot pots of tea served at the table

Nude espresso offered

 I’m still stuffed from Canadian thanksgiving which just passed, and have to admit that I’m still having pumpkin pie for brekky every day. YUM.  Looks like the meal above is going to be amazing as well.  Hope your American thanksgiving rocks in the UK! I’m sure it will. 

If you would like me to announce your American or Canadian event in the UK on this little blog, be sure to send me an email to victoria AT classroomcanada DOT com.

 

Thanksgiving Dinner is priced at £30 per person.

Last year we were fully booked.

Book now with £15 deposit per person to reserve your place at the table for Thanksgiving 2011 in East London.

Private Group? Our Dining Room upstairs can also be booked for 10-20 guests.

Please contact us to let us know your requests and enquiries (0)207 739 7393 or bookings@marksmanpub.com

 
Thanks so much for considering! 

Not this year, buddy...

My question is- how do we watch the Super Bowl here if it starts at 6:30 on the East Coast? Don’t pubs close at 11:30? Well, it’s possible.  I’ve gathered a list of places that are showing the game- IF you have the stamina to stay awake on a school night!

Bodean’s BBQ- advertising a half-time meal fit for a linebacker and a guaranteed seat, you can enjoy the game in hog heaven… for £25.

Jetlag Sports Bar- this Marylebone sports haven is showing the game for the first time this year. The party begins at 10pm with a screening of Any Given Sunday (I don’t know about you, but I love a good sports movie, especially one with LL Cool J). They will be serving food and drinks throughout the big event and entry is FREE. Advanced booking is recommended, however.

The London Expat American Meetup Group is hosting their 9th Annual Super Bowl event, but you have to be a member to get the location. Membership is free and only requires a valid email and password. With 500 expats already confirmed, and including “great Super Bowl food all night long; from Chicken Wings to Nachos to Handmade Burgers and a special late licence for alcohol”, this promises to be a rowdy one,  I just hope the secret venue is huge!

Belushi’s- with seven locations in London, if you live in London there’s probably a Belushi’s near you. They promise a party all night long (yikes), including chili dogs, nachos, and Jungle Juice. Entry is free, but you have to get on the guest list (guestlist@belushis.com)

Like to mix your football with a little do-gooding? Watch the Super Bowl at The Social, where your £6 entry goes to charity. They’ll have DJs, entertainment, drinks, promotions, a raffle and general fun until the serious business of the game kicks off – when they’ll run all the way through to the crowning of the champions.

Make your bookings soon, have fun… and Go Packers!

PS- if the Super Bowl in the privacy of your own home sounds more appealing… BBC 1 is broadcasting live and again on Monday!

Why can’t you take a turkey to Church?

Because they use such fowl language!

"'Fowl'...? Me?!?"

OK, sorry. I wouldn’t have busted that out if… well, if I wasn’t getting into the Thanksgiving spirit (and if I didn’t have the sense of humor of a six-year-old). But alas, a bad joke always makes me smile and so does Thanksgiving, even if it’s spent far from home.

Fortunately, being in the UK around American Thanksgiving does not mean a lack of celebration.

• Many restaurants offer Thanksgiving meals (though some sound a little less than traditional). It seems that the majority listed on the web are in London, however…
• Towns such as Plymouth, Devon have big plans throughout the weekend, including a pipes band (playing the American National Anthem nonetheless), and a traditional dinner at The Glassblowing House restaurant.
• The BBC has a Thanksgiving recipe page up on it’s website, for those of you who plan to cook:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/occasions/thanksgiving
• And, Amazon UK is offering Black Friday deals, for those of you who equate Thanksgiving with shopping and bargains!

There will also be a non-denominational service at St. Paul’s, hosted by the American Church in London:

http://london.usembassy.gov/culture/thanksgiving_service.html

Just keep that fowl-mouthed turkey at home.  

As anticipated, there have been quite a few challenges to moving and getting things up-and-running. There are typical moving challenges (i.e., “how did I accumulate so much STUFF?” or “the deposit is HOW much?!”) to the challenge of learning about a whole new country.

A slightly shallow example is TV and Broadband service.

In the States, I must admit that my husband and I may have been the only people still living without cable TV. We don’t spend a lot of time in front of the television, so despite the fact that we ended up being out of touch with certain elements of pop culture (not always a bad thing- Jersey Shore), we just never found it necessary. We also have used mobile phones in lieu of a landline for several years.

London has already changed both of these scenarios. In terms of television, we were quite surprised at the price of a license (required “if you watch or record TV as it’s being broadcast. This includes the use of devices such as a computer, laptop, mobile phone or DVD/video recorder.”) At the price of £145.50/year, it comes with a bit of sticker shock.

We also turned on our TV to find that we have absolutely NO channels without subscribing to some sort of provider.

Life as a couch potato?

There are free channels, but even they seem to need some type of viewing card. I still need to do some research around this, but as of now, we’ve gone with Sky TV and have way more channels than we need. Deep down, I say, “YaHOO!”

When it comes to phone service, we planned to get new mobiles and call it a day. This has proved to be difficult so far as well. First of all, we want broadband in our flat. The only option I’ve found that will offer this without a BT landline is Virgin Media. They require a contract and from what I can tell so far, having the landline with broadband service will be less expensive. We also can opt for a landline service (again with Sky) that allows unlimited calls to the US, Canada, and 20 other international destinations for £5/ month. (I’ll check this one out and let you all know if there’s any hidden charges!)

In addition, we’ve had trouble getting new mobiles so far based on limited (no) UK credit history. I should’ve prefaced this by saying that we are trying to get iPhones and as they are expensive, the provider wants proof that we can pay the contract. Not easy without a credit history…

I’ve been using a pay-as-you-go, which is fine to some extent, but seems to run out of credit at the worst time!! I think that this problem will correct itself with a bit more leg work, it’s just one of the funny things we didn’t expect…

Anyway, after all of this (plus the delay of getting someone out to set up the TV, the phone, etc.) here I am sending this blog using my new broadband service, which is serviced through my new landline, next to my 10-billion channel TV.

And despite what sounds like a lot of grousing, it feels pretty great!

Check it out:

If you are currently looking for or have recently bought a home abroad, we would like to put your story on TV!

Our hit show is looking for energetic individuals, couples and families to share their story about moving abroad and buying a home. Participating in our show is a lot of fun and a great way to document your exciting search for a home and new life abroad. Contributors should be fluent in English.

If you are interested in participating with our show or learning more, please send an email to househunterscasting@leopardfilms.com. Please include your contact information, the locations you are moving from and to, and a picture of your family and your property.

How cool is that?  I  watch the show, and must say, if I was buying a house in England, I’d put myself forward for sure.  If you do, please let us know so we can be sure to tune in & watch your episode.

Oh boy. Hallowe’en in England.  Just what’s that aboot eh?  Watch the video above, it’s worth getting past the annoying advertisement to hear this kid (with a very strong accent I might add! Listen carefully) explain what really happens in England on Hallowe’en.  He uses a whole bunch of typical British slang, so if you don’t understand anything, leave a comment below & I’ll try to translate into American or Canadian English for you.  But do watch. Because it’s funny.

Anyway, back to the reason for this post.

I just received this email from one of my Canadian teachers in London with Classroom Canada, the Teacher Recruitment Company that helps teachers move to work in London, England.  Ilona wants to invite all the Americans & Canadians in London to celebrate Hallowe’en:

Hi Victoria,
I wanted to send this invite/message along to you because it’s a big social event for Halloween that is put on by a huge club with DJ’s including an old friend of mine from Toronto. He’s a photographer, who got into DJ stuff 5 years ago and lives here in London-has been here for 7 years.

It will be a huge party!

Tickets are 13 pounds, it’s at a huge venue-700 people capacity and is a Halloween costume ball that runs all night.

So here’s the link:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139366856099731&ref=ts
Please let me know what you think…
Thought it might be something interesting for Canadians & Americans in London missing Halloween

I actually arrive in London on Hallowe’en but will be terribly jetlagged after being in Austin (for the Austin Film Festival - how lucky am I?), then Chicago for 24 hours to see some good friends, then eventually I’ll land in London.  So, I’ll probably skip the event myself, but you never know – I could get a burst of energy & want to be out dancing in a costume all night.

If you go, please let us know and send some photos of the event so we can share them here. I love Hallowe’en, and I have to say, it’s not that great in London because the Brits just don’t celebrate it the way we do.  When I was teaching in one school in London, I had a colleague tell me that Hallowe’en was devil-worship (no joke!) and that I couldn’t do anything in my classroom for it.  Seriously, the Brits just don’t get why we’d all want to dress up & eat candy.  And sadly, some folks in England have really taken the whole “trick or treat” thing far too seriously.  Watch that video above & see what I mean…

So, given the opportunity to get dressed in a silly costume & dance with other American & Canadian expats in London for Hallowe’en – I’m all over it.  Have fun everyone!

For all those Canadians in the UK this weekend:  have a fabulous Thanksgiving!  Let me know if you manage to find any pumpkin pie…yummmmm….

London River Thames At Night

The London 2012 Olympics have opened up the applications for volunteers already.  Have you signed up yet?  I signed up right away, and am excited to see if I actually get selected.  I won’t get a free flight from Canada, nor will I get free accommodations, but I know I will enjoy the experience 100% and then some more.  You see, I was here in Victoria, British Columbia during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and missed out on all of it.  Yup, I never got off Vancouver Island.  Pathetic right?

So, I’m not missing out next time!  I plan on volunteering as much as possible to get in on all the action of the Olympics!

For Americans & Canadians moving to London (or just thinking about how awesome that city is),  volunteering seems to be the best way to get involved.  It’s easy to make new friends, crash on acquaintances’ couches and see the games from up close.  That’s my plan anyway.

Hopefully, you will join me!  I hope so. I’m going to need a couch to crash on. And a friend to have a pint with at the end of the day.  Who’s with me?