Ramblin' Rosen

I’m still in shock about what’s happened today in London. Fortunately, everyone I’ve contacted has been OK, but it’s still been pretty devastating.

I had my husband call my parents early in the morning their time, just so they’d find out we were OK before they saw the news. They were already worried by a call so early, but it was better that than a panicked call once they turned on CNN.

A friend of mine in the US called my folks to see if Tony and I were OK. Even though I didn’t get to talk to him, I’m very glad he rang. He was first person I called after my parents on 9/11, as he lived near DC. I found out he was actually planning on going to the Pentagon that day and just hadn’t made it there. I didn’t have any near misses like that today–I no longer work in Central London, and today was the first day I was glad of that–but I’ve heard similar near-miss stories on the news.

For those of you who have been hurt or have had loved ones hurt, I send my depest sympathies.

I’m going to finish this post now, as I don’t know what else to say, and I’m worried anything else I’d say would be trite.

Hallowe’en crackers
Originally uploaded by lilitu93.

John Lewis, a British department store, has a Hallowe’en display up, the first one I’ve seen this year in London. Hallowe’en isn’t a very big holiday in England, though it is growing in popularity. It’s one of the holidays I’ve missed since I moved to the UK, so I’m glad to see that it is growing in popularity over here. The item that stood out most to me in the display was this box of Hallowe’en crackers.

Although its origins are from the Celtic Samhain, Hallowe’en as we currently think of it being celebrated (trick-or-treat, free candy, costumes, etc.) is very American. Crackers, though, are very English and are normally for Christmas. For those who don’t know what you do with a cracker, you and another person pull on an end each, and it pops open with a small bang. Whoever is holding the larger section wins the exciting “prizes” found within. Also, there’s a paper crown inside, most often worn by drunk office workers at Christmas parties.

I don’t normally cover politics in this blog (unless, of course, they relate to the subjects I normally write about), but I thought I’d pass on a few links to help Americans living abroad who want to register to vote. I found these links through an article in the Guardian about the two parties’ efforts to encourage expat voting.

Instruction on registering

• Federal Voting Assistance Program - The official US government site
• Overseas Vote 2004 - A Democratic-sponsored site that helps fill in the official forms. Although the site is paid for by the Democrats, the site itself is non-partisan.

Party sites

• Democrats Abroad
• Republicans Abroad

I just used the Overseas Vote 2004 site to fill out the Kansas form—I highly recommend it, even for Republicans, as it’s a lot easier to use than trying to decipher the official site, and it fills out the form for you. All you have to do is print it, sign and date it, then fax and mail it. (Faxing is only necessary if it’s near the cut-off date for your last state of residency.)

As people who read this site could probably guess, I’m not a Republican. I’m planning to vote for Kerry, though I’m not sure I’d really consider myself a Democrat, even though I have registered as one before (that’s a whole other discussion). I wasn’t really planning to vote, since Kansas always goes Republican in Presidential elections, but it’s a lot easier registering for an absentee ballot than I thought. Also, even if my vote doesn’t affect the outcome of the election itself, it’s a good idea for expatriates like myself to stay involved in the political process, so that the government does not forget that we are also US citizens and constituents, even though we no longer live in the US.

One British phenomenon I found strange when I moved here is the tendency for non-chain fried chicken fast food restaurants to have vaguely Southern names in order to try to sound like KFC. For those who haven’t seen these restaurants before, the Fried Chicken Gallery at Bad Gas has pictures of many of them.

Some of my favourites: New Taxas Fried Chicken, Dixy (sic) Chicken, Kennsy Fried Chicken, FCKF and Chickin Lickin’ with an honourable mention given to Chalet for their very surreal sign including not only a chicken picture but also a very odd mushroom house.

[Link via Snackspot]