Yes, I'm finally going there.

I'm posting twice on the same day, but I didn't want to ruin my happy Thanksgiving post with this one.

I went to a lecture tonight given by Ali Allawi, he was the minister of trade and defense secretary in Iraq for a period of time and has a book that just came out, The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War and Losing the Peace. I was really impressed with him. He addressed a lot of the questions I have been struggling with in my head and actually articulated a platform that was very similar to the one that I had been piecing together myself. Here's a link to an article he wrote for one of England's major newspapers that received a lot of attention and praise for its ability to summarize and analyze the situation in Iraq:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2125419.ece

I went to the lecture with two friends, kind of bracing myself for yet another round of America bashing/Bush is the deveil and should be tried for war crimes speech. But that wasn't the focus of his talk at all. He spoke about the just war theory and examined whether this war fell into that category. The answer was, of course, yes and no. But his larger point was, it's too late now to talk about whether the war should have happened or not, because it did and it's too late to change that. The question we need to be more concerned with is, what are we going to do now? And he gave some good answers. He was very articulate and intelligent and well balanced. Clearly, the other members in the audience were expecting to go to a lecture that would fuel their "America is evil and hypocritical" viewpoint by the questions and digs they were asking him after the speech was over. But my view on the war isn't really what I want to talk about.

I have been asked what the British think about America by a few people. Everyone wants to know, "Is it true that they hate us?" I finally feel like I've been here long enough that I can answer that question. The answer is yes. Let me clarify. I haven't met a Brit yet who has been rude to me. When people find out I'm from Texas, they do make certain assumptions about my political beliefs that make me a little uncomfortable. However, it's not the Americans they hate. It's 1) President Bush and 2) America as a political/economic entity. They also dislike Tony Blair for being Bush's "puppet" and getting Britain involved in the war. The Brits have this air of superiority about them towards America. Whether it has to do with language (they speak it the "proper" way), beer (self explanatory) or the war (we don't use torture on prisoners of war). When it comes to the war, they are very passionate about the fact that it is an illegal, unjust war and that Bush wrongfully ignored the UN and the international community by invading Iraq. The other hot button issue here is Abu Gharaib and Guantanamo Bay and the 67,000 Iraqi prisoners the US is holding, many of whom have been held for years without a trial. That fact alone makes them look on America in disgust. European countries are also firmly against the death penalty, which is another reason they look down their noses on the US.

People in Britain actually mention the US a lot in general conversation. In class, at church, hanging out in the pub, I hear references all the time to "or as the Americans would say/do..." It's like they have somewhat of an inferiority complex and have to make fun of the US whenever they can. It's usually in good fun and I enjoy hearing it, but I just find it interesting because Americans don't really tend to make references to the British in every day conversation like they do about us. I think this is partly because, in general, Americans tend to know less and care less about other countries, and because we belong to such a big and powerful country, a country smaller than Texas is kind of culturally inconsequential to us. Our country is not saturated with foreign media the way other countries are with American movies, television shows and music. That's the other thing, people around the world consume the same media that we do in America. Our media fills their countries, and they love it, but at the same time hate it for the way that it is becoming so prominent in their cultures and dominating the market.

I don't know if I did a good job of painting a picture of how America is perceived by the English or not. One thing I'm realizing though is that America has a lot of power in the world. It's one country that everybody knows about, whether you're from India, Namibia, or Argentina, and everybody has an opinion about it. Because we are such a powerful country, people expect us to be on a higher level of morality and accountability than others, and right now we have definitely failed in meeting their expectations. It will be a long time before our credibility is restored in the international community. Those are my observations, love em or hate em, agree or disagree. It's ok. I'll let you know if they change as the months go by.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm almost a week late with the Thanksgiving post, but what can I say? I've been busy. (That's a good thing!) So my first holiday away from home came and went almost unnoticed. I was so busy with school last week that I forgot that normally everybody would be buzzing with excitement in anticipation of a break from school. I'd be at home, finally getting in some pleasure reading, beginning my Christmas shopping, and catching up with friends. The time of year that is so much fun back in America didn't even register as a blip on my calendar. Sad. I did cook a Thanksgiving dinner for some of my international friends on Friday, which was a lot of fun. The best part was the apple pie, the turkey ... not so good. At least I'll be home for the next one.

My thankful list:

• I'm thankful God gave me this opportunity to live in England for a year.
• I'm thankful for the support of my family this year.
• I'm thankful for the Internet, Facebook, Skype, e-mail, blogs and everything else that helps me stay in touch with people.
• I'm thankful for all the friends I've made in Leeds. They're making this year so much better.
• I'm thankful for my teeth. :o More specifically, I'm thankful I was born in a country with good dental care!

(The rumors about the British and bad teeth are true. The dental system here is being rehauled right now and it's really hard to see a dentist, or else it's really expensive. There was a story in the papers here about how people are using superglue to fill in cracks in their teeth bc they can't get in to a dentist.)

Pickled onion crisp, anyone?

So I'm sad I haven't been getting any comments on my blog posts. Apparently you weren't too enticed with my teaser of the Lake District. Now it's been a week and the adventures of the weekend don't seem as exciting anymore. We did lots of walking, breathed in fresh air, drank lots of hot chocolate, toured William Wordsworth's house, saw where Beatrix Potter was filmed, and ate traditional English roast. I can't even remember what I meant by the word "overboard", I think it may have referred to the fact that I wanted to jump overboard after having to stand for an hour and a half on an overbooked train with my face literally smashed into the back of someone's coat the whole time. There were some major train problems that day and all the trains were late/cancelled, so everybody had to cram into this one train. Now I am used to crowded public transportation, but this experience took it to a whole new level. I mean, people who had to go to the bathroom just had to hold it because there was literally no way for them to get down the aisle, it was that crowded. I had to stand straddling my luggage. Kids were crying, people were coughing all over me. It was one of those situations where you just have to find the humor in it and try to imagine you are someplace else in order to survive. I think it's safe to say my love affair with public transportation is over now.

As for "headboard", well, let's just say the walls of our bed and breakfast were thin and the couple in the room next door to us were up all night. It was extremely awkward for me and Ashley. We did our best to avoid eye contact with the other couples at breakfast the next morning for fear of going into another round of awkward laughter. Just another story to add to the book of Meghan's random travel stories. But let's talk about something else now ...

Can we talk about the fact that the British have the weirdest flavors of chips ever? Let me give you some examples: Prawn cocktail, roast chicken, chili and lemon, marmite yeast extract, pickled onion, Heinz tomato ketchup, Worchester sauce, Smoky bacon, Steak and Onion. You can't make these things up. These are not some obscure off-brand flavors. These are the Frito-lay equivalent flavored potato chips (or crisps as they are called here). These bizarre flavor combinations do not end with chips, it extends to just about every type of product that comes in flavors. I guess I should admit that I have not yet eaten the Prawn Cocktail crisps, so there's a very small chance they could be quite good, but I'm not willing to risk it.

High: Spent the day playing hooky and went hiking in the Yorkshire Dales with my Estonian friend, Kadri.

Low: I'm realizing that traveling in Europe over Christmas is looking much more expensive than I imagined, and I'm not going to have the money to go to Spain with Ashley like we planned. What to do...

Finished!

I just finished my first big paper for grad school! I want to celebrate, but it is 12:30 at night and no one is around except for the guy blaring Indian music in the room above me, so I'm blogging instead. I think this Friday I will finally let myself go shopping in the city centre to reward myself for finishing. There are so many stores here, it's killing me that I have no money to enjoy them. Despite the stressful past couple of weeks, (I've been sick and had a lot to do for school), I've had a fun last few days. I taught my Thai friends how to carve pumpkins, went out to an amazing Italian restaurant with my flatmate for her birthday, and traveled to the Lake District with Ashley this weekend. If you ever get to come to England, definitely try to make it up to the Lake District - it's a beautiful area filled with mountains, lakes (hence the name), lots of sheep and quintessential, cute English villages. I will have to come back and edit this post later to add more stories from the weekend. I just realized I am really tired and ready to go to bed.
Here's a teaser to get you to come back and keep reading though: overboard
Another possible teaser word: headboard
Guess you'll just have to check back to see what I mean, huh?