Me Myself and I

Maybe I should title this post "Narcissism #1"?

Yes, I have already a topic for #2.  But before I go there,  please let me tell you about my friend Sue.

April 2010 Sue moved with her husband and 2 dogs to Germany.  She did not land in some sexy tourist town that you know through beer and car commercials or from when you backpacked through Europe after college. She lives in Solingen. She arrived knowing no German, with no contacts and no friends.  She had no phone and no internet for the first 6+ weeks.   Sounds like an episode of Gilligan's Island!  We were in touch several times during her first months there.  Tough.  Language and cultural differences that seem charming on holiday turn into forces of pure evil that an otherwise sane and competent person believes are personally targeted by laughing Germans. Cravings develop for banal tastes such as microwave popcorn.  One becomes petulant: I want to mail a package without having to go to the box store, the paper store, the bubble wrap store, the tape store and then the post office.

Giovanni is arrested at a dog food stand.
Photo: SGU

Why are they charging me such a high dog tax?  English, English I just want English!
oh p-l-e-a-s-e....save me from having a complete meltdown in IKEA!

Here we are 1.5 years on and how is Sue?  Fabulous.  Not only has she mastered the ADLs but she has become a true member of her community in Solingen. She knows all her neighbors (of course they knew all about her first) and with one elderly women, speaks German when she visit her and they converse in English in Sue's house.   She has been asked to join the local Kegeln group that plays on the 2nd Friday of every month. She and Scott play Würfel on the other Friday nights at their neighborhood Pub "Alt Rupelrath".  Sue often tends bar there. She told me that one night a man brought in a small photo book of pictures of his hunting dog and pups.....they looked just like her dog Giovanni.   This man spoke no English but knew Sue's international language of dog.   

It is one thing to figure out how to navigate in a foreign country; it is quite another to be invited to be a part of the community and be included in everyday life.  I would like to know how she got to where she is...I am in awe of you Sue -- you are my most phenomenal inspiration!

Now onto Me, Myself and I: a story that quite simply pales in comparison.

Sooooooo.....take a years' leave from my job, say good-bye to 2 sons at college, move across the Atlantic to Norwich (not London).  Arrive here on a Thursday.  Jet-lag, groceries, internet, driving, the city. Monday morning:  boom-- they are out the door.

The arrival

I am faced with a new city, no friends, an empty apartment and potentially empty days ahead. I imagine myself the beautiful Emilie Ekdahl from Fanny and Alexander* rushing across the room into the arms of the Bishop with my two innocent and photogenic children in tow.  At his request, by our choice, they, we, arrive with nothing of their old lives so full of music, laughter and love, entering into this white Swedish ascetic that is his house, my flat. They, we, begin to forge a new life.
Do you know the rest of the story?  The Bishop turns cruel, breaking the will of the children,
especially Alexander, and keeping his wife a virtual prisoner in his bare harsh world.  Release is just as painful, involving fire and death with a final note that freedom is never without a price.

The Look

This is not the rest of my story, don't worry.   I am part Emilie, part Fanny and part Alexander.  No the Bishop is not Norwich.  The Bishop is also part of me.  That part that is...what, afraid?  Afraid of what?  Rebuilding? Trying new things?  Reaching out?  Rejection, failure, being a novice, humiliation, being a fool, being alone?  Time? What?



So here I am.  I run 4 miles every other day + the park run on most Saturdays.  I do Yoga with Joan  at the Quaker Center on Lower Goat Lane.  I am reading every day. I go to hockey games, outdoors and in. Alice, Eric and I travel near and far.  I am developing a people network: Jane is taking me to the Sainsbury Center, Megan reminds me of NC home.  Today in the lengthy post office queue the ladies reminded me that try as I might to make the most of a year off, it can be hard because I have been so accustomed to constant activity that all this time becomes sort of a burden.

Kits.  Very organized.  About 75% are out at any one time.

I spend two part-days a week with the TSN or Teacher Scientist Network.  Their most successful program is the Kit Club.  These topic-specific (friction, biotechnology, light, etc.) kits, literally boxes, are available to check out for 6 weeks time and are used by primary school teachers to supplement or even provide their science curriculums.  I started there being the office volunteer sorting out the kits and helping design a new kit on water and coastal biology. A few weeks on however, the Kit Club Resource Officer decided t'was time to retire!

The TSN is now down to a skeleton crew and, for now, I am this point of contact.   And what have I learned so far?  The english computer keyboard is very close but not exactly like the American one I am used to so-- just like the languages-- I am fighting the caps lock and tab keys.   The British teachers I have met are a lot like their American counter-parts: eager, devoted and putting in long hours for low pay. I am hoping to go out into the schools through the teacher-scientist connection at TSN; I will ask for that more after winter break.



I also contacted Anne Osborne and Jenni Rant of The Science Art and Writing Program SAW housed at the John Innes Institute here in Norwich.  They organize a day in a school starting with an investigative activity followed by art and writing centered around a scientific topic or approach: plant diseases, synthetic biology, etc.  Jenni and I have been slowly working on a adapting a Gerty Cori lab for a SAW project. I may use it to start 8th grade next year...

Like so many non-profit organizations in these times, these two are working to obtain funding to maintain and expand.  When money is tight and causes arguably far more serious demand funds, these sorts of quiet initiatives struggle.   For now, I am doing my very very small part to help.

So, onwards!

*Fanny and Alexander won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1983 and is among my favorite Scandinavian films, along with My Life as A Dog and Kitchen Stories.