6 Months
We got on the plane in LA 6 months ago today…In some ways it seems like time is going by really quickly (I can’t believe I’m almost done with the first year!), but in other ways I feel like we’ve been here forever. Weird.
Anyway, most of you won’t know this, but I haven’t had my hair cut since the day before we left the U.S. So in honour of our 6 month Scotland anniversary, and because it’s driving me nuts, I got it trimmed today. It’s actually not that much shorter, I just had the “dead ends” cut off, and now it’s not quite as frizzy. Very exciting.
And now…Another Cultural Idiosyncrasy…
One strange thing about the U.K. is that you need a license to own a TV. I guess it pays for the BBC programming or something, I don’t know. But since we are poor students, and since we think television is mind numbing, we don’t have a TV, or a TV license. But since we don’t have a TV license, and they can’t comprehend the fact that there are people who wouldn’t have a TV, we get these menacing letters in the mail every couple weeks saying Inspectors will be in your area soon, pay for you TV license now or you could be fined 1000 pounds. We had heard that they never actually come to check, but last night during dinner someone knocked on the door and it was the TV-license-inspector-guy. I told him we didn’t have a TV and he asked if he could come look. I thought about trying to be a pain, but he seemed pretty nice, so I let him in and when he saw that we have no TV, he gave us some piece of paper and then left. Pretty weird, huh?
February 25th, 2004 at 6:09 pm
No way! (I mean, I DO believe you, but oh my gosh!)
February 26th, 2004 at 11:25 am
Has it really been 6 MONTHS already? Doesn’t seem possible. Isn’t it weird how on one hand, you constantly feel like the newbie, but on the other hand, your previous life seems so long ago?
I think the TV people came to our house too, but we weren’t home. They left something under the door. I wonder if they’ll be back? I’m surprised they came to your place, considering Ashley wrote to them a while ago explaining that you don’t have a TV. They must be suspicious of you b/c you’re Americans.
February 26th, 2004 at 1:29 pm
Yep, Sarah, I totally agree with you about feeling so short and so long ago. Missed you at Bible study last night. Want to hang out while our boys are off at the Photo Soc?
February 26th, 2004 at 1:51 pm
uh hum…I think you meant to say, ‘while our men are off at the Photo Soc?’
February 26th, 2004 at 3:40 pm
I’m so jealous. No one ever came to our house to inspect our lack of TV. I was all ready to be really obnoxious. Yes, we too are the great anomally for not having the box. Whatever. Actually I think we are nearing addiction status to our DVD collection. Considered giving them up for Lent…..but didn’t.
February 26th, 2004 at 4:24 pm
As a peripheral catalyst for your and your sister’s lack of TV (revulsion to my watching or purely lack of financial support) I was charmed by your story and Kerry’s comment. How come you didn’t ask the dude if he had a search warrant? That’s what they always do on TV. Oh…Pops
February 26th, 2004 at 11:14 pm
Kerry, yeah I was thinking I would try to be obnoxious about it, but I was kind of caught off guard, and the guy was kinda nice too. I mean, he probably wasn’t the one who writes the menacing letters…Do you guys get those letters too? They’re hillarious. I think considering giving something up and then not doing it is a clear sign that you are nearing addiction status…but hey, at least we can still watch Les Miserables in a couple weeks!
Dad, I don’t think you were a major cause of us giving up TV. I think it’s mostly due to the fact that we haven’t really watched TV in 4-5 years, and haven’t really missed it. We’ve also realized how it stifles human interaction and can end up wasting a lot of time. And besides, Seinfeld isn’t on anymore…I’ll have to ask for a warrant next time, although he did have a little badge thingy.
February 27th, 2004 at 5:17 am
Okay, so where are the photos of this long hair? We won’t believe you’ve really been gone for six months unless we see the proof. Time flies when you’re not the ones in grad school. Not saying that we haven’t missed you — just glad that we’re not the ones in school at the moment.
February 27th, 2004 at 4:44 pm
YEAH, where are the hair pictures? I LOVE all the pictures in the photo gallery (especially the Necropolis…morbid of me?), but we want some “people pictures” too. ~K
February 27th, 2004 at 5:17 pm
Yeah, one of the advantages of being the one who takes the pictures is that I’m not in the pictures…I’ll try to get some of the two of us though…
February 27th, 2004 at 6:53 pm
Feel free to grab some of the pictures of the two of you from our album over the holidays. I can’t believe it’s been 6 months, either, as it seems much longer even though we just saw you two months ago! As for TV, it beats writing dissertations, but then I never got a post-graduate degree.
February 27th, 2004 at 11:17 pm
Okay, okay, we’ll get some more people pics…eventually. The picture delay is to test your patience.
And I don’t think TV beats writing dissertations. At least writing (of any sort) or reading or thinking for that matter, doesn’t disengage your mind or allow you to be trampled with images without any negotiation with those images. I don’t mean to sound like an anti-TV snob, but I do have valid reasons why staying away from the tube is a good thing. Just a thought to consider my friends.