Things have been hectic lately (what else is new?). We got our photos a few weeks ago and I’ve included the weblink below that the photographer gave us.
http://albums.proshots.com/blinkofaneye/
Use the scroll down menu thingy and choose “Fei Li and Chris”, obviously.
The password is (in digits) zero-eight-one-two-zero-six (yes the wedding date)
If you have photos you’d like to share, please do!
(Chris is harassing me to add more about the honeymoon, especially since we spent more than two days there.)
On Friday, as a gift from Chris’ Gama and Grandfather, we took a bus tour trip called “History and Mystery.” It was a day trip out of London and a nice change from figuring out where to go by ourselves.
So it actually starts with “Mystery” - we went to Stonehenge. It was a surprise to learn that the “henge” part was the oldest (5000 years or something like that), and really it was an overglorified circular ditch around the stones. I’m not sure how they figured out the date of the ditch… can you carbon date dirt? Surround the area was miles and miles of flat farmland (punctuated once in a while with a large dirt mound - graves for important people). And of course sheep. Chris became very interested in a haytruck.
Next stop was Bath. The main attraction was the Roman Baths. Actually, we sped through it (the main rooms, the steam rooms, the source of the spring, the lead pipes etc) so we could schlepp down to the Jane Austen Center. Chris left me there to soak in all the Jane Austen I could get while he went to get lunch for us. What a nice husband. 
While munching our food, we noticed a garden across the street. Weirdly enough, one of the flower beds spelled out something like “biotechnology.”
Last stop was a medieval village called Lacock. It had these neat thatch roofs and also one main building (owned by the church) made of stone roof tiles. We’re told that they (way way back) submerged a large slab of stone in water during the winter. When the water froze, it would introduce cracks at certain places and then in the spring, voila, roof shingles. Must have taken a long time to build one house. All in all, these little places were very cute and full of hanging flowers. So of course, we had to take a few pictures of that.
Lacock is also one of the sites used in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. In particular, the dance at the Merryton assembly hall was filmed here, in the Lacock assembly hall. It reminded me of our reception site - which was essentially the assembly hall of Sherborn back in the day. One of the cute houses in Lacock was also used in the first Harry Potter movie - I think it was the house of Harry’s parents.
That evening, back at our corner of good ole’ Westminster, we went out for Indian food - a sort of classy restaurant. The place was tiny - the food was brought up in a food elevator. Strange! Now the food looked like stuff we would order at Coromandel - but the flavors, so different. In one bite, your palate would be treated to a variety of tastes and spices, each one held its own.
The next day, we decided to take the bus to Trafalger Square and the area near Leicester Square. This was of course the 24 bus, which we would later learn to take almost every single day. In any case, we were looking for Foyles, the big bookstore in London. There we spent many hours, browsing and reading. I spent most of my time in the children’s section and discovered an huge collection of the Mr. and Miss books (you know Miss Brainy, or Mr. Tall). And I saw that the new edition of Richard Scarry “The Big Book of..” are now printed in sans serif font - so weird and strange. I also read several books of Babar. I never realized how colonialist that story was. And finally, I had to buy a copy of “A Bear called Paddington.”
Chris re-read Mike Mulligan and Steam Shovel, and Katie the snow plow. It was fun.
Next, my husband the map maniac had to visit Stanford’s, the largest and probably most famous map store in England (and probably Europe). So we schlepped over there. I found a cushy chair to sit in while he scampered around looking at maps of all scales and places. I think he found his version of a candy store.
At around this point, we headed back to Westminster to meet my cousin, Geng Nan. We had grown up together and he was going to come to the wedding but was waylaid by the fact that the day he was supposed to fly out Heathrow, the London terrorist thing happened. He couldn’t even get near the airport. Alas.
We met up. It was strange that someone I had grown up with, was meeting Chris for the first time, and as my husband. Kind of boggles your mind. In any case, we determined to make the evening one of English pub drinking and eating. So after careful internet research which we then promptly ignored as we walked around the area, we picked the Prince of Wales Pub not far from our hotel.
Ordered beer, sat down and just chatted for a long time. The beer was ok - I had a Stella. It wasn’t fuzzy but flat and kind of warm. But still good. Unfortunately, the kitchen was closed. Strange thing but on Saturdays I guess they don’t get enough food business to make it worthwhile to keep it open. So we ended up going to a second bar (called the Shakespeare pub) for food - Fish and chips, burgers and chicken burgers. And of course, more beer. It was excellent.
Gee had been in London for about a month now and was eyeing a place to rent near Paddington. It sounded like he was till waiting to hear from agents about jobs (indeed his cell rang a few times while we were out). His girlfriend, Joey, was already working and they both lived about an hour outside of London. Unfortunately, she was too sick to hang out that night.
We wandered, half drunk, back to Westminster station (which was near the Abbey and Big Ben) so that Gee could grab the Jubilee line back to his place. On a whim, I remembered that Nina, my college room mate, told me about a poem that was on the bridge near the Parliament buildings. So we headed out on the bridge to look for this poem. Sadly, did not find it. But we did find a statue honoring Butica, the warrior queen I learned about in A History of Britain.
Short answer: Great!
Long answer… part I
Despite the terrorist threats, we made it to London on Tuesday without delay. Additional security meant individual searching after security and before getting on the actual plane - imagine a dozen security officers lining up in front of half a dozen tables, searching every handbag, backpack and briefcase in front of the gate.
And we made it back alright as well, though security was tighter. This time we could only bring one carryon (includes purses etc) and it had to fit in some contraption, which they check. Then, they would throw out anything liquid, gel like etc. It was amazing how many people didn’t understand that liquids included water. Perfume and alcohol sales at the airport in heathrow did not do well.
But outside of that, things were great.
We arrived in Heathrow at about 6am and took the express train to Paddington Station. Took the underground to Victoria and then walked to the little hotel we were booked at, the Luna and Simone hotel (btw, very nice service, and economical!) The metro cards there are called “Oyster Cards,” why that is we never figured out. (It wasn’t round and it didn’t give us free oysters etc.)
Our little neighborhood (Pimlico/Victoria region of Westminster) was very cute, and quiet. The buildings had this beautiful white/beige color to them and there were baskets of blooming flowers along every street. And the streets were so CLEAN!
Some other notes - people seemed to be better dressed. In particular, lots of men liked to wear pink and purple. Maybe I haven’t been out in long time but I felt that there was a difference in how people dressed. People were also very helpful. I guess it was obvious when two bedraggled, suitcase dragging people are looking around a bit bewildered, that they are probably lost tourists. On several occasions, random strangers would walk up and offer to explain something to us - like how do you know which train is in front of you - the name is not on the actual train itself!
Most of the first day was spent getting to know our local stores, getting over jetlag and finding the Thames. We’ll put up some pics of that soon. Near our hotel, we found a Vietnamese restuarant - Mekong. It had an elaborate selection of courses including a variation on peking duck. As semi-food-snobs, we were a bit anxious about what English restaurant food would be like. On the whole, I think the fears were uncalled for.
The next day we visited Westminister Abbey - the famous burial/coronation church for all the kings and queens of England, and then a few other important people like Isaac Newton. It was quite amazing. I can’t describe the feeling of walking in, and looking up. It made your jaw drop to see it. Walking around the tombs of Elizabeth I and Mary of Scots etc, was a bit creepy. Having been fortified by A History of Great Britain I recognized and appreciated at least half of the tombs there. We didn’t get past the third disk in that series, so I didn’t know any history past 1500.
In the afternoon, we hightailed over the Thames to find Shakespeare. Somehow we found ourselves in a cute little open-air market place, which apparently has a name; Borough market. While wandering around there, we found a cheese shop “Neal’s Yard Dairy” that was basically a refrigerated store. I’ve never seen so many wheels of cheese. We tried a few and settled on some soft goat cheese for lunch. Decided to come back for the Berkswell cheese another time, so we could bring some back to the States.
Saw the plaque the denotes the original site of the Globe Theater, and then found the New Globe Theater, which is a reconstruction (using the same techniques and types of materials of the time) of the original theater. It was the result of a 10 year mad obsession of some American, who felt that a puny plaque (described above) was not sufficient to honor the great Bard.
This new theater was right on the banks of the Thames, and near the new Millenium Footbridge, which if you cross it (and it sort of shakes a bit when there are lots of people on it), brings you to St Paul’s Cathedral. Which we walked across, took some photos, and tried to walk towards the cathedral. When we got closer, you could see that the catherdal was under renovation - but they covered it up with a big canvass with a picture of the cathedral. So from far away, you couldn’t even tell.
Anyways, back to Shakespeare. There was a nifty exhibit and a tour of the theater itself. We decided to splurge and get seated seats (versus the groundling standing seats) to see Antony and Cleopatra at the evening show. In the meantime, discovered the English equivalent to KFC, which was Nando’s. Basically it’s a lot of whole roasted chicken, with, hot, hotter and very hot sauce.
I had seen a production of A & C in college before, but this show at the Globe had a totally different feeling to it. Here, it was clear that the play ought to have been called Anthony, Cleopatra and Ceasar. In any case, it was pretty fantastic. Poor Chris, he had not read the play before and I was worried he would not get any of it. In fact, during intermission he tried to go buy a copy of the play.
We’re back from London, UK … safe and sound.
It’s like 5am to us right now so more later…
~ FLK & CHL
… has been updated. If you misplaced the map or directions we sent earlier, you can download and print up copies of them on the maps page.
A number of phone exchanges between our house and those of my family in China have spawned a massive review in Chinese language and literature that I haven’t experienced since college.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about this pair of characters - yuan fen - (I’ll post the characters as images later).
In a loose sort of translation, yuan fen, stands for meant-to-be-ness or fateful (without the negative connotation). Like a historian assigning meaning to a piece of pottery that she knows must mean something but struggles with the right words to express it - I searched the web for a number of different explanations for it, duly noting the sources.
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“The Chinese language has a concept called Yuan Fen for which no direct translation exists in English. It is a combination of destiny, effort, and luck.” (http://www.wle.com/resources/art048.html)
“… fateful coincidences (yuan fen), those unplanned occurrences that decisively influenced the eventual shape of their lives.” (http://www.americamagazine.org/gettext.cfm?textID=
3130&articleTypeID=1&issueID=448)
And what websearch is complete these days without consultation of wikipedia.com, which I think perhaps has the most educational definition. I especially like how it explains what yuanfen is not, and where it is correctly used and what the opposite meaning would be. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan-fen)
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Educational purposes aside, I think I like the “fateful coincidences” interpretation the best, even though it might not academically be the most accurate. And though I’m not a huge fan of Fate with a capital F, I think I do believe in yuanfen.
The About the Bride and Groom section briefly explains we were introduced by Jessie King, my then-new classmate at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Though Jessie at some point, probably tried to be Ms. Matchmaker, when I think back , there were a lot of “fateful coincidences” that brought Chris and myself together, and kept us together. I will just list a few for fun.
MD-PhD programs (back in my day… were not known for having a large number of women students, probably because of their length. Jessie and I were among the five women who were in our entering class. A number of similarities and needs brought Jessie and I together as friends when otherwise you might not expect: both from Boston, both not currently dating Manhattan boys, and both liked to talk a lot. She needed help assembling IKEA furniture (one piece of which is still unassembled today!); I accidentally left all my utensils in Boston and borrowed hers.
As it happens, Columbia Univ. housing did not have space for Chris when he arrived in New York for graduate school
that same year. Desperate, he turned to his cousin Jessie for a floor to sleep on (none of us had much furniture then) until he could have his own little shoebox apartment in Manhattan. Guess which one of Jessie’s friends had an inflatable mattress to lend him?
Our first meeting - We met because Jessie was in the middle of an experiment and I was relatively free (I happen to have chosen a more computational lab rotation that first summer). So I was dispatched to meet up with Chris and then shepherd him to his cousin’s lab.
We were thrown together a lot during the labor day weekend we spent at Jessie’s parents place in the Berkshires, since Jessie’s college friends showed up, and we happen to be the relative strangers. Apparently he was impressed that I read and subscribed to the New York Times, and I was impressed by how he was so helpful to his aunt and uncle - chopping firewood, doing dishes and generally really helping out. I know, quite mundane attributes. But even today, reading the Times together and doing/arguing over the dishes still keep us together.
My neighborly offer to show him the Strand bookstore in NY, turned into a search for one book for his Japanese class which turned into a long but fun trek through half a dozen book stores in Manhattan, which introduced us to some of our favourite bookstores today.
I can’t say it was love at first sight. In retrospect though, I should have known better because he looks just like Gilbert Blythe (or more precisely, the actor who played Gilbert Blythe in the movie version of Anne of Green Gables, my childhood favourite book). I have yet to find a better double, though he denies the resemblance.
And finally, in retrospect I think it fitting that our first date was to see Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors,” where mistaken identity of twin brothers in strange ways reunites a family that I guess, were meant to be together.
So here’s to yuanfen. May you have lots of yuanfen too.
~ Fei Li
