Our Hallowe'en Party, Guy Fawkes Nite, and more

Ladies and Gents,
I have not forgotten my blog duties. I have been busy looking for employment, which has thus far been unsuccessful. I have discovered that teaching at a Community College is not the most sensible path, as I would have to go back to school for two years to get some silly certificate. If we were staying here permanently, it would make sense. But since we will only be here for 3 years and US Community Colleges do not require additional certification, it makes far more sense to work in another area, make money, expand my employment skills, and then return to my calling when we get to the US. Bret has been talking about settling down in Oregon. I have never been, but I took a city test, and Portland was my number one city. Health-conscious, dog-friendly, cultural, and clean. There I will be able to motivate young minds to enjoy reading and writing...
Anyway, this is not the time to think about the future. It's time to think about the past- past week in Durham UK, that is.
We hosted our first party on Hallowe'en (I don't know why the Brits do the apostrophe thing). As mentioned in a previous post, we decided to go potluck-style, given our poverty. I made a chicken mush in the crockpot, which turned out pretty tasty (though far from my best, I'm afraid), and our friends brought everything else, which means that we now have a 3 month supply of Gateaux and wine (another curious Brtishism: they call cake by its French name).
While we ate and drank, we dedided to up the merryness by teaching the Brits one of our fave games: Mafia. If you do not know how to play Mafia, I'll give you the quick explanation.
There is a Master of Ceremonies (Bret) to monitors the whole thing. Everyone is given secret cards to mean different things. You can get 1 or 4 options: Mafia, Detective, Medic, and Townsperson. The object of the game is to catch the Mafia, who is lurking amongst the group pretending to be a townsperson. Everyone closes their eyes, and the MC tells Mafia to open her eyes and 'kill' someone, then close her eyes. The MC asks the Detective and Medic to do a few things, and then at the end of the session, someone ends up dead unless the Medic saved the person. Everyone accuses each other of being Mafia. And then everyone votes on who to 'lynch'...if the Mafia was lynched, then the townspeople win, if not, you do another round of closing your eyes, etc. Usually, it takes awhile to catch the Mafia. And there are often a lot of innocent townspeople who are killed before the Mafia is killed. Anyway, it was really fun...

So we didn't have any trick or treaters. Hallowe'en is just starting to get big here. But it's not nearly as fun as in The States. And of course, there's no Thanksgiving, though we are going to host one for our friends. But amidst the super early Christmas decorations and shopping, there's a little Brit holiday called Guy Fawkes Nite.

Apparently, a Catholic named Guy Fawkes made a plot to blow up the corrupt Protestant Parliament (I do not mean to suggest that Protestantism is corrupt; only in this case I believe it was). He failed in his plot, and three months later, he was tortured and hanged. This all took place in 1605. And the country is still celebrating this nite. I think we are meant to be celebrating Guy Fawkes for his effort, but maybe we are celebrating the fact that he failed. I'm not clear on it.

Anyway, it's a big fireworks nite. And so Bren and Dave invited us over for some yummy lamb casserole and apple crumble with custard. We then went out to the freezing cold and watched the fireworks display. It was pretty fun, but not as cool as Independence Day in the states cuz Guy Fawkes nite doesn't have any music. I really thought they could have added a little Classical music, at least, but no, just pop pop, bang bang.

Anyway, so we are really pumped for the weekend, cuz we are going to see Into the Wild in Newcastle and have Jim and Kristen over for dinner. I am going to continue to look for a good job, possibly do some temping for the time being, and of course, do some creative writing. Surprisingly, I've been writing poetry. Most of it has turned out to be about Coronation House, actually. I have found the benefits of riding the bus: time to write. I just take my pen and notebook, and write while I wait and while I'm on the bus. That way, I'm not wasting time and I'm exercising my brain. I am not fond of being carless because buses take much longer, but at least I'm making good use of my time.