HUMP DAY HISTORY LESSON

Some of my favorite expat blogs like Betsy Transatlantically have a "theme" for certain days of the week, just to keep things interesting and consistent for readers.  I would like to institute the same thing on my blog!  Which is why I have decided to start  "Hump Day History" and "Foodie Fridays" so I can dish about some of my favorite things-- storytelling and food!

Here we go!

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

I know I'm about 5 years late but I have fallen in love with the Showtime series The Tudors.  The series was 4 seasons long and chronicles the most infamous King of England.



King Henry VII

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a young King Henry.  Sooo hot, want to touch the hiney.  *ahem* I mean he is a fine actor.

Most Americans don't know a whole lot about the history of the English monarchy aside from the fact that we were once under British rule.  Having grown up in a country with no monarchy, I am utterly fascinated by it and by the rich history of absolute monarchies in England and elsewhere.

Before King Henry VIII, England and most of their European neighbors were Catholic nations and all religious laws were overseen by the Pope, the Bishop of Rome.  This wasn't really a problem until King Henry VIII decided around 1530 he wanted a divorce from his wife, Queen Catherine of Aragon.  Though a pious and honorable wife, she was the ripe old age of 42, had not bore him a son, and he had his eye on a younger model--Lady Anne Boleyn.

The King and his aides tried to convince the Pope and the holy men of Rome and England that his marriage to Catherine was illegitimate because they had married against God's will.  Catherine was briefly married to Henry's own brother (King Arthur) and as it says in Leviticus 20:21 "If a man takes his brother's wife, it is an impurity: he has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless."  King Henry asserted that Catherine and Arthur had consummated their marriage and thus God was punishing King Henry and Catherine for their sin by not giving them a son.
Much to the King's anger, the Pope and holy men of Rome and England refused to grant the annulment on the grounds that the marriage was, in fact, legitimate under God's holy law.

King Henry VIII shocked Rome and his European peers by announcing he would separate England from the Catholic Church and become supreme the head of a separate church--The Church of England.  Not only would he be able to make political decisions for his country, but he could also decide on all ecclesiastical matters, as he believed he was meant to be the human decision-maker on earth of God's will.

As the head of the Church of England, he annulled the marriage between he and Queen Catherine, banishing her from court.  Their daughter, Mary, was deemed illegitimate and sent away.  (However later King Henry made her legitimate and she ruled as Queen of England for a short time).

Thus began a long history of love and tragedy with his subsequent 5 wives.

1. Queen Catherine of Aragon (married 24 years).  Divorced
   They had one child, Mary, who was Queen of England for 5 years
2. Queen Anne Boleyn (married 3 years).  Executed
   They had one child, Elizabeth. Elizabeth went on to be Queen for 44 years.
   Anne was very passionate and outspoken at times, traits not expected of a Queen
   By the time Anne was accused of incest and adultery, the King already had his eyes on his next wife.
3. Queen Jane Seymour (married less than 2 years).  Died after childbirth
   Queen Jane finally bore King Henry his much desired son and heir.
   She died 2 weeks after the birth from infection.
   It has been said that King Henry had a special affection for Jane and felt she was his "true wife."
   She is the only wife to be buried next to King Henry
4. Queen Anne of Cleves (married 6 months).  Divorced.
   No children
   King Henry mourned over the loss of Jane for three years before his advisors suggested a marriage for foreign alliance.  The King did not love her and didn't find her attractive.  The political reasons for the union were becoming less necessary, so they divorced.
5. Queen Kathryn Howard (married 2 years).  Executed.
   No children.
   The Queen was accused of adultery and promiscuity before marriage.  After investigation, the rumors proved to be true and Queen Kathryn was executed
6. Queen Katherine Parr (married 4 years).  Widowed
   No children.
   Queen Katherine was his 6th and final wife before his death in 1547

I hope this short lesson was interesting and informative!  I highly recommend The Tudors series if you can get a copy on DVD or on the internet.  Though the writers did use some artistic license with the story, much of the historical facts remain intact.  Plus, Jonathan Rhys Meyers ain't too bad on the eyes.  Sorry, I had to say it.

Stay tuned for more history!

Who is your favorite historical figure?



Visa Update:  My case has been assigned to an Entry Clearance Officer and she emailed me today requesting one additional supporting doc, which I sent.  Now I'm glued to my email waiting for updates!



Reppin' the Motherland

Visa Status: NADA. Just over 1 calendar month. 21 working days.

If I can't be in England, I might as well teach others about England!
My bff Rachel asked me to help out at her elementary school for "International Night." They needed someone to represent England so of course I was happy to oblige.

I think I went a little bit overboard with my tri-fold posterboard and detailed info but I had so much fun putting it together. Plus, projects here and there are a much appreciated distraction.

(ME with my English bounty)

(I'm not sure why Israel was hanging with Europe, but they had yummy food!)

(That's Rachel on the left with her Israel presentation)

(The finale was traditional dancing.  This was Peru)

Very fun time! Loads of amazing food made by the international families represented there. My favorites were Ethiopian, Polish, and Portuguese. Nom nom nom!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In an unrelated story, Kieran got us a mattress to fit our king size bed frame. It was a pretty hilarious story whereby Kieran's dad was offered a brand new mattress on offer from a mattress delivery guy cause he had extras in his truck. Long story short, we got a king mattress worth 800 or 900 quid for 150 pounds. Not too shabby! I found the story quite amusing. At least if I ever get to England I will have a nice bed to rest on!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far!

Goodbye, my trusty chariot!

This is my dear friend, my 2005 Hyundai Tucson. Yesterday she found a good new home for a decent price! Out of respect, I write this blog in memorium of our time together.

The summer after my freshman year at Juniata, I was realizing that rural Pennsylvania was not exactly the best place for a pedestrian. Though the campus itself was small, the big Sheetz and liquor stores were 2 miles away! That's not acceptable. Not to mention we were getting a big Walmart about 5 miles away.

My parents liked the idea of not having to drive me to and from school every few months. We figured if I got an SUV I could be responsible for transporting all my crap so my parents wouldn't have to endure another semester of lugging my CD colletion up long stairwells. Did I mention none of our dorms had elevators? Or air conditioning? Yeah. And move in day in August was usually hot as balls.

Amanda needed a car.

That summer, with the help of my grandma, I found my highway companion.

That car took me everywhere...
Back and forth from MoCo to Juniata
Friday trips to Altoona for Shabbat services with my second family
To "the spillway" several times during that one semester I played Rubgy
Exploring Pennsylvania outside of sleepy Huntingdon
To New York in 2006 where my life changed
Road trips, airports, homes of friends and family
First jobs
Last days
Drives to clear my head
Snow storms
Downpours
First days of spring with the windows down and Jimmy Eat World turned up

She never let me down.

My aunt, being a social worker and a veritable wellspring of emotion, asked me "how do you feel about selling the car? Does it make you sad?" Despite being pleased about the dollars in my pitiful bank account, I admit I was a little sentimental. Don't misunderstand, I'm not emotionally attached to any of my material things. But there were so many memories in that car. Images of friends laughing in the backseat, all my wordly college possessions blocking my rear view on the long drive home, digging her out of record snowfall, listening to Kieran snoring from the passenger's seat on long drives. It was just a car but it was also a major backdrop in the movie of my life. But I take comfort in knowing that although the car is gone, my memories will always stay with me.

I guess I'm also a little sad that soon this might be my fate as a European driver:

Source
God help me.

Visa Update:Monday is 1 calendar month and 19 business days
Nothing yet.

I did the math

Y'all, I am a sad sight to behold. I've just checked my email for the 47th time (no spouse visa yet), I'm sitting in my duckie boxer shorts, and eating breakfast at 6:00pm. My daily nail-biting is compounded by the fact that I'm unemployed and don't exactly have much to fill my day with. It's quite pathetic.

Anyways, my point is, I have A LOT of time on my hands.

A more ambitious person might go to the gym every day, do chores, or at least carry the dirty clothes pile blocking the door 3 feet to the hamper for which it was created. Not I!

Instead I have chosen to obsessively check American Expat message boards, make obnoxious posts on the UK Consulate in New York facebook page, and check processing time stats every 3 hours.

I have made an interesting calculation that pisses me off...

This is the current statistics for settlement visa processing times posted on the UK Border Agency website:

These stats are based on the month of March. That's 237 cases in one month. Sounds like a lot, right? Not really.

If there's 20 working days in a month. That's 11 cases in a day. REALLY?!
Come on now, you can surely do better than that. I assume theres more than one staff person assigned to this type of case. Even if there are two people, they should surely be able to make a decision on at least twice that amount.

Consider this.
It should take no more than 30 minutes to look at the supporting documentation and determine if this is clearly a legit couple or not. If yes, stamp APPROVE on it. If no, pass it along for a second opinion. So, in theory, one staff person could make a decision on 14 cases in one working day (I am being nice and giving them an hour for lunch). I would like to think they have more than one person working on this.

Ugh I am just making my brain hurt. At the end of the day, it doesn't make my case process any faster. Blergh.

Sorry y'all, I hope to make a more cheery post later.

Bittersweet

Happy Monday, everyone!


The past 24 hours have been the definition of "bittersweet" for me. On one hand, I never thought I would still be here for Mother's Day so I felt very blessed to be able to have this time with my mom and dad, the three musketeers on the loose! On the other hand, today is Kieran and my 1 month wedding anniversary and we're still separated by immigration.





(Here's me and my beautiful mom just a month ago on a very happy occasion!)

Well I think I speak for my mom when I say we had a lovely Mother's Day together! The three of us drove to Frederick for the day. As the country scenery flew by our window, we jammed out to Taylor Swift tunes. We did what mom and I love best--shopping! My mom got a Movado watch that she has wanted for a long time and we spent a great deal of the time in the bookstore...AKA mom's second home. We got some children's books for my cousin's baby on the way and bonded over chatting about our favorite childhood tales. Some of my favorite memories of my childhood were reading stories with my mom! It was nice to reminisce. I'm grateful that I could see my mom's reaction to my flowers and card and was able to give her a nice day together.


On the other hand, I'm still apart from my heart. Today is 3 weeks and 14 business days from when I received confirmation that my spouse settlement visa was received. Every single day is absolute agony. The waiting is killing me. It's so hard on the both of us. Trust me, Kieran and I are no strangers to long distance, we've been doing this for nearly 5 years now. But this particular experience definitely measures up there with the worst. I think it's because:

A) We have no control over when the separation will end. I can't just hop on a plane, I have no passport.

B) We're married now and we're not able to live like a married couple. We thought marriage was gonna end this nonsense and yet we're still apart. I hate not being able to be there to do wifey things and contribute financially!

C) Both of our lives are on hold. I'm not working because I thought I would be in the UK getting a job by now and Kieran's living in a half furnished apartment cause we're not there together to set it up properly.


I wish we could go back to this happier time...



It just feels like a horrible injustice right now.

I feel guilty sometimes for being such a sour puss about this situation when I know there are loads of couples who have it way worse. I'm very fortunate that although Kieran is far away, he's not in a war and at least I know he's safe. I am very lucky that I'm not having to worry about children and how this affects them. I am so so blessed that I have my parents here who are supporting me emotionally and financially by letting me stay with them rent free until I can finally move to England. It could be so much worse, I know. I just can't help feeling sorry for myself anyway.

I just miss my man and I'm devastated that our first month of marriage wasn't what we thought it would be and that I'm missing out on this time together.

Well I guess I should get out of my pajamas and do some chores. At least it will fill a few hours and I desperately need to do laundry, I am fresh out of undies...noooo!

Thanks for reading,
A