A Pennsylvania Blogger Meet-Up

This post is way overdue. Months and months ago I responded to a blog post by one of my favorite bloggers, Katherine from Of Corgis and Cocktails, inviting PA bloggers to lunch.

That's me on the left! Then Kate, Stephanie, Becky, Katherine, and Marisa! Photo courtesy of Katherine.

And so in October I borrowed my husband's car and drove down to Terrain in Glen Mills to eat lunch with some lovely girls I'd never met before. The journey down was an adventure. The car was literally falling apart due to some bad repairs carried out by a garage (which we later got fixed at no charge because the garage made so many mistakes). Scooting down the highway was a bit scary as I needed to avoid potholes and braking too hard. Plus it was the furthest I'd driven by myself since moving to the US, and I had no clue where I was going, or where I was meeting my fellow blogettes!

But it was a very nice afternoon, meeting some lovely local ladies, and poking around a gorgeous store.

From the buttery bread served in flower pots and fresh water in mason jars, to the beautiful displays and delicious aromas (check out their soaps…mmm), Terrain was a great place to meet up.

And as it was nearing Halloween (hence all the pumpkins), we gave each other little treats, most of which my husband and I snarfed immediately when I got home. Let me tell you, these bloggers have skills. 

When my husband saw the photo at the top of all of us, he asked how I managed to find the five girls in Pennsylvania with the same style as me. I told him it made complete sense - we all follow the blogs that attract us the most, and blog the things that interest us the most, or that we hope others like us will find interesting. People on social media, and bloggers especially, get knocked for image crafting, but to me that's entirely the point. I'm going to talk more about this in a future post, so watch out for it.

Of course I'll do my due diligence and link to Katherine's outfit post and Marisa's outfit post so you can find out where they got their cute dresses (and see more photos of Terrain). And my dress? It's from UK store Trollied Dolly. I wore it here too. Their dresses are so fabulous that I have several, and my husband even proposed to me while I was wearing one!

Snow in Pennsylvania

This winter we've had plenty of snow days, including yesterday and our last few days before Christmas in the UK.

Luckily I wear a number of professional hats, so it doesn't create too much turmoil for me. I currently work for a cute little country club in the ruralburbs, and I also do freelance work for a creative marketing agency. When I'm not doing one I'm doing the other, and a snow day gives me a chance to catch up with copywriting, reports, and walkies.

Valley Forge in the Fall

We were there on July 4th not long after I'd first arrived, and Mr was determined to take me back when the leaves changed their color and crispiness.

Valley Forge was not just an encampment for George Washington and his men during the Revolutionary War, it was also an important mining town. That's why we call it Valley Forge: it was an iron forge in a valley. Unfortunately, most of the town buildings were pulled down when it became a visitor's park and a lot of that heritage was lost.

The old train station still stands, and is used as a small introductory museum to greet visitors before they wander to Washington's Headquarters.

 Wait - is that - are they - ?

Teapots! I thought so.

An army that runs on tea?

A cup of tea seems such a British thing to me, and yet they were fighting the British. The ruckus started with a load of over-taxed tea getting dumped in the Boston harbor.

This is what fascinates me about this period in US history. There must have existed a strange dichotomy between the past and the future, between trying to shake off the perceived tyranny of the British government and clinging to the cultural hangovers of their former country. Between 'British' and 'not-British'. There was not, as yet, American culture.

Having come from Britain to America myself, I can choose to assimilate to US culture, or maintain my British culture, or do a combination of both. Washington and his contemporaries had to choose to maintain their British culture, or create a whole new culture, or a mixture of both. True cultural pioneers.

Pennsylvania is the Keystone State: The bridge between the North - comprising New England  - and the South. If you look closely, you notice it's both Northern and Southern culturally. And that makes it a very interesting place to be.

A British cannon?

And this region represents the cornerstone, the foundations of US culture. Here's where it all began.

Some visitors to Valley Forge wear their American pride on their chests: T-shirts of Eagles and the Stars n Stripes, and Valley Forge memorabilia. I like to try to keep my Britishness under wraps when I'm there (but don't always succeed, if you recall).

So even I was a little surprised when I saw this:

A fashion shoot at Valley Forge? Union Jack clothing?

And I wasn't the only one who was shocked! As we left I overheard some Americans declaim, in their unusual Northern-Southern Pennsylvania country drawl:

"Is she wearing the British Flag - at Valley Forge?"

Wafers Spiced and all things nice: The tale of a controversial autumn cookie

As a recent expat sometimes it's for me hard to know what is really a 'thing' - a custom, tradition, cultural trend - or what is just my American family's own way of life.

Pumpkin Spice is definitely a 'thing'. And by now maybe you think I'm obsessed with it. I am, but only because at this time of year America is obsessed with it too. The other day a local radio station proudly announced that it was "Officially Pumpkin Flavored".

US TV cook and potential-maybe-future-first-lady Sandra Lee introduced me to all sorts of bizarre pumpkin spice concoctions, including pumpkin spice cocktails and pumpkin spice jello shots. The varieties of ways this country can push a simple spice blend is pretty impressive. I don't think half of these products have even seen an actual pumpkin.

This brings me to 'spiced wafers'. Recently we had to drive across the county to one specific store that sold a specific brand of these things. Apparently this was necessary to get the true taste of October. I was told no local supermarket sells the 'right kind' of spiced wafer.

The 'right kind' I'm talking about is Ivin's Spiced Wafers, which are not at all a wafer. They look deceptively like ginger snap cookies, but instead they have that clovey pumpkin spice taste I currently can't escape. And yes, they're good.

You can only get them in Acme supermarkets within the greater Philadelphia region of Pennsylvania, during the months of Fall.  On a side note, Acme supermarkets only exist in Northeast USA. They should not be confused with the fictional Acme Corporation from Looney Tunes, although I like to pretend that I could pick up my seasonal spiced wafers and a large anvil in just one shopping trip.

So these little cookies are almost exclusively a Pennsylvanian October thing. And a tasty Pennsylvanian October thing at that, especially when washed down with a refreshing pumpkin or Octoberfest beer (more on those later). But would it were that simple…

There's another local spiced wafer rival, Sweetzels, made in the little local Christmas town of Skippack, PA. And the brand you prefer could reflect greatly on your character. There is more than one Sweetzel v Ivins Throwdown available online, comparing the spice and crunch of each respective biscuit.

Moreover, there's a small level of outrage to be found online that Ivins may not be made as locally as Sweetzels, and may actually be shipped over each Autumn from (shock!) Minnesota. Acme, a Pennsylvania chain, is owned by SuperValu, a Minnesota chain. It gets complicated.

There's also another online conspiracy that Ivin's cookies are actually made by (shock!) Sweetzels. Some consumers find their packaging, and the shape and size of the biscuits themselves, to be too strikingly similar to have possibly been produced by two different companies.

If there's one thing I love, it's baked goods mired in controversy -from the Magnolia cupcake lawsuit to the Jaffa Cake cookie tax court case. I'm very tempted to try to get to the bottom of these spiced wafer conspiracies, but I'm also concerned that would spoil the intrigue surrounding this seasonal bake. What do you think? Should I go on a mission to uncover the mystery or leave this spicy tale be?

P.S Sorry for the delay in this post. Here's an unrelated piece of advice: Don't eat hotdogs that are a month out of date/expired. You will get food poisoning.


Remember, it's the Glad Blog Octoberfest all this month, so please send me your own Fall themed posts - I'd love to feature my favorites. Bonus points if you feature pumpkin related activities or products, local Fall Fests, or fun traditions I haven't heard of.

Five places in Pennsylvania I really want to visit

Only one of these photos was taken in St.Andrews

Some of my friends and family are quite surprised that I made the giant leap from St.Andrews, Scotland, to nowhere, PA. So far moving and living here has been challenging but satisfying, and I'm excited to get stuck into the local Fall events. I've even made a calendar marking all the local Fall Festivals, pumpkin chucks, apple cider tasting and hay rides so I don't miss anything!

But there are also loads of non-Fall related places I'm still yet to explore. So, in no particular order, here's a shortlist of places in Pennsylvania I can't wait to check out:

1. Hershey Park
I described this to my younger sister as "a theme park where the theme is chocolate" and I don't think there's much more I need to say about it. I love chocolate, and I love theme parks. Hershey isn't the only theme park around here that looks great though. There's also Dorney, Knoebels, and over the state border in NJ there's Six Flags, home to the the USA's tallest roller coaster. They all do Halloween events that look like a total scream, and if I had the money I'd do them all.

2. Crayons and Potato Chips
Okay, cheating a little again with two very different factory tours in at number two. First off we have the Crayola experience, where it seems you can draw and play with melted crayons, see how they're made and learn the history of the famous brand. I know I'm way too old for this, but admit it, you want to come with me.

The second factory is the Herr's Potato chip factory. I'd reckon I eat enough of these potato chips to warrant me a free tour, but the tours are already free. Not only that, there seems to be some 'zany' chipmunk characters involved, and the site promises 'technological wizardry'. Intrigued?

3. Lancaster
Lancaster county is the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. By 'Dutch' the Pennsylvanians actually mean 'Deutsch', and by that they mean the German immigrants, culture and influence on this region of the US. This includes the Lancaster Amish and Mennonite communities, and there seems to be a huge focus on tourism to see these 'plain' farms and homesteads. But a trip to Dutch Pennsylvania also includes pretzel bakeries, the history of the German settlers, and some great gastro-attractions, including the Turkey Hill ice cream experience.

4. Gettysburg
We took a trip to Valley Forge on July 4th, but still have not ventured to Gettysburg, the civil war site famous for a short but nevertheless important speech. I think that while living in PA, a visit here is a must, and will help cement my understanding of how this country came to be what it is today. Fellow blogger Katherine of Of Corgis and Cocktails recently visited the site, and you should check out her stunning and moving photos.

5. Centralia
A completely different kind of attraction altogether. Centralia is a ghost town. It has no zip code (according to wiki it was 17927 until 2002 when it was revoked). The town was blighted by an underground mine fire in the 1960s, which still burns today. Most people left in the 1980s, though a few remain, and although there's little there, the road is torn in two by the still smoldering fire. Apparently the horror movie Silent Hill was partially based on the spookiness of the town. I've read that during snow storms the heat of the fire melts the snow, and steam can be seen rising from underground. For a fan of urban decay photos, that's a site I'd love to see and something I can only imagine would be a fantastic location for a fashion editorial. Who'd like to take me and my trusty DSLR here for Halloween?

What have I missed from this list? What other quirky sites should I check out? What are the hotspots (literally or otherwise) in other states?

Rustic Weekend: Freddy Hill Farm

Hey, it's another dairy farm!

We are spoiled for choice for local dairy goods here. One of the super benefits of living in the heart of nowhere, USA - we can have a rigorous round of mini golf followed by a towering cookie cone of locally made ice cream.

Rustic Weekend: Love Statue

Love Statue: It crops up everywhere. This is not the famous one in Love Park, Philadelphia (city of brotherly love).

Our Town

When I was about 16, I played Emily in a production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. If you're American, you probably know it from required reading at school. Maybe you're groaning right now.

We performed in a church hall with the audience facing us on two sides. I remember a member of the audience approaching me after one performance to tell me they enjoyed it, but it was a bit heavy for a weeknight.

Last night we saw an open air production of Our Town in a nearby park. It was a great performance, and ever so much more poignant to be seeing it in rural/surburban America. Beneath the moon and the stars, with crickets and birds making a racket around us; it was almost like we were in the heart of Grover's Corner, especially when a train would pass us in the distance. This is exactly how Our Town should be experienced.

This town, our town, is not unlike that in the play. It's fascinating to speak to my parents-in-law to discover how much this corner of the USA has developed over the past half-century. At the end, when the sun had set completely, and the cast took their bows, we felt uplifted and fortunate, and excited about our future.

Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?—every, every minute?

Rustic Weekend: Merrymead Farm

July is ice cream month after all, and I'd never tasted a pretzel cone before!

Not a walk in the park

I've been asked a few times about what has the most surprising thing about moving to the USA.

Believe it or not, it's the culture shock.

I think there's an assumption that US and UK culture is very similar, especially between people of similar races/heritages. Mark has an anglo-saxon heritage; his ancestors were English/Scottish and Irish. But quite often we find that we are just not speaking the same language. It can be shocking and confusing for both of us, and little things crop up all the time when we least expect them.

One time during our stint as a transatlantic couple I had to sign off Skype because I had to go and make tea. Two hours later Mark was annoyed that I hadn't returned, thinking that making tea should only take five minutes. I was referring to "tea" the evening meal, not "tea" the hot drink, and it took at long while for me to convince him that the word is interchangeable!

So despite the number of times I have been to the US, and the cumulative amount of time I have spent here, it has been incredibly hard to adjust. One of the hardest things is not knowing how "settled in" I should be by now, and it's even harder to accept that there are no rules on this. Not having my SSC or driving permit has meant that I've been entirely dependent on my husband in many ways, and at first I allowed that to knock my confidence.

Immigration, and especially family immigration, is not just about bureaucracy and paperwork. Visajourney has been useful for me, once again, to realize that the whole cultural process takes a long time, and longer than you'd imagine.  I read one thread, where a stranger summed it up bluntly but accurately:

They give up everything to be here. Their jobs, family, the land they know and understand, their life style, I mean really it's darn near everything. Then they get here and what do they find? They don't know how to get around, they don't know where they are, they can't work, when they can they're starting off below where they were before. Their comfort foods are all gone. Their friends are too far away. Everyone is a stranger, even you as their spouse suddenly is different because now you're living together and they see all sides of you. They are totally dependent on one person, and yes, it's easy for them resent that.

So this has been the most surprising thing so far. I know it seems daft that I'm surprised that emigration/immigration isn't easy. But I'm getting there; I've a routine now which involves going to the gym three times a week, and spending time cooking with Mark, and constantly applying for work and volunteer opportunities.

The great, great news is that I now have my Green Card, my new Social card and my driving permit! If you've never seen a Green Card before, check it out, it's very cool. I've got teeny tiny pictures of all the US Presidents and all the state flags crammed onto a plastic green (yes!) card, along with all my personal info.

It hasn't all been apple pie and walks in the park since I got here… although that's certainly been a part of it.

Mark's apple pie. It was delicious.

anti-social security

On my first full day in the States, we picked up this from the DMV:

I read it over the weekend, and then we popped back down to the DMV (Mark drove, obviously) and I presented my documents to the brow-beaten employee. As I'd literally just arrived and had little in the way of proof of residence, I also presented my husband and two proofs of his residence. Honestly, it was on the list of acceptable documents: spouse and two proofs of address.

The poor DMV employee, sitting in a fluoro-lit windowless building on a heady summer's day, sighed. He knew my case was not going to be straightforward. It should have been. I passed the theory test with full marks - so much easier than the UK equivalent and none of that hazard perception nonsense either. The employee checked out my visa, passport, spouse, his driving license, and his two proofs of address: All A-OK. The problem, however, was my social security card.

Social security numbers, invented by FDR in 1935 as part of his New Deal, are akin to UK National Insurance numbers (Bonus Fact: UK National Insurance was invented in 1911). The point, originally, was to provide welfare/insurance/benefits/pension to citizens suffering from poverty as a result of the Great Depression (1929, but you knew that).

FDR also allowed for SSNs to be used as 'governmental identifiers' of individuals, although this didn't become widespread until later in the 20th century. You can read all about this here if you're that interested.

The DMV requires presentation of a valid SSC as proof of identity. I actually have a valid SSC, but the problem is that it's in my maiden name. Even presentation of my passport, marriage certificate, spouse, his driving license and two proofs of his address wasn't going to be enough to get my PA driving permit. And we thought we'd gotten good at bureaucracy!

We boldly drove (well Mark did) across the county to the Social Security Administration. Another windowless building, where George Takei advertizes managing your benefits on a giant TV screen on a loop. Hilarious the first time, unsettling after a while. An employee helped me fill out an application for an updated card, but warned me it'd take a month to arrive. It only took 10 days to get my original card back in 2006, so I thought this was an exaggeration. It's not.

So I'm stuck in rural America without wheels.

Jack Kerouac wrote "On the Road" and not "On the Sidewalk"

The USA is designed for cars. In the 1950s shops even built parking lots over sidewalks/footpaths as inter-state highways cemented (sorry) the car as the leading form of US transport. The drive-thru boomed, not only in fast food, but also in coffee, banking, and postal services. I had hoped to hit the USA running, jumping and driving so I could start to build my new life here the moment I arrived. To be honest, this paper delay took the wind out of my sails a bit.

I do understand why I'm waiting. Identification fraud is a real concern. Journalist Jose Antonio Vargas found out he was an illegal immigrant when he went to the DMV to get his permit; it all rested on his SSC. There's also a slightly hilarious case where one poor secretary had her SSN wrongfully used by 40,000 other people. Meanwhile, Mark's happy to drive me to the local YMCA where I can run and jump for free, but the driving is a no-no until I get my new card and I can once again prove I'm me.

Rustic Weekend: Fireflies

Midsummer means several fun things in this part of the world. It means high temperatures, humidity, air conditioning, July 4th, BBQs, summer camps, free open air concerts, and ice cream. 

It also means fireflies. Mark and his family call them lightning bugs, fitting because midsummer also means tremendous thunder and lightning storms. 

Every evening for a couple of weeks there's a wonderful light show in the fading twilight heat. The bugs appear and disappear like those shooting stars that you can only see from the corners of your eyes. I tried to capture them one evening…

…I think that's the best I'm gonna do, I'm afraid, so you'll just have to imagine their splendor instead.

Go 4th part 2

After all the stars, stripes, vintage cars, candy and community members paraded along the street, we walked to the car (walking being a rare treat in this rural sprawl, even if it was nearing 100F) and headed to Valley Forge.

Valley Forge is a famous winter encampment of the US military during the Revolutionary war against the British. Now it's a huge park and visitor center. It seemed appropriate to go on July 4th, and I reckoned it'd be a great opportunity to brush up on my US history. I have a lot of brushing up to do. I only recently learned that New York was named after the Duke of York and not the city itself, that Virginia was named after Queen Elizabeth I, and Louisiana after the French King (the 14th one). Maryland was named after King Charles I's Catholic wife (and it was also a Catholic safe haven). I do find it slightly ironic that these names stuck even after the US declared independence, but I like that they did.

Valley Forge was great. Their "second annual July 4th picnic" was in full swing when we arrived. This involved BBQ food, kids' games, colonial outfits, toy guns and of course, stars and stripes. We watched Jefferson read out the declaration and we were even offered the chance to sign our independence.

I approached the 'independence' stall with a little trepidation. I felt a little (a lot) like an imposter, but I thought it would be a fun thing to sign my independence from the UK. The past couple of weeks have felt a lot like I'm on holiday in the US, but I'm not. I'm permanent now!

The friendly girl at the stall struck up a conversation with me and I was happy to oblige until she said "uh, where are you from?"

Uh oh. Busted. Oops. Enemy in the ranks.

"Shh, I'm actually British!" I whispered.

"Haha, I thought so, I won't tell!" She laughed.

 I added "I just got my Green Card though, so it's aaall fine!" I signed my name, and she joked that it was 'official' now.

It was too darn hot to stay much longer, so we bowed out, and drove back home. I had baked a cake from the Mary Berry Baking Bible I'd been given for Christmas. It was, to emulate the irony of the names of the founding States, a chocolate Victoria Sponge. I thought it seemed apt.

Mark and I cut the cake with the knife we'd been given for our wedding cake, and that Mark had actually forgotten to bring to the wedding. Cheesy, yes, but to be fair we didn't get to spend our first anniversary together, and this is a reminder to make and cut (and eat, I hope) more cakes together.

We ate chicken grilled outside on the family BBQ. No rain, no food poisoning, just your every day US BBQ, not the drenched British renditions I'm used to. Then we settled down to watch the shows on TV. If you're from the Old World (like me) and you've never seen July 4th television before, it bears a resemblance to the Eurovision Song Contest, but as if nobody involved knew it was Eurovision, and with added American patriotism and bravado. And the really great thing is that it's on more than one channel. Oh yes. I think this is something that Eurovision should definitely adopt. We could flick from NY to Capitol Hill to Philly, catch a patriotic revue by a girl from the hit show Smash, watch some smooth jazz, experience the legend that is John Williams, enjoy a bit of bluegrass, and listen to more than one rendition of America the Beautiful if we wanted.

At one point I did start singing along with a familiar tune coming from the Military walking bands. After being reprimanded for my blatant inappropriateness, I discovered it wasn't supposed to be the UK national anthem God Save the Queen, but actually the patriotic US ditty My Country 'Tis of Thee. It's the same tune guys, so forgive a simple Brit's fanfare faux pas?

After all that we watched a few hundred thousand dollars' worth of fireworks blow up all over the country, including some around our neighborhood that sounded way too loud to be legal. We missed the San Diego firework fiasco until the next morning - at any rate I thought it bore a strikingly suspicious resemblance to the Oban November 5th fiasco last year.

But now, holiday is definitely over. Time to get used to living here for real…

Go 4th part 1

Several years ago when Mark and I were both living in Glasgow, we decided to have a small BBQ for July 4th. Most of our friends were working on their Postgrad dissertations at the time, as were we, so a bit of light, patriotic, distraction from our studies was very welcome.

We bought a cheap BBQ from a local shop where Mark also inquired "do you have any fireworks?"

"No mate, it's the wrong time of year."

Mark was stunned. It was July 4th, how could it be the wrong time of year for fireworks? I had to remind him: "We're in the UK. US Independence - not celebrated so much. We only use fireworks to celebrate the time a guy tried to blow up our Parliament, not the time we lost to you guys. It's not really our finest moment in history."

We went to a local bottle shop and Mark cleaned them out of Sam Adams. We cooked meat outside my apartment. As per the rules of British barbecuing, it rained. We had trouble keeping the BBQ alight and everyone congregated in the kitchen, except a few guys who decided it was a man's job to play with meat and flames. The burgers and sausages were served according to traditional British BBQ cuisine: black and crunchy on the outside and disconcertingly pink in the middle.

I thought it was great, everything turned out as expected and nobody died of food poisoning. Mark learned a lot about the rules (or unwitting traditions) of British al fresco dining.

This year it was my turn to see a real July 4th in real America. Our local parade was just the ticket. It was already reaching 90F (32C) by 10am, but we took a spot by the roadside and enjoyed being part of the local community. Nowhere in the world does patriotism like the USA. And nowhere in the USA does patriotism like the rural sprawl.