Up On the Downs

Hello friends and family! We hope that this post finds you well and enjoying the beginning of the new year. As for us, we just finished welcoming our new cohort of students for the Spring 2011 semester at JUC. They are settled, have gone through orientation, and are ready to begin their classes this week. In the midst of getting ready for our new semester, we have thought fondly of our two-week trip to the English countryside, from which we just returned only two weeks ago. As you know, a month ago we were on a field study in Egypt for a week (hopefully some of our readers have checked out the pics!). Two weeks after returning from Egypt we packed up again and headed to the UK. We had an amazing trip thanks to our friends David and Sheila Holden, who were kind enough to host us and make our stay in England a wonderful and special time. So, read on if you’re interested in hearing a little more about it.

Our trip to England began with the realization that we were really in need of getting away from Israel for a little while. We have been in Israel for nearly a year and half, working and going to school, and so time away (and time in a “western” environment that feels more like home) was really becoming a necessity. About the middle of the fall semester, our first time out as Campus Life Directors at JUC, we started planning, and after deciding that it would be too expensive to fly to the States, we thought of England. We have never been to England and it sounded like a nice place to get away. So, with our very limited budget in mind, we reached out for some friends of Mandy’s parents who live in England, and asked them if they wouldn’t mind letting us stay with them for a couple weeks. The Holdens responded very graciously, offering to take care of us, and let us stay not only in their home in Lewes, but also suggested that we spend a few days in their flat in the coastal town of Eastbourne. With their confirmation, we made our plans, finished up our projects with work and school and then headed to the UK on December 27.

After a short flight of about 5 hours, the Holdens picked us up at Heathrow Airport in London, and took us for a whirlwind trip to lunch (which consisted of amazing “ready-made” BLTs), to their grocery store for supplies, and finally to their flat in Eastbourne. Originally we had planned to stay at their house first and then spend the second week in Eastbourne, but due to unforeseen circumstances we ended up switching that around and staying in Eastbourne first, which worked out nicely for us because we were able to have nearly a week to ourselves to just unwind.

From the moment we hit the ground in London we realized that transitioning from a country where English is a second or third language to a place where it is primary was going to be our first stages of “reverse culture shock.” There were no Hebrew or Arabic signs, newspapers, or decals to be found, which was a strange and welcome change. I (Justin) almost can’t begin to describe the feeling of being in a western grocery store again. We went from aisle to aisle as our friends inquired of us “what we fancied.” In a store such as we were in with a huge (or so we thought) selection of items which included non-kosher things like bacon, we pretty much fancied everything we saw. And, after a year and a half without flavorful cheese, this became a high priority fancy on our list. (By the way, we discovered that the cheese is amazing in England.) If you’ve lived abroad then you know the feeling of the first time you returned to a place that had the things you like to eat. It might sound silly, but it is quite an overwhelming and exciting experience. I should also point out that after a warm and dry beginning to Israel’s winter, heading to England’s foggy and cold countryside was absolutely wonderful (though we had a hard time convincing the locals that someone could actually enjoy such “dreary” weather).

Now, for the first location of our trip, we were in Eastbourne, which means “East River.” Eastbourne is located on the southeastern coast of the English Channel in a county called East Sussex (the overarching county of Sussex that includes both West and East Sussex, basically designates the southeastern English countryside). This area is known primarily for its rolling chalk hills that run along the coast called the “Downs,” which start in Eastbourne and continue west for some 70 miles. Eastbourne itself is known for two areas of the Downs called Beachy Head, which we visited, and the Seven Sisters just beyond. One of the amazing things about where we were in England is that locals really seem to value getting out and enjoying the countryside. In fact there are a number of laws in place that prevent development of certain areas, specifically for the purpose of preserving the natural beauty of the landscape. There are literally footpaths, lookouts, and places to sit, everywhere in the south of the country, which include the Downs, but also most of the southern cities. The city of Eastbourne is small and quaint with a lot of Victorian-style architecture. We enjoyed walking back and forth between the flat and the downtown area. And, it was downtown that we had our first fish and chips experience at a pub, which wasn’t really very good, but which we were able to redeem later by going to the renown Harry Ramsden’s World Famous Fish and Chips. We also got coffee at Starbucks (multiple times in fact) for the first time in a year and a half!  

After a week of enjoyable walks into Eastbourne and on the Downs, and amazing meals (which were supplemented by as much good cheese as much as was humanly possible) in our borrowed flat, we then headed to Lewes to spend the majority of our time left in England with the Holdens in their home. David and Sheila live in a sixteenth century cottage that they have worked tirelessly on over the years to make it into a very unique blend of ancient architecture and sleek modern style and convenience. The building’s plan, frame, and brickwork reflect the Victorian period (the 1800s) and the Elizabethan period (early 1900s), but the building was actually put there in medieval times, around the 1400s, and much of the extant wooden superstructure has oak beams from that time period. This was fascinating to us coming from Israel where wood and organics are not preserved over long spans of time except in extremely dry climates. In fact there is a lot of archaeological data from the UK, most of which comes from the Roman period, but in some places, like Eastbourne, remains go as far back as the Neolithic period, or New Stone Age (ca. 4,000 – 2,200 BCE in European archaeological chronology).

Anyway, we enjoyed spending time with the Holdens, going to their church, meeting some of their friends, and eating lots of local British cuisine (cooked regularly for us by Sheila!), which consists most often of a roasted meat, like lamb or beef, and potatoes, steamed “veg,” and gravy, with the most amazing desserts (or "puddings") afterwards. We also had the opportunity, while staying with the Holdens, to walk around their suburb of Lewes, a little village called Barcombe Cross, and visit Lewes’ old town (which is situated around the ruins of a Norman castle that was built in the 1400s CE). There is so much old and breathtaking architecture to take in wherever you go in the countryside. The old churches are especially beautiful and are like things that we had only seen in the movies prior to our visit.

One of the things we had set our sights on prior to taking our trip to England was visiting the British Museum, which we were able to do once we were staying with the Holdens, since Sheila is an expert on the train schedules. We took the train from Cooksbridge into London on a very rainy Thursday morning of our second week in England. Once we arrived at Victoria Station we had to catch the subway (usually referred to as the “Underground” or the “Tube”) to a street near the museum. After an interesting train ride and a little time getting lost in London, we found the imposing façade of the British Museum that mimics the front of a large ancient Greek temple. Our time in the museum was a bit limited (and really a person could easily spend a week there in order to see everything) so we only had enough time to look carefully through a few sections, namely the ancient Levant and Mesopotamia. We also tried to breeze through the Egyptian artifacts. The highlights of the museum are certainly the seventh century BCE Assyrian wall-reliefs from the palace of Sennacherib, which are present in the museum in their entirety and also the Rosetta Stone from Egypt. One of the really nice things about the British Museum is that you are permitted to take pictures of just about everything, unlike the Cairo museum, which we had just been to a few weeks prior.

We stayed at the museum until it closed and then went to dinner at a place called My Old Dutch, which specializes in crepes … huge crepes, like 16 inches in diameter—I had one with maple syrup and butter and Mandy had one with cream and a berry medley. Then we caught the Underground back to Victoria Station. Since we had a couple of hours to kill before our train that would take us back to Lewes arrived, we walked to Buckingham Palace, which is just a short distance from the train station.

The craziest thing that we did while we were in England was rent a car, and for all practical purposes, learn how to drive all over again! Not only do you have to master being on the opposite side of the road than we are used to in the States (and in Israel), but I have only driven a couple of times since we left home. So with my sense of direction and depth perception all off, and lots of tiny country roads, city highways, and roundabouts ahead of us, we hit the road in our little Toyota Auris Hybrid. Mandy was an excellent and encouraging navigator and all in all it took us about three days to get accustomed to driving, and it did actually become comfortable after a little while. In the end, we came away with only a few little scrapes to the front passenger wheel of the car! However, our biggest accomplishment on the road was driving back to Eastbourne from Lewes, about a 35-minute drive, where we finished out the last few days of our stay. I think that I was most comfortable driving on the day that we had to take the rental back to Enterprise. Oh well, it was a fun experience and I hope that the next time we attempt it the learning curve will be a little quicker.

Our stay in England was, overall, amazing and we couldn’t have done it without the support of the Holdens and their wonderful hospitality. God certainly blessed us through them and we are very grateful. Our trip was so relaxing and we were able to process and recuperate from our first semester out as staff members at JUC. England, and in particular, Sussex, with its quaint countryside, rolling Downs, and friendly people was great, and though it wasn’t quite home, it still captured a piece of our hearts. Interestingly, we picked up a little book in one of the antiquarian bookshops in downtown Lewes called The Book of Sussex Verse, which is an anthology of poetry by various authors, some of them really well known, on all things Sussex. To close this entry on our time in England, we thought it appropriate to cite a poignant passage from Rudyard Kipling that reflects our newfound love of southern England.

God gives all men all earth to love,

But since man’s heart is small,

Ordains for each one spot shall prove

Beloved over all.

Each to his choice, and I rejoice

The lot has fallen to me

In a fair ground—in a fair ground—

Yea, Sussex by the sea!

Please keep us in your prayers for finances as we begin our new semester and make our plans to head home for a little while in the summer. We also have some small school expenses (mainly a few books) that are coming up. Please also pray for strength for us to make it through the semester strong so that we can support and care for our students and also make it through our studies. You are in our thoughts and prayers. Thanks everyone and blessings to you.