Richard III

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During the last half of 2003, I lived and worked in England, in the Leicestershire town of Loughborough.  I made almost weekly trips down to Leicester.  In March and April of 2004, I was assigned to Nuneaton, in Warwickshire, just a ways southwest of Leicester.

While living in Nuneaton, I took a trip out to the countryside, to the village of Market Bosworth and to an old battleground.  The site of the Battle of Bosworth Field where King Richard III lost to Henry Tudor.

This week's announcement by the University of Leicester about verifying their find of the remains of King Richard III, hit a special spot for me.  I've walked the battlefield where he died.  I've been to the city, and possibly very close to where he was buried.  I just found and still find it fascinating. This is seriously interesting stuff.  Do yourself a favor and check it out.  The University of Leicester has a great overview of the process finding and then identifying the remains of the king beyond a reasonable doubt.  You can find it at www.le.ac.uk/richardiii.

Growing Up International: Nutella

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This is the second in a series of posts about my international experience.

One of my first memories, or at least realizations that other countries and people existed, was in elementary (primary) school.

I do not remember which grade I was in, who my teacher was at the time, or how old I was, but I still can remember the feeling.

The feeling of the joy of Nutella.

Someone, it was either my teacher, a student teacher, a friend of the teacher, or another teacher at the school, had just recently come back from abroad.

She brought back Nutella.

This may not seem very unusual to you, considering you can by Nutella at any grocery store, any Walmart, etc.  But this was the early 90s.  Nutella just wasn't on the American scene at that time.  The idea that you could spread chocolate on bread was astounding.

It was awesome.

It boggled all of our little prepubescent minds.  It made me wonder about why America, THE country, did not have such a wonderful and amazing thing such as this.

Nutella wasn't the only thing this bringer of new worlds brought to our class.  She talked about some of the places she went, the people she met, the cultures she experienced.  It was probably the first time I had ever heard of Muslims.  She showed us a picture of an elderly man in a turban walking down a foreign street.  She explained that people like him generally don't like to have people take their photo, but she did it on the sly.  And the result was very impressive.  I don't condone taking pictures of people who don't want their photo taken, but it was a cool photo.

I can't recall most of this presentation that she shared with us.  But I do remember the photo, and I remember the Nutella.  It would be years before I experienced Nutella again, but when I did, it was like meeting an old friend.