I am Dorothy.

We're back from an excellent holiday (vacation). And whilst I download photos and sort through memories to share with you, I thought I'd respond to a few requests about what life is like here for me in Britain...

For the most part, life here is pretty normal and I am at home. I do regular things, and don't even notice that I live outside of the States. Sometimes though, I glance about and notice something that just isn't right, but not necessarily wrong, for example, this image from my desk. If you take a look at it (and you can point and click on it to make it bigger), you'll notice that there are elements of my life that are just not part of yours.

Here is what you're looking at, umm, with some British spellings:

- First off, there's our chequebook. A little longer than my American one (both in spelling and measurement) and linked to an internet-only bank with customer service based outside of Glasgow.

- My Fulbourn Garden Society membership card good until the Annual Flower Show in the summer, where we'll see a summer cornucopia that could be described using every adjective.

- My British First Aid Course certificate. Alastair and I became certified last January, and although we learned the mechanics of resuscitation, we were encouraged to do the most important act in a moment of crisis: to offer a cup of tea. Apparently, even the thought of a cuppa will return any Brit from the brink of death.

- Next up is an invoice from the Cambridge Organic Food Company which delivers our vegetable box, which we hopefully will not need with this summer when our garden will be in full swing.

- A birthday card for a friend.

- The flowered paper is a gift certficate to Boden's, the equivalent to Banana Republic or J. Crew.

- Alastair and I do not have deadlines with the IRS at this point, we are only beholden to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

- Botisham Brasserie menu is our local curry take-away. This is our closest take home option as well as ethnic food, if I don't count British pub food and fish & chips (isn't that ethnic?).

- Finally, The Mill is the green booklet which serves as our entertaining monthly village magazine, which includes regular columns from our green grocer about his recent avian sightings, the local vicar, a village expat moved to London, and sometimes even entries from lil'me.

So, when looking at this image, I can feel pretty British. But at other times, I'm far from it. For example, recently, Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a likely suspect when it comes to who will replace Tony Blair, has been expressing his views of what it means to be British. Yesterday was particularly interesting as he spoke of Britishness and his interest to add yet another element to the increasingly complicated process of obtaining British citizenship, something I'm in the process of doing. Brown believes that community service would be an excellent way for immigrants (hmm, that would be me) to develop a better sense of this country. This is in addition to the required ability to speak English (his idea, too) and pass a citizenship exam. Having done a load of volunteering, I have quite a few opinions on this, but that will just have be another post.

At other times, I'm home but in a foreign land and it is glaring at me, like last night at the grocery store where I passed Weight Watcher's new slogan: Top Up Your Gorgeousness. Now, perhaps Britain has obtained world domination and you, too, have this slogan ... but I'll bet you don't. This phrase is the epitome of Britishness. (Maybe Gordon Brown should join Weight Watchers.) Top Up is a very popular phrase used primarily for refilling a cellular phone pay-as-you-go card but now one can top up anything. And, Gorgeous, well, if you've spent any time in Britain you will know it is a wonderful exclamation and quite a popular adjective.

So, I guess I'm not in Kansas anymore.