You say, I say

Okay so we’re are from opposite sides of the pond. One of the things this means is when you are reading our blog you will find differences in our grammar, vocabulary and spelling (obviously you can’t hear the pronunciation of the words but those are often different too). So when you see those things just think of this song.  

Just for fun here are some examples of our different vocabulary (same meaning different words). 

British word first=American word second

biscuits = cookies

crisps = chips

chips = French fries

(car) boot = (car) trunk

chemist = drug store

ground floor = first floor:

first floor = second floor (very confusing for me (Zach) at first)

queue = line (stand in queue vs. stand in line)

till = checkout counter

flat = apartment

garden = yard

jumper = sweater

trousers = pants

pants = underwear

waistcoat = vest

vest = undershirt (t-shirt/wife-beater)

lift = elevator

torch = flashlight

Petrol = gasoline

fizzy drink = soda or pop
lemonade = Sprite

rubbish = trash

dustbin = trash can/garbage can

adverts = commercials or ads

pavement = sidewalk

post = mail
CV = resume

telly = TV

zed = zee (how we pronounce the letter Z)

What's on Our Bookshelf? - Chariots of the Gods? Was God an Astronaut? by Erich Von Daniken

Zach's Post:

I recently finished a book titled Chariots of the Gods? Was God an Astronaut? It was written by Erich Von Daniken. Von Daniken is German and this book first appeared in Germany in 1968. Its first English publication was in 1969. The copy I read was a reprinted version from 1998. It had been reprinted 8 times before that. All that to say a lot of people have read this book and after finishing it I can see why. His theories and research are truly fascinating.

If you are a person interested in anthropology, history, religion, mythology, astronomy, physics, mathematics, engineering or just questions about where humans came from than you will enjoy this book. Von Daniken takes his readers on a journey into some of the earliest known civilizations of the past. He explores the myths/religion surrounding those cultures through the archeological evidence they left behind and theorizes that this planet has been visited by aliens from another world in the past. He postulates that these aliens may have even been the ones to provide humanity with many of the tools and technology necessary for the beginning of our civilizations. He takes you many places including the ancient civilizations of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks, Incans, Mayans and others.  He examines all the information these people left behind about themselves whether it be through their texts, temples, monuments, myths, customs/rituals, or even the layout of their cities. The historical information alone makes the book worth reading.

When I began the book it was hard not to chuckle at the author and his theory that aliens visited the earth thousands of years ago and that they may have even been the main source for the beginning of our religions, rituals, and early technology. But as I read more I had to stop and ask myself why I was so dismissive of his idea? I found I had no real cause to be so outright dismissive except that the idea was so foreign to me that it just seemed silly. I came to realize that if I had been raised to believe these things about our past (aliens came to earth) than I would likely believe them or at least understand why other people did. I mean not long ago I believed in talking snakes and magic trees of knowledge and I never gave the silliness of those beliefs a second thought.

I found Von Daniken’s research on South and Central America the most interesting. This is in part because the history of those areas are the most foreign to me as I have not studied them much. One example from this section is the city of Tiahuanaco. It lies in the jungles of Peru and brings with it numerous oddities and questions. The ruins include blocks of sandstone weighing up to 100 tons topped with other 60 ton blocks. There are no quarries anywhere near this site so where did the blocks come from? And how did they arrive at a site over 13,000 feet about sea level? There are also holes 8 feet long found cut perfectly into blocks weighing 10 tons and as of yet no one knows how they were made or what purpose they served. The city also contains a very precise system for water and plumbing. Yet all of this occurred at a time when the tools and skills that seem to be needed for this kind of work simply didn’t exist.

Easter Island is also interesting. Most people are familiar with the huge statues that are scattered about the island but people still can’t definitively explain how these statues were made, where they came from or how they got there. There are hundreds of statues some as high as 66 feet high and weighing up to 50 tons. It is not clear how these stones were dressed or moved to their current location, particularly with the tiny population that the small island can sustain.  There were wooden tablets with hieroglyphic characters connected to the statues but European missionaries, as usual, burnt those tablets. There are now only 10 fragments of those tablets scarred in museums around the world but they have yet to be translated. The statues of Easter Island are often connected to Tiahuanaco because one finds that many of the same questions asked by archeologists concerning Tiahuanaco they also ask about Easter Island. More issues surround these two locations beyond merely the size and complexity of the statues and walls they left behind. One must also examine the myths and stories these two cultures had concerning their beginnings. Both Easter Island and Tiahuanaco have creations stories that include golden space ships and flying men or bird men who came from the stars who gave them the tools and knowledge necessary to move out of the dark and into the light.

Lastly, the plain of Nazca is a level strip of land that is 37 miles long and 1 mile wide located in the Andes mountains. On the ground  one finds various stones lined up, which don’t seem like much but when one flies over the plain one can see various geometric patterns laid out including lines that run perfectly parallel to one another. These strips are not likely to be roads as most of them don’t interest but even if they were roads it does not explain how the builders were able to makes such precise patterns without somehow viewing them from the air. Of course none of these examples proves aliens have visited this earth but they do create very difficult problems to solve particularly based on the things we do know about the civilizations that existed at the time. There are many more fascinating issues and examples that Von Daniken brings up, most of which I cannot give justice to in this forum but they are worth reading.

Now while I won’t say I was convinced by Von Daniken’s work to support his hypothesis I must say he did his homework and has a lot of valuable things to teach people if they choose to read this book. What I do fully support, as I did before I read this book, is the idea that other intelligent life does exist in the universe. Simple math makes that hard to deny. But I am not ready to take the next step that Von Daniken does and say that aliens have visited earth at some point in our history and may even be the source of much of humanity’s religions, rituals and early technology.    

This book really was a fun book to read and it reads quite quickly. It is less than 200 pages and is so engaging that I read it in only 2 sittings over 2 days. For those open to the exploration of the universe and questions about humanity’s past this book will be a joy to read and provide a lot of good information. Whereas for those who have already formulated/conformed to more traditional western religious constructs concerning humanity and the universe this book will (should) provide some challenging things to think about. The temptation for these people will be to quickly dismiss the book as silly, like I almost did, but I would encourage them to take a step back and think about the things being said and the evidence being shown by Von Daniken before rejecting his ideas. One thing is for certain about Von Daniken, he provides a more likely explanation for our past and uses far more evidence to support it than do the most of the major religions of the world.

All of that to say it’s a good book well worth the read.

If you don't have time to read check out these two videos that address the city of Tiahuanaco and the Nazca lines. They are both from the show Ancient Aliens on the History Channel. There are other programs and people who address this but this show is fairly easy to follow and makes the topic a bit more fun rather than just purely academic.

City of Tiahuanaco 

The Nazca lines

Side note: Von Daniken also wrote two more books to follow up this one and I am sure I will read those at some point in the future. 

Chipotle in London: Giving A Bad Wrap

Zach's Post

I've been living in London for about 2 months now. When I left Denver one of the things I knew I would miss the most was good Mexican food. In particular my favorite place to go is a restaurant named Chipotle. It is a higher level fast food type restaurant. Basically it’s a step or two above McDonalds and Burger King but it’s not a sit down restaurant where you have to pay more for service. This restaurant began in Denver where I grew up so I've been eating their burritos since I was a teenager. At some point in time the owner and creator of the chain sold it to McDonalds, which then led to the expansion of the chain all over the States. This made me both happy and sad. I was happy because it allowed me to eat Chipotle in college (Arizona) as well as grad school (California). The sacrifice was the portions. The burritos became a bit smaller. But Chipotle remained my favorite place to eat mostly due to the food but also because it reminded me of home. (On a side note I don’t think McDonald’s any longer owns the company)

Now when I came to London I tried to keep my expectations for the quality of their Mexican food rather low. I figured they’d have at least some choices since it is such a large city but really all I hoped for was that the choices would be better than the ones I found in China and South Korea. Honestly it would be hard for it to worse than in China. Imagine my surprise and joy when I discovered that in downtown London there were actually 3 Chipotle restaurants. I couldn't believe it my favorite food, from my favorite restaurant here in London. Needless to say it did not take me long to visit one of the locations.

When I got there the layout and décor was the same as in the States. Likewise the menu was the same. But it didn’t take long as I went down the line and watched them make burritos to realize this was not the Chipotle I knew. The salsas looked different, the rice looked a little off, the portions were even smaller than they had become in the States and there were no free refills on soda. Still I wanted a burrito and I was excited to try it. I told the servers what I wanted and they kindly obliged but as they dished each ingredient into my burrito I couldn’t help but question them…in my head. First they barely gave me any rice then they flooded it with black beans and I had to ask three times to get a respectable amount of cheese on it. Lastly came the toughest part of making a good burrito, wrapping it. The guy tried hard to keep all the ingredients inside the tortilla but he pulled so tight that the tortilla ripped slightly. He quickly wrapped it in tin foil ignoring what he had just done. I’ve had so many burritos that I knew this tiny tear would quickly grow with each bite I took. The worst part was that the tear was in the middle of the burrito rather than close to one of the ends so there was no way I was going to manage to eat my lunch without some it ending up on my hand and in my basket. Now this sort of thing happens in the States so I didn’t hold it against the server. But the next time I came back it happened again. Then the time after that the tortilla didn’t rip rather the server did not fold it properly the result being that both ends were actually open making it impossible to keep the burrito together. 

I have gone to Chipotle about 9 or 10 times since I’ve been here, far less than I have desired, and each time the thing that as bothered me the most has not been what I considered to be the lower quality of the ingredients or the different taste the burritos have rather it has been the wrapping. Yes the rice isn’t as good, the salsas are inferior especially the mild salsa, and the chips lack the lime kick one gets at home but surprisingly none of that has been as disappointing as the seeming inability of anyone here to wrap a burrito properly. Each time I have wanted to jump behind the counter and wrap it myself or at least coach them through it. Part of me wants to apply for a job at Chipotle not merely for the free burritos but so I can teach the employees how to securely wrapped the burritos to maximize the amount of food that ends up in a person’s mouth and minimize the amount of food that ends up on a person’s hand or in their bowl…particularly mine. So while I should say any Chipotle is better than no Chipotle each time I go it’s hard not to be a little sad as they continue to give me and my burrito a bad wrap.  

(The key when wrapping a burrito is lifting the end of the tortilla furthest away from you and using it to push the ingredients closer to you so that the ingredients are mostly on one half of the tortilla rather than in the middle. Then one should roll the tortilla forward (away from the server towards the customer) and fold both ends inside with the palm of your hands not your fingers. At this point the server should finish the wrap by again rolling the tortilla away from them. They must also be careful during this last part not to push in with their thumbs otherwise they will likely pierce the tortilla causing a tear, which most certainly will be the source of trouble for the person eating it. Assuming the burrito was steamed long enough all of this allows the burrito to be tightly wrapped with both ends being closed and no tears in the tortilla. But here in London that just never seems to happen)

(this is the actual Chipotle in London that I visit the most)

Priya's Post:

I can’t help but add my two cents to Zach’s burrito blurb, so I’m tagging along to the end of his. Having grown up in London, Mexican food wasn’t a luxury I could enjoy often. Yes, I said luxury – that’s because it’s not a cuisine that’s widely available here (if at all in some areas). For all our US friends and family, that probably sounds silly since you’re lucky enough to have a Mexican eatery on almost every corner (oh how I envy you!).

Recent years have seen a slow, sorry, very slow change in this with some cantinas opening up here and there, though not enough to allow anyone a decent degree of choice. These places (with the exception of Chiquitos – a poor excuse for a Mexican restaurant, with tacky over the top deco to match) is decent enough. In fact some of them are pretty good – or at least they would be had I not spoiled myself with authentic or American Mexican food while living in the States. I’m both annoyed that I’ll likely never taste as good food here in London, but also happy that I’ve had the good stuff to begin with! So it doesn’t matter how highly recommended the restaurant comes, or how many 5 stars it has, or how much the home style tortillas and salsa are to die for, they just don’t live up to the food across the pond. And if you can’t even compete with Chipotle, the McDonald’s of Mexican food, well, what hope is there?!

Perhaps it’s nostalgia? Perhaps my taste buds are remembering it better than it really was? Maybe I’d be more willing to agree with this if others with the same experiences did not agree with me.

Now Zach mentions Chipotle in particular (I was pretty amused at how quickly he found all three and then knew the best ways to get there within a week). I don’t have half as much Chipotle experience as he does (does anyone?) but from the handful of times I’ve been able to join him for a burrito in London I found myself just as frustrated as he was. Though neither of us would stop going, the trade off is still worth it.

What annoys me is not so much the lack of quality in the ingredients compared to the American counter-part as Zach mentions, not the no free re-fill policy (in fact the UK has never had a free re-fill policy, until the last year where I can only think of two fast food chains that do it), not even the lack of hearing when I say out loud “No sour cream… brown rice not white…”. It’s the amount of meat they insist on putting in each burrito. Even when you protest. You’re lucky if you get half a ladle of beans and rice, but you’ll be sure to get three or even four heaped ladles of meat. Not everyone likes lashings of meat! The times I’ve ordered a vegetarian one, I thought I’d get extra beans and rice in place of the missing meat. No, this is an extra and so you pay more to get the portion of vegetables, rice and beans that you should get in any normal burrito to begin with.

So Zach and I have pretty much used this post to rant about Chipotle’s burrito failures, which on reflection seems a bit unfair. We love Mexican food, we’d probably eat it every day if we could (and when we’re not eating noodles… ) we’re lucky to have somewhat unsatisfactory Mexican food rather than none at all. And yet we can’t help but feel disappointed, thank you America for heightening our expectations… quite rightly. So for now, the closest we’ll get to a good burrito is a poorly wrapped one with more contents outside than in.

I leave you with a few burrito facts:

-Burritos made in Mexico are made small, usually with only two fillings (maybe Chipotle here in London should go authentic, at least they’ll find them easier to wrap!)

-The word burrito means ‘little donkey’ in Spanish

-The Californian Burrito is the most popular burrito in the USA

About Priya

Priya and I are writing introductions for each other, which I find more difficult than Priya but I’ll try my best. Priya and I currently live in London, UK. She currently works for Penguin Publishing whereas I am jumping through numerous hoops for the British government in order to get a marriage visa that would allow me to both live and work here.

Priya is a British citizen who was born and raised in London. As an adult Priya has also lived in the United States, in South Carolina and Ohio but I believe her heart is in Hong Kong. She visited me there when I was living and working in China and that is where I proposed to her. I know that one day she would like to return there and I’d gladly follow because it’s a great city.  

Priya has a passion for nature. She loves animals and seeks to always be aware of how her actions are affecting the planet as a whole rather than just herself or even just other human beings. Her love for nature has various outlets, one is through her studies. Priya will read any book or watch any documentary about animals or the planet and then she’ll run off to the museum to get a closer look. Truly, there is no better guide to a Natural History Museum than Priya particularly the one here in London.

Priya loves the Lord of the Rings. She has multiple copies of the books, various versions of the DVD and blue-ray discs, pictures, maps, bookmarks and even a Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit board game, which she can easily vanquish me in. She can watch any of the films at any time. She will gladly sit down and watch all three movies in a row if you have the stamina for it, I rarely have that stamina.  

Priya is an amazingly clean and organized person, yes to the point of being OCD about certain things. I consider myself fairly clean but Priya’s organizational skills and demands took me by surprise when we first started living together. All my stuff did provide a big challenge when it came to trying to keep the room free of clutter but with a lot of work, mostly by her, we got it taken care of.  

There is no one I would rather watch a movie or TV with than Priya. Her taste for comedies is impeccable. Whether we are watching Flight of the Conchords, American Dad, Father Ted, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Community or any Nicholas Cage film I know I can count on her to have a good time and laugh. In fact it was her sense of humor that first attracted me to her as we bonded over our shared enjoyment of the show Community (Seasons 1 and 2). And I can attest to the fact that there is no better sound to hear in the world than Priya’s laugh. It never fails to make me smile.

Some other affinities of hers include music, scarves, Sasa, Japanese cookies, origami, postcards, and organizational boxes. So there’s a small introduction into Priya but stay tuned and you’ll surely find out more about her and trust me she is a person worth knowing. 

About Zach

Zach and I decided to write each other’s intros. I guess it’s a good chance to see how well we know each other and how we see each other. It’s also a lot easier for me to write about him than it is to write about myself (does anyone else find writing about themselves hard too?), anyway, that makes me pretty happy about this task.

Zach grew up in Denver and spent his formative years in Phoenix and California. He spent most of his life involved with the church. A few years ago, during and after studying Theology for his Masters, Zach felt more and more withdrawn from his chosen faith, mainly due to reasonable questioning and exposing himself to other world faiths. The view of the world Zach had 10 years ago is very different to the way he sees it now. Zach likes nothing more than learning, debating, questioning and evolving in all manners. You may find many of his posts will ponder on questions about spiritualism, faith and fate. While he might challenge a point of view, you should know equally he encourages being challenged himself.

 

He has spent time living in Korea and China and is now in London. Just like he managed to find Chipotle very quickly here, he found Dos Tacos quickly in Korea (the guy loves burritos! If you remember Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers, you’ll remember Monty – the Australian mouse with a weakness for cheese – just a waft of cheese under his nose and his feet are off the ground drifting along with the cheese smell until it carries him to the cheesy prize. Well, that’s Zach, except with burritos).

Zach loves Batman, from the comics to the cartoons to the movies. He’s probably seen The Dark Knight more times than he’s had hot dinners (excluding burritos). Given half a chance I’m pretty sure he’d gladly prowl the city at night dressed as the Caped Crusader, though the life of a vigilante wouldn’t really suit him because he can be pretty jumpy.

Zach loves to sing, often singing songs he makes up on the spot (you’ll laugh your socks off if you ever get to hear one). His hands are colder than Mr Freeze. He can’t say no to another doughnut. He takes Angry Birds very seriously and he does the best Gollum impressions. But the most endearing thing you might not know about Zach is that he has a Lion King pillow which he takes with him wherever he moves. 

So that’s a little about Zach. Just enough to get this blog started I think… 

Aliens, Dinosaurs and Everything In-Between

This is a blog written by Priya and Zach. We are a couple, soon to be married who like to write. Priya is from the UK and I am from the USA and this difference has greatly shaped our relationship and I believe allows for a lot of fun topics to be written about. You will find this blog covers no specific topic rather it is about whatever we happen to feel like whenever we happen to feel it. We will share stories, thoughts, movie and book reviews, quires, travel logs, restaurant grades, jokes and anything else that may come to our minds. So we start where Priya and I want to start, with aliens and dinosaurs. We love them both. Priya leans more towards aliens while I love dinosaurs.

Aliens, are they real? It’s mathematically probable though at this point no one knows. Dinosaurs, are they real? Sure they were, though millions and millions of years separate the human species from them leaving many mysteries unsolved. So what do aliens and dinosaurs have in common? It’s simple, they’re awesome! Put an alien or dinosaur in a movie and you are assured to have at least a B rated movie that is just horrible enough to be fun to watch. Visit the natural history museum and you will be surrounded by the fossils and bones of dinosaurs. There one cannot help but imagine what the world must have been like when dinosaurs existed. Or take a trip to the science museum and you’ll be able to walk through our solar system, our galaxy and even the entire universe. Curiosity about what else might be out there is all but certain. For humanity curiosity is natural whether it be curiosity about the uncertain past (dinosaurs) or the unknown future (aliens). The fact is Priya and I want to know and understand the world around us.

Priya has a huge heart for nature and animals such that I know if Jurassic Park ever did happen she would be rooting for the dinosaurs rather than the humans just as she rooted for Caesar and all the other apes while we watched the new Rise of the Planet of the Apes film. All I really know is that if I came across a Velociraptor or T-Rex I would be running and hopefully I wouldn’t end up in a SUV stuck in a tree or an industrial sized kitchen trying to shut myself into a metal cabinet. When it comes to the Apes I would try and be a peacemaker. I would tell them we are all in the same family. Literally, we are all in the hominidae family (apes such as chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans). Furthermore some of us are in the same sub-family, homininae (apes like chimpanzees and gorillas but not orangutans). Finally, some of us are even in the same tribe, hominini (like chimpanzees but not gorillas or orangutans). So come on can’t we all just get along?

When it comes to aliens Priya and I both want to be the chosen ones. Chosen in the sense of chosen to populate a new planet (Knowing) or to learn the ways of the force to help stop the evil empire from taking over the universe (Star Wars) not chosen to be hunted and killed (Predator or Alien). Really Priya and I just both hope aliens are real and we get to see them some time before we die. That would be really cool. So this is our blog. I hope any reader who comes upon it will enjoy what they find just as I hope Priya and I enjoy what we put here.