The British Invasion

People ask me why I chose to do grad school in the UK. I have a long list of practical reasons, but the real answer probably is a shoulder shrug and saying "why not?" But honestly, living in the UK had never been high on my destination list. With my first father, we moved quite a lot around the U.S. and my second father worked in exotic and mysterious places like Cameroon, Nigeria, and Brazil. Usually my fantasy places were warm and tropical. I don't even know when the UK came on my radar as even existing.

Like most people, music has a way of anchoring memories in my mind. The earliest memories I have include my mother singing the Beatles songs as we traveled. (moved.) (other early musical memories included a hefty dose of John Denver, my first father singing Hank Williams songs as we acted out the lyrics and learning Rhinestone Cowboy. To this day I can still sing it line for line.)

The songs that capture living in Longview, TX are Cold As Ice and Hot Blooded by Foreigner and Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty. Baker Street meant MY street. It meant Chef Boy Ardee pizza kits, ravioli and spaghetti-o's, riding our bikes full speed down a steep hill, the smell of autumn leaves decaying in swimming pools. (maybe the only time that decay has a fond smell...)

Most of my early music years were introduced to me by my older sister. This trend continued well into my late teens. When I was about thirteen the new introduction was Duran Duran. I was now old enough to understand the sex appeal of musicians and I fell madly in love with every member of the group. I became an official member of their fan club and I had to rearrange all my cute cat/dog/horse posters to make way for Simon, John, Roger and Nick. (Just didn't fall so much for Andy.) Following my affair with Duran Duran came Roger Daltry and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (Powell).

Duran Duran aside, when I am in the mood for something other than classical or jazz, these are still the artist I listen to today. And speaking of jazz, several years ago came along Jamie Cullum of which I now own three of his cd's.

Also when I was about 12 or 13 I started reading James Herriott; All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, and All Things Wise and Wonderful. These were wonderful stories of a big animal veterinarian and his escapades with his clients, animal and human, in the rolling country-side. Living on a sheep farm in the rolling hills of the Ozark mountains, the difference in the stories culture to my own seemed more about antiquity and generational changes than the fact they were set in a different country.

It probably wasn't until popularity of Kenneth Brannagh and Hugh Grant that I really became aware of the UK as a place. In the past fifteen years I've probably watched about every British art house movie available in the U.S. - The Secret of Roan Innish, Cold Comfort Farm, Waking Ned Divine, Billy Elliot, Dear Frankie, and the list goes on. But I still never thought, "Gee, I'd really like to live in the U.K." From all of these movies it seemed like a sad and heart breaking place with ghost stories that get woven into your soul but not something you'd go seeking after.

So it wasn't until I started my MBA, which is through the Univ of Wales, that I considered it. But once the thought entered my head, about a week into my first course, the idea never left. It became the most practical, sensible and comforting thought I had had in a long time. And so almost two, very quick years later, I am here.

Oddly enough, just a few weeks before I moved, Gerry Rafferty passed away. All these years and I never had any idea that he was British and that Baker Street was named after a London Street. No, the song still means Longview, Texas to me.