Rotary Meeting and Ordering Internet

Yesterday I attended the Stratford-upon-Avon Rotary Club, which meets at a hotel right down the street from my school. My host counselor, Mike, picked me up and we arrived at the hotel at 12:20. This Rotary Club is an all-male club, so it was just me and about 50 old men. Everyone was very polite, and didn't seem bothered that a 22 year old American girl was sitting in the middle of 50 businessmen from the Stratford area. :) I'm really starting to get the hang of the British style of eating...fork turned over backwards, and never setting down the knife. Cooked carrots seem to be a common food in England, because almost every single British meal I've had includes them. After lunch, we gave the royal toast ("To the Queen!") and the meeting began. At the end of the meeting, I gave a ten minute introductory speech. I think everything went well! Afterwards Mike and I walked with Phil Littleford, who was the previous Rotary president, back to his office. Mike was telling me that it doesn't snow as much in England as it used to, thanks to global warming, and then started describing how to make a snowman! I didn't want to be rude and tell him that I know what a snowman is...it's not THAT hot in Mississippi, so I just smiled and listened politely. It was really funny! My next class meeting is the last weekend of October, which I unfortunately have to miss so I can attend the Rotary District Conference in Southport, England. Mike was going over the itinerary of the conference, and mentioned that one night we would be wearing fancy dress. I immediately started thinking, "How long would it take my parents to mail one of my formal dresses to England?" Then Mike went on to explain that the theme of that night would be musicals, and his club was dressing as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Mike noticed the confused look on my face, and explained that "fancy dress" means "costume." He laughed when I told him that it means formal gown or tuxedo in the U.S. Luckily, I don't have to dress in costume on the Fancy Dress night...thank goodness! Today, Tooley and I ordered our Broadband internet service...hooray! It should be here in 7-10 days, but after all the trouble with banks, phone lines, etc, I wouldn't be surprised if we had a few problems getting it connected. Oh, well, what can you do? Since the big news in the papers has been the British political parties, I'll try to give a quick summary of how it works. There are two main political parties, Conservative ( aka Tories) and Labour. Tony Blair, the prime minister, is a MP (member of Parliament) for the Labour party. The Tories are trying to find a candidate to be the leader of their party, and it's between about four men. Two of these men, David Davis and David Cameron, have been in the paper quite a bit lately. The Labour party wants Gordon Brown to be Tony Blair's successor, and many people want Tony Blair to step down early so that Gordon Brown will already be the leader of the Labour party when it's time for the elections. In the election, the people vote for MPs, and whichever party has the most MPs is the leading party (I might be a little off on that, but I think that's close to how it works). The queen actually does have a role in British politics! During the election, when one of the political parties reaches a certain number of votes, they have to ask the queen's permission to form the party and choose a leader. Funny, huh? Tooley and I have learned all of this from the newspapers and her coworkers at Woolworths. Some of it may be a little off, but I think most of the details are pretty accurate. Hopefully that explains a little bit about British politics! :)