Yorkshire Pudding...yum!

Well, last night was my first Rotary Club meeting to attend in England! My host club is the Coventry Phoenix Rotary Club, and they meet in a pub called The Woodhouse in Coventry. My host counselor, Mike, picked me up in Stratford-upon-Avon, and drove me back to his house in Birmingham, where I hung out with him and his wife, Judy. She fixed tea and yummy biscuits (cookies), and it was fun getting to know them better. Mike and I arrived at The Woodhouse around 7:30 p.m. Their club is smaller than the Madison/Ridgeland Rotary Club, and although many Rotary Clubs in England are still male-only, their club has three female members. However, none of the women were at the meeting, so it was just me and 20 men between the ages of 50 and 70! I had a lot of fun, though. Everyone was really nice and had a great sense of humor. The club president was out, and the vice-president was filling in, and everyone kept giving him a hard time, which was funny. We had a meal first, then the meeting started after everyone finished eating. The meal consisted of roast, new potatoes, cooked carrots, and...Yorkshire pudding! I've heard of it, but never had it before. I was envisioning a liquid, pudding-like desert, but in reality, Yorkshire pudding is bread! It looks like a roll, but it's made with something that tastes like pancake batter. No one could believe that I had never tasted it before. For desert, we had a yummy sweet roll with cream called a rumbaba. After the meal, everyone stood up, and toasted the queen ("To the Queen!"), took a sip of their ale or water, and we began the meeting. I just had to give a short introductory speech, so that was a good warm up for future presentations! The meeting lasted about 2 hours (including the meal), but I had a lot of fun. It was nice getting to ride in a car again...it's been awhile! It's a funny feeling riding in the passenger seat...I felt like I should be driving, because the English passenger seat is where the American driver's seat should be. Whenever I come home and start driving again, everyone look out, because I might be all over the place! (Just kidding!) I have class again this weekend, but a small conflict has developed...I'm supposed to attend a Rotary Club Welcome Meeting for all of the clubs in the district on Sunday, but I have class on Sunday. Mike and I talked about it, and decided there was nothing I could do, and I would be excused because of my class. However, the man in charge of the Ambassadorial Scholars just emailed me and said that I HAVE to come to the meeting, class is not an excuse. So, I have to find a way to tell my school! (There's a strict attendance policy). Everyone pray that it gets sorted out!