Introduction

This blog is taken from the journal I kept while I was studying and traveling in the UK on a fellowship program from late August 1999 through the Millennial New Year of 2000 (updated and annotated 20 years later).

It is hard to believe it has been 20 years. Some things I remember like yesterday. But, just as often I have no memory of the events I recorded in those journal pages two decades ago and, as is the way with passing time, my recollection is sometimes flawed ― exaggerating either for better or worse those now fading memories.

The fellowship program managers placed me at the University of Birmingham in Birmingham, England and it was my home for four months. A city that most Americans know little about, I came to love it as much as I did the family that hosted me. I hope through these posts you come to know Birmingham and the quirky ― sometimes frustrating, but always rewarding―parts of living abroad.