Guy Fawkes Day

Here in the UK, November 5th is Guy Fawkes Day. From what I've gathered, hundreds of years ago there was a plot headed by Guy Fawkes to blow up parliament. He was caught before they could detonate the explosives his team had smuggled beneath the building. Although sentenced to be hung until almost dead, drawn and quartered and then burnt - Mr. Fawkes avoided much of it by jumping off the scaffold after the hanging part, thereby breaking his neck. Nice. This holiday is celebrated by firecrackers (for days preceding the actual big day) and then a huge bonfire.

A group of ANCC students and I went to Cambridge to watch the evening fireworks display followed by a gigantic bonfire (from a distance it looked similar to the Texas A&M pics I've seen). Thousands of people were there. We arrived at the grounds at 7:35. Fireworks were over at 7:45. Nice display.

Then, apparently, fish and chips is the thing to eat afterwards - wrapped in wads of plain paper. We walked back to the grounds and around the carnival and the, by then, smaller bonfire.

We then walked to a student's sisters home. The family is from Cyprus. Since we were a bunch of students that have lived in dorm housing for weeks now, we gratefully entered and filled the couches and floor of the living room. Most agreed, it felt so good to be in a regular home.

One of the extended family members at the house was a guy named Eric Leonard from Central. Here's a pic of him with his wife (expecting in March).

Anyone know or recognize him? His brother Philip goes to Central high. Eric used to live by Central Middle. His dad owns some window and glass company. He was in the Air Force, stationed here, met his wife and now lives in the UK (since ~ 2001). He's only the second American I've met the entire time here (8wks), and he lived only maybe 5 minutes or so from my apartment in Louisiana. One of the ANCC students said, "He has the same accent as you!"