Dispatches from the East: Introductions

Norwich – England – Photo from Flickr

Editor’s Note: Anglotopia is welcoming a new weekly columnist to our fantastic team. Will Averill is an American Ex-pat living in Norwich. I’ll get out of the way and let him introduce himself properly. His posts will go out every Monday so check back!

Welcome to East Anglia.  It’s not a well known place, and that suits us fine.  If East Anglia were one of the States, it would be a fly-over State, and it’s charm is mostly in the fact that it’s A) Hard to get to, B) Hard to get out of, and C) Everyone here really kind of likes it that way.  East Anglia comprises the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, and on a good day Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire as well.  

Though it’s lesser known it has a fantastic history, from the Iceni warrior queen Bouddica, the powerhouse trading center of the 14th century, Norwich, up to the many U.S. air force bomber and fighter bases left over from World War II.  The Norfolk Broads, a system of man-made rivers and lakes in the area, were a hugely popular tourist destination in the 50′s and 60′s, and remain so today.  While lacking the enormity of London, the rolling hills of the West Country, or the rugged terrain of the Lake District, East Anglia has a lot to offer, and is well worth taking some time to visit, particularly if you’re a fan of castles, World War II, and large expanses of wide-open fields.

I’m Will Averill, and I’m an accidental Anglophile (There is where you all say ‘Hi Will’ to your computer screens).  I never set out to become an Anglophile, though looking back on it, life had set me on that track for a while.  My parents, convicted hippies, used to watch ‘Monty Python’ on good old P.B.S., and so I was exposed to the British sense of humo(u)r from an early age.  My cousin’s grandmother, who we often spent time with as kids, is a war bride, whisked away from Bradford to Topeka, Kansas, at the tender age of 20.  We were always fascinated with her accent and strange ‘British ways’.  

A freakishly well-timed meeting in a chat room in 1999 led me to meet and later marry my lovely wife, and the fact that I’d never lived anywhere but Kansas and was kind of looking for an adventure brought me over here six years ago, first for our wedding, and then to settle in Norwich.  Since that time I’ve been across the country touring with a comedy show, been up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2007 and 2008, seen a couple of Premeireship football matches, drank beer with Vikings, shot arrows with Longbowmen, and researched the history of the WWII 8th Air Force bases in Norfolk and Suffolk extensively.

I’m hoping with Dispatches from the East to fill you in on a little of the great history and culture both in  my adopted home city of Norwich, and across the East Anglian region.  I’d also like to share reflections on being an ex-pat, the best and worst of life in England, and the difficulties of surviving in a land with no Taco Bell, Cool Whip, or Super Target.  Yet somehow we make it through.  I’m also happy to answer any questions about ex-pattery, East Anglia, and most importantly, who’s going out this week on The Apprentice.