My flatmates went crazy this weekend and I went along too but didn't really participate; I was more of a spectator. They went out Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, last night, and they're going out again today on SUNDAY. I went out of Friday and drank a bit (though not much because drinks are so expensive) and then last night I was a care-taker for Alex at Sugarhouse...ha.
Anyways, Halloween in the UK is big. My friends and I didn't dress up but the vast majority of people who were out were dressed up. Most of them dressed as Zombies. The thing about Halloween is, a lot of girls just use it to dress with as little clothing as possible and for some reason that passes as wearing a costume. Now, you have to realize that girls who live in England already wear very little clothing most of the time, so I wondered how this was going to work. Somehow they managed. Most of the girls last night were dressed as zombies, which basically meant that they painted their face white, ratted their hair up, and (for some reason) wore the smallest clothes they could find and added strategically placed rips. Oh and 6-inch heels. But I suppose they achieved what they wanted because my friend Peter (Canadian) kept saying, "I love the women in this country!"
The real reason I wanted to write this blog wasn't to moan about the costumes, however. We met a girl in line last night who was the stereotypical posh Londoner. Her name (no joke) was Natalie Laura Tiffany Arnold. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!? Also, she has a "holiday home" in Florida. She is from a really posh part of London and lived down the street from an actor who is in a show over here called "Skins" and who one of her friends used to date. Aaaand he's gorgeous... haha. She said she loved the USA, though, and started talking about the show "Super Sweet 16." I told her I hated that show and the girls on there annoyed me. She said "Wait, you guys aren't like that?" HA. I guess that's what exporting American TV does for our image in the US. She also kept asking me to teach her to talk like me, which I thought was hilarious.
Anyways, that's my little quip for the day.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Lancaster
Pili and I went in to Lancaster the other day which is about 10 minutes from where we live. We just shopped around and looked through town, and Pili took a few pictures, so here they are!
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| We went shopping but I didn't buy anything. |
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| Coooookies. |
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| A church. |
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| Busy Lancaster street. |
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| In a store called "Accessories" |
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| Playing dress-up! |
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| Me on the bus. |
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| Houses? Flats? |
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| Annika and her German dinner. |
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
A little more about London
Well, as you can all tell by my last post, I absolutely loved London and I want to go back! The only problem is that a three hour journey in England is way way way more expensive than a three hour journey in the US. Plus, London is super pricey no matter what you're doing.
Me, Alex and her friend Peter (who is also from Canada) all left together at about 1 PM on Friday afternoon. Once we got on the train it was a little over two hours until we arrived in London. I can't remember if I've already written this, but the English countryside looks a lot like the Pacific Northwest! It's very green, lots of trees and fields... But most of the trees aren't evergreen and most of the animals in the fields are sheep. I was pretty anxious to get off the train but the trip wasn't too long and once we arrived at Euston station we went down to the underground (the Tube) and bought a ticket to get to Victoria.
The Tube is an adventure in itself and I honestly don't know how I rode it by myself when I first arrived in London from home. There are SO many people and it's hot and shaky. It's good for getting places relatively cheap, though, because taxis are expensive. Eventually we found our way to our hostel which was called "Surprise Backpackers" and realized quickly that it was pretty sketchy. Alex and I walked into the pub that was below our hostel and a couple of the guys made comments right away which was... unnerving. When they let us in to the actual hostel part of the building we signed in (they lost one of our reservations) and gave us our sheets.
When we went upstairs to find the bedrooms we were staying in we relaxed a little bit. The upstairs was cleaner, bigger and a little less menacing. The room we were in had 12 beds in it... four sets of three beds stacked on top of each other. We noticed right away that there were three guys sleeping in there when we arrived (it was about 6 PM). We found out later that they were Polish and there were also some British girls in there and some other people of unknown origin.
After we settled all in we set off to find a club that Peter wanted to go to because of the live music. It was a difficult feat finding it so we kept asking random people on the street. Eventually I saw a girl with her hair all done up and a sequined skirt on so I asked her and, turns out, her and her friends were going to the same place. It also turns out that they were 17-years-old. Eventually we got there and then had to queue up for a good twenty minutes and then pay £5 to get in. It was worth it though. While we were there, Alex went and found her boyfriend, Colin, and his friend, Carl, who had just flown in to London from Switzerland. They're both also Canadian but they're doing internships in Europe.
The next day we got up and did all the touristy things. We went on a walking tour around west London, rich London, and took pictures yadda yadda. There was also another tour that we could have gone on that went to all the places where Jack the Ripper left his victims. Crazy! We would have done that but all of our feet were hurting so bad we decided against it. After the tour, the whole tour group (about 15 people) went out to eat at a local pub. I got macaroni and cheese and was SO happy about it.
That night we went to another club, called Fabric, but it turned out to be a waste of money. Apparently it was 2nd in DJ Magazine'
We checked out at 11 AM the next morning and had to carry our backpacks around everywhere. We ate at McDonald's for breakfast (the closest home-y thing we could find!) and then we went down to Picadilly's Circus, which is a huge shopping center. Picadilly's Circus isn't like a mall... it's more like a street with shops all around. You don't stay inside the whole time you're shopping. We went into one reeeeally posh store and I could believe the prices of things. There was Gucci, Dior, Jimmy Choo, etc etc, but even the names I hadn't heard were super expensive. Me and Alex saw a purse that was leather and, honestly, quite average looking for £1,400! That's like $2,200! I felt like I shouldn't even touch it. Plus we were all in dirty clothes with dirty hair and backpacks haha. I knew people were eying us, annoyed, thinking "Freaking tourists!"
We left there pretty quickly and after shopping around a bit more we walked over a bridge, past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and went in to a dirty little pub and got lunch/dinner. I got fish and chips, which I didn't really want, but I felt like I should get them. They were really good though and I was happy with my choice. Everyone else got burgers or Sunday roast. There was a football (soccer) game on in the pub, Arsenal FC vs. Manchester City, so there were about twenty men sitting in there drinking and yelling at the TV. It was so English.
After we ate, we left and found our way back to Euston and back on to the train. It was an amazing trip, though very tiring, and I hope I get to go back soon. I kind of want to experience REAL London instead of tourist London because I know it's got to be a lot different. Also, I found out later that the hostel we stayed in has a really bad reputation for being dirty and overpriced (even though it was only 20 quid a night). That gives me hope though because that hostel was perfectly fine with me and next time we'll probably stay in a much better one! My next stop is probably Manchester but we'll see...
Me, Alex and her friend Peter (who is also from Canada) all left together at about 1 PM on Friday afternoon. Once we got on the train it was a little over two hours until we arrived in London. I can't remember if I've already written this, but the English countryside looks a lot like the Pacific Northwest! It's very green, lots of trees and fields... But most of the trees aren't evergreen and most of the animals in the fields are sheep. I was pretty anxious to get off the train but the trip wasn't too long and once we arrived at Euston station we went down to the underground (the Tube) and bought a ticket to get to Victoria.
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| These are what the taxis looked like. Just like in a movie. |
When we went upstairs to find the bedrooms we were staying in we relaxed a little bit. The upstairs was cleaner, bigger and a little less menacing. The room we were in had 12 beds in it... four sets of three beds stacked on top of each other. We noticed right away that there were three guys sleeping in there when we arrived (it was about 6 PM). We found out later that they were Polish and there were also some British girls in there and some other people of unknown origin.
After we settled all in we set off to find a club that Peter wanted to go to because of the live music. It was a difficult feat finding it so we kept asking random people on the street. Eventually I saw a girl with her hair all done up and a sequined skirt on so I asked her and, turns out, her and her friends were going to the same place. It also turns out that they were 17-years-old. Eventually we got there and then had to queue up for a good twenty minutes and then pay £5 to get in. It was worth it though. While we were there, Alex went and found her boyfriend, Colin, and his friend, Carl, who had just flown in to London from Switzerland. They're both also Canadian but they're doing internships in Europe.
The next day we got up and did all the touristy things. We went on a walking tour around west London, rich London, and took pictures yadda yadda. There was also another tour that we could have gone on that went to all the places where Jack the Ripper left his victims. Crazy! We would have done that but all of our feet were hurting so bad we decided against it. After the tour, the whole tour group (about 15 people) went out to eat at a local pub. I got macaroni and cheese and was SO happy about it.
That night we went to another club, called Fabric, but it turned out to be a waste of money. Apparently it was 2nd in DJ Magazine'
We checked out at 11 AM the next morning and had to carry our backpacks around everywhere. We ate at McDonald's for breakfast (the closest home-y thing we could find!) and then we went down to Picadilly's Circus, which is a huge shopping center. Picadilly's Circus isn't like a mall... it's more like a street with shops all around. You don't stay inside the whole time you're shopping. We went into one reeeeally posh store and I could believe the prices of things. There was Gucci, Dior, Jimmy Choo, etc etc, but even the names I hadn't heard were super expensive. Me and Alex saw a purse that was leather and, honestly, quite average looking for £1,400! That's like $2,200! I felt like I shouldn't even touch it. Plus we were all in dirty clothes with dirty hair and backpacks haha. I knew people were eying us, annoyed, thinking "Freaking tourists!"
We left there pretty quickly and after shopping around a bit more we walked over a bridge, past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and went in to a dirty little pub and got lunch/dinner. I got fish and chips, which I didn't really want, but I felt like I should get them. They were really good though and I was happy with my choice. Everyone else got burgers or Sunday roast. There was a football (soccer) game on in the pub, Arsenal FC vs. Manchester City, so there were about twenty men sitting in there drinking and yelling at the TV. It was so English.
After we ate, we left and found our way back to Euston and back on to the train. It was an amazing trip, though very tiring, and I hope I get to go back soon. I kind of want to experience REAL London instead of tourist London because I know it's got to be a lot different. Also, I found out later that the hostel we stayed in has a really bad reputation for being dirty and overpriced (even though it was only 20 quid a night). That gives me hope though because that hostel was perfectly fine with me and next time we'll probably stay in a much better one! My next stop is probably Manchester but we'll see...
Sunday, October 24, 2010
I'm moving to London ASAP.
I loved London so much! I am dead exhausted though but it was so worth it. We stayed in a hostel near Victoria and walked mostly everywhere. When we went long distances, though, we used the underground. Here are some photos, I'll elaborate more later. Sorry I'm not in most of the pictures though, we were on a walking tour for most of the photos and we didn't have much time to stop and whatnot...
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| Alex and me walking to the Globe Theatre over the River Thames. |
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| You can baaaarely see the London Eye in the background... |
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| Big Ben. |
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| WWII Memorial. |
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| Buckingham Palace! |
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| Hyde Park |
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| One of those guards with a bearskin hat. |
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| There is grass on the top of this to confuse Nazi pilots... |
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| Sweet telephone booth. |
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| A church, I can't remember which one. |
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| Street on the west end. |
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| Another street. |
Friday, October 22, 2010
Off to London...
I'm leaving in about a half hour to go to London for the weekend... thank goodness for Annika covering my shift :) but I will return the favor next weekend by working Saturday afternoon. I thought I'd post a couple more pictures from last weekend! There will be many more coming Sunday...
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| Me being crushed by Ben. |
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| Norway looks like a model. |
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| That wasn't all our alcohol... seriously though. People just left it there. |
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| The Welcome Dinner! |
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| This was probably a Spice Girls song. Really. |
Monday, October 18, 2010
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em
So, I've told you all about my flatmates/friends here in Lancaster, but I haven't told you how I finally ended up being asked to go out with them on Friday night. I missed the first week of school so I missed the clique-building time but luckily I broke into this one without much problem...
So for three of the first five days I was here (I got here on Saturday the 9th) I was kept up LATE, like 3 AM, by my obnoxiously loud flatmates. Me and Pili both talked about how loud they were and how we couldn't sleep. Well, Wednesday night was one of these nights and at about 2 AM Thursday morning the fire alarm went off. At first I wasn't sure what it was because it sounded weird, but when I poked my head out the door I saw people walking outside. I looked in the kitchen quick and saw Annie (who I didn't know at the time) waving a tea-towel at the smoke detector in the kitchen; she had burned her toast.
There are three other flats around the one I live in... probably about a 50- 70 people in each one. All four flats had to evacuate because of this burnt toast, and we all had to wait outside in the cold in the middle of the night until the fire department arrived and checked to see that it, indeed, was only burnt toast. While we were standing outside though I asked Annie what was going on, and she explained, and I also talked to Ben without realizing I'd be hanging out with both of them for the next three days! I also met a girl from Greece, but I haven't seen her since.
As I was walking back to my room after we were let back in, Catherine (Norway) walked past and said "I'm sorry if we've been keeping you up." To my surprise, I replied with "Oh no worries, you guys should come get me next time so I can hang out though!" The next day, they did. So I figure, I'd way rather be having fun than getting mad since I'm going to be up all night either way.
So, since I met those guys I've gone to a club called Sugarhouse in Lancaster on Friday night and then reluctantly went with them to Preston (about 45 minutes away) on a coach that was sent to pick people up from the Uni. The coach was arranged by a girl named Amy to pick up her guests and bring them (free-of-charge) to a club called Revolution for her 21st birthday. I must say that Saturday night was a lot more fun, much smaller than the night before, and I met about 20 more people.
Working with Charlotte is actually going really well. I've only been working with her for a little over a week and I already feel quite comfortable with some of the aspects that I was nervous about. She also provides quite good conversation which makes work pretty enjoyable and I often forget than I'm "on duty."
Charlotte is really interested in everything American and today I made her a very American lunch... it was breaded chicken with ketchup (which isn't very common here), a baked potato and salad. While we were eating she was asking me about American TV: "What does PBS have on it?" "Is ABC Family a different channel than ABC?" "What cartoons did you watch when you were growing up?" It's funny though because American TV is boring to me and British TV is boring to her. The other day I watched the equivalent of a British Maury Povich called Jeremy Kyle, and a show just like The View called Loose Women. She also regularly watches X-Factor (with Simon Cowell) which is mostly just the English version of American Idol.
The weather has been worse here than it has been in Pac Co (according to mom). It's been overcast and it rained a bit today, but nothing I can't handle since I am from Washington state!
Tomorrow is my day off and, after I do some laundry, I'm going to get my student rail card so I can get my train ticket to London for this weekend! We already have our hostel booked so we're almost set to go....
So for three of the first five days I was here (I got here on Saturday the 9th) I was kept up LATE, like 3 AM, by my obnoxiously loud flatmates. Me and Pili both talked about how loud they were and how we couldn't sleep. Well, Wednesday night was one of these nights and at about 2 AM Thursday morning the fire alarm went off. At first I wasn't sure what it was because it sounded weird, but when I poked my head out the door I saw people walking outside. I looked in the kitchen quick and saw Annie (who I didn't know at the time) waving a tea-towel at the smoke detector in the kitchen; she had burned her toast.
There are three other flats around the one I live in... probably about a 50- 70 people in each one. All four flats had to evacuate because of this burnt toast, and we all had to wait outside in the cold in the middle of the night until the fire department arrived and checked to see that it, indeed, was only burnt toast. While we were standing outside though I asked Annie what was going on, and she explained, and I also talked to Ben without realizing I'd be hanging out with both of them for the next three days! I also met a girl from Greece, but I haven't seen her since.
As I was walking back to my room after we were let back in, Catherine (Norway) walked past and said "I'm sorry if we've been keeping you up." To my surprise, I replied with "Oh no worries, you guys should come get me next time so I can hang out though!" The next day, they did. So I figure, I'd way rather be having fun than getting mad since I'm going to be up all night either way.
So, since I met those guys I've gone to a club called Sugarhouse in Lancaster on Friday night and then reluctantly went with them to Preston (about 45 minutes away) on a coach that was sent to pick people up from the Uni. The coach was arranged by a girl named Amy to pick up her guests and bring them (free-of-charge) to a club called Revolution for her 21st birthday. I must say that Saturday night was a lot more fun, much smaller than the night before, and I met about 20 more people.
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| Lancaster University! I live in the very top right hand corner. |
Charlotte is really interested in everything American and today I made her a very American lunch... it was breaded chicken with ketchup (which isn't very common here), a baked potato and salad. While we were eating she was asking me about American TV: "What does PBS have on it?" "Is ABC Family a different channel than ABC?" "What cartoons did you watch when you were growing up?" It's funny though because American TV is boring to me and British TV is boring to her. The other day I watched the equivalent of a British Maury Povich called Jeremy Kyle, and a show just like The View called Loose Women. She also regularly watches X-Factor (with Simon Cowell) which is mostly just the English version of American Idol.
The weather has been worse here than it has been in Pac Co (according to mom). It's been overcast and it rained a bit today, but nothing I can't handle since I am from Washington state!
Tomorrow is my day off and, after I do some laundry, I'm going to get my student rail card so I can get my train ticket to London for this weekend! We already have our hostel booked so we're almost set to go....
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Parties!
I don't have time to write much but I thought I'd post a few pictures. I went out a couple times this weekend with friends and it was a great time! I didn't have anything to wear (these brits are ALWAYS dressing up) so I had to borrow a dress from Cathrine (Norway) which was really not my style. It was very small. BUT, it had to be done because we were asked to dress "smart" for a birthday party that was in Preston at a club called Revolution. It was really great. I sang "Wonderwall" with an actual Englishman. That made my whole night, I tell you what. Next weekend, I'm heading to London with Alex!
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| Frankie (left) Alex (behind) Me (with the drink) and Ben |
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| Canada, Ben, Annie, Me and that guy again. |
Friday, October 15, 2010
Hey, hey, USA
Well, I met some friends. They live in my dorm and consist of Frankie, who is from Liverpool, Alex from Canada, Annie from London, and Catherine, who is Norwegian but speaks with a southern accent when speaking English because she lived in Louisiana for a year.
Me and the Canadian got on really well because we use all the same slang and understand each others references. Last night we went to a pub (legally! Yay!) and "What is love?" came on. Alex and I both started doing the SNL/Night at the Roxbury head-bob dance and everyone looked at us like we'd lost our minds. I would have been pretty awkwardly embarrassed if it had just been me, but luckily it wasn't!
I went to get groceries today since I got paid (woo!) and was quite dismayed to find that peanut butter is a rare commodity in the UK. I found TWO jars of peanut butter in the whole store. Both jars were about 1/3 of a jar of PB at home and the only brand they had was Skippy. I was pretty disappointed but I had to settle. When I mentioned the Peanut Butter dilemma to an Englishman later that day, he told me that he has never even TRIED IT! How is this possible?
The English do have quite good food though other than their lack of peanut butter. For example, their yogurt (spelled yoghurt), though it probably has twice the sugar of American yogurt, is about 5X as good. You can also buy it with a little side packet full of tasty little things to put IN your yogurt. So good. Also, the bread it better. Jon wouldn't be able to live here though because there is no Mountain Dew. There is also no Root Beer. Very, very strange this place called England.
I'm going out to a club tonight though with my *new friends*! Sorry no pictures yet... I may be going to London next weekend with Canada so I'll definitely have some then!
Me and the Canadian got on really well because we use all the same slang and understand each others references. Last night we went to a pub (legally! Yay!) and "What is love?" came on. Alex and I both started doing the SNL/Night at the Roxbury head-bob dance and everyone looked at us like we'd lost our minds. I would have been pretty awkwardly embarrassed if it had just been me, but luckily it wasn't!
I went to get groceries today since I got paid (woo!) and was quite dismayed to find that peanut butter is a rare commodity in the UK. I found TWO jars of peanut butter in the whole store. Both jars were about 1/3 of a jar of PB at home and the only brand they had was Skippy. I was pretty disappointed but I had to settle. When I mentioned the Peanut Butter dilemma to an Englishman later that day, he told me that he has never even TRIED IT! How is this possible?
The English do have quite good food though other than their lack of peanut butter. For example, their yogurt (spelled yoghurt), though it probably has twice the sugar of American yogurt, is about 5X as good. You can also buy it with a little side packet full of tasty little things to put IN your yogurt. So good. Also, the bread it better. Jon wouldn't be able to live here though because there is no Mountain Dew. There is also no Root Beer. Very, very strange this place called England.
I'm going out to a club tonight though with my *new friends*! Sorry no pictures yet... I may be going to London next weekend with Canada so I'll definitely have some then!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
My Flatmates.
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| Charlotte, Charlie, Charles, Lady Char Char, Carlotta... |
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| Pili and her boyfriend in Colombia. |
In fact, her and I went to the bank the other day and she heard two men speaking in Spanish, so I eventually convinced her to go talk to them and when we left she literally had tears of joy running down her cheeks. She asked me to help her improve her English so I have been correcting her a little bit and she is thrilled when I do. I taught her the word "hangover" yesterday and she thought it was hilarious. She also used to say "I'm going to take breakfast," instead of "have breakfast," as well as saying "I have hunger," instead of "I'm hungry." I've only known her a few days but I think her English is already improving some.
My German flatmate/volunteer-mate is named Annika Rehman. I don't have a picture of her because she doesn't have a Facebook (shame!) but I'll have one soon since I'm sure we'll take pictures while we're here sometime or another. Annika is very German. She is tall and blonde, very straight-forward, and quite reserved. She is also very nice though. She plays football (soccer) and is on a club team here at Uni. She also plays the electric guitar so we talk a lot about music but she doesn't listen to any Beatles except "Come Together," and doesn't know any Led Zeppelin except "Stairway to Heaven." SO, I told her I was going to make her a CD when I get a chance. Every once in a while she'll accidentally slip a German word in to our conversation without even realizing it... I usually realize what happened but Pili gets very confused.
I have also met a few of Charlotte's friends from last year, mainly Leah and Josie. They're both pretty hilarious and hopefully I see them around more often. I haven't had bad culture shock but I've mostly found the cultural differences very funny. For example, Charlotte's mom, Fiona, and I went to the British-version of Wal-Mart which is called "ASDA." The first thing I noticed was that the shopping carts they used didn't just go back and forth but they went every which way. People were walking with their carts completely sideways... it was so weird. Also, there is a whole isle full of hard alcohol in ASDA! I was so shocked to see it. Fiona told me that they sell it really cheap there so kids go and buy tons of it because the price is so low. ALSO, a big pain that I have come across is that none of my plug-ins fit into the UK plug-ins... so I had to buy an adaptor. When I buy things in a store I feel like a little kid because I'm still unsure about how to use pounds. They have pence instead of cents, and their one-pound is a coin and not a bill. I feel like I sold all my money to the bank for Monopoly money.
I've found British food to be quite good so far. They call desserts "pudding" and they often refer to dinnertime as "tea" or "teatime." That reminds me, I've been drinking tons of tea. That is one stereotype that is completely true. Last night for tea we had chicken and gravy pie and salad. For lunch I thought it was funny that we all had the same ingredients available to use but we all made something different: I made a turkey and cheese sandwich, Pili took two pieces of bread with tuna and put mayonnaise on it while she ate it, and Annika ate two pieces of bread and butter with cheese on them. I got the hiccups after dinner and Annika said "Bless you," which I thought was pretty funny.
Some of the common phrases I've come across are, instead of saying 7:30 or half past seven, many English people just say "half seven." Also instead of saying "how are you," a lot of people just say "alright?" and if something is very cool it's "well good," and if someone is very attractive, they're "well fit." Instead of "crazy" or "insane," people are "mad" or "mental." Once, when Annika and I were discussing the difference in their accent and mine, Leah overhead us and said "You're taking the piss out of my accent!? Cheeky buggers!" I liked that quite a lot.
Well that's all for now, it's about time for me to go make a cheese and tomato quiche so until next time...
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Planes, Trains and Automobiles -- my first two days.
Alright... so after a long journey and an overwhelming first couple of days I'm finally ready to sit down and start writing this thing.
I finally left on Friday at 6:45 PM from the Seattle airport. My mom brought me to the airport and, I must admit, as soon as I got on the other side of security and out of her line of vision I had a mild panic attack. I got over it quickly, though, and found my way to the flight terminal. After about an hour of waiting, we all boarded the plane. I was sitting between a very large British man and a very small British woman who both said they lived not far outside of London. They were both in the US for a week or two for work conferences and they both worked in IT. I talked to them both a bit and they assured me that the plane wouldn't go down and the man said he makes the trip to the US about eight times a year. When I mentioned, however, that I had to take the underground train once I got there they both laughed and said that "the Tube" is far more dangerous than the plane ride. I laughed, but I didn't really think it was very funny.
Once we took off I watched Harry Potter on the plane(each person has their own personal TV in the seat in front of them), and then I thought I'd try and take a nap around 11:00 PM. What I did NOT anticipate, is the sun peaking over the horizon at about midnight, and by 2:00 AM it was daylight out. The stewardess had come around to ask if we wanted drinks and hesitated a minute and then ordered an apple juice. The big man next to me started laughing when the stewardess walked away and said "You know you can drink alcohol when you're 18 in the UK, right?" I DID know that, but I had chickened out at the last second. He thought that was hilarious.
When we arrived at Heathrow airport it was 4:00 AM in my head, but noon on the ground. The tiny lady I was sitting by gave me a map for the underground and after I got my luggage and exchanged some dollars for pounds, I bought my Tube ticket and boarded.
When I first got on the Tube there were only about 5 people in my car. One girl who I started talking to was 22-years-old and from Los Angeles. She was just visiting London. I talked to her for a while, and the further we got in to town the more people were crowding in to the train. By the time I had to get off at King's Cross station, everyone was shoulder-to-shoulder and I had two giant suitcases and a backpack to try and get off. Eventually I managed, but not without difficulty. THEN, I discovered, to get off of the underground platform I had to carry my suitcases and backpack (probably a good 50 or 60 lbs) up a flight of stairs. Luckily, a nice English chap helped me up one stairwell while a Spaniard helped me up another. Eventually I got my above-ground train ticket, and boarded the train at 3:30 PM (or 7:30 AM in the US).
The train I was on went to Glasgow, Scotland, but stopped at Lancaster on the way. There was a Scottish lady sitting next to me with her daughter and I couldn't understand anything they were saying. At one point I asked them how long until we got to Lancaster and the lady answered but had to repeat herself slowly when she saw how confused I was. She also told me that I looked "knackered."
The English countryside is a lot like the Pacific Northwest. There are trees, cows and sheep galore. The weather, so far, is also very similar... It's like a typical day autumn day in Pacific County, except I'm on the west coast of the UK, not the US.
When I arrived in Lancaster, Fiona, Charlotte's mom, was there to pick me up. Charlotte is the girl who I am going to be caring for while in Lancaster... She goes to University (Uni) but had a pretty severe case of cerebral palsy but, luckily, it hasn't affected her brain. Fiona led me to her van and I went to the right side to get in the passenger's side before she reminded me that their steering wheels are on the other side. She then took me to the campus and to my room where I was relieved to put my suitcases down and I met the two other volunteers who will be helping Charlotte: Pilar (Pili) who is Colombian, and Annika who is German. Last, I met Charlotte, who was thrilled beyond belief that I was there.
We all had dinner, squash soup and bread, and I finally got to go to bed at 10 PM (2 PM in the US). Since then quite a lot has happened, there have been a lot of cultural and language differences between the UK and US, and I know a lot more about Pili and Annika, but I will write that all another time.
I finally left on Friday at 6:45 PM from the Seattle airport. My mom brought me to the airport and, I must admit, as soon as I got on the other side of security and out of her line of vision I had a mild panic attack. I got over it quickly, though, and found my way to the flight terminal. After about an hour of waiting, we all boarded the plane. I was sitting between a very large British man and a very small British woman who both said they lived not far outside of London. They were both in the US for a week or two for work conferences and they both worked in IT. I talked to them both a bit and they assured me that the plane wouldn't go down and the man said he makes the trip to the US about eight times a year. When I mentioned, however, that I had to take the underground train once I got there they both laughed and said that "the Tube" is far more dangerous than the plane ride. I laughed, but I didn't really think it was very funny.
Once we took off I watched Harry Potter on the plane(each person has their own personal TV in the seat in front of them), and then I thought I'd try and take a nap around 11:00 PM. What I did NOT anticipate, is the sun peaking over the horizon at about midnight, and by 2:00 AM it was daylight out. The stewardess had come around to ask if we wanted drinks and hesitated a minute and then ordered an apple juice. The big man next to me started laughing when the stewardess walked away and said "You know you can drink alcohol when you're 18 in the UK, right?" I DID know that, but I had chickened out at the last second. He thought that was hilarious.
When we arrived at Heathrow airport it was 4:00 AM in my head, but noon on the ground. The tiny lady I was sitting by gave me a map for the underground and after I got my luggage and exchanged some dollars for pounds, I bought my Tube ticket and boarded.
When I first got on the Tube there were only about 5 people in my car. One girl who I started talking to was 22-years-old and from Los Angeles. She was just visiting London. I talked to her for a while, and the further we got in to town the more people were crowding in to the train. By the time I had to get off at King's Cross station, everyone was shoulder-to-shoulder and I had two giant suitcases and a backpack to try and get off. Eventually I managed, but not without difficulty. THEN, I discovered, to get off of the underground platform I had to carry my suitcases and backpack (probably a good 50 or 60 lbs) up a flight of stairs. Luckily, a nice English chap helped me up one stairwell while a Spaniard helped me up another. Eventually I got my above-ground train ticket, and boarded the train at 3:30 PM (or 7:30 AM in the US).
The train I was on went to Glasgow, Scotland, but stopped at Lancaster on the way. There was a Scottish lady sitting next to me with her daughter and I couldn't understand anything they were saying. At one point I asked them how long until we got to Lancaster and the lady answered but had to repeat herself slowly when she saw how confused I was. She also told me that I looked "knackered."
The English countryside is a lot like the Pacific Northwest. There are trees, cows and sheep galore. The weather, so far, is also very similar... It's like a typical day autumn day in Pacific County, except I'm on the west coast of the UK, not the US.
When I arrived in Lancaster, Fiona, Charlotte's mom, was there to pick me up. Charlotte is the girl who I am going to be caring for while in Lancaster... She goes to University (Uni) but had a pretty severe case of cerebral palsy but, luckily, it hasn't affected her brain. Fiona led me to her van and I went to the right side to get in the passenger's side before she reminded me that their steering wheels are on the other side. She then took me to the campus and to my room where I was relieved to put my suitcases down and I met the two other volunteers who will be helping Charlotte: Pilar (Pili) who is Colombian, and Annika who is German. Last, I met Charlotte, who was thrilled beyond belief that I was there.
We all had dinner, squash soup and bread, and I finally got to go to bed at 10 PM (2 PM in the US). Since then quite a lot has happened, there have been a lot of cultural and language differences between the UK and US, and I know a lot more about Pili and Annika, but I will write that all another time.
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