Since it's 1:30 a.m. here and I've had a pretty eventful/exciting/interesting day/weekend, I really should be sleeping. The problem? I feel so bloated that I think that I could be chained to a bag full of bricks and still be able to float.
But here's a quick run through of the weekend; Reader's Digest version.
Four hour car ride down to beautiful southern England sitting in the middle seat between Sam and his grandmother who cannot speak.
Stayed in the car all day driving around England's newest national park (yes, I will post pictures later), followed by dinner at 8:30ish.
Christening.
Dinner with Judy's brother and his family (minus the son who's son was just christened) and their boyfriends (his other two kids are girls).
Today we went to the castle where Winston Churchill was born.
I will fill you in more tomorrow as to why all of this made for an eventful weekend, but right now I'm having bugs fly up my nose because of the light from the computer.
Good night everyone! And have a fantastic tomorrow!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Pictures
I'm creating my own photobucket account so I can share ALL of my pictures with you guys. I'm still in the process of setting it up though, so you might have to wait for just a day or two so I can get it all figured out. Here's the URL for it so you guys can take a look at it if you find yourselves board or just can't find anything else better to look at online than my photos.
http://s930.photobucket.com/albums/ad142/jessmclass/England%20Trip%20-%20June%202010/
I'll try to start new albums too, as soon as I have things to post.
http://s930.photobucket.com/albums/ad142/jessmclass/England%20Trip%20-%20June%202010/
I'll try to start new albums too, as soon as I have things to post.
The Lake District, Pendle Hill, and various small villages
Tuesday was Day 2 of Judy having off work and Geoff's day off as well, so I got a chance to spend some time with both of Sam's parents in the beautiful Lake district in Northern England. It was absolutely gorgeous!
For those of you who like nature and the outdoors and soaking up the beauty and wonder that is our planet, I highly recommend a trip to the Lake District some time in your life. I learned a lot too. For one thing, I have never seen so many sheep before in my life! It was so different to see sheep with long tails and furry cows.
Before I go any further with how breath-taking the view was, I'm going to divert the narrative to the thing behind the sheep; yes, the wall. The reason I want to talk about the wall for a minute is because everything about this wall is mind-blowing to me. This wall is made by a process called dry-stoning. There is absolutely nothing holding this wall together except for gravity. No concrete, no anything. This is process that has been used for centuries and is a craft that is dying out, but still is used, especially in really steep hilly areas. for some reason it's the most popular and most practical. It stays up really really well too. They even make houses and buildings by this process. The reason this is so fascinating to me is because of the weather that is common to the Midwest all year long.
We drove around looking at several different lakes for a while, it seemed like each lake was somehow more beautiful than the last.
The roads were really narrow driving up the hills and at times really really steep, but the view was, well, like I've already said, breath-taking. There really aren't enough words in the dictionary to describe the wonder of this area, so I'll just show you more pictures.
Once we were to Lake Windemeer (Sp?), we took a ferry to the other side.
We decided to take a little drive around the town to see what there was going on around the town. We were going to get some ice cream when Geoff spotted a place where you could rent a motorboat to take on the lake by yourself for about $30 for up to 2 hours. It was a lot of fun, even though the boat was extremely slow, even at full speed.
It even allowed for us to see some views we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise.
Once we were done at the Lakes, Sam and I went out to see a movie, Letters to Juliet. It's a pretty good movie, even though I'm not a huge fan of romantic movies.
Yesterday Judy and I went to Pendle Hill, a hill associated with a legend of witches. The scenery was incredible! But unfortunately, I can't upload anymore pictures right now. It was really cool going around and seeing all the little villages and looking at the beautiful gardens. One thing about England that I've really been looking at is the gardens. That's one thing that people spend a lot of time doing and put a lot of effort into. Along with the actual gardens themselves, people are very picky about the hedges around here. Most of them seem to be perfectly manicured and trimmed almost all the time. And almost everyone has hedges in front of their front yards. It's a little bit different than what I'm used to seeing, but it's still really cool.
So that brings us to today. I'm left on my own for the first time since being here and it's kinda nice. I'm able to catch up on things, cleaned my room a little bit, did some of my laundry, and put some of the dishes away from last night and cleaned the rest of them. I know I'm not supposed to be doing my own laundry and things like that, but I'm getting a little restless not doing things for myself. I hope everyone has a great day!
For those of you who like nature and the outdoors and soaking up the beauty and wonder that is our planet, I highly recommend a trip to the Lake District some time in your life. I learned a lot too. For one thing, I have never seen so many sheep before in my life! It was so different to see sheep with long tails and furry cows.
Before I go any further with how breath-taking the view was, I'm going to divert the narrative to the thing behind the sheep; yes, the wall. The reason I want to talk about the wall for a minute is because everything about this wall is mind-blowing to me. This wall is made by a process called dry-stoning. There is absolutely nothing holding this wall together except for gravity. No concrete, no anything. This is process that has been used for centuries and is a craft that is dying out, but still is used, especially in really steep hilly areas. for some reason it's the most popular and most practical. It stays up really really well too. They even make houses and buildings by this process. The reason this is so fascinating to me is because of the weather that is common to the Midwest all year long.
We drove around looking at several different lakes for a while, it seemed like each lake was somehow more beautiful than the last.
The roads were really narrow driving up the hills and at times really really steep, but the view was, well, like I've already said, breath-taking. There really aren't enough words in the dictionary to describe the wonder of this area, so I'll just show you more pictures.
Once we were to Lake Windemeer (Sp?), we took a ferry to the other side.
We decided to take a little drive around the town to see what there was going on around the town. We were going to get some ice cream when Geoff spotted a place where you could rent a motorboat to take on the lake by yourself for about $30 for up to 2 hours. It was a lot of fun, even though the boat was extremely slow, even at full speed.
It even allowed for us to see some views we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise.
Once we were done at the Lakes, Sam and I went out to see a movie, Letters to Juliet. It's a pretty good movie, even though I'm not a huge fan of romantic movies.
Yesterday Judy and I went to Pendle Hill, a hill associated with a legend of witches. The scenery was incredible! But unfortunately, I can't upload anymore pictures right now. It was really cool going around and seeing all the little villages and looking at the beautiful gardens. One thing about England that I've really been looking at is the gardens. That's one thing that people spend a lot of time doing and put a lot of effort into. Along with the actual gardens themselves, people are very picky about the hedges around here. Most of them seem to be perfectly manicured and trimmed almost all the time. And almost everyone has hedges in front of their front yards. It's a little bit different than what I'm used to seeing, but it's still really cool.
So that brings us to today. I'm left on my own for the first time since being here and it's kinda nice. I'm able to catch up on things, cleaned my room a little bit, did some of my laundry, and put some of the dishes away from last night and cleaned the rest of them. I know I'm not supposed to be doing my own laundry and things like that, but I'm getting a little restless not doing things for myself. I hope everyone has a great day!
Monday, June 14, 2010
World Cup Party, Dinner with the fam, and Shopping
Saturday we had a big bbq with Sam's parents, brother and his significant other and his/their kids, and some of their friends, family and people from work. I know Sam has put up with a lot of picking on from his nieces, nephews and their friends and relatives, so I tried to give him a little bit of a break. Almost every time they came over to ask him to jump on the trampoline, they would ask me after he said no. So I said yes. Please remember that I sometimes feel awkward, ok, usually feel awkward around people I don't know too well and do my best to make a good impression. I really feel that my jumping on a trampoline for over an hour helped with this. It also might have helped with the burning off of several thousand calories.
Those kids have soooooooooooooooo much energy! We were having bouncing competitions, doing cheerleading jumps, and trying get people to go from sitting down to standing up just by bouncing them high enough. It worked. Several times.
When the bouncing became a little too much for me and I had to take a break, the kids found all the crazy England stuff that was around; a bullhorn that could either make your voice really really really loud or play a song equally as loud, flags, a blow up hand, and these lovely things......
And the only thing worse than a little girl with one of these, is a twenty year old boy with one and his fourteen year old nephew with another.
It was a lot of fun watching the battles of the blowup hammers go on pretty much until the game started.
The game itself, supposedly the highlight of the night, the main event, was a tie. England's goalie let a ball slide and ended up making the game a draw. The big England fans were a little disappointed, but not too upset. They said I was lucky because they really didn't have anything to make fun of me for now, even though I was sporting an England jersey for the game.
Sunday, I was privileged enough to experience an almost full English breakfast (it didn't have the sausage in it). For those of you who aren't aware of what is in a full English breakfast, let me enlighten you. A pig, an egg, a piece of toast, and a few fried tomatoes and mushrooms. And when I say a pig, that's pretty much what it is. You have several slices of bacon (when I say bacon here, it means a strip of meat from a pig that is roughly the equivalent of four really good, lean slices of bacon we usually get at the supermarket. they are think and wide), black pudding (pig's blood and back fat, no joke), and usually sausage as well. Now I'm not usually one to judge food until i've tried it, but the thought of eating blood from anything mixed with barley and any kind of fat was not exactly appetizing to me. I almost gagged when I read the ingredients. But, I was somehow able to put that thought aside as I tried it with some fried tomatoes and fried mushrooms and eat it. It actually isn't all that bad, as long as you can forget entirely what it is made out of. It still makes me nauseous knowing that I ate blood and fat mixed together.
Any way, for tea that night, we met up with the rest of the semi-immeadiate family (Sam's brother Sid, his significant other Samantha, Sid's son Jordan and Sid and Samantha's daughter Jasmine. Sam's sister Vicki and her husband Tony and their children Sarah, Sophie, and Max) for dinner at a really nice restaurant. I've never been the type to order more than one course for several reasons.....one, it costs more. Two, I'm usually not that hungary. Three, I wasn't raised in a family that ordered starters, never the less, everyone ordered their own starters. I ended up going with chicken pate (after hearing several people go on about how good it was), more weird stuff, chicken liver. Then for a delicious main course of red pepper and goat cheese risotto. After dinner was over, Sam and I and his parents went over to Vicki and Tony's house. It was very lovely.
Today I went shopping with Judy (Sam's mom), Vicki, and Sarah while Sam was doing his training all day. It was a lot of fun, but I'm now very tired from all that walking. Have a great night everyone!
Those kids have soooooooooooooooo much energy! We were having bouncing competitions, doing cheerleading jumps, and trying get people to go from sitting down to standing up just by bouncing them high enough. It worked. Several times.
When the bouncing became a little too much for me and I had to take a break, the kids found all the crazy England stuff that was around; a bullhorn that could either make your voice really really really loud or play a song equally as loud, flags, a blow up hand, and these lovely things......
And the only thing worse than a little girl with one of these, is a twenty year old boy with one and his fourteen year old nephew with another.
It was a lot of fun watching the battles of the blowup hammers go on pretty much until the game started.
The game itself, supposedly the highlight of the night, the main event, was a tie. England's goalie let a ball slide and ended up making the game a draw. The big England fans were a little disappointed, but not too upset. They said I was lucky because they really didn't have anything to make fun of me for now, even though I was sporting an England jersey for the game.
Sunday, I was privileged enough to experience an almost full English breakfast (it didn't have the sausage in it). For those of you who aren't aware of what is in a full English breakfast, let me enlighten you. A pig, an egg, a piece of toast, and a few fried tomatoes and mushrooms. And when I say a pig, that's pretty much what it is. You have several slices of bacon (when I say bacon here, it means a strip of meat from a pig that is roughly the equivalent of four really good, lean slices of bacon we usually get at the supermarket. they are think and wide), black pudding (pig's blood and back fat, no joke), and usually sausage as well. Now I'm not usually one to judge food until i've tried it, but the thought of eating blood from anything mixed with barley and any kind of fat was not exactly appetizing to me. I almost gagged when I read the ingredients. But, I was somehow able to put that thought aside as I tried it with some fried tomatoes and fried mushrooms and eat it. It actually isn't all that bad, as long as you can forget entirely what it is made out of. It still makes me nauseous knowing that I ate blood and fat mixed together.
Any way, for tea that night, we met up with the rest of the semi-immeadiate family (Sam's brother Sid, his significant other Samantha, Sid's son Jordan and Sid and Samantha's daughter Jasmine. Sam's sister Vicki and her husband Tony and their children Sarah, Sophie, and Max) for dinner at a really nice restaurant. I've never been the type to order more than one course for several reasons.....one, it costs more. Two, I'm usually not that hungary. Three, I wasn't raised in a family that ordered starters, never the less, everyone ordered their own starters. I ended up going with chicken pate (after hearing several people go on about how good it was), more weird stuff, chicken liver. Then for a delicious main course of red pepper and goat cheese risotto. After dinner was over, Sam and I and his parents went over to Vicki and Tony's house. It was very lovely.
Today I went shopping with Judy (Sam's mom), Vicki, and Sarah while Sam was doing his training all day. It was a lot of fun, but I'm now very tired from all that walking. Have a great night everyone!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Oh, I forgot the rest.........
And before I could remember to type the rest of the day up, I hit publish. That night we were going to see Letters to Juliet, but it was too close to tea (dinner time). So instead we went ice skating. Last night having been the third time I've ever been ice skating, it was really fun, and I only fell once. The bad thing about it was that the ice was a little bit melted so it felt more like slush skating.
Ice skating was in Blackburn, a city that I hadn't been to before. It was a little bit like driving through South Omaha, a little scary. We got lost on the way home, but, like usual when anyone and myself get lost together, we eventually found our way home.
Football (soccer) party tonight, so hopefully more pics and more stories for you guys tomorrow! Have a great day!
Ice skating was in Blackburn, a city that I hadn't been to before. It was a little bit like driving through South Omaha, a little scary. We got lost on the way home, but, like usual when anyone and myself get lost together, we eventually found our way home.
Football (soccer) party tonight, so hopefully more pics and more stories for you guys tomorrow! Have a great day!
Catching up too much continued
Now that I'm back, with food in my stomach, straight hair, some new stuff, and less money, I'm ready to continue with my adventures at MOSI (we'll get back to the shopping excursion in a bit).
Somewhere between the second and third building in the basement, there was a little bit of a recycling display that was pretty cool and interactive.
The third building was more of a history of Manchester. It went through the Roman and Saxon periods as well as a few others. It was really neat.
I think the coolest things we saw were in the fourth building. It was all trains and big engines and things of that sort.
It was really cool seeing some of the engines working.
We saw a whole bunch of really cool trains that reminded me a lot of the western heritage museum.
And we found a coach car that was designed to mimic stagecoaches. I thought they were really fancy.
The last building was dedicated to air and space.........sort of. It had a lot of cars in it. The things that were about space were mostly chinese. It was a little strange, but still really cool.
Somewhere between the second and third building in the basement, there was a little bit of a recycling display that was pretty cool and interactive.
The third building was more of a history of Manchester. It went through the Roman and Saxon periods as well as a few others. It was really neat.
I think the coolest things we saw were in the fourth building. It was all trains and big engines and things of that sort.
It was really cool seeing some of the engines working.
We saw a whole bunch of really cool trains that reminded me a lot of the western heritage museum.
And we found a coach car that was designed to mimic stagecoaches. I thought they were really fancy.
The last building was dedicated to air and space.........sort of. It had a lot of cars in it. The things that were about space were mostly chinese. It was a little strange, but still really cool.
Catching up too much
I have come to the realization that I have to play catch-up on my posting far too often; mainly because by the time everything is done, it's really late and all I want to do is go to bed. So now I think I'm just going to post things in the morning about the things I did the day before.
Yesterday Sam took me to MOSI (museum of science and industry) in Manchester. I have never seen anything like it! It was really cool! This museum takes up five buildings (as you probably know, there have been MAJOR advances in science and in industry in the last 200 years). The first building we went to was the main building. The main building homes basically two different things. On the main floor, it shows the advances that have been made in making fabric. It had HUGE machines that were used to turn wool into thread, and then others that turned that thread into fabric. They had giant looms and other machines that were used for other material related things.
Here's a picture of one of those machines. This one braids a bunch of different strings together to make a really cool looking ribbon thing.
The second level had all the major advances in science (the making of satellites, discovering heat as energy, etc.).
The second building was all about the 1800s. In Manchester. It was pretty cool, but there's not a whole lot to say about it. They didn't have too much on display, artifact wise. It was mainly things to read about. The basement however, was a little bit more exciting. The basement lead from the second building to the third and started off with the history of underground water systems. It really smelled bad, but I think the smell really went along with the displays of different toilet and bathing systems that have been used over time. From that, it showed different ways that water has been heated in the past.
I will post about the rest in a little bit. I need to go get an England shirt for this afternoon, me being in England for the World cup and all.
To be continued......
Yesterday Sam took me to MOSI (museum of science and industry) in Manchester. I have never seen anything like it! It was really cool! This museum takes up five buildings (as you probably know, there have been MAJOR advances in science and in industry in the last 200 years). The first building we went to was the main building. The main building homes basically two different things. On the main floor, it shows the advances that have been made in making fabric. It had HUGE machines that were used to turn wool into thread, and then others that turned that thread into fabric. They had giant looms and other machines that were used for other material related things.
Here's a picture of one of those machines. This one braids a bunch of different strings together to make a really cool looking ribbon thing.
The second level had all the major advances in science (the making of satellites, discovering heat as energy, etc.).
The second building was all about the 1800s. In Manchester. It was pretty cool, but there's not a whole lot to say about it. They didn't have too much on display, artifact wise. It was mainly things to read about. The basement however, was a little bit more exciting. The basement lead from the second building to the third and started off with the history of underground water systems. It really smelled bad, but I think the smell really went along with the displays of different toilet and bathing systems that have been used over time. From that, it showed different ways that water has been heated in the past.
I will post about the rest in a little bit. I need to go get an England shirt for this afternoon, me being in England for the World cup and all.
To be continued......
Thursday, June 10, 2010
A day for birds
I know that I haven't posted for a few days, and for that i'm really sorry.
To give you a quick update how the last three days have gone.....
Tuesday Sam and I walked around Preston for a bit. He showed me the difference between an open market and a proper market (in case anyone is wondering, an open market is in a big open area that mainly sells second hand stuff and cheap knock offs, where as a proper market is inside, has separated stalls and the same stuff you would find in stores in the mall, but costs a lot less). We also bought a new adapter to see if I could get my straightener to work (it appears, unfortunately, to be dead. Tear, sniff).
Wednesday we spent a good portion snowboarding. It was sooooooo much fun! At first, since I haven't been snowboarding in a year and a half and then I went for three days. So, at the start of this session, I was falling off the lift (ok, going to divert for a minute. The lift at this indoor snowboarding/ski place that we went to is a single pole that has a disk on the end of it that you're supposed to kinda sit on and it pulls you up.) every time I tried to get on, to going almost straight down from the top without falling a few times. It was really cool!
Today Sam took me to this amazing wildlife waterfowl preserve that had different kinds of birds from all over the world! The birds were really cool and looked so pretty!
I'll post some pictures when I have a few more to put up, and I'll be posting a little bit more later.
To give you a quick update how the last three days have gone.....
Tuesday Sam and I walked around Preston for a bit. He showed me the difference between an open market and a proper market (in case anyone is wondering, an open market is in a big open area that mainly sells second hand stuff and cheap knock offs, where as a proper market is inside, has separated stalls and the same stuff you would find in stores in the mall, but costs a lot less). We also bought a new adapter to see if I could get my straightener to work (it appears, unfortunately, to be dead. Tear, sniff).
Wednesday we spent a good portion snowboarding. It was sooooooo much fun! At first, since I haven't been snowboarding in a year and a half and then I went for three days. So, at the start of this session, I was falling off the lift (ok, going to divert for a minute. The lift at this indoor snowboarding/ski place that we went to is a single pole that has a disk on the end of it that you're supposed to kinda sit on and it pulls you up.) every time I tried to get on, to going almost straight down from the top without falling a few times. It was really cool!
Today Sam took me to this amazing wildlife waterfowl preserve that had different kinds of birds from all over the world! The birds were really cool and looked so pretty!
I'll post some pictures when I have a few more to put up, and I'll be posting a little bit more later.
Monday, June 7, 2010
First Day without a nap!
Today I actually got to go out and do stuff without taking a nap first! We went to Blackpool today. Went for a walk along the promenade and had a lunch of fish and chips by the seafront. We went to a really cool aquarium that had more fish than the aquarium at the Henry Dorly Zoo. It was really cool! We then went to Pleasure Beach, an amusement park a little like Adventureland. My favorite ride by far had to be a ride called Valhalla. It's a water ride that gets pitch black and has fire and snow in it. It was awesome! Back home for some meat pie and mashed potatoes and now watching movies. We'll see what tomorrow brings!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Day 4
I think I'm finally getting over my jetlag. Didn't really do too much again today but watch movies. I didn't take a nap today, which is an improvement. Sam's parents took us out to dinner at this really nice Italian restaurant called The Italian Orchard. It was really nice and the food was incredible!
Afterwards we came back home and watched another movie. Not super exciting, but a lot of fun.
I think we're going to Blackpool tomorrow, so there should be more to write about and pictures to go along with it. Have a great night everyone!
Afterwards we came back home and watched another movie. Not super exciting, but a lot of fun.
I think we're going to Blackpool tomorrow, so there should be more to write about and pictures to go along with it. Have a great night everyone!
Day 3 - a day late again
I really need to keep this up a little bit better. I had every intention of posting something last night, but I fell asleep. Which was pretty much what I did all day long. I woke up at about 10 am (keep in mind that it would be 4 am Nebraska time) got ready and was able to stay awake until about 1 or 1:30, and then decided to take a nap before going to a parade in the nearby village (Sam's niece Jasmine was an attendant to the Rose Queen). I told Sam to wake me up so I could go, so he woke me up at 3, when it was all over.
Just a little note about this parade; it's something that's put on by the church every year and they have a Queen (I think the queen is elected or voted on) and the Queen has a certain number of little girls as her attendants and a few boys to carry her canopy. There are lots of floats that are judged and they go to a local park at the end of the parade to find out who the winner of the best float is. It sounds a little bit like a college Homecoming parade.
Anyway, I slept right through it. Later, when I was finally awake, we really didn't do a lot, just watched movies and then went next door to Sam's brother Sid's house for a barbecue, or what was left of it anyway. I met a lot of new people, including Jasmine (Sam's niece), Samantha (Sid's friend or future wife, depending on who you listened to for the introduction) and a few other's that I don't really remember. It was a lot of fun!
We didn't stay for the entire thing, mainly because I was really tired again. big surprise.
The night finished off uneventfully by us watching movies and Dr. Who, and going to bed. Hopefully waking up at12:30 today will help me stay awake a little longer and actually post what goes on the rest of the day before I go to bed. Have a great day everyone and I'll try to post some of the pictures that I have so far.
A picture of my room (and yes, that is a cord above the bed on the side by the night stand.....it's the light switch)
The note that was with my flowers
The flowers that greeted me when I got in the room.
Just a little note about this parade; it's something that's put on by the church every year and they have a Queen (I think the queen is elected or voted on) and the Queen has a certain number of little girls as her attendants and a few boys to carry her canopy. There are lots of floats that are judged and they go to a local park at the end of the parade to find out who the winner of the best float is. It sounds a little bit like a college Homecoming parade.
Anyway, I slept right through it. Later, when I was finally awake, we really didn't do a lot, just watched movies and then went next door to Sam's brother Sid's house for a barbecue, or what was left of it anyway. I met a lot of new people, including Jasmine (Sam's niece), Samantha (Sid's friend or future wife, depending on who you listened to for the introduction) and a few other's that I don't really remember. It was a lot of fun!
We didn't stay for the entire thing, mainly because I was really tired again. big surprise.
The night finished off uneventfully by us watching movies and Dr. Who, and going to bed. Hopefully waking up at12:30 today will help me stay awake a little longer and actually post what goes on the rest of the day before I go to bed. Have a great day everyone and I'll try to post some of the pictures that I have so far.
A picture of my room (and yes, that is a cord above the bed on the side by the night stand.....it's the light switch)
The note that was with my flowers
The flowers that greeted me when I got in the room.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Day 2 - The end of it. Finally!
Our plane was finally set to take off at 9 am. We boarded the plane early and thought we were pretty much all set to take off. So we sat around waiting until 9:40 at the gate in the airplane. Why? Well, that was about the time they decided to finally tell us that they were waiting for the catering service to give them the rest of the meals. By this time we were ready to just take an extra bag of pretzels if it would get us in the air sooner. Finally, at 9:50, we were set for take off.
There are several little things that I am really picky about for not really any particular reason. Airplane food is one of them. I'm not a huge meat-eater to begin with, but for some reason I don't trust the meat in airplane food. They hadn't gotten the vegetarian meals from the catering service. That's actually what we were waiting for the entire time and never got. Awesome. But good news, they did have a vegetarian breakfast box for me later, for the meal that didn't have any meat in it. So I got packaged fruit while everyone else got fresh fruit and a small dry bagel while everyone else got a warm croissant. Fantastic.
Finally, we arrived at the airport 11 hours later than scheduled. My luggage had been gone through, but nothing was lost or missing. Sam gave me the best warm welcome that I could ever imagine after everything that had happened.
We got to Sam's house and I was welcomed by his parents and two doodles. Very tired and ready to go to bed, we ended the night and I was able to go to sleep, but not before admiring the beautiful flowers that my amazing boyfriend had left next to the bed (pink and red roses)!
There are several little things that I am really picky about for not really any particular reason. Airplane food is one of them. I'm not a huge meat-eater to begin with, but for some reason I don't trust the meat in airplane food. They hadn't gotten the vegetarian meals from the catering service. That's actually what we were waiting for the entire time and never got. Awesome. But good news, they did have a vegetarian breakfast box for me later, for the meal that didn't have any meat in it. So I got packaged fruit while everyone else got fresh fruit and a small dry bagel while everyone else got a warm croissant. Fantastic.
Finally, we arrived at the airport 11 hours later than scheduled. My luggage had been gone through, but nothing was lost or missing. Sam gave me the best warm welcome that I could ever imagine after everything that had happened.
We got to Sam's house and I was welcomed by his parents and two doodles. Very tired and ready to go to bed, we ended the night and I was able to go to sleep, but not before admiring the beautiful flowers that my amazing boyfriend had left next to the bed (pink and red roses)!
Day 1 continuation.....and part of Day 2, I think
Days 1 and 2
Everything is going to start blurring together really quickly pretty soon, so bear with me for just a little bit.
The flight from Kansas City went just fine, everything was on schedule, the people were really fun to listen to ("Your face always looks like that when things go awry"), and had a nice little chat with a older lady from Pennsylvania (who is going to Greece soon, Happy and safe travels!).
Arriving in Newark wasn't as bad as I remembered either. Everything was really well labeled, they gave me clear instructions on exactly where to go, and I arrived at the gate (after a quick potty break) early enough to jot down a few notes on my stickies. The international flight took off fine and they even verified my dietary preferences. I started watching Alice in Wonderland and was drifting off to sleep…….
And then I looked at the map that showed our progress, or in this case, our regress.
Now, anyone who really knows me, knows that I am horrible at directions. I am completely directionally challenged. However, I do know that when you are flying and they are showing you where you are going in green and where you have been in yellow, there should not be two yellow lines.
15 minutes later, I, and everyone else in the the plane, got an answer for that; we turned around and were on our way back to, you guessed it, Newark. Apparently there was some sort of computer problem and we wouldn't be able to fly the rest of the way. Here's the kicker; we were too heavy to land. So what do we do? We made a right turn! We actually flew in circles around Massachusetts for an hour and a half. When we finally landed, the nice German lady sitting next to me had a lot to say. Unfortunately, due to lack of conversing in German for the last 8 years, and her quiet voice, and the fact that she was talking 5 miles a minute, I could only pick out a few words. And I tried to go from there.
So why is this getting all blurred together? It's probably because I'm sitting here in the airport at 3:15 am typing this while the extremely long, single-filed line waiting for a hotel room is dwindling down to the last few people waiting to get their instructions on how to get their rooms. Oh that's right, I forgot to mention. They were just going to have us switch planes and be four hours late getting there, but then decided (for reasons they neglected to tell us) that they flight was going to be delayed until 9 a.m. Surprise!
While it may sound like I am, I really am not mad. I've done a little bit of traveling and have heard other people's horror stories about stuff like this happening, and I figure it was bound to happen to me eventually. At least the airline took the responsibility to say, "It's not safe for us to finish our scheduled journey, so we're going back." and once they realized it needed a little more attention, they made sure that they set up accommodations for everyone on board. I don't think I'm going to take advantage of it though, because I could probably get more sleep if I stay at the airport. While not as comfortable and relaxing, I am able to fall asleep in the most unlikely places. And I don't want to risk not hearing my alarm clock. Or having to wake up in three hours to make sure I can make the shuttle in time to still get through security.
So there's my trip so far, I'll give you guys the update shortly after this is posted since I have no internet while I'm typing this. Have a great night everyone!
Everything is going to start blurring together really quickly pretty soon, so bear with me for just a little bit.
The flight from Kansas City went just fine, everything was on schedule, the people were really fun to listen to ("Your face always looks like that when things go awry"), and had a nice little chat with a older lady from Pennsylvania (who is going to Greece soon, Happy and safe travels!).
Arriving in Newark wasn't as bad as I remembered either. Everything was really well labeled, they gave me clear instructions on exactly where to go, and I arrived at the gate (after a quick potty break) early enough to jot down a few notes on my stickies. The international flight took off fine and they even verified my dietary preferences. I started watching Alice in Wonderland and was drifting off to sleep…….
And then I looked at the map that showed our progress, or in this case, our regress.
Now, anyone who really knows me, knows that I am horrible at directions. I am completely directionally challenged. However, I do know that when you are flying and they are showing you where you are going in green and where you have been in yellow, there should not be two yellow lines.
15 minutes later, I, and everyone else in the the plane, got an answer for that; we turned around and were on our way back to, you guessed it, Newark. Apparently there was some sort of computer problem and we wouldn't be able to fly the rest of the way. Here's the kicker; we were too heavy to land. So what do we do? We made a right turn! We actually flew in circles around Massachusetts for an hour and a half. When we finally landed, the nice German lady sitting next to me had a lot to say. Unfortunately, due to lack of conversing in German for the last 8 years, and her quiet voice, and the fact that she was talking 5 miles a minute, I could only pick out a few words. And I tried to go from there.
So why is this getting all blurred together? It's probably because I'm sitting here in the airport at 3:15 am typing this while the extremely long, single-filed line waiting for a hotel room is dwindling down to the last few people waiting to get their instructions on how to get their rooms. Oh that's right, I forgot to mention. They were just going to have us switch planes and be four hours late getting there, but then decided (for reasons they neglected to tell us) that they flight was going to be delayed until 9 a.m. Surprise!
While it may sound like I am, I really am not mad. I've done a little bit of traveling and have heard other people's horror stories about stuff like this happening, and I figure it was bound to happen to me eventually. At least the airline took the responsibility to say, "It's not safe for us to finish our scheduled journey, so we're going back." and once they realized it needed a little more attention, they made sure that they set up accommodations for everyone on board. I don't think I'm going to take advantage of it though, because I could probably get more sleep if I stay at the airport. While not as comfortable and relaxing, I am able to fall asleep in the most unlikely places. And I don't want to risk not hearing my alarm clock. Or having to wake up in three hours to make sure I can make the shuttle in time to still get through security.
So there's my trip so far, I'll give you guys the update shortly after this is posted since I have no internet while I'm typing this. Have a great night everyone!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Day 1
There is about 6 hours till my flight from Kansas City leaves, which means that in less than 24 hours, I will finally be in England! I have been waiting for this trip for the last 6 months and am getting to the stage where I am not only excited, but nervous, anxious, and relieved. I cannot wait until I get there, but am unsure of what to expect when I get there.
Yesterday I made a fantastic pizza for my mom as the last homemade meal I would make for her before I left. It was asparagus pizza (I know it sounds gross, but it was actually really great! and I'm not even a huge fan of asparagus), and even though I left out a minor ingredient and used store bought pizza crust instead of from scratch, it still turned out really great. I even took pictures! But wasn't paying attention when I was clearing off my memory card and deleted it. Dang it! If you want to see a picture of it, go to smittenkitchen.com (my absolute FAVORITE cooking site). A picture of it is right under the root beer float cupcakes (which I will be making the first chance I get!).
Anyway, I am in Kansas City right now hanging out with my rambunctious cousins, so I am going to go make sure they don't hurt each other when playing around and finish getting myself together for my flight. Have a great day everyone!
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