First off, I appreciate everyone that takes the time to read this. I'm sorry that I don't post more often, and I'll try and put a little more effort into updating more often.
Since the last post I have been busy with traveling, schooling, eating yogurt and granola, spending (too much) money, walking and riding the tube. Not in that order. This past weekend, fellow UCL/Arcadia study abroaders and I traveled up the M6 to Southport, England to spend a weekend with a proper English family. We didn't really know what to expect. We were given a brief overview of our family and their interests, but aside from that we let our imaginations take over. I lucked out with my family. Chris (fitness instructor and mother of 3) and Mike (electrical engineer) were more than happy to open up their home to Matthew and I and make us feel at home. The coach trip was long, but manageable. The crazy coach driver we had was BLAZING through the winding roads leading to southport, and even I manage to feel a little queasy. That went away quickly when we arrived at our homestay house to tea, homemade brownies, and full cable television. We chatted before heading to bed. The next morning we made our way to the Southport train station and boarded a train for Liverpool. We (Matthew and I) met some fellow students (Dan, Greg, Ryan, Sam) outside Central Station in Liverpool and began walking around the city. They have an enormous outdoor mall that spans so many blocks. You could probably walk around it for hours if it wasn't filled with annoying 14 year old brits looking for something to do on their saturday afternoon. Pretty similar to good ole St. Clair Square, but who am I to judge? After all, I was 14 once. We checked out the Cavern Club, where the Beatles played some 200 times throughout their music career and where they were first discovered. It smelled of incense and had an ambience that I can't do justice in words. It was very cool. From there we went to abbott pier. Liverpool was and still is a major shipping port. It was windy. We hit a pub for a pint of Guinness (it was a lovely day for a Guinness) and lunch before walking around some more. We walked to no place in particular, we essentially got lost, then found our way back.
We came back to Southport to a homemade traditional british meal: Shepard's pie, cauliflower cheese, and baked carrots. It was amazing. The meal was topped off chocolate cake and a cup of tea. We followed the meal with a 4+ hour conversation about EVERYTHING. They also had 2 high school students staying with them. One was from France and the other from Germany, so we had lots of opinions and viewpoints about everything. It led to quite the stimulating after dinner conversation. The following morning we headed to Formby. The family has 3 dogs, two irish setters, and a smaller dog, but I can't remember what it is. They take them to the beach often and the dogs absolutely LOVE IT. They are very well trained so they run free from their leads and explore as they fancy, but never leave eyesight. The beach, although cold and a little rainy, was a nice experience. It was fun watching the dogs run and play and climb the sand dunes. Afterwards we headed back to Southport, scarfed down some homemade thai soup (spicy and delicious!) and headed for the coach back to London. Overall, the homestay weekend was fantastic, and I couldn't have asked for a better family.
Classes continue at UCL and are starting to pick up speed. I became a member of the gym for a little fee, and have been working out on a regular basis to keep lean and mean. I have planned my first trip abroad during READING WEEK. UCL didn't think 5 weeks off was enough, so we have a full week in February off. I have started thinking about other weekend trips as well. Dublin and Amsterdam have both been thrown around and are looking likely in the future.
SEACREST OUT.
No comments:
Post a Comment