Been Missing YOU!

So I know that I haven't written in a week so i thought i would drop by and write something quick before Alex gets back from work.....and I am sure i will probably write a bunch more tomorrow or on Wed.....

so i haven't been up to too awful much. spent a few nights out with Alex's friends, got rained out of our camping trip this weekend, been watching after his grandmother's house, went on a shopping spree with Sara and Graham and bought 2 dresses that I adore but didn't need.....that's about all really. His mom and sister left for Turkey last Sunday and came back this morning so its been really quiet around here during the day without them. Been cleaning a lot and hanging around. applied for lots more jobs but haven't heard anything yet!! its frustrating but i have a month and a bit left until i go home so i am still hopeful that i will find something.

i have spent a lot of my spare time thinking about everyone back home. i really miss everyone!! i really truly am having a wonderful time here and LOVE it for sure....but i do miss home. i mean, I'm kindof in an odd position i suppose. in another country, in someone else's house, using other people things, don't have much of 'my own', all my friends and family are far away - its a strange feeling. its not bad, but i do really miss some things from home. and i for sure miss all the people a lot. i feel awful cuz i haven't gotten much of a chance to call people from home. its such an awkward time difference that its hard to catch people at a decent time. and then i found out awful news last night - the phone that i have been using to call home....which is like a skype phone.....only allows so many free minutes before you get charged...and nobody in the house knew that. so needless to say i have exceeded that and have cost them alot of money. of course i am going to pay it....its just sucks cuz now the phone wont work at all for outgoing calls unless its to 911! and calling home on my cell sucks up all my minutes since I'm just doing a prepaid thing. it sucks! i guess ill have to find some other way to get ahold of everyone......I'm gonna try to find a skype camera and get that set up. that will have to due i spose. grrrrrr!

anyways, that's a quick update on how i am doing. i will write a lot more soon.....i just have a few things to get done before Alex gets back so that i am all ready for him to help me work out where else i can apply that i am not finding online....again, i miss everyone a lot and hope you are doing well.

Bus Lady, Meet Evil Rooster

So I have 2 stories for you guys about what has happened to me the past 2 days. Thursday Alex had off of work so we decided to go shopping in Wolverhampton since we could stop in and say hello to my new almost friend Sara at her work. We took care of the chickens and ducks and then road the bus there. All went fine and I picked up a dress shirt to go with my pencil skirt for interviews and then a little something for someone back home. Anyways, we were leaving the mall and Alex wanted to stop at the pet store to look at fish since he has decided that he really wants one of those blue lobsters (we are going to name him Hamilton I believe). It wasnt a big deal and didnt take long. however, they had no blue lobsters. we went to catch the bus and had just missed one so we had to wait a bit. eventually we got on a double decker bus and were on our way, but because we stopped at the pet store we decided to speed up the process instead of waiting so long and took a less direct but quicker route that meant we had to change buses. no big deal....we were on our way, got on the double decker bus, and road to our stop where we were to transfer buses. as we walked around the corner we saw the bus stop and inside was a scruffy looking lady. we were curious what time the next bus came as it was getting close to when Alex believed it would be there....but Alex didnt want to go inside and look at the poster because she didnt want to talk to the old lady. i told him it would be fine and we'd just be in and out again. welp, that wasnt the case. the lady started to talk to us. it was the most interestingly uncomfortable conversation with a stranger we had ever had. lol. she was no harm but clearly was intoxicated. throughout the wait for the bus (which came 8 minutes before the next bus was meant to come!) she told us all of her adventures and strange friends. turns out she loves Clint Eastwood films, going on holiday, accusing the police of mistreating women, and has drug dealing gambler friends....and she had also been picked up by the police recently for sleeping in a public area when intoxicated and they made her sleep at the station overnight. then they drove her back to her free medical housing (cuz shes disabled with a dislocating shoulder and an alcoholic). then apparently she went to turkey and began telling us about all the money her friend won/wins at gambling places. oh my, it was strange. very entertaining, even to the other people awaiting the bus. but never fear, she was no harm at all and we safely made it back to his house fine. we even saw his grandmother when we were getting off the bus (she literally lives right outside the bus stop) and stopped to chat with her for a bit. man what a day that was.

the second story i have is one thats a bit more dangerous to me and a bit more hilarious for all of you to hear about....it involves that evil rooster! so yesterday while Alex was at work i had to walk down and take care of the chickens and ducks by myself. no big deal, its 3 blocks away and in a safe neighborhood so i dont mind at all. on the way there a van of guys drove past me and one literally jumped halfway out the window of the van at me and started screaming. to scare me obviously, and of course, it worked. bad start. then, once i got there i could hear all of the chickens out of the run and in the yard. i fed the ducks, crumbling up the hot dog buns and spreading them on the yard. i turn around a giant rat the size of my hand came out of the bushes to eat the bread. it just looked at me. i was startled and took a step back. then it took off running. not 2 minutes later i was crumbling some in a different area of the yard, and there again i turn around and see that huge rat! now, im not afraid of rats but the freaking thing was huge and came out of nowhere twice....then the real trouble began. with the magical fishnet on a stick for protection i headed for the gate to the chicken yard. i slowly opened it and before i even got through the gate the rooster came running at me. i immediately backed up and shut the gate. after it had wondered into a pen i made my way into the yard and over to the feed shed. welllll theres a hole apparently in the pen he was in because he got out and came after me as i was spreading the feed. i still had the magical fishnet so i swung it around in his direction. he rammed into it twice before making it past that and hop/flied towards my leg. he pecked me good in the leg so i kicked him in the chest and swung the magical fishnet at him. he ran back at me and right into the fishnet, snapping the stick not 2 inches from the net! i screamed because it was coming towards me so i ran for the shed. in my attempted to get inside i hit my head on the top of the track and the the metal door got stuck in its tracks and he got me once more in the leg before i got it shut. i waited a few minutes for him to stop making noise and kept peeking out the crack to see if he had gone away. once he did i made a run for it, trying to pick up the fishnet as i ran. again, bad idea cuz he began to come after me again in that evil crowing hop/flying way that he does. trying to get the gate open i ran my thigh into the side of one of the sheds before making it out of the pen and locking the gate. i hadnt collected the eggs and i hadnt fed them as much as i prlly should have...but i really didnt care since it was so scared. i swear, even though today is our last day caring for them, that rooster will come and get me. i feel like im peter griffin from family guy when he fights the rooster - like ill be doing something completely normal in public somewhere and all of the sudden that rooster will jump out and attach me. except of course the next time i see him he will be my height and will be able to talk.

and to top it all off, on my walk back to Alex's house there were police that had pulled over a public bus! the driver was spitting on the ground as the police man wrote a bunch of things down and all of the school kids were standing around in the grass while the adults staying on the bus....it was strange , but oddly made me feel like i was at home since the police were dumb enough to park right in the crosswalk. ahhh police...

so yes, those are my stories of interest from the past couple days. hope you enjoyed

EGGscapades

Well I guess the best place to begin is where I last left off.....on Friday night we went over to Luke's place and played Rock Band with Graham. I got to sing and pretty much was amazing even though I had never played before. it was prlly because I have done Sing Star at camp and with Sam. We also ordered Indian food, which I have not had much of in the past. I stuck with something simple and went with just a side order of prawn fried rice since we had eaten shortly before going to Luke's. I got to try bite of everyone’s stuff. I decided that I'm not really a fan of Indian food and will gladly stick to getting prawn fried rice in the future, as it was very delicious.

I am betting a lot of you probably don’t realize that Indian food is kindof a big thing around here. there are Indian food shops everywhere around here and a big Indian population. and they have a very wide delivery range with no delivery charges over here. it’s amazing. plus no tipping, which is even better. however, i guess some delivery guys will conveniently not have change with them so they can keep any extra you might be forced to hand over since you yourself dont have exact change for the order. i think that’s pretty sneaky. luckily the guy that delivered ours had change.

speaking of the food (if any of you are wondering what its like), the food is quite different over here. sure they have a lot of the same stuff we do in America, but nobody really eats like we do in America. everything is covered in sauces or gravies, not much plain unless you ask for it that way. and even then they usually wanna give the sauce to you on the side. also, a lot of things come in sandwich form if it has no sauce....and then they wanna put condiments on it like mayo. they are big on mayo here on sandwiches. and butter on sandwiches as well. and then, of course, potatoes. lots of them. there is rarely a meal i have that doesn’t include potatoes. and they often have several different kinds of potatoes offered at one meal. and chicken is much more popular than beef. i eat mostly chicken. or fish, of course, but since Alex and his dad dont really care for fish much (unless its fish and chips) i dont have much of it in Alex's house. speaking of fish and chips....yuck. i dont approve. i love fish, but its really greasy. and the chips (french fries) are really greasy as well and traditionally have these spices on them that make them orange....they call them orange chips, but worry not, they dont taste like oranges. lol. i always pass on those. as for veggies, they have a lot of them, but they are usually mixed in the dish somewhere. like in whatever the main part of the meal is....weather it be a stew, pasta, rice, or tortilla wrap dish. dont get me wrong, i am not complaining about the food. i like most of what i eat and avoid anything greasy looking, with curry powder, or Mexican spices (cuz that tastes kinda curryish for some reason. however, when i went to a proper mexican restaurant the spices are good).

also an interesting few things to note about going out to eat - every restaurant you go, no matter what kind of food they serve, is English cuisine inspired. lol. everywhere has fish and chips option. and there are always chips and orange chips as a side item option....even at the Indian restaurant! also, a lot of the food is blander than i am used to. well, the chinese and mexican anyways. they are good, but dont have as many seasonings and flavor i am used to in America. with the exception of Indian food, which is stronger flavored. and that makes sense because there are a lot of Indian people around and not as many mexicans or chinese. altho there are some. i also find it odd that they dont do refills over here at most restaurants. and if they do its rare and a self serve deal....but even at subways and whatnot they dont allow refills, despite the machines being self serve. oooo, and they give you water in a bottle at a lot of cafes and hand you a glass in which they expect you to pour the water and drink from. strange. ive been told its so you dont share your drink - cuz more people are prone to share from a bottle but not from a glass. strange. itd be your own fault if you did anyways since there aren’t free refills.....

i could go on for a lot longer with cultural differences in eating habits alone BUT this is already lengthy and I have a lot more to chit chat about....

so Saturday began our week of being duck keepers and chicken wrangler's for his uncle Martin and his wife Sara whom are on a holiday in Wales for the week. The only live a few blocks away so Alex and I got down 3 times a day to care for them, take in the mail, and open/shut the curtains. we are caring for 2 ducks, a bantam i've renamed Chester (seriously Brynn, if your dog Chester were a bantam...theyd be twins!), a mother hen and her chick, a slightly sickly speckled chicken that’s currently laying eggs, one evil rooster, and 5ish other hens. we have to let them out of their respective pens in the morning and feed them (the ducks are used to me by now and follow me around while I’m feeding everyone else and then plunk in the pond when im leaving), come back in the afternoon to check on them, collect any eggs, and feed them again, then put them to bed every night. the hens and rooster all put themselves in the coop (thankfully) but we usually have to wait around a bit for the last one to get in there. hes a black on that’s new to the run doesn’t quite get the routine yet. ive named him pokey. Chester is usually in his pen already and so is the sickly one (Martin isnt sure what happened to her but shes missing spot of feathers and has been really inactive. he sais she might die when we are looking after her but shes still laying eggs and has been more active as of yesterday). the mother and chick will go pretty easily with a few waves of this magical fishing net that all the chickens are scared of, and the ducks were difficult the first 2 days but now follow me right into the yard and hop in bed with no struggle.....

The horrible part is putting the chickens to bed really. if we come to early they wont be in the coop and then we have to just sit and wait. the first night we waited for 2 hrs before they went to bed! now we have it down and they only pain is getting any chickens to bed that have gotten out of the run and into the yard with the bantam, mamma and baby, and the sick one. yesterday a bunch of the chickens broke out of the run and were all over in the yard. the yard isnt that big, but its full of corners for them to run and places for them to hide so it was very difficult to get them in the run and to the coop. AND that’s when i had my first run in with the evil rooster. he had escaped with 2 of the chickens from the run and had put himself to bed in the nest where the injured one lays her eggs. mother, baby, and the injured one have their own little cages in this shed that have empty nest areas above them that dont have doors. its where all the chickens lay their eggs and is all lined with hay and why not. so i walked into this shed (which has a long, narrow pathway from the door to the back where theres a 3 foot square of space before the wall of nests and cages, AND it isnt tall enough for me to stand up in) all hunched over to lock the cages. i herded in the mother and chick, and managed to wave out pokey and redirect him to the pathway to the door. i saw more feathers where the eggs are laid and thought maybe another hen decided to lay....so i poked it with my magical fishnet....and it turned around and poked its head out but got stuck....cuz it was the fat evil rooster! it started squawking at me so i tried to back my way out before it became unstuck and came after me. i held the magical stick in front of me but it did no good cuz the evil rooster ran for me, rammed into my wellies (big rubber farm/rain boots) and pushes past me to the door. luckily he didnt get me very much. then i had to get him out of the corner and open the gate to the run so he could go to bed. i literally unlocked the door, poked at him with the magical fishnet, ran behind the chicken wire door to the run. he went right up into bed after that.

the next afternoon, Alex and I went over to feed them. and he was out....again. in an attempt to get him back in his pen, i started throwing feed into the run, but not in the yard where he was. well this pissed him off and he began to run for me while i was grabbing feed. i picked up the magical fishnet and started waving it at him (it worked as a defence for all of the other chickens quite well), it didnt save me. he actually rammed into it and then kept coming for me. i just backwards into the shed and stuck my foot out in defence as is jumped at me. it ran into my boot and then kept jumping at me. he ended up cutting my leg with his beak as i was trying to shut the door from the inside which, of course, got stuck open. he jumped at me again and gave me a good welt on the same leg before i was able to push him away by opening the run door when he was backing into a corner. he jumped again and i shut the door on him. it bumped him and he ran inside...luckily none of the others got out.

the next time i went over was by myself since Alex as working. he was once again in the yard but i was able to get him in the bantam's pen while i fed the rest of the chickens. i waited until that night when Alex was there to help me get him back in the run. of course he was managed to squeeze back through the hole by then and wasnt a bother....not that Alex wouldve been much help, hes more terrified of the evil rooster than i am! we plugged up all of the holes with slate slabs and moved one of the walls of the run over a bit and secured it all down. now none of them can get out and i can avoid the evil rooster....hopefully.

of course this morning i had to go again by myself cuz Alex works. not really a problem and i dont mind doing it alone since it isnt hard or far away. BUTT as luck would have it i encountered the evil rooster again and he got me on the thigh this time. i have a nice welt. no, none of the chickens escaped the coop during the night.....one of the hens decided to start laying eggs as well....and laid one last night in the coop. this morning when i opened the door they kicked it out on the ground. i, of course, thought i needed to check the coop for more eggs and try to separate out the one that’s laying...and collect the one off the ground.....dumb idea, i know. i figured i was brave and could do it. but the rooster saw and once again was not scared of the magical fish net, and ran into it a few times before i managed to kick him away from me. of course, he still pecked me in the thigh, like i said, and i dropped the egg on the ground. mission failed. i decided to wait until Alex gets back this evening to try and sort out which one needs to be removed from the run. im pretty sure i know which ones laying....and if im correct its pokey sooo hopefully im right and she will still be the only one awake this evening when the rest are in bed.....that will equal safe and quick separation.

back to the rest of my days....Sunday i did early church and then went to watch Alex play football (soccer) in an ASDA football cup (ASDA is where he works. its like a walmart kinda. each store in the area had a team there). it was way fun and a beautiful day to be out and about. Alex's team didnt all show up so they had to play the first half of their games short players. needless to say they didnt win any, but they held there own against some good teams. a few more people finally showed and joined up with them. of course the ones that were there from the get go with Alex were all exhausted from already playing several games over several hours with not enough players and clearly no subs. but i was their little cheerleader and even kicked the ball a few times when they were warming up.

then Alex had to go to work, but only for a few hours. so i worked on my resumes and sending in applications. i spent all afternoon/evening going this. and in the end i applied for 3 jobs online. all of them are close by, none of them require me to have a car (altho one might give me a car allowance), all make good starting money and all of them are social work. i am on the right track! from what i gather, i am very much qualified for all of these jobs so hopefully i will get shortlisted and be able to go interview for them. unfortunately, a lot of the work i did went to waste for the moment because i sent an email with the application explaining my situation, fiddled with my resume, and sent a cover letter......and i got an email from 2 of them this morning that they wont accept my resume or cover letter unless i am shortlisted. soooo hopefully i will be shortlisted and then i can actually use them. oh well. i tried, right? my fingers are crossed that i hear from them soon. i dont know why i wouldnt.....ive been told that most people in the UK dont want these kinds of jobs/arent qualified for them AND since i am qualified and have lots of applicable experiences PLUS am so young compared to other people in the field with my experience/job interest i am hoping that gives me an edge of some kind. after all of that was done then i hung out with Alex and his family.

Monday Alex worked and i cleaned. we went to Walsall with Anna (his sister) and helped her pick up her cell phone from the shop. then took care of the chickens and Luke came to get us so we could go out. we went to his neat indy/rock club next called the Warf that was next to a water levy. it was kinda dangerous i would imagine because there was no fence around it. apparently lots of drunken people fall into it being idiots or playing on the docks. Alex and i had one drink each and chatted with Luke, Jo, and Graham outside and people watched. we then made out way inside since Jo and I were freezing and listened to the really good music (i knew almost all of the songs! they were dancey/ indy/ emoy/ rocky kinda stuff), chatted, danced a bit, and watched the second Lord of the Rings that was projected on the wall (well the boys half watched it and chatted, Jo and I ignored the film). it was very fun.

today im not doing too much. sending some emails, cleaning a bit around the house....i figure i can at least help his mom by cleaning a bit every day. they are feeding me every day and letting me stay here for 2 months after all! dont know whats on the agenda for the night. of course chicken duty but prlly not too much else. maybe we will watch a movie or something. Alex is off work tomorrow. There will be more tennis if its nice out, if not then i think they boys were talking about going to the gym and working out/ swimming. i totally hope we do that because i am all about using an elliptical machine tomorrow! not so much the swimming i dont think. maybe the hot tub tho.... we shall see. Alex and I are also going to look into booking a day trip somewhere in the next few weeks and we are going to go shopping. days when he doesn’t work are my favorite!

welp, i am off. hope everybodys well in the good old US of A. i miss everyone!! **MWAH!**

My First Week in England

So as of yesterday I have officially been here for one week. that seems so crazy! in all honesty, i feel like i've been here longer than a week. but in a good way. i def miss everybody back home a lot, but im not letting it ruin my time here. its been a blast so far! lets see...what all have a done....

the job hunt is moving along slowly. I brought my resume and cover letter here on one of those memory stick things and all i have to do is update the phone number and print it out. i felt completely dumb because Alex' parents had been talking about some CV thing that i needed to do and i had no idea for 3 days that CV is what they call a resume (that was a total dur dur durr moment). so now that i have that all straightened out i am ready to turn in some apps. i am having trouble finding decent jobs that i can apply for at this point. i know social work jobs are everywhere and they are in desperate need of social workers.....but i cant find many job postings for them on job sheets or the internet. i have found one that im going to turn in an application for....its a general social work position at the town counsel. i would be doing testing and evaluating for the foster care system. i know its a lot of work, but i really dont mind paperwork at all and i love the testing end of things. the only other possibility i have atm is something at the hospital. alex' mom works at one that has a psych ward connected to it....she doesnt work in that part of the hospital but knows someone who does that offered to get be a look around if i wanted. i have always wanted to get some job experience in a pysch ward so i guess this could be my chance! the lady isnt in again until monday so hopefully itll be worked out and ill know sometime next week if i can go talk to somene and possibly even do some observation kind of stuff to see if its something i would like doing. im very excited about that! this weekend i plan to sit down and work out with alex where all the town counsels are and other agencies that employ social workers. that way i can go around town next week and drop some resumes off (and hopefully talk to some people about jobs they have available).....cuz i know theres tons of job opportunities in this field out there im qualified for!!!!!

well now that ive bored you with my job situation, allow me to bore you with everything else ive been up to.....cuz thats why youre reading this (which im still finding kinda werid that i write a bunch of boring entries and all you people in america read it. ha ha, suckers!) welp, we have done a few things this past week. Alex has had to work a lot this week (and its his weekend on at work so he works all weekend), therefore it allows me to sleep in a lot and have time to be lazy all by myself. its kinda nice. sometimes people are home, and sometimes its just me a pepper (the family dog). starting with pepper - i have kinda sorta befriended him. he still growls at me sometimes, but has yet to bite me, AND has even come up to be one morning and rubbed his face on my leg and let me pet him for an extended period of time. i probably backtracked in my progress with him on wed because i took his rock and put it back outside. its kindof strange, but he will go outside and pick up big rocks and bring them inside. then he just leaves them by his food dish or in the room that is populated atm. he only has one rock that he does this with at a time, so he will choose one, bring it in, put in on the floor. then someone puts it outside and he brings it back in. the cycle only stops when someone hides the rock from him. then he mopes about for awhile and chooses a new rock. anyways, i wanted to see if he would actually search for the rock so i put it outside in plain sight and he walked past it twice to bark at something before moping and finding a tiny pebble for his new rock. i guess he wasnt too attached to that one?

wow, that was a rambling sidebar, sorry. what have i been up to? hmmmm. we spend a lot of time being lazy and just sortof hanging out. on tues we went out with a bunch of his friends to a chicken restaurant called Nandos. it was really good. pretty much everything is some form of peri-peri chicken. i had a really good chicken wrap with spicy rice. the boys played a bit with the different hot sauces, and some of his friends tried to explain all the words they use that Americans dont. they couldnt really think of many but did explain a lot of the slang phrases i would probably be hearing. it was interesting. we then went to a pub that was having a 'dont break the bank' drink special. every tues they have a big selection of drinks for £1! ...i got to try sips of a lot of things, most of which i liked, but stuck to caramel apple cider and then some English beer. it was a good night. i wanted to take pictures but my camera isnt working....surprise surprise. i need a new one for sure (Christmas present anyone?! lol). luckily Helen brought one. unfortunately all the pictures of me arent so good cuz i look sad, but they are on facebook so you guys can check them out. the night was really fun despite the pub being packed and everyone was really nice.

im struggling to work out what i did on wed.....which is odd because i know Alex didnt work...oh yeah! slept in a bit, watched some tv, Alex did the whole ironing pile which was an over flowing laundry basket, and we stayed in to socialize with his family. it was a nice day. yesterday we got up early (9 am, so really not that early) and Luke and Graham picked us up for a picnic and tennis day in Lichfield. we went to ASDA and picked up food (strawberries, mango, pineapple, watermelon, choc chip and oatmeal cookies, 2 kinds of cold pastas, some sausage roll things i didnt eat that looked gross, and pork pies that i also didnt eat), stopped at a sports place so Alex could get a new racket and Luke could get tennis balls and a sweatband....then it was off to Lichfield. if was a bit of a drive but was worth it. the town is kindof old styleish, very posh, and adorable. we went to a park there and Graham and i sat eating strawberries on a bench while the other two played. it was really fun. the thing that caught me off guard was that you have to pay to play tennis at this court. its a strange concept to me since it was a public park. but, lucky us, the office was closed so we didnt have to. after a few hours of chatting with graham and watching tennis the boys had had enough and we walked to the open fields for a picnic. it was beautiful and sunny out, although a bit cold for me in the shade since i was wearing a skirt. we set up the picnic and laid around chatting and eating in the sunny weather for an hourish before picking up grahams little brother and driving back to Alex'. Alex showered, i chatted with his mom and grandmother, then Luke and Graham picked us up and we went to the cinema for a film (ha, how English sounding of me). we saw Coraline in 3d again since Luke hadnt seen it and we all very much enjoyed it a few days before. seems silly to go see it again i guess, but Alex and i didnt have plans and we had good company in which to watch it with.

today Alex works 7 am - 5 pm....so im currently checking emails and whatnot before i finally get dressed properly and grab some lunch. then more job searching i go! i also intend on painting my nails (and painting in general) after i make a general cover letter from the job specific one i currently have ready to be turned in. not too sure what we have planned for the night. i seem to remember something we have planned with Luke and Graham...maybe it was Helen, but i cant work out what it is.....im sure it will be enjoyable, whatever it ends up being.

i cant really think of anything else big to add in here. im sure all of you are wondering about a bunch of different things that i have yet to mention but i have no idea what people wanna know about so i guess this is all for now. im headed downstairs to eat with Paula (his mom) and then ive got to get busy on my job hunt.

i love and miss everyone! im going to try to start calling people this weekend for some quick chats but my old phone is completely dead so i cant get anyones number out of my phone! it really sucks cuz i have a horrible memory and could only think of like 5 numbers from my old phone......so most of you are SOL unless you give me your numbers again. sorry guys! i swear i brought my charger but cant find it even if my life depended on it. talk to everybody later!

My first blog overseas...

...such a huge deal!!

Well I am sorry that this took a few days for me to update, but I DID make it to England safe. The plane ride was sooo long and I was very exhausted once I landed. Partially because i dont sleep well on planes im sure. like i said tho, the trip wasnt so bad - a few rocky spots in the flights, one scary landing, my back was quite sore, i had people sitting next to me on all my flights....but i made all my connections, had some random guy from Amsterdam ask to take my picture with a rubber ducky he had while i was waiting in Minneapolis, watched Slumdog Millionaire (and loved it!) as well as Hairspray (yeah, it was ok), read my Guide to Dating a Geek book. Once I finally landed in England and had to go through the UK border it took FOR-EV-ER!!!! Seriously, i stood in line for 1.5 hrs and there was prlly only 50 some people in front of me in the line. it was sooo lame. It didnt help that there was only 5 people checking visas that kept taking breaks and chatting amongst themselves. then add in that 50% of the line (virtually everyone in front of me btw) couldnt speak enough english to answer the questions and you have further delays since there was only one interpreter. on top of all that, they were letting all the people with UK and EU country passports through all speedily like and in front of us. seriously, when a plane landed and more people got in line the 'all other visas' line that i was in would stop moving so that all five people could get the UK people through first. so basically at best we had 3 people working our line, usually just two tho....somehow i eventually made it through the line before the impatient American guy behind be got booted out of the country for being so loud and rude (he didnt get kicked out but the lines stopped and multiple of the security officials came over several times to tell this man to calm down, get off his cell phone, and wait patiently. it was intense. lol).

Alex, his dad, and his sister Anna came to pick me up and were there within 10 minutes of me calling them.....they were waiting in the parkinglot but left and were doing other things about Birmingham when i finally was ready for them. traffic was heavy by that time so it took awhile for us to get back to their house in Willenhall. I said hello to his grandparents and mother before heading upstairs to put my stuff down (well, actually Alex carried everything, i just followed to lay down for a quick power nap). i then hungout with his family, walked with them as they went to vote, picked up some fish and chips and the chip shop down the road, ate my fish (no chips, they are waaayyyy to greasy for me), and struggled to stay awake for some tv. I finally gave up and showered before bed.

Since i have been here i havent done too awful much. Alex had to work the afternoon of the first full day I was here......which actually was fine because it gave me a chance to catch up on some of my sleep (i slept til 4:30 that day). overall, ive just been hanging out, unpacking my things, getting all settled, went shopping for general things i needed....its really not a huge deal tho. i didnt really come here to sight see like last time. i just came here to hangout, find a job, and be with Alex. and i am perfectly content with all of that. we have gone to the cinemas with Graham (his bff) and say Coraline in 3D. i had seen it once already and so had Graham but it was even creepier in 3D. i was pleased. Tomorrow we are going out with all of Alex' friends for a welcoming going out sort of dealy. it should be good. hopefully ill get some pictures snapped finally and can post them here or on facebook.

thats really about it. oooo, i did get a phone but we forgot to get credit for it....im doing it that way instead of starting with a provider since im only here for 2 months. it should work well enough....whose really going to be calling me anyways? lol. its nice to have in case someone needs to reach me or my parents wanna call at an awkward hour to call Alex' house phone. ill let people know the number once i get some minutes and can actually use it. lol. til then, i guess i will be going...i should get dressed and whatnot before Alex gets back from work. i also am on the job hunt today. YAY!!!!

Here's Where the REAL Blogging Begins....

So I'm sitting up the night before I leave for my attempt to find a job in England and enjoy my summer abroad. It still hadn't hit me until tonight that tomorrow is the day I leave. Its insane to think about! I have been enjoying a lot of 'lasts' this past week or so and mentally noting that I wouldn't get to do a lot of things until August - my last time out with friends, last time eating certain foods England doesn't have, last time seeing relatives, last trashy MTV shows, last day with my mom and sister (which was way fun btw), last Jimmy Johns (tragic!!), ect ect. Tonight is even my last night to sleep in my own bed for awhile....and thats a shame since I LOVVVVE my bed.

Despite being so excited I know that I will miss everybody so very much....I already miss some people! Everyone should know that you all mean so much to me and I very much look forward to seeing everybody in August. I am really hoping to keep this thing updated once a week and try to chat with people at the very least on facebook and whatnot. I want to appologize in advance if things are hectic and busy and that I do not get around to keeping in touch as much as I truly want to......I am really going to try to avoid that.

I suppose I won't bore everyone else with a bunch of rambling, I do enough as it is......I am off to bed so that I can get in some good rest before my long flight tomorrow (I have trouble sleeping on planes so I'll be pretty tired when I get there I'm sure). Facebook will probably be updated before this is on my landing.....I land in Birmingham at 3:40 pm (thats 9:40 am central) on Thursday....don't want anybody to worry about me getting there safely and whatnot so I'll try to post it Thursday afternoon/evening-ish.

I love everyone and (again) I will miss everybody sooo much!