just dropped down in london town

we were so fortunate to be invited on the london trip with the parishoners from simon's church. we drove down a day early to explore a few places on the way... here are some pics are stories to follow.

london underground without luggage = 1,000 times better

one of the coolest things about london (and england in general) is that all of the museums are free. that's right... zip. zero. nada. so we spent a while at the british museum, admiring super old structures from babylon, assyria, the elgin marbles, the mauseleum and halicarnissus... i really don't know what these mean or what they are...but for you history buffs (dad) i hope you understand the lingo. either way, the statues were amazing.

we spent a good deal of time walking around the city... the busy bits and the fringes of soho... and even ran into some fellow arizonans... they were actually as excited as we were... doesn't happen often.

down carnaby street, where the swinging 60's started (twiggy era)... we came across the cutest little shop
with fun little things here and there. check to check it out. it's called howie's.


on the left is a little 'geek corner' which is how every bookshelf should be displayed... and on the right is cool little tidbit for the earth lovers. here's what it reads:

tap water is cool.
it tastes like bottled water
it looks like bottled water
it's as healthy as bottled water
it's as wet as bottled water
it's as thirst quenching as bottled water
but tap water has a smaller carbon footprint
sometimes 500-600 times smaller
gulp

then we stumbled across the greatest restaurant yet.
delicious pizza. michael buble. black and white pics of elvis on the wall. could life get better?

after our amazing dinner, simon treated us to a show called 39 Steps...which we were a little apprehensive about. would we understand this english humor? in the end... it was probably one of the funniest things ever. a slapstick of events gone wrong, following the various stories of albert hitchcock films...all performed by just 4 brilliant actors. definitely a night to remember.


the next day, we visited a small town called st. albans, where we experienced our first english pasty. omg. seriously though... delectable. then off to another amazing cathedral

come together now

so... as the adventures of the first few days came to a close... a whole new set of adventures began when leah (aka sleezy g) finally arrived. after a missed train, a detour, and a 2 hour delay...she was finally here, and we were all together. celebrate good times...come on... so we did. simon cooked us an amazing first meal... complete with champagne and rice noodles topped with a mystery meat (see below for details)

explanation: so we sit down for this much anticipated meal, and notice we all have two sausages on our plate... one dark and one light. everyone except for simon that is. we're smarter than he thinks...
"si, what is this?".... no response.
then finally, "i'll tell you after you eat it."
at this point, we were too hungry or tired to care... so we just ate it. one was a bramburgh banger- delicious... 100% pork. the other...slightly darker one was not just meat. instead, it had been infused with a little something called black pudding- also known as blood pudding...because yea, you guessed it... it's made with boiled pigs blood. i really don't know who came up with this..or why.. but simon felt it was necessary for us to atleast "try" it. in all honesty, it was delicious... it's just hard to stomach something that has the word blood in it... unless of course you're buffalo bill...
{"it rubs the lotion on it's skin or it gets the hose again"}


the wirral
so, we've set up home with simon on the estate (which is similar to our "projects") because it's very low-income government housing. it's a really nice area... in the daylight. after dark, however, it's not the safest place to be. we've been careful, but we had to urge to go exploring our second night (don't worry, it was still light out..because it doesn't get dark until after 10). so we walked down a random street and found ourselves in a scary, yet semi-hilarious... "whhhhat just happened" kind of situation. so, we see this little boy (wearing a dress)... barely old enough to walk... getting into the front seat of his parent's car... keys in hand. we stop. should we do something? no, what are the chances this baby can figure out how to start the car. sure enough, 5 seconds later, we hear the engine roar.... oh my gosh. we run back to the kid... kylie opens the car door, turns it off... and says rationally "i don't think that's a very good idea." i run inside the house, in a panic to tell the parents that the baby just started the car. the response ... after a few moments of looking dumbfounded... "yea, he's alright" gosh, how silly of us, right? to think that was out of the ordinary. so, contemplating the irony of what just happened, we go to the local store (where the neighborhood starts to get really 'dodgy') and proceed to get followed by three sketchy men in their car... but thankfully, leah stared them down. so we survived.

at dinner that night, we told simon about our experiences (worried he may never let us leave again)... and his response was classic. "welcome to the estate"


another one of simon's amazing meals. burgers cooked in his favorite utensil... the wok, topped with chorizo! yea...this is how we do it... sliced chorizo.

on monday, we started our first day at the school... it was great! we were all separated into different grades, ranging from what would be 2nd-4th grade.. where we'll be working as teacher's assistants. the kids are amazing... and they're absolutely infatuated with our accents and everything american. it's adorable, because they ask ridiculous questions all day long... here are some of the faves (and you have to read it in a cute lil kid english accent to get the full effect):
"are your burgers bigga?"
"are you friends with miley cyrus?"
"do you have a flat screen tv at home?"
"say candy... say candy"
apparantly, as much as we love their accents, they love ours... and constantly make us say things, so they can practice their americanism! it's great.

manchester... and beyond

manchester and beyond...

the next day, we ventured into the great city of machester, to see what there is to see.

we started at the lancashire county cricket club, which is still a very confusing sport to us americans.. but we enjoyed the views regardless. i still don't understand how a game could last 5 days.. it's a mystery. anyway, they just let us walk right in and take pics... made us miss all the dbacks happenings back at home.

next was town hall, in albert square... a building completed in 1887, rising as a monument to the civic pride of the city fathers. we didn't feel like paying the fee... so we just walked in behind one of the groups and made our own tour- thanks to the wisdom of our three native english friends. we were truly just blown away by the architecture.. the detail... the mosaics.. and we even got the see the mayor's fancy lil red chair!

the hidden gem (st. mary's church) is truly an incredible place. here's a little history for you buffs: it was founded in 1794 in the centre of what was then, the poorest quarter of manchester. during the reconstruction of the city, it was meant to be demolished with everything else around it... but the local catholics protested... and it still stands today. that's why if you look to the left (and imagine to the right) it is now surrounded by modern buildings... coffee shops... businesses... it really is a hidden gem. a place of serenity... peace.. nestled into the heart of a busy city.

and onto the john rylands library. library? yes. it may look like a cathedral, or a castle... but it's not.

beyond the amazing smell of books... the library had these really amazing exhibitions, each dedicated to a different aspect of poetry or classical writing. after learning about the old texts... there was a little corner with paper and chairs... if you felt inspired to write your own masterpiece. super cute.


above is a picture of the oldest existing fragment of st. john's gospel... known as the chester beatty papyrus. this piece is dated to 125 at the latest. yes my friends... year 125. amazing. this is one of the documents that helps scholars to accurately date the gospel of john.

not the london eye... but the manchester eye. just as awesome.

manchester cathedral founded in the 700's... which is "new-ish" for england. funny eh?

one word... tea.
the english love it. the english drink it.
every chance possible... where one might think to drink water... we instead sit and drink tea. it's lovely.

after a long day of walking in the city, we treated ourselves to some good italian food at danilo's... in the village of hale. the handsome chap you see above is one of the waiters, who found out we were 'foreigners'... and struck with inspiration, went to the back and crafted a sign that read "we love arizona" (followed by a postscript reading 'girls only'... sorry paul). the food was good (no oreganos...) but the whole atmosphere made it even better. it's just fun to sit and eat a meal for a good 3 hours... enjoying the company of new friends.

the long walk to dunham massey

along the way, we found this view (the picture mainly taken for leah and megan), because it reminded me of a scene from x-files. like a big field, with black cars parked in it... only they weren't cars, they were just black bags of hay.

old stumpy = giving tree



so, we enter dunham massey, this beautiful park, owned by the national trust- which is a charity that looks after national monuments. it's basically a huge huge park that people visit to experience the deer park, gardens, lakes, moat (because they think it used to be a castle...cool!), water mill, and home that used to be someone's personal estate.

as established before, we of course had to stop for tea. but this wasn't ordinary tea... this was a
'proper' afternoon snack with tea and scones. oh my gosh. best scones of your life.

the long walk that day, of course, was rewarded with a huge homemade feast. keep in mind this was for four people...
everyone brought something unique to the table... paul made his famous cole slaw... gran made a salad and delicious potatoes... and the americans brought some good ol guacatony. it was complimented with meats, pork pies, cous cous, chips, soda bread, onion patties, and of course irn bru (remember those silly commercials boys?). dinner was followed by notting hill- great movie- but even better since we felt as though we understood what was actually going on. all the english lingo is finally starting to make sense to us americanos.

love the moss. everywhere.

our trip to visit gran in her adorable little home, came to a close, and they sent us with gifts... the best of which included this HUGE bag (full of smaller bags) of our new obsession- walkers. they're basically just lay's, but with exotic {and sometimes rather odd} flavours like steak & onion, prawn cocktail, worcestire, and our personal favorite- basic cheese and onion. thanks paul for this amazing gift... and thanks to gran for opening up your home to us.

so, onto another train... you'd think we'd have it down by now. one train to manchester picadilly and one train to liverpool lime street. easy. so we get to one of the stops along the way...the stockport station... and everyone gets off...we sit. wait. "hey do you think we're supposed to get off?"... no. we come to the conclusion that it must just be a popular stop. a few minutes later, a man gets on (good...we think... the train should start again)... no. "uhm ladies, you need to get off the train. this train ends here." gosh. dumb americans...laughing to ourselves. oh well. needless to say, we managed our way across the station and onto two more trains and finally arrived in liverpool... united with sleezy g and marie. yaah. more adventures to come...

the first real day

our first day, we were allowed a 'lie in'... which is a sleep in... not an animal rarrr.we headed over to Sale, where simon and paul (his brother) grew up. it's a cute little town, but we were banned from saying that word... along with the word 'quaint,' so make of it what you will. we had a 'proper' english dinner {thanks to their adorable dad}... which means roast beef, yorkshire pudding, veggies, and the best roast potatoes of your life. why might you ask... because they're peeled, blanched, then cooked in the lard and fat from the meat... it's topped with gravy and thoroughly enjoyed by all. and since we were enjoying it so much...we didn't have time to take any pictures. sorry.

                      

 we went to the trafford center after dinner, which is a mall, that really puts all the talk about snotty haughty taughty scottsdale to shame. this place is really ooc... statues, arches, live bands, fountains... you'll see.

        

yes... this is an entrance to a mall.

have you heard of this? weasel coffee... picked and regurgitated by a weasel. nasty. included was civet coffee, which has a 'unique delicate flavour after fermentation in the civet's degestive track'... basically the animal eats the coffee...poops it out...and people enjoy it as a delicacy. strange things my friends.

    

food court modeled after a cruise ship... with the blue sky ceiling, the deck, and spiral staircases.

after this, we went to this pub called 'the swan with two nicks' in lymn.. an amazing little town nestled in the countryside. we were surprised to see a group of morris dancers, who perform traditional english folk dances. we were really lucky to see something so rich in tradition (because simon, paul and gran- natives.. have never seen it live)... and to top it off, they were just super cute old men... dancing around with their flowered hats and clogs. 

 

the travels

traveling is fun.

traveling with a lot of luggage {one of which has rolling challenges} can be quite interesting.

3 hours on one plane and 7 hours on the next brought us to london gatwick, where we had to navigate our way through interrogations at customs, up the lift (which we found means elevator..not bus) and onto a train to begin our journey up north.

the first train lead us to the infamous london victoria station... and i call it infamous, because it was an adventure to say the least. we get spit out in the midst of... imagine a nyc subway station at rush hour...floods of people... busy with their own agendas. rushing past us. down the escalators... our two huge rolley suitcases toppling over... trying to keep up with the flow... making blind turns until we somehow ended up in the right terminal. thank goodness. sometimes in a situation like that... one that could be stressful or scary... all you can do is laugh. and that's what we did. nonethless... 2 planes, 1 tube, and 2 trains later... we saw the comfort of a familiar face in an unfamiliar place.

simon greeted us, refused to let us sleep... which is honestly- all we could think about doing. but instead we took a drive around the wirral {a word i still cannot pronounce} ... but the place we will call home for the next four weeks. this is what we saw. green :)

the lookout point at thurstaston.... view of the irish sea and wales in the distance.

royal liverpool golf club (for dad)... where they held the British Open 2 years ago.

funny story: when tiger woods came over to play, he rented someone's house for 275,000 pounds... replaced the carpets, redecorated the house, flew out his personal pool table, and the owner of the house got to keep it all (allegedly). 

cool pathway at the church of the holy cross. this church has been there since about 700 a.d. and used to be catholic until the reformation. below is a pic of the cool graveyard... which unfortunately has been vandalized by the 'little buggers' on the estate.

our first proper meal was indian... which was also a first for us. everything was delicious... and so colorful. we can't remember the names of the things we ate, but i'll have to write it down, so we can find something like it at home.