(Side note: as I'm typing this I'm thinking in a british accent. It's clearly gotten to me.)
My friend gave me the idea to share a "photo of the day" with my posts, to give you an idea of what it looks like here. Which I think is what I'm going to do, because I don't really want to spend a ton of time editing photos and such while I'm here.
So I'll save the picture heavy posts for when I'm home.
Sound good?
I'm currently sitting in the living room of the house with my friend (who's also blogging) and listening to some Bon Iver and still thinking how it's so crazy that I'm here. I'm not sure I'll ever quite get over it.
But anyway, things are going quite well!
I've loved it here so far. Though I do miss home a bit.
Getting used to the different customs and sayings and different words for things has been fun.
I'm sure you will hear much more from me on that later.
The initial drive from the airport to Liverpool was so exciting. I think it finally hit me that everything was real when I got on the plane, but it was of course made even more real once I was out of the airport.
I had completely forgotten that everyone here drives on the opposite side of the road, so it was a bit of a shock at first! I've since gotten a little more used to it, though it still throws me off at times.
I couldn't stop looking out the window as we drove though, at the signs, the cars, the buildings, taking everything in. It was a bit surreal in all honesty.
After getting settled in the house a bit (all my housemates are so sweet and welcoming), I took a bus to a busier part of Liverpool. The first place I went was a local craft store called Abakhan which had two floors and was ginormous. My kind of place. I had to keep telling myself "you don't have room in your suitcase, you don't have room in your suitcase" to prevent myself from buying everything.
I did purchase a few little things though.
Next I went to the cutest and most lovely book shop I've ever seen. The owner was so very nice and all the shelves were just chocked full of the most beautiful books. I picked up a little copy of Dickens and then a memoir of Jane Austen's.
Appropriate I thought, considering.
After that I visited the docks which were lovely as well. I apparently arrived on an unnaturally beautiful day so the sun was shining and everything looked just beautiful.
All pretty tasty.
After a bit more wandering around I had dinner at "home" (as it shall be called while I'm here) which was a delicious spaghetti sort of dish. It surprised me to find that they don't say blessing or grace before eating here. Apparently that's an American thing to do.
After dinner we went to the movies (or rather "the cinema") to see The Hunger Games because my friends hadn't seen it yet. I fell asleep several times from the jet lag so it's a good thing I'd already seen it.
That's about it for the most part, as far as the first day goes.
As a last word, these posts are more for myself than anything. So that I can remember all of my trip a few years from now. I don't really expect many people to read this. What I have to say isn't that interesting! However, I know there are some of you who wanted to be kept up to date and were interested in reading about my adventures, so I figured this was the easiest way to go about it.
And to those few, thank you! Thanks for letting me share this adventure with you and thanks for wanting to hear about it. I look forward to sharing more with you as my trip progresses.
Cheers then!