And I'm in the UK.

Paige was right. She said that if I started a blog I'd be thinking about it all the time and constantly trying to plan what I was going to write about and what I would title the posts and what pictures I would put up and what captions I would put with them etc. That's what I've been doing for the past three days in anticipation of this... I'm a total nerd. That makes you one too, Paige!!

The travel portion of my adventure was really long. Our airport at home was terrible! I spent two hours in various LONG lines and ended up dashing to the gate only to stand in even more lines before I could get on the plane. They check your passport at least 4 different times. It's crazy. I was only on the plane to Amsterdam for about 10 hours, which didn't seem too bad, and I sat next to a very nice older gentleman from Whidbey Island. We only talked a little but I liked him so much that I gave him a piece of my See's chocolate AND even a piece of my almond cake. I know! Crazy. But, I mean, really, he was so sweet and I couldn't just let him sit there and eat plane food!!






Wicked sunrise flying into Amsterdam. (Yes, I just said "wicked")





I sat in the airport in Amsterdam for about 2 or 3 hours and then hopped on a much smaller plane for the hour long ride to London. Once in London I snagged a taxi (35 pounds) to Kings Cross Station (you know, the Harry Potter one) and purchased a train ticket to Peterborough (25 pounds).


Hurrying down platform 7 to catch my train.

I think the train ride was pretty quick, maybe an hour. I fell asleep briefly but was pretty wakeful because I didn't want to miss my stop. Evidently I got to the train station sooner than expected because the family wasn't able to pick me up until an hour and a half later. I sat in a cafe trying really, really, hard to stay awake.


Proof that I'm here: exhausted, hungry for something other than goldfish and m & m's, listening to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and riding a train through the English countryside.

Even once they picked me up, it was still an hour drive back to their house and then they wanted to show me everything and talk with me and feed me fish and chips and I'm afraid I was a bit of a zombie. Half asleep and incredibly overwhelmed.

So, here I am, sitting in my room drinking tea and listening to Doris Day. It's different than I expected, but good. the town is nice and the countryside is quite pretty though very different from home, of course. It's very green and very flat. I remember when Paige was here she always commented on how massive the sky seemed. I agree that indeed, it does seem quite large but really it's just unobstructed. There isn't a mountain, hill or tall building in sight. Just green grass, a few sheep, cows or horses, and clouds. Loads of clouds. It has been super cold here and unbelievably windy. I'm ready to head back home just so I can completely repack my bags with sweatshirts, scarves, winter jackets, hats and maybe even a down comforter to carry around with me.

I hope this finds you all well and that I wasn't too terribly long-winded. I just have a lot to say and I want to tell you everything and it's so hard to choose what pictures to show you. I'll try to keep my posts short so you can read them without them being much of a burden but we all know how I am about keeping things "short" when it comes to talking... it all just sort of spills out of me. I hope I didn't forget anything--it's been a bit of an adventure trying to figure this thing out and it doesn't work exactly the way I want it to. I've been on it for two hours and I had typed up this whole thing when somehow it went away and I couldn't get it back. Of course, I was rather distraught but I think this one is almost exactly the same as the first, which, of course, was nearly perfect.

I've got about three more post ideas and pictures to show you so by the time some of you wake up this fine Saturday morning... you're going to have quite a lot to catch up on :-)

Hope to hear from you soon!! Take care.

Much love,
Steph