"I've just had an apostrophe."

(Insert appropriate response quote here. Movie? Tara can tackle this one if no one else wants to.)

Apostrophe/Epiphany: I am so capable. It's true. I can do this by myself and it's amazing! I've never really tried to do anything like this before and I'm just so impressed to find that I can do it without really even feeling anxious or anything. I can research train schedules. I can walk to the train station. I can transfer to 4 different trains in one journey including one leg on the underground. I can navigate the underground system. I can buy my own tickets. I can find the bus station. I can read all of the signs and follow their directions. And I can even ask questions when I really can't figure out what I need to do or where I need to be. Pretty cool, huh? It sounds silly to be so easily excited about my own personal capability and newly found independence but just every now and then when I'm traveling around to new places I think, "Wow. I'm doing this all by myself and I'm surviving." And all of the sudden I have this "I can do anything" feeling. I'm invincible. It's great.

(This is the only picture I took this weekend while waiting for the Tube)

So anyhow, I went to Surrey this weekend -- Virginia Water, to be exact -- to meet the family I'm going to be working for and it was a wonderful experience. The town they live in is lovely. There are green trees everywhere and the shops are cute and when I got off the train it smelled like autumn, which I enjoy. The neighborhood is beautiful. All of the houses have gated driveways and spacious yards ("gardens") with lots of trees and hedges for privacy. The house I'm going to be living in is huge and I have a lovely room with a nice big bed and a window that overlooks the backyard.

The family is very nice. They have two teenage daughters who will be turning 15 and 13 next month, and a very sweet dog named Nelson. We all really enjoyed getting to know each other and last night the girls and I had dinner in Richmond and saw Julie and Julia, which I very much enjoyed.

Before the movie started there was a Jennifer Anniston movie preview and they kept showing Seattle and the Space Needle and I was getting all excited about it and kept saying, "Look! That's my city. There. Yes! There. And.... there it is again! That's the Space Needle!" Of course, the girls didn't really care all that much but it made me pretty happy.

I'm going to be moving in with them next Sunday. That gives me exactly one week to figure out what's left in Spalding that I really want to see, and see it. And take lots of pictures. And blog about it. Just for you :-) I can't wait to go back to Virginia Water so I can take pictures there and show you how pretty it is.

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

Love,
Steph

p.s. just in case anyone doesn't get the "apostrophe" thing, in that context apostrophe=epiphany. It's from a line in the movie Hook. Sometimes I talk in movies or in songs.