Keswick adventures

I am going to try to be quick because I am tired and need to go to bed, but so much happens in a day!

Today, the girls of the communication department took a day trip to the Lake District. The Lake District is a large area with lots of mountains, hills, lakes, and towns dispersed throughout it. We went to the town of Keswick (pronounced "kezzick") and its lake, Derwent Water. The town was quaint. I think that's a good way to describe it. Lots of shops, so we stopped at a cafe, and walked along the lake and ate lunch. It reminded me of a mix between the Gap of Dunloe and Glendalough, for those of you who kept up with my Ireland blog, or were actually there. :) 

At 3:30 we took three of the women back home, and the three interns and Becky went to Newcastle to pick up one of the intern's friends from school. All of the interns from their University are meeting in Italy to debrief. Cool, eh? Taylor should do something like that. On the way back from Newcastle we stopped at a pub in a place called Once Brewed. The pub was called The Twice Brewed Inn. I had a traditional steak pie with chips (basically like roast beef in pie crust with fries on the side). 

British-English lesson before pictures:

"gorgeous" - used to describe food here. Comes from the word "gorge" so when you say gorgeous, you're saying the food is so good, you could gorge yourself on it.

"Loo"- as you probably know, it means the bathroom. In France, in really nice hotels, they didn't want to label the bathrooms because they thought it wasn't very fancy to do that, so everyone fancy knew that the bathroom was always going to be Room 100. The British thought this was really funny, so they changed the numbers into letters. Therefore 100=loo. 

"Posh"- used to describe something fancy or high class. Originated on ships, because the fancy people wanted portside out, and starboard coming home. 

Photos:

1. Keswick town center

2. Looking over the lake 

3. from left to right: Emily (other intern), Dawn (works at the office), me, Esther (also works at the office), Becky (my supervisor-boss-teacher :) ), and Janet (also works at the office) 

4. some gardens at Keswick

5. inside the Twice Brewed Inn

 

First day at the office

Today was my first day at the office. We all met in a large room and sang worship songs, shared some stories, and Emily and I were introduced to everyone. Then just the communications team met in a smaller conference room and we got to know each other a little more and prayed together. Then Emily and I got the grand tour from Becky, and we met people individually and heard about their specific role in OM.

We ate lunch outside because it was really nice weather (around 80 degrees and sunny which is very unusual for Carlisle) and walked to Asda which is their large supermarket in the area. It's actually part of the wal-mart chain. After our lunch break Emily and I proofread the monthly international update newsletter which had to be sent out by the end of today. Then we met with one of Becky's bosses, Brian, who went through an overview with us of OM, what countries were doing what, etc. Slightly confusing, but I think after being immersed in it after a little while, we'll catch on. 

All that being said, so far so good! Tomorrow we're going to the lake district to sightsee and picnic. So, no work for me tomorrow! 

Adventures on a Sunday in Carlisle

Today was pretty eventful, I would say. 

Becky and I went to church this morning at Elim Community Church. It's Presbyterian, and slightly charismatic, but it just felt like a toned down version of Bethel to me. :) Everyone was so nice, and the church felt like a family. The pastor was funny, there was a church quiz, and they announced birthdays, anniversaries, and even a little girl's achievement at school for getting the compassionate award. These people were given a giant twix bar for their special occasion. 

After church, we went to my hosts house (which I am in now). Her name is Christine and she's 33. Becky and I ate lunch with her, a very English lunch which consisted of bread, soup, and cheese. That kind of lunch is one of the things I miss most about Ireland. 

Becky left and I settled in, then at 3:30 I went for a walk to kinda get a feel for Carlisle. I went by myself- I was planning on taking my time, browse shops, then stop and read my book in this park. I had to be at Becky's house at 6:00, so I figured 2 1/2 hours would be plenty of time. Of course, I can't do anything without having some sort of adventure or encounter, so here are my accounts.

As soon as I left Christine's house, I called my mom. Well this guy was walking close to me and when I hung up, noticing my accent, he asked me "Where going?" This was no British accent. It was something else, and so thick that it took me three tries before I understood it. Finally I answered "oh, just for a walk." He looked at me funny and said "Czech Republic" and I said "You're from the Czech Republic?" and he said "yes, yes. You?" Then I realized he was trying to ask me where I was from but he spoke very little english. So I said America and his eyes got really wide and he said "George Bush!!" and I laughed and said "yes, but not anymore" and he said "oh yes B....Bar..." and I finished it for him and he said "yes. also Michael Jackson. die" and I said yes and then he went into this thing where I think he asked me questions and I think I may have heard "king of pop" or something, but I couldn't understand a thing, so I just nodded. Then he asked me what I was doing so I said "working" thinking he meant what I was doing in England, because I had already told him I was going on a walk but clearly we weren't good communicators and he said "WORKING?! on Sunday!?" then I tried to explain and then he stopped and said "This my house. Goodbye." and walked into the door we were standing in front of. Very bizarre.

And that was the first 5 minutes of my walk. I walked passed the Carlisle castle, then I moseyed around the Carlisle Cathedral which is more of a tiny village. It has different houses and buildings surrounding the main cathedral that make up the whole sight. It's really beautiful. I couldn't go inside yet because a service was going on. Then I went to the town square and looked in a department store. So I thought this park under the bridge was right down the street, so I walked pretty far before seeing a bridge. A girl stopped me and asked me to "Pop in the shop and buy some fags" and after her saying that about 23 times and me finally getting that sentence, I realized she wanted me to buy her cigarettes. Saying "no, sorry" I left her with her friends who were now mocking me.

So I started to see a bridge, so I thought I had found it. Turned out to be a different bridge, and when I got to the main arc, I looked out and saw the spire of the Cathedral way far away. The Cathedral is only about a 3 minute walk from Becky's house, so that was my reference point. Thinking I could go around, I wound up in a neighborhood cul-de-sac and had to turn around. I didn't go back the way I came to get back, I just made a gigantic loop.  That all took me about an hour and a half. So I was glad to get to Becky's and meet the other interns and some girls working for OM. 

Last thing before a few pictures: my new house that I'm staying at is about 2 blocks down from a McVittie's factory. For those of you who are unfortunate not to know what McVittie's is, it's a cookie company. They make my favorite cookies (called biscuits here) called digestives. So the area I'm in smells like cookies. Hey, if there's going to be a factory around, vote that it's a cookie one. 

Pictures:

1. Carlisle Castle

2. Carlisle Cathedral

3. Town Square

4. Taken at 10:15pm. Told you it didn't get dark! 

 

Day 1: 30 hours of no sleep!

I flew out of Evansville on June 26, at 11:30am. After layovers in Memphis and Atlanta, I found myself sitting on a plane next to someone who was neither fat nor a crying baby. That is all I wished for. 

Here are 3 things that I think sound funny if said in a British accent (heard in the ATL airport)

1. Barking Mad 

2. The Real McCoy

3. Have you heard of the ice cream "Rocky Road?" (just say this sentence out loud in your best British accent. Funny, no? 

I will have more of these to come since I talked to about 327 British people today. 

Things of importance on the flight: I finished Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I highly recommend it to anyone. Turbulence was bad, and their reasoning was that we were flying near a storm. That's a really good thing to tell the passengers when only a few weeks ago a plane disappeared because of a storm over the Atlantic. Therefore every time I got close to dozing off, the plane would shake. Causing me to turn into a nervous wreck and pray until I calmed down. Then it happened all over again. No sleep. Also, we flew over Ireland, and through gaps in the clouds I could see the rectangular fields of different shades of green and the Irish sea shores. Something stirred in my heart that I haven't felt for 3 1/2 years. I didn't leave my heart in San Francisco, but a piece of it on the Emerald Isle. 

Here are 3 signs you know you're in England:

1. When someone says "Excuse me, are you in the queue?" And you look at them with a blank face. 

2. When you go to step on the moving sidewalk in the airport and realize that it's coming towards you. Oops, left side! 

3. When 5 o'clock hits and suddenly everything is closed except the Pub which is suddenly full of loud men. 

After arriving and meeting with my boss (I'm not really sure what else to call her. She's just helped me through everything and is the one evaluating me at the end.), Becky, we waited for another intern to arrive, but she missed her connection, so we had to wait an extra two hours. It was no big deal, really. Extra time to get acquainted. When Emily finally arrived we stopped in a small town called Lancaster. Very old with a big castle and cathedral. It was really pretty. We went into a pub for dinner that was very much like a hobbit hole. It was in the side of a hill, so you could walk in the front door, but it was underground. I ate fish and chips. A big man who had too much to drink announced that Pippy Longstocking was there. (I was wearing my hair in pigtails, and he caught sight of me on my way to the loo) 

God works in mysterious ways. Here's an example: We parked in a parking garage type place, and when we went back, the gates to get in were closed and locked. There on the side was a sign that said "garage closes at 5:15. 30 pound penalty if we have to remove it after hours" It was close to 6pm-ish. eep! Then a man and his son came up and they had done the same thing. They were British, so we didn't feel like ignorant Americans. So it had downpoured earlier, and apparently everyone's money was so wet, it jammed the machine and a guard came to look at it. So he let us out for free since we didn't call the number on the sign. He said it was a good thing he was there. I wanted to say "It's a good thing God let it downpour." 

We drove to Carlisle through beautiful hills that reminded me of Ireland so much. I unloaded at Becky's house, I'm staying with her just for tonight, and we took Emily to another host family's house.  

I'm about to go to bed soon, but since we're so far north, the sun doesn't completely set until about 10:30/11:00. It's bizarro! I'm about to pass out, but I'll leave you with some pictures.

what they are:

1. View of Lancaster and the castle

2. Just a normal street.

3. The cathedral next to the castle. 

4. just our room of the pub.

5. Wicklow-esque mountains/hills. 

made it!

Hey everyone! I'm sitting in manchester airport waiting for another team member to arrive from california and for my boss to meet us and take us to carlisle. Ill give a longer update later but I'm on my phone and its taking me forever to type this. Thanks for your prayers. Praise the Lord for smooth flights!

Family Reunion 2009

Another family reunion in the bag. 

For those of you that don't know, my dad's side of the family gets together for a family reunion once every three years. So we go big. This year's reunion was in Myrtle Beach, SC. The hotel and beach were great. I'm not much of a bathing suit, laying out, beach-goer but every once in a while it's good for the soul. And by that, I mean my pale legs get to see the sun. 

It was good to see everyone and how the kids my age change so much every reunion. Three years is a wide gap. Three years ago, I was right out of high school, and this year I'm going to be a senior in college. So much has changed since then. 

I read HP and the Half Blood Prince in three days. I was pretty proud of myself. I'm just hoping someone will go see it with me in London. That would be awesome. I got halfway through Blue Like Jazz. It's pretty good so far. Donald Miller's writing style reminds me a lot of my own. Maybe not so much my writing style for other people to read, but it reads a lot like my journals. 

Yesterday, after a few rounds of mini golf and catch phrase, Chris, Angela, Nathan, cousin Justin, and I went to the midnight premiere of Transformers 2. Not such a good idea all around. First of all, it wasn't that good. Secondly, we got back at 3am and had to leave our hotel at 5:30am to catch our flight. I hadn't packed, of course, so I got approximately one hour of sleep. Therefore I am off to bed at 1030. 

36 more hours until I'm off to England!