Oh, England

As I'm lounging around watching British television, eating Jamaican Ginger Cake and drinking tea, here's a little recap...

I had a pretty uneventful train ride from Liskeard to Harpenden yesterday. "Uneventful" meaning I didn't get thrown up on, for just as I was eying some seats across the isle from me (one can switch seats on the train as much as one switches lanes on the freeway), an old lady came walking briskly down the isle to the toilets with her hands over her mouth and vomit spewing between her fingers onto the floor. I know, gross. BUT, the person who had the window seat I was eying took one look at the "sick" (as many call it) and immediately went elsewhere for a seat which meant I got the window seat on the ocean-side of the train for the rest of the trip to London. Hooray! So, just remember that sometimes, one person's sick is another person's treasure.

After that, it was smooth sailing into Paddington and then to St. Pancreas (my favorite station--very suave, bustling, and beautiful and where the EuroStar departs from). I got off at the Harpenden station and thanks once again to the house with the giant gum-drop-shaped bush, I knew just which way to go to get to the Highfield Oval on Ambrose Lane. I walked up to my friend Dave and Ulani's house, took my shoes off, hugged Ulani and picked up right where we left off when she and Dave were in the states last year. Well, with another 11-week addition to their family, baby Aliyah.

My friend Christine and I, with whom I did my DTS in 2008, walked down to the high street and went to good ol' Sainsbury's to get some dinner. We made some pasta with mincemeat, bought some Bulmer's for later, and really just relished in the inexpensive joys that Sainsbury's brings us. Bland, but inexpensive.(Taste will come later, in the rest of Europe.)

Today I took the train to St. Albans for their outdoor Wednesday market. I don't know why I like going there so much, but I do. More for the idea of the market than the things I can buy; I guess I really just like the idea of a community market that sells everything to its neighbors. I noticed I was the only person wearing shorts--it was probably around 65--and I got a few astonished looks. I, however, didn't give my astonished looks to those who I thought were overdressed, but instead to all the mums in the coffee shops. What do they and/or their husbands do where they can just sip away on their Italian beverages in coffee shops with their children all morning long?! Then it was revealed to me that mums get 1 year of maternity leave here. Amazing.

The next few days I'll be here in Harpenden, just hanging out being a foreign-resident of sorts, doing the things I did when I lived here in 2008, as kind of a vacation among the vacation. For, the travels I have planned with my brother on the back half of this trip will be non-stop, full of unfamiliar foods and languages, late nights, internet cafes, and bicycles. For now, I'm enjoying hanging low with some good friends and what little remaining Cornish yarg I have left to share.