Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Botley Road

Good morning everyone,
This blog is really about yesterday since I failed to do it yesterday.
I woke up around 10 in the morning.. I'm sure that's just killing you mom to hear, but I still haven't been able to get to sleep before 2 in the morning yet!! Okay, so I woke up and got ready. I came downstairs and Steven was up making a list of errands we needed to run. I played a little with Dalia before we made our way out to brave the bone-chilling cold. And it is just that, bone chilling cold. I think the cold here seems so much worse because its a damp cold, but enough of the whining...
Steven and I walked down to Botley Road which was for us about a fifteen minute walk. Steven is tall and has long legs, so I was pretty much sprinting to keep up. :)
We went to the post office, exchanged money, mailed Christmas Cards, then we went to the banks to see about opening an account for me. We went to register for the doctor and we made it to Maplins which is an electronic place for converters and adapters. We did some light grocery shopping and went to Babys R Us for something for Dalia. We went to this really cool store calls Arggos I think.. I just had never seen a store like this, but apparently this is kind of how Ikea works. Heres what you do: In the store instead of things being on display, there are a ton of huge catalogs with everything they have in the warehouse. So you look through this catalog, find the things you want, and you write the code on a piece of paper they provide. Then you take the piece of paper to the cash register, they type it in, you pay for it, then somehow what you want gets transferred to the people in the back where someone runs through the warehouse, grabs what you need and brings it to this desk where everyone is waiting for their number to be called. It all works in about three minutes.. Maybe there are lots of places like this, but it was my first, and i enjoyed the whole experience! :)
Steven and I finally made our way back home. We talked about why I had decided to come to KBC and what I was expecting out of it. We talked about Steven's background as a Christian and found out he was born in Brazil, impressive i thought, and grew up on a organic fruit and vegetable farm, which explains ALOT! OH! I probably haven' told you! Steven and Loralie are big on organic! So I'm trying all kinds of new healthy things! I tried an apricot for the first time yesterday and it was alright.. We have a huge fruit basket including pomegranates which i'm not even sure how to eat but they look juicy! They make their own granola with dried apricots, sunflower seeds, and more healthy stuff and I tried it this morning and it was GOOOOOOOD!
We finally made it home about one thirty or two and at this point i was worn out and hungry! Luckily not long after we had a grocery delivered. That is just plain awesome! Its only about three pounds to get it delivered and if you don't' have a car its just worth it! After putting the groceries away we made lunch. Well we didn't really make anything, we cut things up for lunch. We had yummy breads, new cheeses, one cheese even had apricots in it, olives, stuffed peppers, and grapes. MMM it was delicious! After lunch we started making dinner! Oh, another thing, Steven and Loralie love to cook, so we always have yummy home cooked meals! Last night we had some company for dinner! We had George and Andy Clark over. They are the couple that picked me up from the airport. Before they arrived the three of us, Steven, Loralie, and I were in the kithen, hanging out, cooking, singing along and dancing to wonderful Christmas carols. :) Good times. The Clarks arrived around six and we sat around the table around six thirty. We thoroughly enjoyed a meal cooked by Steven and Loralie and each others company. After dinner and "pudding" we played a few games. The first game we played was some strategic game kind of like Settlers, so I obviously failed at that game, but it was fun and entertaining. The second game we played was Shed, and oh my goodness!!! This game was super competitive and amazingly fun!! We said we'd only play a couple rounds, but after the first two we played again, and again, and again! We played a total of five rounds and would've played more but it was getting close to eleven and we knew if we didn't' stop now we'd be here all night! I think we will definitely be playing this game again very soon.
We said good-bye to the Clarks, wished them a Merry Christmas, and turned towards the kitchen to see all the dishes we had to wash.. oh yeah.. we don't have a dishwasher. We wash it all by hand. This will take some getting used to.
Today is going to be fun. Steven and Loralie will be spending most of the day cooking, I'll help if they need it, I'll help with the dishes, and my favorite part, I'll keep Dalia company. :) Jane and Nigel are supposedly coming by at some point with coffee and mince pies. Jane and Nigel are another married couple who are students at the school. I have yet to meet them, so I'm excited to meet them! I might be baby sitting Dalia for a little bit today, and if I do I'll be sure take some pictures so you all can see how cute she is! :)
I'l write more another day..

7 comments:

  1. Welcome to Europe! I know that you will enjoy the adventure and everything British. I expect after a year you will have an Oxford accent which may make people think you are studious, brilliant, and logical. I hope you might have a chance to enjoy our Danish and Swedish hospitality while you are on this side of the big pond. Blessings to you on your adventure!

    Buck Hudson

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  2. Thank you for stopping by Buck! I'm kind of hoping I leave with an accent, it would be a nice little souvenir. :P I really do plan on visiting Denmark and a few other places while I'm here, but I need to budget first and see what kind of money I have left over...
    Good to hear from you!

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  3. THANK YOU JESUS that you live with health nuts (make sure they realize that's not an offensive term)I have been praying for your fast food/junk food love to be replaced with a healthier lifestyle!!! You said you had to register for a DR? Do you get free healthcare since you are a student? Did you whine to Steve to slow down walking like you do when we go on a walk? I can just see you know, jogging to keep up, praying to God that you get there soon before you have to beg for him to have mercy on you and slow the pace down:) HA! Also, when you were talking about the store that you order out of catalogs, was that like a grocery store or like a walmart? Enough questions, glad you are enjoying the new culture- love you- Mom

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  4. Yeah. Health nuts and tea freaks. Loralie probably has about twenty different teas available to choose from. OH! and tonight for dinner i had lemony lentil soup, and loved it!
    I don't really understand the whole DR thing, i just got the paperwork, i need to fill it out, and I'll talk to steven about it too..
    And no, I took it like a beast, never asked him to slow down just kept his pace.
    That store was like a walmart i guess, but it didn't have food. it was just a huge range of things besides food..
    you should be nicer to me you know ;)
    love you.

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  5. That's so funny, because if I had made lemony lentil soup, you would have turned your nose up at it, said "That sounds delicious", in that "special" tone of yours and then made an excuse to be gone during dinner !!! HA :) I am glad you are trying new foods, and even more glad that you are liking them! I'm also glad that you get healthcare too, in case you come down with the sniffles. Love you!

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  6. you're right mom, can you believe it? i might come home a changed woman ;)

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