August 7th, 2010

-It is currently the mornign of the 8th-

So I made it to England!! Up here in the north, it is nearly impossible to understand a conversation between two Brits. It is easier to understand the women when they talk directly to you. Adam is the worst. Even the locals have a hard time understanding his thick accent. It is a lot different from a London accent, and much harder to understand than the Irish. It is odd because they have no problem understanding me but said they can't understand the Irish.

The rest of the ferry ride went well. I was able to sleep a bit after my new little Irish friend, Nicola (Nick-lah) settled down. You will see pictures of her soon enough. She is soo cute. I was also able to sleep the majority of the bus ride into Bradford. The back rom of seats opened up after the first stop. There were 5 seats across the back, which made it nice and easy to stretch out and get comfortable. I woke up again 5 hours later at 5:00 in the morning, in Leeds. There, I contacted Adam and let him know I would be taking the connecting bus to Bradford for 2.20 quid (pounds, £). During the time I was waiting for Adam, I made my way to the neighboring train station and looked into train rides downn to London on Monday. A 3 hour trip to london cost me about £45. Adams mother later told me that seemed expensive and that she would look for flights when she got home. I would rather avoid airports at all costs, at this point. Plus, it don't have to arrive so early and there is no pressure to making it to the airport on time because if you miss your train, you simply hop on the next. The women at the train station told me that I should have no problem just coming in the day of my departure to book my ticket.

The first car ride in Adam's car was quite the experience. I have a video of it, but I am having a lot of trouble uploading them. When I play them back it is choppy. I hope it is just the player and not getting that way during the upload. Adam told me I can drive his van if I wish. I am not sure about it, even though it would be legal. He drives a stick as well. It would be quite the challenge, but I don't have any extra money to be spending on the damages of a car. After the 20 min ride through the country with the scenery of rolling green hills, cattle, castles and short stone walls that appear to go on forever, we arrived at Adam's house. After watching a TV show of Wayne Rooney we went to get a proper good English breakfast. Eggs, Bacon (real bacon than is thick and very very good), sausage, tomato, and baked beans. lol. I have no idea why there is baked beans or tomatoes, but it was very good. From there we went to the super market to get Adam some orange juice before heading over to one of his really good friends Emma and Matt's house. There house is 110 years old and is very big for over here. After hanging out for a bit here and hacing lunch we went to watch Adam's brother, Dan and Matt play in their semi final Rugby League match for the Old Victorians. It is a team in the open age rugby leage. When we got to the visitors club house, we went upstairs to get a pint of Carling. During half time of the match, Adam and I walked across the street and got a 8 pack of Carling and enjoyed them on the side line. Everyone on the side line got a kick out of me throwing the rugby ball like a football. They were cracking jokes about how every american can throw a football far. I taught Adam how to throw the Rugby ball and we played a little catch, American football style. He was done after about 3 passes. I was impressed though because one of those throws had a tight spiral and actually made it to me. After the game, we went back to the away club house and drank beer while everyone was cracking jokes and telling stories. I could only understand a few words and most of the time could't understand the joke. The coach was trying to get me to move over and play league for him. I had so many questions about Rugby League to ask him and he asked me all about Rugby Union. Rugby league doesn't have rucks and mauls, soafter your tackled you stand back up and roll the ball between your legs. Each team announced their players of the match for the apposing
team followed by a good ol' traditional rugby boat race. The rugby match may determine who moves on and keeps playing, but the boat race determines the true winner. A team composed of the 5 fastest beer drinkers from each side. Even though Matt and Dan's rugby team lost, their boat team won and are seen as the winners in my eyes. Following the boat race and after everyone left, we headed back to the ol' Vic's club house to finish a couple more pints over story telling and meet some more old time Vic lads. We then decided to stop by the local shop and grab a couple of cases of beer to bring over to Matt and Emma's house where they were hosting some friends before going out on the town. After a couple hours of drinking and not getting much sleep the night before and being up since 6 in the morning, I decided to take a little nap on the livingroom couch. If I wasn't convinced before that i was in good company, I was when I woke up covered by a blanket with the lights turned off and door shut. I went into the kitchen to meet the rest of the group: Ella-handro (like the lady gaga song), Cottinglay, gay James, and little Lee (Adam's Protege). I caught the tail end of the froggs drinking game before we all headed out to our first club/pub. The first pub was more like the traditional bar in the states with a lounge, bar, and dance floor. Everywhere here in Europe plays good music. After enjoying some dancing socializing we went to a traditional European club. The place was HUGE and had 3 different dance floors, each on its own level. There were some 5 or six sepperate bars distributed throughout the club. On the second floor was the main dance area that had lazers going everywhere and a huge raised dance floor in the middle that was packed with people. At around 2am we left the club to get some curry next door. I had some chicken dish and experienced the world's largest piece of bread. Then call it naan and it is like flat pitta break that litterally was the size of teh table. I could have wrapped it around me like a blanked. We did not finish it. There will be pictures of it on FaceBook. After dinner we all got a taxi home. I slept in Dan's room and he stayed at his girlfriends place. A very good first day in England.

P.S. I learned that Cheers means thank you here, so it makes no sence to end my bloggs in Cheers. lol

Some English terms I have picked up while being here:
-Rougher than a badgers nager
-Rubbish, That top your wearing is rubbish
-Proper, She was proper upset about the situation or it was proper funny
-Telly, rather than TV
-Fit, she it quite fit (Good looking rather than the body type)
-Floozy