Well its been 6 days into our trip so far and I find that I am now saying thinking things in my head with an English accent. Even while I am writing this it is all I can do not to laugh at that little voice in my head, and to be honest the voice needs to work on the accent a little too :-) I do not think I could live abroad for that very reason actually. I tend to start picking up accents like other people pick up fashion advice. I have a few choice things that I say now strangely simply because my roommate in college was from Kentucky, and doesn't Jon love to make fun of me when I say each and every one of them!! Anyway, my neurosis aside, it really has been a lovely trip so far. Well, for me at least. Jon has been working everyday obviously, and he has also not had much luck with the food. I have to say, the English really aren't known for their food and I can certainly see why. The worst of it is that attempting other nationalities food is often worse than the traditional English variety. The other night Jon had a calzone that tasted like they used ketchup rather than spaghetti sauce. Ewww... On a happier note, the one culinary tradition that I absolutely adore in Britain is high tea. To my surprise, I had a time of it finding a place that actually served a real high tea but through free public wifi and google I was able to achieve success. So yesterday afternoon it was tea at Harvey Nichols, one of the UK's premier department stores. I had tea, scones, little sandwiches, and lovely petite fours all while staring out the big picture windows. Absolutely wonderful.
I happened onto a great little market here in Manchester as well. Apparently its only there for the next two weeks and has all these vendors with homemade cheeses, salami, cakes, and all kinds of foods like pasties, curries, and even a whole roasted hog! Not exactly something that you usually see everyday in the States.
I've toured the cathedral, the John Rylands library, and tried to tour town hall but unfortunately there was a labour party conference occupying it all week. All absolutely stunning buildings full of great architecture. Really architecture is the reason I love Europe so much. When I came back from my first trip to Paris I found that I had taken more pictures of roof lines and windows than almost anything else!
On the home front, well I am pretty upset with myself. I have a friend picking the garden for me so that nothing goes to waste and she discovered that I seemed to have left the freezer door a bit ajar and everything in it thawed and leaked all over the floor!! Now the waste is awful, the mess is disgusting, but I am so very frustrated because the last time I opened that stupid freezer door was hours before leaving on our trip when I was attempting to put up all those tomatoes coming out of the garden!! So not only did I cause serious problems but everything I was rushing to do right before we left is now a loss!
It also seems that all New Jersey needed was for us to leave in order for it to get some much needed rain. In fact, it looks like we are getting quite the storm these next few days. So I am grateful to know that the garden is still producing and the plants I put in the perennial bed will likely be lush and green when we get back from holiday...see there is that Englishy thing coming out again....
The John Rylands library, created by his wife as a tribute to his life during a time when Manchester was trying to re-create itself as a cultural area. Inside are the most amazing stone archways!
