In the land of the Beatles and rain!

Hello all!  I have moved from London to Liverpool.  Laura and I arrived last night on a bus.  I took my first ride in a black cab and met Kim and Leah (Laura's house mates).  They are very nice and have been very welcoming.  On the ride onto Liverpool there was a lot of talk of snow, luckily we don't have any yet.  The girls are doubting that there will be much.  Ice yes, but not really snow.  I'm not positive how I actually feel about this since it has been raining and hailing on and off today.  Ice would be black ice, the absolute worst. Back to the bus ride in, there was a lot of countryside that we drove through.  It was gorgeous and very green.  We passed this one round-a-bout that had a grass hill in the middle.  Personally, I thought it looked to be the perfect size for a hobbit hole.

Laura and I arrived in Liverpool around 5:30 or as the English say 17:30.  So confusing.  At first in the house I was so warm, but that was only because I had just been outside.  This house is very cold.  In order to save money, they only turn on the heating for about 2 hours before they go to bed, so their rooms are warm.  It makes sense to save money and we all just wear a lot of layers.  But I asked how much the heating cost and it's 70p or less a day.  P stands for pence which is their version of cents.  I was really surprised that it isn't on more of the day but hey, it's their house.  So the fleece sleeping bag that unzips into a blanket Mom gave me for Christmas has been a godsend.  To give you all a grasp of how cold it is in this house, I can see my breath.  When eating hot food, I feel like a dragon when exhaling.  My breath mixed with the steam is impressive.

So this morning I woke up and we realized how little food is in the house, least of which gluten free.  Kim was generous and gave me some eggs for breakfast.  After showering and getting directions from Laura before she set off to school, I went off on my first independent adventure.  To the grocery store!  Getting there was actually really simple and scenic.  I brought my camera with me but was too focused on remembering the directions to be bothered with taking photos.  I will though, promise!  Now I did make it to the store and found mostly what I wanted.  I even found a Hass avocado!  I met a very nice worker who was changing the price tags.  He told me that to see Liverpool, I really need to go into the city center.  So that's my plan!  Now when I got to the checkout point, I had my first experience with my debit card not working.  The lady was very nice though and held onto my food while directing me to a cash point (ATM).  I went there and was successful with getting money.  When I went back to the store she rang up all my food and asked for the total.  I paid seven pounds for all my groceries!  In America, it would have been at least 10 dollars.

The mashed potato thing is cottage pie.  I got that and ate it for lunch, very nice and warm!  The green looking thing is actually bananas.  The green part is mostly their packaging.  I'm loving how cheap food is!  Now for my first moment of "Look at that stupid American",  at least that I'm aware of.

I paid for the food and realized that there was no bag.  Asking for one, I found out that they cost money at some stores.  So I asked to buy one and it cost 3p.  Now the mix up aka "stupid" moment was here.  For those of you that don't know, English money is pounds and pence. They say "pound" or "quid" as an equal to our "dollar" and "p" for pence.  So when I heard 3p, I thought pounds instead of pence.  The lady saw me counting money and kept saying "it's 3p."  Being a "stupid American", I didn't realize she was trying to correct me instead of tell me how many pounds to count.  So after I handed her 3pounds, she handed it back with a smile and said "no it;s 3p."  THEN I finally got it and apologized while laughing at myself.  Once buying my bag for 3p instead of pounds, I headed out and made my way back.

Many more hilarious stories to come, I'm sure.  But now I'm sitting in the house and waiting for my inflatable mattress to arrive.  Once it does, I'll wait for Laura to get back since I have her keys.  Then I might go out and adventure/ photograph.  That depends on if it's still raining/ hailing at that point.  For now, I'll enjoy my hot tea and listen to the Beatles as one should while in Liverpool.

Love and pixels,
Kaylen

P.S. - My mattress just got here as I was adding the photo.  Yay! I have a bed! Slept in Laura's last night, but it will be nice not to have to worry about kicking someone...