October

It's been a month since I last posted. 

Oops. 

In that time I've moved in with a lovely family in Hyde,

 Made some friends,

(including a fellow Lomaite)

Helped with some DIY projects,

Introduced some Brits to the joy that is Breakfast for Dinner, 

(One of them thought we were going to eat cereal)

And read lots and lots of books. 

I've also experienced British cinema, eaten my weight in fish & chips, and ruined at least one pair of shoes playing soccer on the school lawn. Mischief Managed. 

Fall (Autumn?) here is as obnoxiously pretty as you'd expect it to be.  

Forgive me for not updating much. There are too many leaf piles to jump in. But I'm loving the mail, texts, and facetime updates from home - keep them coming!

A Traveler's Success Story

The other day I had a few minutes to spare before getting the bus, so I stopped into a cafe.
I had the right amount of change for a raspberry muffin, and the cashier didn't even have to correct me.
I got to the bus stop just as a bus was arriving, and I knew which bus station to ask for to get home.
Most importantly, I didn't drop my muffin while I got out my bus pass.

Builder's Tea

Amidst all the galavanting and sight-seeing, I made it to school for orientation. 

Back Lawn

Back of the White House, which is the administrative building 

Such brick. Very mortar. 

Lawn in front of the Chapel, Cafe, and Conservatory.

Front of the White House. 

Grad classes don't start until next week, so I've been burying myself in pre-reading (and touring the various public libraries Manchester has to offer). 

Also, I've been told that the strength of tea I prefer is called "builder's tea," which means leaving the tea bag in for roughly twice as long as British Sensibility deems prudent. The More You Know.

City Centre

Student council took us (the first years) into the city centre for an afternoon of touring.

These walkways connect Town Hall and the Central Library.

This is where they told us, "The Americans can go stand over there if they want to feel like they're in Harry Potter." 

Mischief Managed. 

Town Hall as it faces St. Peter's Square.

More Town Hall. 

This is where the British Comic Con happens.

I think this is just a restaurant, but it's a pretty block of buildings, right next to an industrial-looking glass & steel shopping mall. 

Walk Home

Some sunset pictures from a walk home from the tram (trolley) last week:

Bridge over the canal (which runs through much of Manchester)

And the most ferocious guard dog on the block.

It's Not Weird...It's Different

In honor of Melissa T., some observations from my first few days here...

- "Brew" means tea or coffee
- Instead of a top sheet, you change your duvet cover and fitted sheet
- A bunch of vegetables have different names
- GPS? Try SatNav instead
- Squash isn't a vegetable, it's juice concentrate that you mix with water
- The whole driving-on-the-other-side-of-the-road thing is expected, but it turns out which way you look before crossing the street is more ingrained than I realized. No close calls, yet.
- Custard is heated and poured over desserts. The "skin" on top is a delicacy.
- Without a data plan, I don't have access to the internet unless I'm on wifi. As a die-hard Input, it's incredibly frustrating to walk by all these historical buildings and places and not be able to look them up right away.
- And then there's this:

Tea on the Terrace

Yesterday after church we went to a friend's house for tea....on the terrace...in the butterfly garden. I pinched myself a few times just to be sure it was real.

After lunch we went on a walk to pick blackberries on an old paved-over railway:

It was reminiscent of the Amador City backroads, except without the cattle pastures.

      A few days ago I went with Leanne to the hair salon. I didn't want to stare, but I'm pretty sure the woman running the shop was Molly Weasley. 

  It's raining, so I'm catching up on Harry Potter before the busyness of school starts. The kittens don't seem to mind having me around the house.

Dizzy was eager to help me update the blog today. 

In other news, my hometown has been on fire.  There are a few thousand fire fighters getting it contained, but it's been surreal to watch it all unfold on social media from 5,000 miles away.