First day in London

Jill, my exchange sister, picked me up at the airport early in the morning, so we had the whole day to hang out. It was about 35 degrees and windy in London. In fact, it snowed here today. Jill claims I ‘brought the weather in my pocket’ because it almost never snows in London. After getting settled in, we walked the ground at Wesley Garden’s. It’s warm enough in London to actually grow produce in February and the gardens had a small number of flowers that were blooming: white tear-drops and daffodils. We stopped off at a warm pub for beer and cider that had a live, bold swan waiting at the door to get in and other swans, ducks, etc. splashing around in the Thames outside. The bathrooms had these awesome, ultra-robust hand blowers. They were labelled, “Feel the Power.” We kept returning to the loo to get warmed up.

I’ve done pretty well with jet lag today and only fell asleep on the way to Kelly’s (Jill’s daughter) field hockey game. Kelly plays for the state team and there was no nodding off at the game as it was wicked cold. Field hockey is like soccer with sticks and, except for the cold, was fun to watch. Ian, Jill’s husband, made us lamb with sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach and potatoes and we spent some good time catching up. American and British English have interesting differences. American ‘Pants’ in British English means ‘underpants.’ I discovered ‘yachtsman’ is a better term to use here then ‘sailor.’ The phrase ‘hanging out with sailors’ equates to ‘working the nightshift on Hennepin ave.

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