Halloo!

I spent most of today sleeping. I woke up every couple hours or so to the train which clunks along about 50 metres away. When I finally decided it would be ridiculous to stay in bed all day, I wandered downstairs only to realize that it was hailing outside and I better go back to bed.

My roommate's granddad came by with a man to fix the washer door, which had fallen off. He said that today is the first real show of winter they've had. He said October was beautiful, with people walkin'round in t-shirts! Today's a good day to stay inside, he said.

Liane was a bit embarrassed by the washer door, and the heating system which recently broke, and some other things too which I didn't notice, like dust on the top of the t.v.. The heating should be fixed this weekend, but I was quite warm last night with two comforters and a space heater to warm up my room initially.

So, story of my flight, in short. I had a ten hour flight from SF to London (Heathrow), during which I had the window seat, no one sat in the middle, and on the aisle seat was a nice old lady who splits her time between her hometown in East Sussex and the residence of her children in Menlo Park. Jo (Josephine) eventually moved to a seat further back in the plane to get away from the ever-crying two year old in the family seats next to us.

The crying didn't bother me all that much, to my surprise, so I stretched out on all three seats and continued my movie. I didn't sleep more than an hour the whole time, even though when we landed it was technically 3 a.m.. Jo gave me all her information and asked me to please come and visit her in England.

So then I spent about two hours in Heathrow waiting for my flight to Belfast... spent four dollars on really good orange juice (thanks for the £5, Daniel) and then slept for most of the 1.5 hour flight to Belfast. When I landed, I had no problems besides breaking the handle of my large suitcase while dragging the monstrous thing off the conveyor belt. I wandered around for a while figuring church people would be confused and probably late, which they were.

Story: The girl who was supposed to pick me up had car trouble, so sent another of the interns to get me, who are Sarah and Eben and their baby Luca (sp?), Eben is one of the worship interns. They're from Ohio. Anyway, Jemma told them I was coming at "quarter three" which Sarah took to mean 3:15, but actually meant 2:45. So far, I've noticed they say, "half nine" for 9:30, so I understand why Sarah mixed it up. And then they were late besides that. But my flight was delayed, so it all worked out pretty well. P.S. Almost 1-year-old Luca is a fantastic child; made the cutest noises all the way from Belfast to Coleraine.

Going on with the story, I got a tour of Portrush, Portstewart, and some of Coleraine due to further confusion about the location of Liane's house, which is off Portrush Road, in Coleraine--you see how that could be confusing? I won't even bother with the story. I didn't end up going to the church office last night, since we got into town after 5, so I just met a few people while I was all disgusting from the flight, and then finally met Liane at her house.

Liane and I made frozen pizzas, burned them slightly on accident, and ate them while watching season one of Friends, though they call it "series" one. We had tea also, and talked for a long time about travel and the difference between "yarn" and "wool" which started this way: "what did you call the wool?"
"What did I call what? The yarn? Yarn." I replied.
"Oh, you call wool... yarn?" she asked.
"Yes. But this is acrylic anyway" and so it went.

So that brings me up to date. I've left out adventures in unpacking wrinkled, kind of smelly clothes, adventures in not-quite figuring out the shower, and adventures in why was I wide awake at 1a.m. and not at noon?, but you'll be ok without those.

One of my neighbors may have wireless internet that I can "borrow"... it worked for about 3 minutes, but so far Liane neither has internet access, nor has she ever heard of a "wireless connection." There's one in the neighborhood but it worked once last thursday and then again right now. Not sure what's up with that! I hear the library has a good connection.

One last thing: you know when you're talking to someone and they say something and you respond in agreement or acknowledgment or something and halfway through a response you realize you don't know what they said? That's like every conversation so far for me.

Thanks for reading, I know this a long one. They will be long at first and then they'll get shorter as things get to be normal, so hang in there.


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That last bit was from a few days ago. So I'll give a short today update. It's LOVELY outside. I'm waiting for Liane to return with my coat, which I left at church, so I can go ride her bike around town... taking advantage of the rare blue skies and all. Some things:
1) the church is fantastic.
2) the people are "brilliant"
3) the food is "gorgeous" they say... though so far it's a bit greasy for my taste
4) I'm already picking up the accent, though
5) I can't understand half the locals, but fortunately
6) most of the church staff etc aren't locals
7) little irish children are hilarious, all the boys look like tiny men, all proud walkers and whatnot.
8) Starbucks is SO expensive! Has anyone tried the creme brulee latte? I'm waiting to be taken out again before trying it.
9) my camera screen broke, so my picture may not be the greatest. I haven't taken any yet, but hopefully I will today.
10) my roommate is great great great
11) I miss you and when I'm in the office daily I'll be a much better correspondent.

love,
megan