England: Day Two: Cultural Initiation and the Terrible Dollar
We arrived in England's Heathrow airport around 8:30 PM local time. It seemed like we were the only international flight to come in at that time, which was nice for customs. As Simon is a British citizen, he got in their line. He was the only one in that line. After a short while, Kate, Rachel and I got up to the desk and got to watch Simon make faces at us from behind the customs lady.
We changed some money in the airport. $500 -> 229 pounds. Hmm, where's the pound symbol? That makes the conversion rate for cash $2.18 -> 1 pound. Keep this in mind as we go along; pounds spend about the same as dollars for many things.
Simon's parents had a car waiting for us (including a man with a sign!). We got to be introduced to the "estate car" (station wagon) and got to play luggage Tetris once again. Kate started for the driver's seat like I did when I went to Japan. Wacky right side drive cars!
I think we dozed in the car - it was a good hour drive or so out to Surrey. We got to meet Simon's parents, briefly, before piling back into their car for the start of traditional British homecomings - the pub!
We got to meet several of Simon's friends, and say hello to a couple of them who had been at Kate and Simon's wedding. We pubbed until midnight, when they closed the pub, then returned to Simon's parent's house and continued with "American style pizza" until 2 AM. A really fantastic way to start the trip.
We changed some money in the airport. $500 -> 229 pounds. Hmm, where's the pound symbol? That makes the conversion rate for cash $2.18 -> 1 pound. Keep this in mind as we go along; pounds spend about the same as dollars for many things.
Simon's parents had a car waiting for us (including a man with a sign!). We got to be introduced to the "estate car" (station wagon) and got to play luggage Tetris once again. Kate started for the driver's seat like I did when I went to Japan. Wacky right side drive cars!
I think we dozed in the car - it was a good hour drive or so out to Surrey. We got to meet Simon's parents, briefly, before piling back into their car for the start of traditional British homecomings - the pub!
We got to meet several of Simon's friends, and say hello to a couple of them who had been at Kate and Simon's wedding. We pubbed until midnight, when they closed the pub, then returned to Simon's parent's house and continued with "American style pizza" until 2 AM. A really fantastic way to start the trip.