Goodbye England, Hello Aussieland
I can't believe it's over. It feels like no time has past since I was rushing about preparing to go on exchange.
England was so awesome. The people were pleasant. I had some lovely hosts and meet many nice people. The countryside was beautiful with green, green grass. The history was old with different periods: vikings, romans, normans... So many old buildings, ruins, houses and I could go on forever. I got to live in my yellow ski jacket even though it was only a 'mild' winter for them. London is so small (area wise) but built up and crowded and so much to see.
I saw:
Sudbury Hall; Trentham market; Liverpool - Beatles Story and Cavern club (Beatles); Gladstone Potteries; a dairy farm; Birmingham - Jewellery Quarter, Back-to-Backs and cadbury Factory store; Stafford Castle ruins; Litchfield - Litchfield Cathedral (absolutely stunning) and Samuel Johnson Birthplacve museum; Stratford-upon-Avon - Shakespeare's alleged birthplace and Anne Hathaway's house; Blenheim Palace; and Stone farmers' market and walked along the canal and watched the narrow boats use the lochs.
Shopping at Guilford, Basingstoke, Reading and Hull; Guilford Cathedral; Paris - Eiffel Tower and outside the Notre Dame; Milestones (Hampshire's living history museum); Winchester - Great Hall (King Arthur's Round Table), West Gate, Winchester Cathedral (outside only), Kings Gate, Jane Austen's house when she died, Winchester College (outside only), old wall and canal, King Alfred statue, a market; Hampton Court Palace; Greenich Royal Observatory and Queen's House; London - New Shakespeare's Globe, St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Sqaure, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Abbey Road, changing of the horse guard, Windsor Castle, Harrods, Leicester Square, Royal Albert Hall, Madame Tussauds, and glimpes of Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens and Australia House (Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter), and more; Beaulieu; Roman Bath museum and the outside of Bath Abbey; Stonehenge; Regimental badges cut into chalky hillside and White horses; Henley-on-Thames - Geaorge Harrison's (now son, Dhani's) house and walked along the Thames; a live soccer game (well the first half); Oxford - museum, Carfax Tower (for the view), Chirst Church College (Great Hall in Harry Potter), and from the outside I saw Radcliffe Camera, Bridge of Sighs, Oriel College, St Mary's church, Bodleian Library, Sheldonian Theatre, Trinity College and Oxford Canal; a church in Leicester; Nottingham bus station (was home for two and a half hours).
Further north I saw: York - York Minster, a Roman column, Clifford's Tower ruins, the flooded canal, Merchant Adventurer's Hall (from outside), walked the York walls; Whitby - Whitby Abbey ruins and church, docks, Captain Cook monument and whale jaw arch; Preston's church; Hedon; Bridlington seaside; Hull - old slave wall and pub where they were bought and sold; Withernsea; Hornsea; Spurn Head; Haworth main street and Church where the Bronte's church once stood; Skipton Castle and market; Kings Cross Station (platform nine and three quarters) and probably more.
I went to bingo, Lions district youth award, a Lions meeting, a few Lions Christmas parties, worked a few Lions fundraising float nights, a Boxing day soccer party and more.
I ate: Yorkshire pudding, Toad in the hole, Staffordshire oatcake, Cornish pasty, a Nestle Yorkie bar and Yorkshire curd tart. I had a Mars (mars bar) mini roll. It tasted like a Mars Bar but was like a mini swiss roll with a chocolare covering. I had Thai, Indian (twice) and a Chinese buffet. I also tried a WKD "wicked" vodka drink. It was sickly sweet.
Linguistic notes:
I heard 'daft' (daft bat), 'chuffed', 'natter', 'geeza', 'heaving' (the road is usually heavying, the club was heaving) and 'minging' meaning bad.
Terms of endearment that we heardor told about were duck (particulary around Stoke), hen (Scotland), mate (London), dear and love.
They sounded different with short 'a' in pasta, pastry and Doncaster, and a 'o' in project rather than a dipthong. Even with brand names: Danone was "danon" with a dipthong 'oh' for the 'o' and Pantene was "panten" like "pan" and "ten".
I will return to England in the future because their is still so much more to do and see. Plus there's still Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Then there's Europe too. How about the WORLD?!
England was so awesome. The people were pleasant. I had some lovely hosts and meet many nice people. The countryside was beautiful with green, green grass. The history was old with different periods: vikings, romans, normans... So many old buildings, ruins, houses and I could go on forever. I got to live in my yellow ski jacket even though it was only a 'mild' winter for them. London is so small (area wise) but built up and crowded and so much to see.
I saw:
Sudbury Hall; Trentham market; Liverpool - Beatles Story and Cavern club (Beatles); Gladstone Potteries; a dairy farm; Birmingham - Jewellery Quarter, Back-to-Backs and cadbury Factory store; Stafford Castle ruins; Litchfield - Litchfield Cathedral (absolutely stunning) and Samuel Johnson Birthplacve museum; Stratford-upon-Avon - Shakespeare's alleged birthplace and Anne Hathaway's house; Blenheim Palace; and Stone farmers' market and walked along the canal and watched the narrow boats use the lochs.
Shopping at Guilford, Basingstoke, Reading and Hull; Guilford Cathedral; Paris - Eiffel Tower and outside the Notre Dame; Milestones (Hampshire's living history museum); Winchester - Great Hall (King Arthur's Round Table), West Gate, Winchester Cathedral (outside only), Kings Gate, Jane Austen's house when she died, Winchester College (outside only), old wall and canal, King Alfred statue, a market; Hampton Court Palace; Greenich Royal Observatory and Queen's House; London - New Shakespeare's Globe, St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Sqaure, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Abbey Road, changing of the horse guard, Windsor Castle, Harrods, Leicester Square, Royal Albert Hall, Madame Tussauds, and glimpes of Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens and Australia House (Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter), and more; Beaulieu; Roman Bath museum and the outside of Bath Abbey; Stonehenge; Regimental badges cut into chalky hillside and White horses; Henley-on-Thames - Geaorge Harrison's (now son, Dhani's) house and walked along the Thames; a live soccer game (well the first half); Oxford - museum, Carfax Tower (for the view), Chirst Church College (Great Hall in Harry Potter), and from the outside I saw Radcliffe Camera, Bridge of Sighs, Oriel College, St Mary's church, Bodleian Library, Sheldonian Theatre, Trinity College and Oxford Canal; a church in Leicester; Nottingham bus station (was home for two and a half hours).
Further north I saw: York - York Minster, a Roman column, Clifford's Tower ruins, the flooded canal, Merchant Adventurer's Hall (from outside), walked the York walls; Whitby - Whitby Abbey ruins and church, docks, Captain Cook monument and whale jaw arch; Preston's church; Hedon; Bridlington seaside; Hull - old slave wall and pub where they were bought and sold; Withernsea; Hornsea; Spurn Head; Haworth main street and Church where the Bronte's church once stood; Skipton Castle and market; Kings Cross Station (platform nine and three quarters) and probably more.
I went to bingo, Lions district youth award, a Lions meeting, a few Lions Christmas parties, worked a few Lions fundraising float nights, a Boxing day soccer party and more.
I ate: Yorkshire pudding, Toad in the hole, Staffordshire oatcake, Cornish pasty, a Nestle Yorkie bar and Yorkshire curd tart. I had a Mars (mars bar) mini roll. It tasted like a Mars Bar but was like a mini swiss roll with a chocolare covering. I had Thai, Indian (twice) and a Chinese buffet. I also tried a WKD "wicked" vodka drink. It was sickly sweet.
Linguistic notes:
I heard 'daft' (daft bat), 'chuffed', 'natter', 'geeza', 'heaving' (the road is usually heavying, the club was heaving) and 'minging' meaning bad.
Terms of endearment that we heardor told about were duck (particulary around Stoke), hen (Scotland), mate (London), dear and love.
They sounded different with short 'a' in pasta, pastry and Doncaster, and a 'o' in project rather than a dipthong. Even with brand names: Danone was "danon" with a dipthong 'oh' for the 'o' and Pantene was "panten" like "pan" and "ten".
I will return to England in the future because their is still so much more to do and see. Plus there's still Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Then there's Europe too. How about the WORLD?!