Finally Here. . .

My first day in England!! I’m not sure that I can fully grasp it all seeing as I had two hours of sleep on the plane and feel like I might fall over any minute. The plane ride over was uneventful and when I touched down in Manchester there were a lot of people lined up along the tarmac with what looked like binoculars and cameras. How nice, my own personal greeting party! I mean, the queen wasn’t on my flight so they must have been there for me! What a nice way to arrive. (Only to have Steve burst my bubble later and tell me that they always do that but I choose not to believe that) The customs line was a little long so I made Steve sweat a little thinking he was in the wrong place, but he got to talk to some lovely Russian people in the mean time.

The 2 hour drive to Northallerton was a beautiful ride on the wrong side of the road! Driving is completely different over here and all the cars are so small, except for the lorrys (aka trucks for all of you back in the states. . . I’m starting my personal English/American dictionary) I always go to the wrong side of the car.

I was so nice to meet everyone in the office and I am looking forward to spending the next seven weeks with them. I think we will have lots of fun while keeping very busy. I already have work all over my desk. I finally got to meet Georgina (my new roomie who is nice enough to share her room with me) and we, along with Alex, have already had fun playing a game of Friends “Scene It”. They beat me twice. (I would like to blame that on the lack of sleep and will demand a re-match later. J)

I feel like I missed most of what was said today because people talk so fast over here. I am definitely already going through culture shock and am looking forward to a good nights rest so I can hopefully keep up tomorrow. Linda is being very gracious and letting me sleep in tomorrow to get back on track.

Linda prepared a wonderful meal tonight which was a nice way to end the evening... and very welcome after all the not so yummy airplane food. :-P