Birmingham and the Yankee behind the wheel...

Birmingham Museum & Gallery

Birmingham Town Square

Birmingham City Township

Birmingham City Centre

The Dreaded Roundabouts


Last Saturday I went to Birmingham Museum and Gallery (where I intern) for a Edward Burne-Jones seminar. It was interesting-there were six speakers. A few of them, I think, were nervous. They kept stuttering and I have trouble at times understanding them with the accent, so I missed parts of their presentation because I could not understand them. Two of the speakers were awesome and very interesting. The train ride was fairly direct (2 hours each way), so that is always a pleasant change.

I "jumped the gun" when I said my driving was improving. I've been violating the law all over the place. Josh and a friend were hired to paint a house and needed to go to the hardware store for more paint on Friday, but few people have cars. I was just working on a paper and needed a break, so I went to pick them up. For the most part, I did well and I had to go through roundabouts mind you. Anyway, we're almost back to the house and Mark (the friend, British, in the backseat) says as I drive through an intersection (in a residential neighborhood) "did you know you ran that stop sign?" I said "what stop sign?" I didn't see any stop sign. Apparently, the two thin white-dotted lines painted on the roads at the intersections are stop signs. Are you kidding me? I'm concentrating so hard making sure I'm staying in the correct lane and so on that I don't pay attention to lines painted on the road unless they are the lines down the middle and crosswalks. Besides, most of them are faded and you can't really tell what they are, but to me, they do not signal "stop". Then, Josh and I were going to a movie and he says "Give Way" and I'm thinking what? That's what they call "Yield" signs, which I've been driving through as well. I see them and often wonder to myself "is that the same thing as Yield? That's kind of dumb wording-why not just say Yield?" By then, I'm way past the sign (and I did not "give way") and thinking of something else. However, it makes Josh nervous, so he yells "Give Way", which scares me and is probably far more dangerous while I'm driving. To top it all off, we went to pick up a pizza at Pizza Hut and there's a few entrances into the shopping area and I picked the first one. Josh, calmly, tells me to quickly turn left because it is a one-way entrance and the man I just passed looked scared when I pulled in the one-way road. On a positive note, I have been staying in my lane.

Kirkstall Abbey

Unlike Kansas, we have been having lovely weather (although I prefer the cold). It has not rained since I got back and has been sunny everyday, but one, which must be some sort of record for English weather. I've been spending a lot of time outside. This past week was still a part of spring break, so I just started back to class today.

Last Saturday, I went to Kirkstall Abbey, which is about 10 miles from where I live and it's a pretty easy drive. It is set in a park by the canal. The Abbey was built in 1152 by the Cistercian Monks and remained a working monastery until Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries in 1535 (ish). It is absolutely beautiful!

I live about a quarter of a mile from a bunch of horses. We think they are of German ancestry-I would call them work horses. Anyway, I've been feeding them carrotts and apples. They love me and will run up to me when I walk towards them. There's about 20 or so. The owner lives near me, I don't know what he does with them. I've always just seen them eating or lying around in the fields.

I have also included a few pictures while I'm driving-you can clearly see I'm on the opposite side of the road. My driving is much better now. I still despise round-abouts and the Brits get a bit cheeky when I drive round them trying to find my exit. Other than that, I'm doing quite well.

Where I go-trouble follows, but I made it back to England

I got back to Leeds today around 5pm (11am KS time). It was a long Thursday and Friday. My flights were running late, so I was rushed and then I get to the Delta terminal at JFK for my international flight and the terminal had been locked down. There was a security breech, so they stopped all flights. There were hundreds of people standing and sitting on the floor by the check-in area. Apparently a man broke through security and had a package-they couldn't find him or the package. We even had to evacuate the terminal for a bit. I finally took off at 11:40pm-about 4 hours after my scheduled flight. It was a quiet flight-I think everyone was exhausted after being held up. There were no places to sit, but the floor (and not much room to sit), so I stood for hours.

We got in around 11:30am to London and I had to face British Immigration. They still gave me lip, but I got through. It's because I have so many stamps in my passport. I'm going to get a new one-that'll show 'em!! I got another "special" tracking stamp-how rude! I used to be England's number 1 fan until they got too nosey at customs.

Both of my suitcases made it without problems-very grateful for that-one of them was just food. I've missed my roommate and visa versa. He said it's been too quiet at home without me.

HAPPY EASTER!!

In case you're reading this and didn't know...

I'm back in Kansas for a visit. I had a project for my classes that I could do here in the States and then we have off a month for spring break, which is nice. I will be here until April 5. So far, I'm enjoying being back-I don't especially want to go back, which is very sad. I've wanted to live in England for YEARS! And now, I want to go back to Kansas. It's funny, you always think that there is something better out there and there may be and I don't know it yet, but Kansas will always be home. I still love England and maybe when I'm less high maintenance, I can live there. I still love my internship and my roommate and I love being able to get on a train and run down to London, but we're far more spoiled here in the States, so I will stop taking it for granted and no one better ever trash Walmart in my presence because I will set them straight. From what I have been forced to pay in England for everyday items is a crime and I had to go to three stores before I could find standard medical tape-tape you can buy at Walmart and Dillons. But no, not in England, I had to go to an actual pharmacy and I was charged $8.00- I looked at medical tape at Walmart (even better tape) and it was $2.40. I have been enjoying the wonderful American food. I don't think I ever took American food for granted-I knew I was going to have problems in England, but it's worse than I thought.

Oh, what a week...

Happier days for my car


This has been quite the week. Wednesday morning I got up and was headed out to Birmingham. I walk outside of my house and look at my driveway. First, it takes a moment to register-there's nothing in the driveway. Where's my car??? That's right-it was STOLEN!!! I just stand there for a minute thinking I don't know the 911 equivalent and my roommate is gone and Josh is in class. I go to my neighbor and ask him if he remembers seeing my car or someone near it. He said that the previous night (Tuesday), he took his father home and the car wasn't there. He gave me the 911 equivalent, which is 999.

I run back home and call the police. My car had been found around 11pm Tuesday night. I had just driven it Tuesday night and got home around 8pm. I locked the car like I always do and parked it in the driveway. My roommate was at his parent's house in Doncaster, so he wasn't home. So, the car must have been stolen after 8pm. It was really windy that night and my neighbors are noisy-they're always playing with their cars or in their garages, so I didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. I'm really grateful to the person that phoned it in. Apparently, they called the police and reported that they saw someone hot wiring a car in city centre around 10:10pm. It was eventually found in Hunslet at 10:45pm.

My car was taken to the Halfway Garage, which is about 10 minutes from where I live. On Wednesday, they couldn't give me many details. They weren't allowed to inspect the car until the police came and fingerprinted it. This was around 2pm yesterday and they were supposed to call me when it was ready. I waited by the phone the rest of the afternoon and no calls. I had called my roommate earlier and told him and he came home early from work. Around 5pm, he called the garage to ask them what was going on. The car had been fingerprinted, they just didn't call me. Anyway, they told him that it was probably driveable, but that it had steering problems and the ignition didn't work. Plus, they said there was a £160 ($320) "police recovery charge" that I had to pay in order to pick it up. That really annoyed me-my car gets stolen and I have to pay to recover it. I didn't pay much for the car in the first place, so I didn't want to sink a bunch of money into it.

I figured today is a new day, so I took a cab to the Halfway Garage. I was really worried about the prognosis. I didn't want to pay the recovery charge if the car wasn't going to be driveable. Josh only does brakes, so he wasn't going to be much help. Besides, I often run to him when I need help, so I wanted to try and handle this without him.

It was funny, as soon as I walked inside and said hi-the guy was like "ah...the American is here." I had called about half a dozen times trying to get answers out of them, so they already knew me. Fortunately, the men at the garage were great. The guy that showed me my car was really helpful and honest. He said that there really wasn't anything major wrong with my car, but the key doesn't work in the ignition anymore and the plastic top of the steering wheel had to be taken off so it doesn't rub against the wires. I have to start it with a "plug" thing, I can use a key or even a flathead screwdriver, which makes it vulnerable to theft again, but it's fixable. I drove it home and didn't notice any steering problems. Other than starting it with the plug, there really isn't anything wrong with it. Plus, it ended up only being a £105 recovery charge, which is better than £160.

I'm still really annoyed, but for having my car stolen, I'm actually pretty lucky. My car was only missing for a maximum of 3 hours, the interior is fine, my cd player was still there, only a little bit of the gas was used, and overall, the inside is clean. The outside was pretty muddy on the tires, so I washed it and it looked pretty good. It is now safely locked away in the garage. My poor little car-it's not meant to be dragged all around Leeds. It just goes to and from school, the grocery stores, and Josh's.

I called the police four times yesterday and this morning. I repeated the same story again and they still didn't have any type of record of my name, address, or anything else or any relation to my car being stolen. I know my car isn't high profile, but I think they should at least take a statement or have some type of record of the crime. However, as I typed this message-there was a knock on the door (it's 10pm here) and an officer was here to get my details. He was nice, but he had a record of all my phone calls. I did what I thought was necessary for some action to be taken. I've never had my car stolen and I want justice!! If that meant calling the police and the garage every hour, then I was going to do it.

I think my roommate feels guilty about my car. It's not his fault. All of my neighbors have better cars, my car is dependable-that's why I bought it. However, it was easy prey. I think it was taken for a little joyride. Rich is funny-he drives a black 2004 BMW, but has decided that it has too many miles on it, so he's trading it in for a silver 2007 BMW, which he will get next month. He's really excited-works for me, I'll get to ride around in it too. We went to Pizza Hut tonight. I think he also worries that I don't eat, which I haven't really the past two days. I've been too worried about the car that I forgot to eat. Pizza Hut was yummy-I hadn't been there since we were in Paris in January.

I'm going to relax this weekend-I need a little break after a stressful 48 hours. Rich sold his other house, so he's currently wealthy. I think we're going shopping on Saturday. The Corn Exchange has a cool market on Saturdays. Josh ate the recalled Peanut Pan PB. I told him not to, but oh well. He's seems ok, so far. If he gets sick, I don't want to hear about it. Well...at least England isn't boring.

London Fashion Weekend

I went to London Saturday for a fashion show-it was very cool. It was held at the National History Museum-a fashion show in a museum-could that be more perfectly me? The goody bag was great-Elizabeth Arden perfume and make-up, gift certificate for a manicure or pedicure, hair products for Toni Guy, a charm bracelet, samples of food that only models would eat, coffee, and some other things. The pictures are from the runway show. I had a good seat, but people kept getting in the way. Some of the designers featured were Chanel, Dior, Chloe, and Narciso Rodriguez.

London was packed-the underground was terrible. They work on the subway lines on the weekend and a few of the main lines were down, so that moved hundreds of people to the PIccadilly line, which is the main one I use. We were packed into the subway cars like sardines-not a very fun ride.

The chicken guy at my grocery store, Morrisons, knows me. I buy a plain, roasted chicken breast 4-5 times a week. From now on, I probably don't even need to say anything-he just knows. The uncooked chicken here is gross. I don't like touching it, let alone eating it.

The other pictures are from the British Museum and near my house. The church is about a mile from my house, I don't think it's used. I think the cemetery is cool, it's pretty old. Some of the tombstones are really interesting and ornate-there are statues lying around some of the tombstones. Leeds just celebrated their 700th birthday this year, so I'm sure the church and cementery have been here awhile.

"24" Addiction

Thanks to my roommate I've gotten hooked on "24". I had never seen it before until Rich ordered the second season and we started watching it. The episodes are only an hour of the day, so I get addicted wanting to know what happens next. The entire season is just a day-reminds me of "Ulysses".

We have frogs in our yard. I'm not used to seeing frogs, we have toads at home. Rich opened the door the other day and one hopped into the foyer. We don't have a lot of them, this frog just hopped the wrong way. I had to catch him and take him to the backyard-he was very slimey.

I've been eating much better this past week. I've had macaroni and cheese the past few days-it was delicious. I've been making a lot of banana nut bread also. Josh liked the British Bisquick mix-he made a large stack of pancakes with eggs on top (gross).