Weekend Bonanza Pictures

These are a few of the pictures that I took at Kathy's place. First there's Jojo, a friend of mine (the one who sings), Ato (Kathy's cousin), Kathy, me and Kathy's twin siblings, Annabelle and Thomas.

Weekend Bonanza Part II

The next day was Sunday, and I woke up at almost noon. I had to return to Crawley. My friend Jojo wanted to meet me at Victoria Station. It was raining cats and dogs. What to do, what to do. I didn’t want to go out into the rain (duh!). Even more, I didn’t want to go back to Crawley and back to work because I was relaxing and getting reacquainted with my friend. I decided to back a cake for Kathy and her family, and also to make my favorite meal, boiled yam with corned beef and egg stew. Kathy and I went shopping once the rain had stopped. I texted Jojo to come over to Thornton’s Heath since he had a car, and he said he would after church. Ato, Kathy’s cousin, helped me very much with the creaming of the cake, so that I had very little to do, and could concentrate on making the corned beef stew, which turned out really well.

When Jojo turned up, he was quite surprised to see how I had changed, because we hadn’t seen each other in eleven years. J. It took him a while to get over how much I had changed. I introduced him to Kathy’s siblings and cousin, and we all basically sat in the kitchen, cooking and talking. Jojo made to leave many times, and we even wrapped a bit of the cake for him to take with him. As an aside, I made about a pound of the cheese pound cake, and thirty minutes after the cake was done, almost two-thirds of it was gone. Hehhee….(giving myself a pat on the shoulder). Back to Jojo. He didn’t want dinner, but since we had made him stay that long, we forced him to have a bit. A bit turned into a second helping as he enjoyed the meal immensely. (Yes, I am a bit vain, but whatever. Giving myself another pat on the shoulder.) After the meal, a new side of Jojo that I had never seen emerged. I got a phone call from Twum, my honey, so I went into the bedroom to speak to him. We both could hear (him through the phone) raucous laughter coming from the kitchen. It turned out that Jojo was quite the comedian, telling such funny stories that had the others doubled over with laughter. I don’t think he let till after 10pm. All in all, it was a fun night.

I then called Nan to tell her that I couldn’t make it back to Crawley that night. She said she had been worried because she hadn’t heard from me, and I felt a bit guilty. As I didn’t have any clothes but the ones I had worn there, I had to do laundry. However, by the time we had finished cleaning and all that good stuff, it was almost 1am. I started doing laundry at 1am. I knew there and then that I wouldn’t be able to make it to work, but I was hoping for the best. We put it in the dryer around 2:30am, and that’s when I went to bed. I woke up at 8:30 Monday morning to get ready for work, but couldn’t stay up, so I called to say I’ll be in a bit later. I woke up again at 10:30am and decided to get my clothes out of the dryer. They were by no means dry! L. I was definitely going to be way too late to go to work. I called in and said I wasn’t feeling well and would come in on another day. It wasn’t a complete lie because I was really drowsy and coming down with a cold. I slept till noon, had some cereal, and lay in bed reading for a while. I got cleaned and dressed around 3pm, and just kept lazing about and resting. Around 4pm, Ato came to remind me that I had to go to town to change some money and return some things I had bought. I took my handbag and left with him. It wasn’t till we got to town that I realized that I didn’t need to go back home with him, but I could leave from there since I had everything I had come with on me.

I got a little snack from Gregg’s as I was hungry, and then he walked me to the East Croydon train station after I had done all that I needed to do. Ato was really helpful, taking me where I needed to be to change money (Marks and Spencer) and to return two tops I had bought on impulse (Dorothy Perkins). Kathy had had to leave for work, which is why Ato was the one who helped me. I didn’t know how to thank him, but he said he would just wait for more cake the next time I visited. At the train station I bought a story book and a Fanta, but I was told the drink was cheaper if I bought two of them, so I did just that and gave one to Ato. I bought my ticket, got on my platform, and chatted with Twum on the phone until my train came.

The trip to Crawley was only about 20-25 minutes long, which was nice to know, as it meant I could hop over to visit Kathy without spending a long time on the train. Right as I arrived at the Crawley station, I got a call from Nan asking where I was and when I would be getting home for dinner. I told her I had just arrived, and that I would walk home to familiarize myself with the route. I thought I was lost initially, but I wasn’t, and found myself very soon at the Clarion Hotel which was near Nan’s house. I went in and signed up for the gym membership deal they are having, and also booked an appointment for a free consultation with the on-site personal trainer. I hope to go twice a day. Please pray for me so I stick to that. J

I had arrived at the train station at 7pm, and I got home before 8pm. It was about a thirty minute walk from the train station to Nan’s house, which is not a bad walk. I’m still not too used to the roads and the flipping of the sides where the cars drive. I’ve just told myself that most of the time the on-coming car is to my right, instead of my left, so I should just keep that in mind.

I’m in bed now, about to go to bed so I can wake up early tomorrow morning to get to the gym, then catch the train to work in Worthing. I hope I make it. I start my third week tomorrow. It feels like I’ve been here longer than that.

Stay blessed, and enjoy the week!

Weekend Bonanza Part I

Saturday, I was supposed to meet Kathy, a very good friend from my secondary school days in Wesley Girls, in Brighton. The weather decided that it was a good day to be uncooperative. It kept raining and the atmosphere was just grey and depressing. I didn’t want to leave the house. However, Kathy had already set out. Then, as if clueing in to the weather and sharing in it’s sadness, my phone signal went out, and I couldn’t make or receive calls. Of course, I didn’t know this till about an hour later, and then I began to panic that Kathy might have arrived, waited for a while, and thought I wasn’t coming. I didn’t know whether to stay or go. I decided to go, then started worrying whether I should just go back with her to her London apartment or come back home. I thought I would come back home, so I just left with my handbag and an umbrella. I walked up to the top of the road where the bus stop was, and decided not to walk to the train station because I wasn’t really sure how to get there although it had been pointed out to me, and I was already a couple of hours late. So, I waited for the bus with this young man who was dressed in all black, had tattoos on both arms and was finishing up a cigarette. I asked him which bus to take to get to the train station, and he said all buses went there, so I got on the next one, paid my fare, and got down at the station. I bought a return ticket to Brighton, because once again, I was deluding myself that I would be back home that evening. Why do I say deluding? Because I haven’t seen Kathy in six years, and I knew that we would want to spend a lot of time catching up. It was already 4pm when I got to the train station, which meant that we wouldn’t have a lot of time together before it got dark. Silly silly Denise! Wasting money on a return ticket. Teeheehee.

I had to switch trains at Three Bridges, which is pretty close to Gatwick Airport. Twum called me while I was on the platform and we had a really fun conversation. I got to Brighton at almost 4pm, and picked Kathy out immediately because she is tall. J She has always been tall. She is now 6ft tall. Yup! Pretty intimidating for most guys, especially Ghanaian guys who are usually of average height. We walked down to the center of the town, to Pret A Manger, where one of her friends worked. We asked for a good place to eat and were directed to a Chinese buffet restaurant nearby. Kathy and I had a lot of fun, chatting and filling up on Chinese food. After lunch/dinner, we went into the shopping mall and got a few things we both needed, then went back to Pret A Manger to meet up with Kathy’s friend. Two other friends had turned up, and we had a grand time poking fun at each other’s secondary schools. Kathy and I left Brighton around 7pm I think (it could have been 8pm), and took a train back to London, where we got off at East Croydon, which is on the outskirts of London in one of the zones. I don’t get the zone thing.

Anyway, Kathy has a house that she lives in with her siblings and a cousin. Really lovely house in Thornton Heath. I went in and met them, and Kathy mentioned that there was a Ghanaian restaurant a few minutes away. I wanted to eat banku and okro soup. I don’t know why, but each time I hear about a Ghanaian restaurant, the first thing I want is banku and okro soup. So, after we had relaxed a bit and I had gotten to know the rest of the family, we went out to the bus stop and went on to the restaurant, called Baba Foundation, a Ghanaian community center. On the bus ride there, we encountered quite a few Ghanaian men who proceeded to propose to us and ask us out on dates. LOL! They complained when I told them I was married, saying that all the Ghanaian women they met claimed they were married. It was pretty funny.

I got my banku and had it to my satisfaction, to Kathy’s amazement, since it was almost 1am. Oh yeah! It was that late. A friend of Kathy’s, William, came to join us after he closed from work, and we went upstairs for about ten minutes to dance to the hiplife songs they were playing, then we left in William’s car back to Kathy’s house. We didn’t go to bed till after 4am. Lovely night.

I love Primark

I didn’t go to work on Friday because I was tired, and also because it was Chris’s birthday and she wasn’t going to work. I live with Chris’s mom here in Crawley, UK, so Chris takes me to work and brings me back after work. I was so tired on that I woke up almost noon on Friday. Actually, Nan woke me up because she said Amy, her granddaughter, who was coming to take me to town, would be arriving soon.

I went with Amy to her house where she parked her car, then we walked into town. It was a nice walk. I toyed briefly with getting a nose stud because quite frankly, it looks pretty sexy. We came across an open air market with both farm produce and clothing. It was quite fun. From there we walked into the center of the town where I found my new love, Primark (sorry honey! J). Primark is this store in the UK where really nice, stylish clothes and accessories are sold for very cheap. To give you an idea of how cheap these things are, I’ll tell you all that I bought and how much it cost. I got three necklaces, seven pairs of earrings, a set of ten bracelets, six other individual bracelets, three head ties, a belt, a red handbag, two wallets, five blouses and a pair of pants for a grand total of 42 pounds! Not bad, eh? I must admit I went a bit crazy on the red though…oh well, I only live once, right?

I then had the most delicious sandwich, made of chicken, bacon, green onions and avocado on wheat bread. Just amazing! Then I had ice cream from Baskin Robbins, and went into this store called Boots for a make-up tutorial and makeover from the Clinique counter. I looked okay. I don’t think heavy make-up looks good on me, so I didn’t like the final product that much. However, when most of it had faded a little, I was quite striking, if I may say so myself. LOL!

We got picked up by Chris after I had been shown the train station, and we went back home, where Amy, Nan and I took this picture. What a lovely day!!

Random pictures

I have some pictures from Christelle's visit, and from my first day at Nan's place (That's Chris's mum). I've been wanting to put those up for a while but I hadn't really gotten a chance to do so, so here we go. There is a picture of Skippy the dog, a really lovely creature, some pictures of my rooms( I sleep in one and keep my suitcases in another), my shoe collection (which keeps growing...LOL!), and of me posing in the mirror (as usual).

Tough Stuff

It looks like the last time I updated this blog was last week Wednesday, which is almost a week ago. Since then, I sat in on two of the caseworkers’ meetings with clients, some old and some new. One of them, a new referral, was quite emotional and I left the hour and a half meeting feeling physically and emotionally drained. I couldn’t believe that another human being could treat someone they claimed to love so callously. The poor woman totally believed the man she was with when he said he would find her if she tried to run away. Although the WORTH project did not push anyone to choose one mode of action over the other, whenever the woman mentioned that she wanted to leave and we told her we would support whatever decision she made, she always backed out, saying that maybe she should just go back, keep quiet, and take whatever the man was doling out, because she didn’t want to cause trouble. What? What what what?

In situations like these where the woman believes it would be easier to just go back and accept the abuse so as not to cause trouble and involve the police, the case workers had to be blunt, letting the women know that if they stayed, there might be even more trouble if their partners ended up killing them. That thought sends shivers down my spine….

Even more chilling was the case of this old woman whose son was abusing her. I was told that in one instance, the son beat his mother up, threw her around and pushed her onto the floor (this woman was about 74 years old), took a knife and brought it close to her eyes, telling her that he could kill whenever he wanted. When the woman reported the case, she said she didn’t want to press charges because she didn’t want to cause trouble for her son but wanted to help her. One of the caseworkers told her bluntly that the next time it could be murder her son would be up for, and that convinced her. She pressed charges and her son was put in jail for eighteen months. He was however let out after nine months on good behavior. I wonder how this old lady is doing now, whether she is afraid her son will come back to find her and kill her.

And that’s the thing with domestic violence, I’ve realized. Because it’s got more to do with power than anything else, I’m sure most of the women are afraid that if they leave, their abuser would chase them down and find them, in order to exert control over them and not lose their control. As much as I would like to say that this does not happen, that when the women leave the perpetrator doesn’t track them down, there have been incidents where the women have been found by their abusers, and have been forced to live a nomadic life, moving frequently to cause the perp to lose the trail. Once again, I think, “What? What what what?,” and “Why why why?”

In response to your question, Henry, about how the case workers deal with such disturbing issues on a daily basis, I was told that most of them went to see their own counselors often to relieve the stress. Also, they had a scheduling grid where anyone who was on the schedule as the Blue person would not see any clients for two days even though they were present at the office, taking that time to de-stress and touch base with the coordinator. That person also usually got two days off, so that they could work the weekend shift. I hope that answers your question a bit.

I've been around

On my way back from Birmingham on Sunday, I was supposed to meet and have lunch with a couple of friends in London. However, I was tired and had a bit of luggage on me, so I cancelled all that and just took the train back to Worthing, got a taxi, and went back to where I was staying. My hosts arrived just a few minutes later, also from London, and then Paul took me to Devil's Dyke to look at the whole of West Sussex from up a hill. I put up a few pictures of the place, and also of people who were hang gliding.

Anyway, Monday I was supposed to go in to the offices of the WORTH project, but I woke up really exhausted. I made my excuses to Paul and went back to bed till noon when Christelle told me that she wanted to come up to Worthing to meet with me since I was unable to meet with her the day before. I met with her at the train station and we went into a Wimpy restaurant (I think it's a fast food joint), and had this delicious grilled chicken sandwich, and shared a treacle sponge dessert (really yummy!). We walked about a bit, and then took the train to Brighton because I was looking at other accomodation. The house was dirty and bad, and it was located in this alley place that did not look safe at all. Chri and I left and I told the guy I would contact him and let him know.

Tuesday morning I left the house around 11am and came to the WORTH office by bus, where I shadowed two of the case workers as they talked to their clients. It was really physically and emotionally draining, and I had a headache after that. I couldn't believe that they went through this day in and day out, seeing numerous people a day whose lives were a living hell. I took some Advil, and needed to take a nap. There was an open office as someone is on leave this week, so I was given a pillow and I slept under the table in the office. :)

Later that evening we all went to a Spanish tapa restaurant called Capricho's to eat tapas, and then we went to a bingo hall to play bingo. It was mad hilarious! :) As they say here, "It was wicked!" After bingo, Chris, one of the ladies, took me to her mom's house, which is where I'll be staying from now on till whenever I want. Her mom is really nice and sweet, and has this cute dog called Skippy. Even better, her mom is really good at knitting, so I hope to pick up a few skills before I leave England.

Today, I had to be up by 7am so I could be ready by 8am for Chris to pick me up, in order to make it to the office by 9am. I didn't fall asleep till almost 3am. As you can probably guess, I'm drinking a lot of coffee. I went to see another client with one of the case workers, and it's heartbreaking when a woman is trying to move on with her life after suffering abuse, and her former partner uses her love for her children to manipulate himself back into her life and try to wield some control over here. Really heavy stuff over here.

This is quite a condensed version of all the things that have been happening, but I don't have regular access to the net now, so I'm afraid this will be how I blog for a while.

Oh, also, a friend of mine from a long time ago, when I used to live in North Kaneshie in Ghana, is here in the UK working as a musician. He got my email addy from our choir director from back then, who I keep in touch with infrequently, and we've been communicating. He's pretty well-known among local churches, and is planning a few concerts this month and the next. I've been invited to sing at some of these concerts. Isn't that just cool?

I should go now. I've been here for too long. I'll put up pictures later, when I can.

Stay safe, and God bless.

So tired already...

I was going to update this blog with a lot of info about what I've been up to and what I've experienced, but I'm pretty tired from all my train rides, and I also have to go to work tomorrow, so I'll just wait for another chance. I did a bit of sightseeing with Pauline when I got back to Worthing, to a hilltop called Devil's Dyke where all of West Sussex can be seen from, so that is also something to share. To make you happy though, I'm just going to put up a few pictures of what I did, and hope to give u the full scoop later. I do have about a paragraph written up though, so here goes.

"I arrived in Birmingham late Friday night, and I was met by Angela, Sammy’s wife and my childhood friend from church. They have a ten-month old son Adrian, who has the most beautiful smile ever. It seems to light up the room, and he always flashes it and turns, as if he is teasing you with the smile. Sammy had to go to work as he works the late night shift at his job. Angie and I sat around and chatted for a while, actually till almost 1am about random stuff, and I had some gooooooooood rice and stew with some lovely meat ( I think it was goat…not too sure! It was still very tasty!).

Sammy arrived from work at 8am and woke me up with a loud shout. We hadn’t seen each other in five years, so it was pretty nice to see him. He hasn’t changed much physically, and still fun and outgoing and God fearing. He made all of us a lovely omelette with vegetables and mincemeat, and we had that for breakfast, with bread and hot chocolate. We spent most of the morning chatting and catching up on each other’s escapades since we last met. Angela actually went to high school with Twum, my fiancé, so that made for some interesting conversation. We then went to Birmingham to look around the mall and do a little bit of shopping. I bought two shoes, really cute ones. :)."

I'll continue later. (Yawn!)

In Birmingham, UK

I have this friend that I hadn't seen in about five years who is currently living in Birmingham with his wife and son. I therefore decided to go up there this weekend to visit them. I am in Birmingham right now. It's a pretty nice city, and it seems relatively cheap compared to London.

On Friday I had training for working with the WORTH project, so I had to walk to the Berkely Hotel in Worthing, right by the sea. My host gave me some directions to the place, but she wasn't very specific on how far or how long it would take me to get there. Birmingham is north of Worthing and London, and the trip was projected to take 3hrs by train. Consequently I had to take my weekend bag to the training session, along with my tote bag. Bad idea!

It took me 45minutes to get to the hotel, and my feet were killing me, not to mention my back which felt like it was breaking! The training session wasn't bad though, and the ladies I met there were very charming and nice. :) I think I'm starting to pick up a bit of the British accent. LOL!

More to come later... right now I have the itis!

Smile!

What the....?

I know the internet is a free space and all that, and people are free to leave their comments and stuff all over, but NOT ON MY BLOG! Someone left a really horrid comment on my Thursday entry, and I am not tickled in the least bit! I responded to them as another comment, so you can check that out. Not funny, not funny, not funny!!

Being a bum and messing around with Picasa

I went to bed late last night because I was trying to upload lots of pictures from my first day in the UK. I didn't wake up till almost noon today, and I've just been in the apartment chatting online and reading a storybook. After all, it IS my reading and rest day. Teeheehee...

I downloaded Picasa onto my host's computer and I've just been playing around with it's features. I made a collage of pictures taken during my last year in college. I think it looks good. What do you think? Budding photographer?

More pics from first day

Just trying something out. Trust me, my blogs will probably not be this detailed once I start my research in earnest.

So, I found this new website that hosts pics, and I created an account. I'm sorry I have to split up my writing and my pics, but it's taking too long to upload pics onto this blog. The url is http://www.photoblog.com/user/awurama.

My first full day in the UK

Last night, after succumbing to jetlag at 5pm, I woke up at 9pm and had dinner that my hosts had made. Lovely vegetable and turkey curry with brown rice. This brown rice was pretty good because it wasn't like the round-seed-looking one in the US. I was actually able to eat this brown rice! LOL! Apparently, my host dad is a fan of Big Brother, a reality series here in the UK. We therefore watched a bit of it, followed by another reality show called Love Island, which has UK celebrities living on an island and hoping to find love. LOL!

I woke up pretty early, with the sun streaming across my bed. I had gone to bed around 2am, and it was now 9:30am UK time. My hostess Pauline was just rushing out the door to work. I was a bit excited, though I felt languid and lazy, in no hurry to get out of my pjs and out the door into town. I had a nectarine after brushing my teeth, and spent about three or more hours online looking for phones. I had been told that i needed phones that worked on GSM bands available in the various countries I'll be visiting. I did a bit of research on that (www.celluloco.com was a very helpful website in sorting out what those different band phones mean). I found I needed a triband phone, so I looked up phone stores here in Worthing. I found about five, all on the same street: Montague! Isn't that charming!

I also chatted with my dad, my friend Phoebe in Ghana, another friend KD in the US, and my fiance Twum in Cali (who was up at 4am for some weird reason!! :P. My dad kept nagging me (teeheehee!) to hurry up and update my blog for the day, because he was anxious to read it. I told him I had not done anything yet, but he said he wanted to see my itinerary for the day. Love you dad!

So, after having breakfast of 2 slices of bread and a mocha ( i added cocoa to the coffee because I couldn't find the sugar! LOL!), I went to take a long shower! I actually had a funny incident during breakfast. I saw this spread in the fridge that had Omega-3 oils, which are supposed to be good for the heart or so. Now most (or all?) Omega-3 oils come from fish. I however didn't expect the spread (like margarine) to smell fishy. So I spread it liberally on my first slice of bread, only to realize I couldn't eat it. I forced myself to take two bites, then I used a knife to slice off the top of the bread. I had a second nectarine then, finished my breakfast, took a shower(around 2pm), and had a KitKat. :)

Armed with my camera, my ipod, a bottle of water and a banana, the names of the stores, and a general sense of where the center of town was, I started walking along the beach towards Worthing. I took quite a number of pictures because I kept telling people how pretty it was to live across the street from the sea. It was about a mile and a half to the center of town. I came across a needlecraft store with lots of stuff for knitting, crocheting, cross stitching and beading. I am planning to go there tomorrow for some yarn to start my crocheting binge! :) I also found a number of jewelry stores that had some of the most beautiful rings I have ever seen. Honey, I need to take you to this place...:P.

Let's talk culture shock and funny surprises. I still can't get over the driving on the "wrong" side of the road, and the use of double-decker buses. I squeal everytime I see one of those buses. :)Then, in the middle of this quaint seaside town, I found a KFC, a Subway and a Pizza Hut!! I couldn't help laughing to myself! Then, because of the beautiful view (I think), there were dozens of guesthouses (bed and breakfast houses) along the street parallel to the beach.

I went into three phone stores without finding anything I like, but I found a nice Nokia 3220 in the fourth store, and got a Pay As You Go plan with O2, one of the networks over here. The other competitors are T-Mobile, Orange and Virgin Mobile. I also got directions to an internet cafe on the way back where I got my phone unlocked for £10. All in all, it cost me £70 to get the phone and get it unlocked. That's a little over $140. Nice chunk of change.

My contact at the Worthing Project, Trish, actually had an itinerary planned out for me when I got in, all the way till 25th August. Today and tomorrow are my rest days, and then I have training on Friday. Exciting! I'm hoping to go visit a friend, Sammy, and his family in Birmingham on Friday evening and Saturday, and meet up with Christelle for church and brunch in London on Sunday. Yes, I'm chilling already! :)

After getting the phone, I got lunch at Caffe Nero, this lovely cafe on Montague road. I got a ham and provolone sandwich, a mocha and a bag of bite-size chocolate chip shortbread cookies. The total for all that was about £8.20. Let's not even bother converting into dollars anymore.

Pauline had invited me to yoga at Aquarena, the gym in town, but I had just had lunch so I couldn't participate. I went to wait for her there, but she went out through another door, so I began walking back home after I left her voicemail. She met me on the way home and took me back. We had savory pancakes for dinner. Pauline is vegetarian and eats pretty healthy. She made the pancakes with eggs, brown flour and some milk, and after they were done, we filled them with avocado, sundried tomatoes, spinach and hummus, or with baked beans an chickpeas. It was quite delicious. Then, we decided to go shopping, to ASDA, the UK version of Walmart (it is actually part of the Walmart family!).

The store was actually a bit far from the house, so we drove there with one of Paul's friends, Claire. It was fun! We passed by this private school that is reported to have the largest stained glass window, and I was also told that the makers of Harry Potter had wanted to film there, but the headteacher thought it would be too distracting. I bought some nectarines and apples, and got a small bathrobe to wear in the house ( I don't want to be walking about in just a towel.)I also got a cute red top for £6.

We got back home and Paul and I chatted for a bit before she went off to bed. I have quite a number of pictures to put up from today. I doubt I'll be able to blog this extensively everyday of this year, but I'll do my best to keep it recent. :) I hope you enjoyed reading this!

My Luggage Woes

I honestly cannot believe that I'm here in Britain. It still hasn't really dawned on me that I'm away, and that I'm going to be away for a year. The flight here wasn't too bad, and we actually landed at London Heathrow airport an hour ahead of schedule. I got some money changed into pounds, surfed the web at the airport, then went in search of my luggage. That's when it all started. I took a medium sized suitcase and a medium sized duffel bag. Both seemed pretty light when I left Mountain View. In London, now armed with the two aforementioned bags, a tote bag, and a backpack, I started to feel the weight. It didn't help that the underground train I was supposed to take was about two terminals away, and I had to drag all this stuff around. Then, to make matters worse, once I got to Victoria Station where I was to change trains to get to Worthing (where I'll be staying for a week), they had no elevators or escalators. I had to carry these bags up a lot of stairs. In fact, after the climb, I stopped at a cafe, had some breakfast, and lounged for about an hour and a half.

At the cafe I met a nice Australian girl who allowed me to sit at her table whilst I ate, and we chatted a bit. She's working in the UK for a year. She was also kind enough to watch my bags while I looked for a restroom after my long trip. I finally boarded the train to Worthing, only to find out that I was in the last coach, and had to move to one of the first four coaches because the train actually separated into two at one of the stations. I had to make mad dashes from one coach to the other whenever the train stopped at a station, and it was no easy feat, with all these four bags hanging on me. The funny thing is that I actually thought I had packed light this time. I need to do some serious reevaluation before I travel again.

My contact here in the UK was very nice, and actually found me a host family to live with while I'm here. The lady who is hosting me, Pauline, came to meet me at the train station and brought me to her house, where I'm sending this from. She's really nice, and she also recently started knitting. I'm pretty excited. She was also telling me about cheap tickets to fly to various European countries around. I hope to get a visa for one of the EU countries so I can do some sightseeing before leaving the UK.

Okay, I need to take a shower and/or a nap, because I feel pretty tired. Oh, and the house is right by the beach too...Worthing Beach! Lovely! I'll put up some pictures soon once I have the chance. Yay!!

Just checking..

To see whether this mail to blogger thing works.

Just checking..

To see whether this mail to blogger feature works.

Not chilling so much

There is this crazy heat wave in California that has apparently killed some people already. I tell you, we had to find an airconditioned place to hide out in yesterday just because it was so hot. We live on the top floor of a three-storey building, so all the heat rises, and we get baked up there. Apparently the heat wave won't be breaking till Wednesday or so. My oh my! Staying at home used to be fun till all this heat! LOL! I know I'm supposed to be used to heat, coming from Ghana and all, but this heat is different. I don't know what it is, but Lawdy Lord! it's really hot! What am I gon do???

On another subject, does anyone know any hair stylists in the Palo Alto area who work with black natural hair? My hair needs a good trim!

Chilling in California

I am still relaxing in Mountain View with Twum while waiting for my visa documents to arrive. I must say that I am a bit nervous about travelling for a whole year. I am not sure what to pack for such a trip, but I would appreciate any suggestions. I am supposed to leave on July 31st for my first stop, the UK. Should be fun, I guess. :)