Beatles, Manchester, Lake Windermere, and CU Weekend Away

Magical Mystery Tour!!

Last Saturday, Hannah, Craig, Simon, Sarah, Emma, Mal, and I all set out for Liverpool to go on the Magical Mystery Bus Tour!! We arrived in the Liverpool a little early and wondered around the town for a bit. I seriously think I can get around Liverpool with no trouble. It's not too hard. After we killed some time, we got on the bus and we were off! The tour guide was great. His knowledge of the Beatles was quite vast, and he was really entertaining. He's actually met Paul. They are practically BFF's (ok, maybe not...that’s just my sarcasm..) Anyways, we went by all of their houses when they were growing up. We got out at George and Paul's, but we didn't go in. We drove down Penny Lane! So cool!! We saw all the places they sing about in the song. I could just picture Paul and John walking down the road. It was cool. We went to Strawberry Fields and took a picture. We went by the church they went to and where Eleanor Rigby is buried. We ended the tour at the Cavern which they always played. I think the guy said that in a span of 2 or 3 years they played over 200 shows at the Cavern...crazy!! All in all it was a wonderful afternoon Liverpool.

Manchester / Lake Windermere

On Sunday, Simon, Craig, and Hannah took us on the mini bus to Manchester and Lake Windermere. First, we drove by Old Trafford Stadium where Manchester United play! That day they were playing Liverpool which is a huge rivalry over here. So there were lots of people out and about getting ready for the game. They don't tailgate over here. It rains too much. After we passed the stadium, we went to the Old Trafford Centre which is an amazing mall! It's huge! My sister could spend a week there! It's really new and beautiful. They had a "French Quarter" which resembled New Orleans. It looked really cool and there was an American flag! So being the cool Americans we are, we sang the national anthem....not very loud, but we sang nonetheless. haha. The food court was built like a deck from a cruise ship. It felt like we were on the Titanic! We shopped for a bit and then set off for the Lake District. When we arrived at Lake Windermere, we walked around the lake for a bit and took pictures. We're good at taking pictures. Honestly, where ever we go, we look for pictures opportunities. The lake was beautiful and driving through the British country side was also gorgeous. It's so lush and green. It was cool to see the leaves changing color. It reminded me of West Virginia in the fall. At the lake, there were these HUGE swans!! We kept quoting Billy Madison...Stop looking at me swan! hahaha..it was fun. We drove a total of 300 miles! It was a long but good day.

CU Weekend Away

This weekend we went on a retreat with CU to the Wirral which is across the Mersey River on the other side of Liverpool. There were 18 CU members that went. We got there on Friday night and had some worship. Saturday, we played some football!! It was so much fun! I haven't played since indoor last March. I scored a lot of goals...hehe...I was excited. I think I showed those British boys that American girls came play football too. It's interesting because girls don't play sports over here and if they do, it's really rare. So while most of the British girls went on a walk, Mal, Emma, Sarah, and I played with Craig, Simon, Dan, and Hannah. It was good to kick the football around. Saturday, we also had some worship and Simon talked. That night we played sardines on the complex. It was a little freaky because we saw lots of 8 legged creatures...so I didn't enjoy that too much. But, I sucked it up and had fun hiding in the woods. Sarah and I found an awesome hiding spot and no one could find us. So we ended having a really good talk about the Lord and why he placed us in England. It was really refreshing to talk to her and share what’s going on in our lives. That night we also had a talent show. So being the cool Americans we are, we decide to perform a dance to none other than Spice Girls Wannabe! haha...We figured we're in England so Spice Girls was quite appropriate. It was us, four Americans, and Kirsty. It was awesome...we even had matching outfits! We won the talent show too...ahah...good times. On Sunday, we had a time to share what God's doing in our lives. I shared my testimony with the group and I already had a girl come up to me who's gone through similar experiences where I could see God using my story to talk with her. It was a good time to open with one another. But something I've noticed about the British is how reserved they are. They don't really open up and say how they are doing. It's interesting... It was a good weekend but now I'm really tired.

In other news, we bought tickets to Norway! haha, yep, it's official. Mal, Emma, and I are going to Oslo, Norway from Nov. 10th -12th. You might be asking yourself...Why in the world are they going to Norway? Well, we say..why not! haha..the tickets were cheap, Emma has a friend there, and we thought it would be a fun adventure!

I miss you guys! Much love,

Jackie

It's been a month!

I can't believe that I left a month ago or that I've been here for a month. Some days it feel like 3 years and other days only minutes...crazy. I don't know if I've already said this but each day gets better. We're making British friends! Last Friday, we had a BBQ with CU! We went to someone's house and we (the Americans) cooked hamburgers for them. When we got there, all the CU guys were backing off like they didn't want to cook or the rest of the group didn't trust them to cook, so Sarah and I were like we'll cook! haha, boy there in for a treat! We did a good job, I mean no one got sick the next day :) It was a lot of fun. We were trying to teach them some American dances or just dancing in general. Considering I was one of the teachers, you can only imagine how bad it really was! But, good bonding time. On Saturday, we set off around 10:30 am for the train station to go to the Lake District which we hear is very beautiful. Naturally, we missed our first train because the bus driver didn't show and the next train came 90 mins later. oh the joys of public transportation! We ended up changing out plans a bit and headed to Carlisle, which is on the border of Scotland and England. We went to the Carlisle Castle. We got there at 3:20 and it closed at 4. So, it was the quickest trip through the castle ever! When we went to Conwy we spent 2 hours roaming...needless to say, we would go a room, look for the picture opportunity, takes some pics, and run to the next place. haha...we really have learned to appreciate the castle and what cool pictures we can take :) We also went to the Cathedral in town. So beautiful! While we were walking around, the men's choir was practicing and their voices were amazing! We sat and listened to them practice before making our way into town. I think Carlisle is the cutest English town we've seen so far! It's bigger than Ormskirk but much smaller than Liverpool. We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner!! The first Mexican place we've seen since we've been here. You could tell we were no longer in American and very, very far away from the border....I ended up getting a pizza and the other girls got nachos, but it was nothing to be excited about and quite disappointing. The British trying to pull off Mexican does not equal success. We went to a pub to watch some football before we made our way home. After church on Sunday, one of the members had the whole congregation over for lunch! A free meal, heck yes! It was good. I had some British food like turkey and butter sandwich (which sounds really gross, but their butter is a lot different than ours and I liked it a lot), sausage roll thing, and an amazing chocolate dessert. The British students offered to take us out on the town and show us around! On Saturday, we are going to Manchester and then to the Lake District. We are taking a mini bus from the school so no more missing trains (we have become very good at that!). On Tuesday, we went over to Simon, Hannah, and Craig's house (the same people who are taking us to Manchester) for American TV Night! We watched Friends, Law & Order: SVU, and CSI. Classic television. I also played some Nintendo game cube....it's a little different from super Nintendo and I got my butt kicked. However, I did beat Dan at bowling!! Yes, that's right... I used my mad bowling skills from high school in the video game to win! It's all about placement :) haha

Well today I finally went to my Thursday class that I've missed for the past 2 weeks. They were really friendly and I didn't feel so dumb! Tonight, we are going with CU to Blackpool to see the lights. I think it's like the lights they have every year in Marion around Christmas time. But we'll see. Another fun time with our British friends! They like us. It's great.

I want to give shout out to Aaron for leaving comments! They're great!
Thank you very much :)

Much love,

Jackie

Sometimes I forget I'm a student...

We'll hello everyone! Sorry it's been a while....classes started last Monday and things have really picked up. My very first class experience was probably my lowest point since being here in England. For the first time, I really felt like I was the stranger and very out of place. Needless to say, I dropped that class. :) So now I have 4 classes Tues - Thurs. Yes, a 4 day weekend! It's wonderful! I really want to use my days off to do homework, however, last Monday and Friday I was a bum. It was great. I'm taking Understanding Visual Cultures aka Media 101. It's interesting. We watch clips of different movies and he points out the different techniques. It should be a good class. I have Enterprise which is a 100 level business class. Nothing too exciting or hard. It's interesting because they always use the US for examples in class. It makes me smile. Wednesdays I have Service Marketing. It's me and 5 other British students! Crazy, small class! Here they have levels: 1 year, 2 year, 3 year. So the Service Marketing is a 2 year marketing class and there's only 5 2nd year British marketing students. At home, there's a ton of marketing students. It's a good class. They are really nice to me which is a plus...some of the British students...don't like us at all. For example, in one of my classes, the British kid asked me if I like American chocolate. I said it was good. He then proceeded to tell me how bad it was and that British chocolate is so much better. I told him sorry I didn't make the chocolate but I'll pass on the advice to the Hershey family because we are so close. You know, good family friends.... And then there's my last class: Intro to Tourism and Leisure Management (sounds tough, I know) but I haven't even been to class yet. Let me explain, the first day of class I go to the room and I'm waiting for class to start. There are about 10 other people there and they are all talking about stuff that had nothing to do with Tourism and they sounded like 3 year students. Sure enough, I asked the girl next to me what class it was and she said Greek 4. Yep, wrong room my friends. At Edge Hill, they don't communicate through email, they have a bulletin board where they post information. So, I leave and go to the bulletin board to see if the class was moved. There was a note saying it's in another room. Great, I'm late but at least I'll be able to go to the first class. I went to the room and no one is there! I go back to the business office to see if I can talk to a secretary. No one was there. I missed my first class. So now, today: Thursday, 2nd week of class, I wanted to actually go to the right room and find the class. This morning I woke up early and checked the bulletin board for any last minute changes. No changes. I went to the room and on the door it said the same time and room for the class as did the bulletin board. Good sign right? No, I got there 5 minutes before class start and the lights were off and no one was there. I waited for 15 minutes. No one showed. I went back to my room and emailed the prof. I also emailed him last Thursday but he never emailed me back. So, again today I emailed him. But this time I went to bed, I was real tired. I woke up at like 11:30 and sure enough he emailed me this time and at 9:50 and said class starts at 10am see ya soon. And yet again, I missed class. Oh well. What can you do? The communication is a little off over here. Hopefully I can meet with the prof and figure out what reading I need to do to catch up. It was frustrating. Who emails ten minutes before class and expects you to be there? Especially when he never emailed me back from last Thursday.....booo.

Enough of that class stuff, last weekend we went to Liverpool for the day. We wanted to go on the Magical Mystery Tour that shows you all about the Beatles and cool stuff like that. But unfortunately, the tickets were sold out. We were bummed, but at least we'll be here for 3 months and it wasn't our one chance to go on the tour. We also bought tickets to go see a play that night, All My Sons. We had about 6 hours to kill in Liverpool. We walked all around town, when in and out of shops, and even saw the museums. The museums are free! Free is good. We had dinner at a pub and watched the English national team play Macedonia. It was a great day. I'm starting to know my way around Liverpool. So if any of you come to visit! or ever come here to visit, I'll be your tour guide! This weekend we're thinking about a day trip to Chester or York. I don't know yet. Friday night we are going with CU (Christian Union) to a BBQ! Again, free food! And a chance to get to know the British students. We've done a lot with the Christian organizations on campus and it's been a lot of fun making some good British friends. I found one girl who loves Peanut Butter! It's great! Most people don't like it over here, so we bonded real quick. I told her we should have a peanut butter party and we would show her all the different things you can eat peanut butter with. I'm a Magnuson and we know peanut butter.

We've stared to plan our traveling and we bought tickets to PARIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited!! We're going on Thanksgiving and I'll there through the weekend. 3 full days :) We are also looking into tickets to Oslo. Yep, we're cool like that. We thought everyone comes over here and goes to Italy or Spain but who goes to Norway?! We do! And plus, they are the cheapest tickets. So that’s another motivator. But we'll see.

Well I need to get going. I'll try to be better at updating. Things really picked up with classes starting. I miss you guys!

Much love,

Jackie

Southport and Wales :)

On Friday, Mal, Emma, and I went on our first real adventure. We went to the movies. I know you may be thinking that's not an adventure at all! Well my dear friends, in England...everything is an adventure!! Southport is about a 30 minute bus ride away. But first we had to find the right bus. After looking at many signs and asking some friendly English folk, we found ourselves on our way. We looked up the movies times and decided to see Click. It's weird over here their movies are really old and they play movies that came our months ago in the US. However, the new Bond movie comes out the same time as the US...we are excited about that. Anyways our bus finally arrives in Southport. Of course when we arrived we had no idea where the theater or should I say cinema was. But, we used our smarts and followed some kids who we over a conversation and they were also going to see a movie. The walk to the cinema was about 15 minutes. The town was cute and we'll have to go back during the day so we can fully appreciate it. We got to cinema with minutes to spare and sat down the enjoy the show. The movie was ok..better than I thought it would be. It was funny because there were some jokes that only the 3 of us laughed at while everyone else in the theater didn't get it. The movie ended and we found our way back to the bus stop. While we were waiting, we saw someone get arrested! Southport is a little shady... Then we went got on the bus there were like ten 14 year old smoking pot. Oh the joys of public transportation on a Friday night when all the teenagers are out and about. Needless to say, we made it back to Ormskirk in one piece and had a lovely evening.

And now...

WALES!!!

We started the day by getting on the train from Ormskirk to Liverpool, bought our train tickets from Liverpool to Wales and we were off! The train ride was total of about 2 1/2 hours but it was completely worth it! We went from Liverpool to Chester to Llandudno where the castle was. The train from Chester to Llandudno was really nice. We saw a castles on the way to Wales! It was built in the side of a mountain (more like a big hill) and it looked like no one has been in it. Hmm...maybe our next adventure! Anyways, we arrived in Llandudno, Wales and we had to walk about a mile and a half to the Conwy Castle. We had to cross a bridge and about halfway arcoss we could see it! It's right on the water and so amazing. We bought our tickets and started exploring! We went through the towers, walked all over the grounds, and even filmed a movie! haha...yea, we're that cool. We did a remake of Rapunzel. We found a sweet spot to have Mal (Rapunzel) let her hair down while Emma (the dashing Prince) came to rescue her. And of course, we had Sarah (the narrator/armed guard) keep watch of the tower and made sure the Prince did not come in. And I was the director/cinematographer. We are going to enter it in the Cannes Film Festival. I'm sure we'll have a winner. After exploring the castle, we walked around Llandudno for a while, ate dinner, and headed home. It was a long, but good day. Wales is beautiful! So green and full of life. We also pasted some cows and farm land on the way there....it felt like home! Well until the next adventure...take care friends!

much love, Jackie