Sleepy Day! Hurrah!
Anna left super early to head off to her diver training (the first time she told me about it over facebook, I thought she meant "driver" training but made a typo, and I kind of wondered to myself why she's my age but doesn't drive yet...but THEN she was going on about air supply and stuff, and I soon realized that not only does she indeed drive already, but she was even cooler than most people I know, because she actually was doing diver training!). Heidi and I, however, slept in until around 11:30, and then lazed around the house all day, and I spent a good amount of time looking out the lounge area window at the countryside. Probably the only productive thing we did all day was go out to the shed, get a bunch of wood for the fire, and bring it back in the house. Then Jen cleaned out the old ashes and we started a little fire in the fireplace to keep the house warm during the day. I don't remember if we had a wood fireplace or not in our old house, but I know we don't have on in the house I live in now [at home]...it was so nice to have the real, wood-burning smell in the house all day, and to get nice and warm sitting beside it.
We watched some figure skating on tv, as it was the ISU World Figure Skating Championship competition in Torino. We had good fun trying to guess where people were from by looking at them...as luck (and talent, I like to think) had it, the Canadian team in the couples competition placed first! Naiiice! Brought me back to my Olympic-week patriotism. As you'll see, Canadians in sports seemed to call out to me today...schwhat?
After figure skating, a program about golf was on, about the Masters tournament and lots of other things I don't really follow...like how they get green jackets if they win. Personally, I'd rather have a trophy or a medal, or something that I couldn't outgrow in 20 years' time. Some of those guys had no chance of fitting into the jackets they won when they were 20-something now that they're middle/late aged, pot-bellied men. But I did learn something new by watching it: Tiger Woods is making his return to the golf scene after his big adultery scandal! I still can't look at him in the same light as before...cheating is not cool, kids, not cool at all.
We basically just kept it on the same channel because we were waiting for the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, which was taking place in the afternoon. It's basically this huge annual competition between the rowing teams at Oxford and Cambridge along the Thames river that's been going on since 1829. That's older than Canada has even been a country...yowzaaa. Anyway, we watched it over some sausage sandwiches, and as Heidi informed me that we were cheering for Cambridge, I somehow developed a sense of team pride just from her telling me to cheer for them. Anyway, I like to think it was a mix of us cheering, the large number of Canadians on the team this year (I think about 3 out of 8?!), and some good ol' luck, that ended up giving Cambridge the win! We should have thought about it beforehand, and maybe planned to be in London to see it-- that woulda been cool! But again, I'm sure there will be something exciting going on when (see how optimistic I am? I said "when", not "if") we meet up in the summer in London.
These 2 pictures pretty much sum up the majority of my day...
After the exciting afternoon of watching our sports, the sun came out and Heidi and I decided to go for a walk along the road. The sun was warming my face and there was a nice breeze, and the sky was blue with a bunch of clouds, and it was just so, so nice! We walked by a few cute little rivers, walked between the hedges (and tried to peek over them!) and cleverly avoided the mud patties and puddles from the rain earlier on. I felt like I usually do at the end of summer, when you have not a worry in the world, and you're in great company, and you're not thinking about the work you have to do or how you're going to spend tomorrow, or anything else. You're just living, in the now, feeling the sun shine on your face, and wishing that time could stretch out in that moment forever, and that you could remain worry-free and calm and happy. I stood there looking at the hills, and just smiling. As if someone had told me they loved me or as if I just witnessed something amazing. I was just standing there, smiling, and I couldn't stop. I took a few photos of the rolling hills, the green fields, the hedge-bordered roads and some other beauties that nature blessed us with, and I'll put up a few here...but I'm quite sure they won't do it justice.
<-- Seriously....look at those hedges!
After our little breath of fresh air, Heidi and I returned to the house and soon after, Anna came back from training. Obviously very tired from a day's hard work (and lots of traveling both ways!), she filled us in about her exhausting day. Then it was supper time and we had bbq chicken -- reminds me of home! I am going to have a haaaaard time going back to hub food!!
After supper, the whole family hung out in the living room, and we spent the night away talking about accents again (I'm stillllllll not used to being the foreign kid!) and discovered that if I say "I want to draw a drawer while I sit in my pajamas, eating a banana in Canada." then it makes them laugh really hard. Basically, they use the same word for "drawer" and "draw" and "bah-nah-nah" and "pah-jah-mahs" instead of "ba-nayh-nuh" and "pah-jayuh-mahs". We also explored the joys of google street view, and showed each other where we grew up, the schools we went to, et al.
That's about it for today, nothing too exciting, but a very productive day in terms of taking a look at my life, really, truly enjoying the English countryside, and relaxing to the utmost.
Tomorrow is Easter, and I'm not really sure what's on the agenda, but I'll be sure to update once the day is over! I can't wait!!
Until Next Time,
Beckers
xxx
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