Silly American

30-12-08

After an exhausting day yesterday, still feeling rather jet lagged, and not quite adjusted to the time change, I decided that I would not be setting an alarm this morning and would instead allow myself to sleep in until my body felt rested enough to get up. That was my thought at least. Ingrid kindly asked me before bed what time I would be rising for breakfast. After thinking for a moment I thought, surly I will be awake well before, but how about 10:00? “Um, no, that is far too late,” Ingrid replied in her thick British accent. OH! At this point I was mildly embarrassed and started fumbling for words, managing to get out a simple, “Whenever works best for you, I’d be happy to be awake.” We settled on 9:00. More exhausted than I anticipated, I found myself still in bed at 8:45. I woke up to use the “toilet”/”wash closet” and ran into Ingrid in the hall way. “Would it be terribly rude if I came to breakfast in my pajamas?” I asked. I thought it rather polite of me to even ask. Heck, in American I would have thought nothing of strolling into the kitchen in a sweatshirt and pj bottoms (with my fancy, new, “got them for a pound” slippers) and having a piece of toast. However, Ingrid’s long hesitation caused me to think that my way of thinking was far too American and not quite proper enough for here in England. She, however, obliged to my request and told me it would be fine. OOOPS!!!
Breakfast was delicious (and free). [My stay at Ingrid’s includes breakfast; however, I am on my own for lunch and dinner. Not so bad until you think of how cold it has been and how nice it would be to eat a warm meal. Anything warm must be purchased at a café… not so cheap.] Once again I had toast with butter and jam, a glass or orange juice (mind you the class is the size of a shot class… one must be careful to sip or it will be gone in one gulp), and a cup of tea (3/4 full of warm black tea, topped not quite the rest of the way with milk and two spoonfuls of sugar… yummy! I can feel my teeth turning brown just thinking about it!!! ) This morning, however, Ingrid also offered me some fresh fruit salad. I waited patiently as she diced (yes, diced) pears, apples, grapes and mandarins into a bowl and topped it all with orange juice and a splash of orange/mango squash. From what I gathered this squash business was the equivalent of an all natural/no sugar added concentrate that one would normally dilute and drink. Squash!?!? At first, I seriously thought she put squash juice in it. Such a silly American I am.

Prayer requests: Ingrid has mentioned several times how terribly ill she felt before I arrived. She has since blown her nose approximately 90 times a day. I woke up this morning with a rather large amount of snot coming of my nose. I feel fine and have since not been bothered; however, please pray that Ingrid would begin to feel better and that I would be protected from crazy British cold germs. While I appreciate her sharing her home with me, I am not too crazy about the idea of her sharing her cold with me.

Whoops! After such a lovely breakfast I might have laid my head down and not awoken again until 1:30. Perhaps I was still a bit tired. Since arising I have been strolling around Westminster taking lots of photographs (none that are worthy of any kind of award, but more to allow others to get acquainted with the area in which I live. There is a more detailed album on facebook. Should you not have access to it please let me know and I will happily send you the link so that you can photo-follow my journey. Enjoy!)