Sour Cream?

Do you know what sour cream in england is called? Me either. I was going to make chicken enchiladas for some friends and I was all excited because I went grochery shopping today and I thought I had gotten all the stuff that I needed to succeed in this adventure. I was wrong. While in the process of boiling the chicken (thank you Jordan for teaching me this awesome trick. it worked wonderfully) I opened what I thought to be sour cream. We smelled it. . .it smelled like sour cream. we tasted it . . . it tasted to sweet to be sour cream. we googled it. . . it was coffee creamer. FAIL! The shop on campus was closed so we went ahead and used it anyway. Brave I know.
Then came our next challenge the can opener of doom! Seriously morgan and I could not figure out how to work the stupid can opener. It was the most complicated thing of our lives. for 20 minutes we struggled with the darn thing. 20 minutes! seriously it was not brain surgery. we finally had to google that as well. Youtube helped us figure this one out.
In the end the enchiladas tasted delicious and you would never know that they were made by two idiots who cant even work a can opener.

Football or Football?

5 days later I finally get my luggage! yay. Wearing the same clothes 5 days in a row is not as much fun as it sounds. Trust me. Luckily Delta now owes me a lot of money. Almost 400 dollars to be exact.
I got to Keele Thursday afternoon and honestly when I saw my dorm room/block my first thought was "seriously this is where I will be living for the next 9 months."

But then I went for a walk around campus and I fell in love. Well not in love with the entire campus. The majority looks like any American university campus. Exept the student union that is. In all honesty the student Union is a piece of crap and that is putting it nicely. Maybe it is normal for British Uni's student unions to be like this but it is nothing like the U of U student union. where is the bowling alley people! There are however plenty of places to get alcohol which I guess is what is important in College. The place that I feel in love with is Keele Hall.

Gorgeous righ? It is a shame that non of my classes are here but we did have a second welcome to England party in the ballroom. It is kind of sad that the history of this house has been taken out to provide another party room for university students. (I will do a blog post about the History of Keele at some point. witches honor)
So basically for the last couple of days all that has been going on is a bunch of parties and watching everyone get drunk. yay! I must say though I am in a state of shock. Maybe it is because I have lived in Utah my whole life but no one here knows what a mormon is. Ok that is a lie. 1 out of 5 people knows what a mormon is. and I cant say I am LDS because that just boggles their minds. It really is strange. When I emailed my new bishop he told me there are 6 members going to Keele. It was at that point that I knew I was no longer in Utah.
Sunday night (which I guess is tonight) Morgan, Anna and I went to Karoke. I would say that it was a bad idea but it was actually kind of hilarious. While Morgan and I waited for Anna we were watching the New Orleans vs Atlanta football game. You all must know that I do not understand football at all. It just makes no sense to me. can it even be considered a spot. they run for two seconds and then stop for five minutes. hence why we have rename the game stopball. Learn it , live it, love it. :D We ended up sitting next to 4 semi drunk British Guys. Twas quite hilarious if you ask me. They understood the game less than I did and they made it a point to cheer for the opposite team that Morgan wanted to win. They also were making fun of how pointless the game was and then Morgan made the mistake of asking them if they were fans of Football (meaning the american football. This made them laugh and they brought up the point that we call a game football but it is mostly played with your hands. Moral of the story they are fans of Football but not football. You cant really expect much from druken guys but the best part of the night was when one of them out of nowhere turns to us and asks "Do they have KFC in america?" when we told him it was actually from america I think we boggled his mind. but then he proceeded to tell us why it is so much better here in England than in America. you cant really aruge with a druken person so after a few more minutes we just walked away.

Spartnik Jr's day in Birmingham

Honestly, Spartnik Jr was not to impressed with the view from the hotel room so he stayed inside all day watching Noddy's Toyshop while I went out and explored the city.

Going to Birmingham

We all know what that sign means. It means I am in LONDON! o the London underground where you never know where you are or where you are going until you actually get there. I LOVE IT! After leaving the airport. . . without any luggage I migh add, I took the Heathrom express to Paddington station. You know the station where Paddington Bear is from? And from there I somehow had to get to London Euston station where the national rail was connected. So I took out my handy dandy London underground/above ground map and the distance did not seem that far. Almost an hour later I made it to the station that comes right after Paddington. The map LIES!! or maybe it is possible I forgot how big London really is. So i pull out my oyster cards from 3 years ago and jump onto the tube to catch a train to birmingham.
I have come to the conclusion that I love riding trains in England. The scenery is gorgeous. As you roll along you see green hills, more green, an old church/cathedral, more green, more green farm land, more green more green cemetary more green, a random horse statue in the middle of an empty field and then some more green hills. It is a view you cant find anywhere in America. An hour later I arrive in Birmingham and have the darndest time trying to find my hotel. In the info I had it read "right across the street from the train station" When they said right across the street they meant "across the street, down a few blocks, around a corner, through the shopping center and up an alley way." It was quite the adventure I had to go on. Finally made it to my hotel, got to my room and took a nap. After running around new york at 4 in the morning and then being back at the airport at noon and then flying all night, running around england and birmingham. I was exhausted. I woke up two hours later and went shopping because i had no clothes to wear the next day. most of you know that I hate shopping less than I hate Twilight but more than I hate crazy french teachers. The outfit I found was truely amazing. Personally I think it is my new all time favorite outfit but you know I could be wrong. Two hours later I was supplied with a new outfit, a comb, deodarant (they actually do have some in europe!) and very cheap makeup. I went back to my hotel and went to bed, at 7 PM. Maybe I really have been on England time for the last three years. or maybe not. midnight comes and suddenly I am wide awake. So I go exploring through the hotel, nothing cool is going on at all. the place is dead silent it is like I am the only one in the hotel. I go back to my room turn on the tv and watch the news because nothing else is on. with 2 channels there is not a lot of room to be picky. I read/ watch the news for 2 hours when suddenly I hear the Harry Potter theme song and I am probably the only one to see the very first airing of the new trailor! It made my life! right after the trailor ended I fell asleep. Maybe I really am addicted to Harry Potter.
The next morning I am awake by 7 which is very unusual for me, I turn the tv on as I am getting ready for the day because I could not stand the silence and guess what was on. Noddy's Toyshop. When I was in the third grade me and my older sister would run home from school everyday to watch this show. We loved it and then it just went off the air like all my other childhood shows (under froggle rock, under the umbrella tree)I was so freaking excited I sat there and watched it for an hour. After I was done reliving my childhood I wandered around Birmingham for a couple of hours. Turns out I was in the wrong part of the city also known as the shopping district. there were no cool historic sites or any tourist things to see. So i surrendered to the newness and headed back to my hotel to check out. Which is when I found Birmingham Cathedral.
It is this cute little chapel just sitting in the middle of Birmingham shopping district. basically you can go to church and then hope on over to Louis Veton. After the cathedral I checked out of my hotel, grabbed a train and headed up to Keele University my home for the next 9 months.

The Adventure Begins

Monday September 20. . . the day the world was finally amazing! After 5 years of dreaming, 5 months of hopeing, 2 months of being completly shocked, 2 weeks of saying goodbye and 5 hours of packing, I was finally leaving for school in England. The flight from Salt Lake to New Jersey was a normal flight. but then New Jersey happened. I am wandering around the Newark airport trying to find out where my next flight leaves from and the stupid airport only has TV screens by the check in desk which meant I had to go through security AGAIN. On the flight I was sitting next to this guy who lives in Egypt. He was telling me how his wife is going to school in West Virginia and so he only gets to see her and his son every couple of months. I felt so sad for him. An hour and a half into the flight the captain comes on the intercom and tells us that part of the plane has broken down and they are being told to turn around and land in JFK. AN hour and a half later we have landed in JFK and are expecting to board a plane that is all loaded and waiting for us, so that we could take off for Amsterdam. Everyone who works at Delta are liars! From 11:30 until 3:30 I was standing in line trying to find a new flight to England because Delta decieded to cancel our flight. over 200 passengers were being helped by only 4 Delta employees. It was ridiculus. all though I did get a bunch of free stuff like a free hotel in NYC for the night, 24 dollars in food vouchers (which honestly gets you a bottle of water and a muffin in an airport) and 150 dollars off my next flight (my only flight ever again) with Delta. I saw soo much of New York City in the day I was there. There was the airport and this postcard.
At 6:45 Tuesday night ( a whole day after my original flight was suppossed to leave) I was on my way to London! The flight really did not seem that long. It honestly flew by. .. no pun was intended. I watched The Backup plan, which was adorable and yet slightly graphic with what they would talk about and a certain child birth scene. I also watched Letters to Juliet. Such a tender movie, I admit I cried a little. I learned 2 very important things on this flight. (You are not allowed to judge me after reading these two things.) 1. Planes dont actually backup. a car pulls them to where they need to go. and 2. How to recline my seat. If the bastard in front of me can do it so can I.
I think I figured out the reason I was meant to be on that flight to London. You see the girl I was sitting next to was reading the first three books in The Private Series by Kate Brian. As most know I am totally and completly in love with those books. So I obviously had to comment on them. Turns out she was reading them because she was inerested in turning them into a script for a movie. I was pretty darn excited to hear that, so I was up talking the books the whole way and am now anxious to see what happens.
7 o clock in the morning London time I finally land in England. The sunrise was gorgeous there was no way this day could be ruined for me. And then i saw the sign Delta! O how I hate them. I made it through immigration with out any problems (obviously I am a pro liar) and I went to go get my luggage. The luggage thing went around once. . . twice. . . three times. My luggage was nowhere. I waited for and hour before I gave up. Turns out Delta being the bright people that they are sent my luggage to Amsterdam. They had a whole day to get it to the correct plane and they couldnt even do that. If I havent said yet I will say it now I am never again flying with Delta and I advise all of you to never fly with the either.
And that my friends is all about my misadventure of getting to England. next up my stroll through London and my day in Birmingham. With and Extra post about Birmingham cathedral.

Spartnik Jr.

This here is Spartnik. Three years ago when I went on my Harry Potter tour around England I brought him with me and took random pictures of him throughout England. Well something happened to Spartnik and I am not sure what. He just dissappeared from the face of this earth. So I had to replace him with his baby Spartnik Jr.

Over the next year Spartnik Jr plans to travel all over the country of England and into parts of Scotland and Wales. Most of his adventures will be posted about here, most of the time the adventures will be in the post about my adventure there as well. (I can only type as a frog for so long before it just gets wierd.) So that my friends is the story behind the orange frog that came to England with me.