Sunderland Adventures

My last full week in Sunderland was easily one of my favorites. Monday night I led our Bible study, after which I regretfully had to say goodbye to Heather. I spent most of Tuesday with Sheldon: we went charity shopping around town, ate ice cream on the beach, made spaghetti back at her flat, and enjoyed fabulous weather all day. Tuesday night my flat hosted the second movie night, where 14 girls ate junk food and watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (while we were watching it I kept picking up on little things they say and think "Whoa! British people really do talk like that!"). Wednesday I hung out with Ash; we bought some half-price Sunderland A.F.C. souvenirs at the Stadium of Light, finally went inside St. Peter's church, and then stopped by the National Glass Centre afterwards. Ash had taken a glass blowing class there, so she gave me a behind-the-scenes tour of glassmaking; she showed me where they blew glass in the furnace, fired it in the kiln, and sanded/cut/buffed glass in the "cold shop." A 2-for-1 deal at Pizza Uno provided us with "tea" while we watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. When the movie went off around midnight, Ash and I trekked across Sunderland, carrying blankets and pillows and cameras for a sleepover at Sheldon's place. We had a late-night jam session and finally crashed on makeshift couches with the kitchen chairs. Little did I know the following day would be the most memorable of the entire trip.

We knew the sun rose right around 4:30 am (which is why we stayed at Sheldon's the night before: we wanted to get a sunrise picture over Roker Beach. Whereas it would have taken us well over an hour to walk to the beach from Clanny, she lives right at the harbor). Waking up at 3:30 after getting 2 hours of sleep surprisingly wasn't too awful. Sheldon's flatmate Phil joined us on our sunrise adventure as well. While we were out there we took loads of pictures, walked on the pier/jetty leading to Roker lighthouse, and saw a commando ship as it was coming in the harbor (some of the marine guys even waved at us! Yay!). We had brekkie at Sheldon's, then Ash and I ran to the bus stop to go back to Clanny so we could sleep for a couple more hours. Later that night, CU had one last get-together on the beach. We laid out blankets and I led us in a few worship songs while we munched on snacks everyone had brought. There were a few people who stopped to watch us while we sang; one guy even came by and asked if he could take pictures/video our little Jesus session. It's good to know that can God still gets peoples' attention :) After jamming out at Roker for a while, we all packed up and walked down to the next beach, Seaburn, because it was less rocky and better suited to play football (no, not "soccer," football!). Some people picked up some fish and chips from one of the many vendors, and then we played English vs. "foreigners" football for the rest of the night! I had only kicked around a ball once or twice before so I had no idea what I was doing, but I did end up scoring about 1/3 of the points for our foreigners team. Right before we headed home some of the guys went swimming in the North Sea (they later told me it wasn't worth it, but it sure made for a good laugh). I said my final goodbyes to Pottsy (ahem, "Michael"), Sarah, Alan, and Luke. I wish I could have frozen that night in time and made it go on forever, because I have grown to love each and every person in CU. There was just something magical that took place that night that words cannot explain (Storm, Ash, and I ended up having a wee little sob session on my floor once we got home because it was such a bittersweet feeling). Nevertheless, I knew I would remember that night for the rest of my life. I can't thank everyone in CU enough for making this trip the experience of a lifetime.

On Friday I ran into Tapi at CitySpace, where I said my final goodbyes to her as well. Ash and I met Nick and Joanna at the metro station and went to Newcastle; the Hillsong London concert was later that night and we were all getting super stoked for it! We grabbed lunch at a place called Frankie & Benny's. For the first time in a LONG time, a waitress actually came and took our order without us having to go to the bar! I felt like I was back in the States already. Then we grabbed some frappucinos at Starbucks for happy hour and headed to the O2 Academy to queue for the concert. I think we were all expecting there to be a decent crowd by the time we got there, but we ended up sitting on the steps by ourselves for around an hour until anyone else showed up. At least we knew we were going to get great spots! Ben and Tom later met up with us once the doors opened, and I spent my last night in Sunderland singing and praising and dancing my little heart out with Hillsong London and some of my favorite people. On the metro ride back to Sunderland, a guy from CityLife (the worship leader, actually) recognized me, and somehow remembered that I'm from NC AND that I went to Elevation! I hadn't been to CityLife since the beginning of the semester, so I felt super special. We all headed back to our flat and I had to say goodbye to Nick and Joanna, tearing up in the process. I hate goodbyes so much. Thankfully I still have a few more days until I say goodbye to Sheldon & Becky -- I'm off to Harrogate in the morning with Sheldon, then Liverpool and Manchester with Becky!

 

York, part 2

I didn't have a lot of trouble waking up at 5:30 to catch the 7:00 bus to York Sunday morning; when I know I have to be somewhere, my body doesn't fight the early morning sunrises too badly. The National Express bus dropped me off in York right at 9:00. I knew nothing would be open that early on a Sunday. The Golden Arches of McDonald's invited me in, where I people-watched for an hour until the service at York Minster started. I had never been to a Catholic service before so I wasn't entirely sure of what I was getting myself into; it turned out to be a really cool experience! As the choir sang, I couldn't help but tear up. I knew this would be the last time I'll ever be in a cathedral for a reeeeally long time. There's just something about listening to the sounds of the choir bounce off the ceilings and high arches that just gets me. There was an older gentlemen who started off the service and introduced the priest, and surprisingly both of them had a sense of humor (I was definitely not expecting to laugh during a catholic church service in a 1000-year-old cathedral!). After the service we enjoyed free coffee and tea in one of the chamber rooms, and I head out to hit the town for a bit more shopping and exploring.

Although I had been there once before, I remembered that the streets of York are ridiculously complicated to navigate, so I grabbed a map from the tourist information office. I walked around part of the outer city walls and was greeted with some pretty views of York Minster and some gardens. Then I just started wandering all the streets, popping in and out of thrift stores, charity shops, and places to get souvenirs. Munching on some apples and breakfast bars supplemented me throughout the day. While I was in the York City Art Gallery, I ran into a lady from Morgantown, NC who was visiting her daughter in Leeds (yay North Carolinians!). Because I've gotten so used to English accents, American accents stick out like a sore thumb (and to think -- that's what I sound like. Eek!). After perusing the gallery, I walked around the outer walls on the other side of the city.

My friend Allison from back home hadn't texted me or messaged me back since I first talked to her, so I was just really hoping I'd run into her group somewhere. After staying in hostels all throughout Europe I learned just how limited Internet access can be if you don't live there. Much to my astonishment, I stumbled upon the big group from App while they were on the tail-end of a walking tour of the city. They had a group dinner planned afterwards and I didn't want to impose on them, so I said my goodbyes and finished wasting time in the city for a few more hours. As is typical in England, all of the shops closed at 4 or 5, so after grabbing dinner at Subway I just hung out in a few pubs until my bus left at 10. Even though I didn't get to see Allison except for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, it was still really cool to run into so many people from my school 4000 miles away. Tomorrow they're going to Stratford for a few days (which is near London), then they're doing Paris for 6 days, then they're heading back to England until June 4. I know she's definitely going to have a good time! Although I was by myself for a large portion of the day, it was nice to enjoy the city of York without freezing to death or getting snow dumped on me. My next big trip won't be til the week before I leave; I'll be traveling throughout England and staying with a couple girls from CU. It's gonna be great!

South Shields

I had heard quite a few people talk about South Shields, which is a town just north of Sunderland. Ash and I decided we'd go for a day trip, not having any clue what was there. All in all it turned out to be a really great day! Right before the metro came to a stop we saw a building with a giant green "ASDA" plastered on the side of it. As lame as this sounds, my heart skipped a beat -- ASDA is owned by Wal-Mart. Yay America! As soon as we got off the metro we made our way there. Although ASDA is much smaller than Wal-Mart, both of us almost had an emotional breakdown because it looked so much like home. We perused the store, wandering down each and every aisle with eyes wide with astonishment (looking back, I'm positive we looked like complete idiots, but oh well!). I was leading the Bible study later that night, so I bought some chocolate to introduce the CU girls to Hershey's kisses. After ASDA, we went to the South Shields Museum and Art Gallery, where we found live pythons, an exhibition about weddings, and a small interactive zone about exhibitions in general. I've found that museums and galleries in England have a LOT more interactive/kid-friendly exhibitions compared to ones in the States. It's my strive to share art with everyone -- and that includes children and families. It's definitely something I'll take back with me.

The receptionist at the gallery told us about a public artwork called "Conversation Piece" (or "Weebles" as the locals call them) down by the beach. While we did get lost trying to find them, we stumbled upon the Ocean Beach amusement park, complete with swings and arcades and rides and donut stands! There was also a small skate park where a few kids were showing off their skillz on bikes and scooters. The beach itself reminded me SO much of North Carolina with its dunes and cattails and fences along the coastline (minus the fact it was 40 degrees outside in May). Asking a couple more people for directions to the Weebles, we finally found the group of fat bean-bag-looking sculptures from the postcards in the museum. From where we were, there was a little red Groyne Lighthouse peeking over the dunes. Wandering down to the lighthouse I found a guy fishing for mackerel to no avail. By this time the wind was chilling us down to the bones, so we headed inland and slowly made our way back to the metro station.

We grabbed a late lunch/early dinner at a place called Southern Fried Chicken; Ash's mom back home had just watched an episode of Undercover Boss that featured that specific SFC. The food had my official southern stamp of approval! A cut-through through a park nearby yielded lovely pictures of flowers and some random Japanese arch-looking things. Ash grabbed a brownie at a small cafe once we got back into town, I finished off my Haribo gummies, and we got on the metro back to Sunderland. I must say that South Shields pleasantly surprised me, although I do hate that we had never made it there sooner. Nonetheless it was a good day and our dogs were barking after all was said and done. That night, I tried to go to bed relatively early because I had a 7:00 coach to York the next morning. A friend of mine from App was doing a 3-week Eurotrip and they happened to be stopping in York, so of course I couldn't resist another excuse to visit York and see her! :)

Updates

Since I've gotten back from my Eurotrip, the past few weeks have been pretty uneventful for the most part. I've had a couple of assignments in my classes that I've been working on, but other than that my days have been filled with lots of hanging out and LOTS of Hulu episodes. That being said, here are some updates of my (not-quite-so) exciting adventures in Sunderland:

• Started, completed, and turned in my final assignment for financial reporting. Praise the Lord I'm finally done with that class!
  
• Braved near-freezing, almost-hypothermia-inducing weather walking to church one Sunday.
  
• Made pancakes and watched Lord of the Rings with a few of the Clanny girls.
  
• Washed a massive amount of clothes by hand because the laundry facilities hate me.
  
• Planned on seeing Avengers Assemble with CU, went bowling with them instead because the tickets were sold out.
  
• Still saw the Avengers before it came out in the States. Hot dang. FanTASTIC film!
  
• Took a big group photo of (most of) the international students.
  
• Woke up countless times to the sounds of Germans screaming and singing in the flat next to me until 5:30 am one morning.
  
• Started and finished watching the entire season of The Voice (go Jermaine Paul!).
  
• Started watching the The Voice UK (I love British accents!).
  
• Shot, developed, and printed 5 rolls of film for my final photography project.
  
• Found out that the proposed Amendment One in NC didn't pass.
  
• Had a junk food Harry Potter movie night with a bunch of the study abroad girls.
  
• Dealt with more migraines than I can remember (and one right now -- booo!).
  
• Had my first meal of bangers and mash (it has my seal of approval!).
  
• Photographed some kids doing sweet tricks at a skate park down the road.
  
• Walked to Seasburn beach and discovered a part of Sunderland I never knew existed: the nice part.
  
• Went to a (slightly unimpressive) vintage fair in Newcastle.
  
• Mailed a birthday letter to a friend back home, and wished my mum a happy mother's day!
  

Since I changed my flight to an earlier date, I've been counting down the days until I get home. It's a really weird feeling knowing that I'll be sleeping in my bed in three weeks' time. The closer I get to June 1, the worse and worse homesickness is kicking in. I miss my family, my friends, my boyfriend, my church, my job, my everything. But at the same time, I know as soon as I get home I'll miss everything about England. My time abroad has been fantastic: the people I've met, the places I've gone, and the experiences I've had will stay with me for the rest of my life. Although I can't wait to be back in the States, England will always have a special place in my heart.



And now, for Lessons in British English with Hannah:

• "I can't be bothered" is the English way of saying "I don't feel like it."
  
  • "I fancy some squash juice, but I can't be bothered to walk all the way to the store."
• Geordies often pluralize singular pronouns and say "us" when they're really just referring to themselves, or "yous" when they really just mean you.
  
  • "Are yous going with us to the cinema after tea tonight?"
• When someone is being made fun of in a funny/lighthearted way, he's said to be "taking the mick."
• "I knew he was only taking the mick out of me, so I bought him pint and we all had a laugh."