A Quarter of One Year

Spending three days in a row in this beautiful weather was reason enough for me to call my weather luck  “The No-Rain-Run”. A new challenge with only one question: How long would my British no-rain-run endure. As it turned out pretty long. During this suny sunny period I went to London, visited the beautiful castle Kingston Lacy, went to the Durlston County Park on a fairy ferry and enjoyed much time at the beach.

Unfortunately everything has an end and so did my no-rain-run. Last Tuesday, after 16!!! days of picturesque weather, it rained for about 40 minutes. After that it started to hail. I think, to really let me know  I think it was to really let me know that my no-rain-run is over! Now I had have the pleasure to meet Mister rain every day at least for an hour. What made the end of my no-rain-run even worse was the upcoming Eastern Easter weekend. Which obviously meant a four-day weekend and the opportunity to travel England. Well, this plan was literally washed away. No one wanted to spend a lot of money and end up in fog and rain. As the weekend appeared the weather got worse.

Today was the worst, I even had to use a rain jacket! Right?! A rain jacket! Can I get some sympathy. Fun fact about Bournemouth: Nobody ever carries an umbrella. Not because they are all really lazy or used to rain, but because the wind, which is more like a storm, makes it impossible to use one. Anyway, I spent the weekend with going to the old capital of England, Winchester, going twice to the movies and of course celebrating Eastern. After all, Eastern is news that you can use. Luckily the British focus more on the real background of Eastern rather than chocolate and weird sugar deserts dessert. (Fun Fact about me – for those who didn’t already know – I am Swiss but I don’t like chocolate that’s why I was lucky.)

After the past week I have the to face the truth and admit that the British weather is like a box of chocolate. Like my host told me at the beginning of my stay: In the morning there can be sunshine, in the afternoon it can rain and in the evening be sunny again. Should you not know what to talk when about liaising with a Brit, the weather is always an interesting topic. My challenge is now to start yet another “no-rain-ran!” and top my previous record. Wish me luck!

Your challenge is to find some mistakes and post them right here! And I know there are some  ;  - ) Thanks in advanced!

If you have read my posts so far (only two of them), you already know that I currently live without a TV. What for some might sound extremely shocking is for me no big tragedy since I am already used to stone age conditions from our TV set-up in Switzerland. (We have five channels: One of them is French another one is Italian, which leaves me with about three and a half channels to choose from… Blame – or thank – my parents) So, I can live with that.

But than there is another even bigger issue. My host family does not only live without WiFi, but they have no Internet at all! Being brought up in the Internet revolution this one is a bit tougher. Fortunately there are devices called dongles, which are little USB-sticks that you can plug into your laptop and receive internet magically. Besides being really expensive the connection is really limited. But hey, on the other hand, who needs internet when you have an enormous movie collection available for free right next to your room. That certainly makes up for it and even for the 15 year-old phone – I won’t even bother you with that one.

So I am fine with the TV and getting used to the very limited internet access. But as you might have guessed, there is another problem called “The Missing Shower”. The Missing Shower issue was discovered on the first day during the time were instruction have been given to Raphy. The first thing that he noticed was, that there is no shower curtain. He soon realized there is no shower at all! After this discovery Raphy was informed that in order to take a shower he has to take the shower tube and plug the two ends into the bath tub tap. And voilà, you’ve got yourself a nice, simple shower. The only problem is the hot water pressure is so slow that you couldn’t fill up a glass of hot water in under 2 minutes AND the shower tube is not long enough for me. Oh well, I am glad that the sports center has some good high pressured showers I can use once a week.

As you can see, I experienced a small culture shock in the first week. In the second week, however, I realized these problems are tiny, little issues. The fact that I am already struggling with those, only shows how spoiled I am. Here I am in Great Britain, thinking how far behind everything is, when in reality I am still living in complete luxury. It is very easy to take little things for granted and not be thankful for them. Even worse we start forgetting about the positive aspects like the fact that not having all the technology around gives you a lot of time to calm down and recharge. Also my host family is outstanding! They are really hospital and friendly, they cook delicious & plenty and they have an amazing sense of humor which can entertain us for a whole evening and lead into some other interesting discussions. I am glad that I was put into this nice, calm, and funny family.  So as the Queen would say: Keep calm and have a cuppa.

Any questions? -> Please ask in the comments below!

You have noticed a mistake? -> Comment & win!

Everyone always wants to see pictures and let’s be honest pictures are sometimes far more interesting than a tedious blog post. So here we go: Every week I will upload some pictures from trips and other random events. You are warmly invited to watch & comment. To start off I will give out 20 points for “the editor contest” if you tell me which one is your favourite picture!

So jump into the post to see all the good shoots. And as always correct if you see any mistakes (even though this one won’t take long ( ; )

PS. If you want some more information about the place -> google is you your friend. I won’t bother here…

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