The Adventure Begins

Well, our adventure and life in Northampton, UK, has begun.

Joel & I survived our flights with some interesting memories to take with us..
--In Boston, we had to take a shuttle bus from one terminal to another and this is around the time we realized that American drivers (maybe just Bostonian drivers?) are nuts! All I'm saying is I'm glad I wasn't the one driving and the drive was, thankfully, short. While getting off the shuttle, I bumped into someone and apologized. He looked at me and asked "Are you Canadian??"...glad to know that one Canadian stereotype holds true.
--One of the qualifications to work at Logan International Airport in Boston seems to be a thick accent. Think the stereotypical Boston accent portrayed on TV...times that by 5. You will now understand the thickness of 95% of the accents I heard while on our layover.
--The flight to Reykjavik, Iceland, was uneventful and I was sitting next to an Icelandic woman, who told me a bit about the country and the things to do there. We had a short layover, so we didn't have time to look around. But, from the view I got while the plane was landing and taking off, the country looks beautiful.
--On the flight to London, I was sitting next to a young guy who was from Dublin. I didn't care if he read the in-flight safety manual, I just wanted him to keep talking. I loved listening to his accent. He was a very nice, just returning home from 7 weeks at sea.

We landed at Heathrow, got our luggage and took a bus to Northampton. We went through customs & immigration and, thankfully, the UK let me in. I am now a resident of the United Kingdom...woah!

I wish I had been able to stay awake for the bus ride, but the 24 hours of travel caught up with me and I fell asleep for a good part of it. While I was awake though, I saw some beautiful buildings, some great landscape and some places that I would love to visit...if I ever get my bearings around here. I slept for about 14 hours on my first night here and probably could've slept longer without too much trouble.

Today, our second day, Joel & I went and walked around Northampton for a bit, trying to locate a place where we could buy a power converter for my laptop. We walked to the market square, stopping for lunch on the way. While trying to order lunch, my "accent" was apparently so hard to understand, I had to point to what I wanted on the menu, and the waiter couldn't understand me when I asked for more water. While paying, the cashier asked where I was from and told me that my accent was difficult to understand. We found a power converter, which made my laptop happy.

Tonight's adventure is going to take us to a pub I saw on the way to town center. In the days to come: find a place to live, find where I will be teaching in a couple weeks time and try not to get run over by cars and double decker busses.