The trip was in March over our spring break. I vividly remember our stewardess named Vicky giving us pilot wings and calming our nerves. I remember them showing a movie during our flight but I don’t remember what it was or if I watched it. I remember becoming giddy from exhaustion with my friends Kathleen, Suellen and Denise after just a few hours in the air. I remember being deathly afraid at first and then, after fourteen hours of travel time, not giving a hoot about how far up in the air I was or how many thousands of miles away from home I’d traveled.
When we landed at Heathrow we noticed something that seemed a little odd to country bumpkins from Alabama. Everywhere we looked there were people wearing red clown noses. Men in business suits, women in dresses, teenager, and children….everybody had a clown nose. Someone worked up the nerve to ask about them and we were told it was Comic Relief day. Proceeds from the sale of the noses were for homeless relief. Being the charitable college students that we were, we all quickly purchased one and wore them proudly. I, in fact, still have mine. I will never forget the sight of refined elderly British gentlemen walking down the streets of London wearing Bozo noses. It was hysterical.
Once we settled in, I called my mom to tell her we had landed. I had never been more than a few hours away from my mom. Even my college was only half an hour away from our house. Hearing her voice and realizing she was across the stinking ocean caused me to have a mild panic attack but I quickly recovered. I had always wanted to go to the big city and I was in it. They just don’t get bigger or better than London. Surely I would spend my time and money wisely. Right? Umm… not so much.
The first 2 days we spent in London are a complete blur. The most vivid memories I have are of the hotel room that was the size of a walk-in closet. I also remember being greatly disturbed and a little puzzled by the bidet in the bathroom. We took a bus tour of the city which consisted of our driver yelling out landmarks as we zoomed past them at lightning speed. We did have time to walk the city on our own and see whatever we chose. Thinking back it’s a little disconcerting that they allowed small groups of 18 and 19 year old girls to wander the streets of London unsupervised. It was a different time, but not that different.
I managed to get snapshots of Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Hyde Park, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Trafalgar Square and Big Ben but those were just landmarks I passed to get to the real attraction. You see, the only thing that really interested me and my friends was visiting and eating at the Hard Rock Café. I had a city of culture and history at my disposal and all I wanted was an overpriced hamburger and a glimpse of Jimi Hendrix’s guitar. I also couldn’t return home without a t-shirt. That would have been a travesty. As you will discover in future posts, my priorities haven’t changed much over the years. (i.e. DJ Tanner’s house)
London was actually the only city where we stayed in a hotel. The rest of our trip was spent touring smaller cities and staying in the homes of people from the churches hosting us. The idea of it terrified me at the time but it came to be my favorite experience of the entire trip. We got to see how people lived and discovered they weren’t all that different from us, aside from their funny accents, weird food and aversion to ice. That was perhaps the biggest culture shock of all. Forget their funny power outlets and driving on the wrong side of the road. I was more disturbed by the lack of ice than anything else I encountered. These people simply don’t believe in it. By day three I would have sold my soul for a glass of sweet iced tea. By the time we got home I needed a transfusion.
This particular trip marked the beginning of a problem I still encounter to this day. You can bet that if I have to spend an extended period of time with strangers, they’re going to have kids. And those kids are going to be obnoxious. Let me just say that up until the time my daughter was born, I didn’t particularly care for children. This is why God thought it funny to place me in situations where I was powerless to avoid them. Each and every house we stayed in had some form of annoying offspring that felt it necessary to follow the funny Americans around and quiz them endlessly on Disneyworld. It was as though Mickey Mouse’s first cousins had come to visit them personally. They also loved to hear us talk.
Being a music lover I was fascinated by the fact that I had never heard of some of the artists that were so famous over there. I had a few chances to listen to the radio and only heard American artists a few times, and even then they were songs that had been popular here months before. One home we stayed in had middle school-aged daughters who were raving to us about their favorite group “The Bros”. They were apparently the hottest thing going at the time and these girls thought they were the bee’s knees. They were appalled we had never heard of them. They were also more than a little irritated that we would giggle every time they said their name because to us it sounded like “The Bras” and that seemed like a really inappropriate name for a boy band. The language barrier was something I had never encountered before. One thing I’ve always loved about the Brits is how polite they sound even when they’re insulting you.
When we finally made it to Wales my roomie and I had done our share of babysitting and decided to scope out elderly women willing to host us for the night. We ended up with a middle aged woman who volunteered to take 4 of us. We figured this was to our benefit since if there were kids waiting for her at home we would have reinforcements. We all climbed into her very small car late at night and we traveled for what seemed like a lifetime up a very windy and steep mountain. On our way she told us her husband was working in London and there were NO KIDS! We finally reached her house and went straight to bed but not before noticing that the inside of the house was a lot nicer than any of the other houses we had stayed in. The next morning we found out why. We had hit the mother load.
We walked outside to find ourselves on a working sheep farm at the top of a hill with a view that was unlike anything I have ever seen before or since. There were rolling hills to one side and a river on the other side. And all around us were green pastures with herds of sheep. I was smack dab in the middle of a Jane Austen novel! We got to stay for 2 nights and needless to say we were the envy of each and every girl in that choir.
That day as we toured Wales we visited an ancient castle and got to roam around. That was a totally surreal experience. It reminded some of Camelot. It reminded me of The Princess Bride.
Other stops on our tour included Canterbury Cathedral and Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Hoity Toity I know. My big purchase of the trip? The soundtrack to Phantom of the Opera which, you know, you just can’t find that anywhere in the states.
As much as I wish I had soaked up a little more culture, I am forever grateful for the opportunity to visit such an amazing place. The 19 year old version of me probably didn’t appreciate it as much as she should have but 20 years later I know that I was forever changed by the experience. It deepened my appreciation for American history and where we came from. It broadened my sense of Christianity and forced me to acknowledge the family of God is much larger than I had previously given it credit for. And I have never, ever taken iced tea for granted again. God Bless America.
As much as I wish I had soaked up a little more culture, I am forever grateful for the opportunity to visit such an amazing place. The 19 year old version of me probably didn’t appreciate it as much as she should have but 20 years later I know that I was forever changed by the experience. It deepened my appreciation for American history and where we came from. It broadened my sense of Christianity and forced me to acknowledge the family of God is much larger than I had previously given it credit for. And I have never, ever taken iced tea for granted again. God Bless America.
*I have no excuse for the bad perm or the black socks and white tennis shoes in the photos above. Yes, it was the 80's but still that's no excuse. My sincerest apologies.
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