Hi-yah, you alroit?

(This is a photo taken of the stadium I visited when Southend played Swindon)

This weekend I had my first away trip as I took a three hour bus ride to watch the team play against Swindon Town. It was a great experience as I got to see more of the country (a detour through London on the way home took me past: Parliament, The London Eye, Scotland Yard, King's College, the Millenium Dome, The Tower of London, London Bridge and even James Bond's headquarters!). I also got to see a new stadium (The County Ground) and see Southend win the match 2-1. The atmosphere from the visiting Southend fans was incredible and it was well worth the trip.

Several people have asked about some of the differences that I have noticed since I've been here. Honestly one of the most difficult ones was the line at the top of this, since I didn't know how to answer if I was alright or if I just don't say anything. I think I'm getting the handle on it now, though. Obviously the money is different, but not hard to figure out. The one that most people think of first is driving on the other side of the road, but since I don't have a car I don't deal with it too often, just looking the other way first, and you'd be surprised at how you don't even realize you're doing it. The food isn't much different than what I was used to in the US, but the breakfast is better. Since I'm staying at a guesthouse, every morning I have bacon (which is almost more like ham but tastes like bacon), fried eggs, toast and hash browns. Then I typically have like a sub sandwich for lunch. So nothing very striking on the food department. Soccer is certainly the unofficial national religion, but it has been great to be here during the Ashes Test of cricket as well, as the country really has gotten behind the English cricket team in their campaign against the Aussies.

Now that I have gotten settled in and there is less breaking news to report, I will probably be cutting back how often I write updates, to more like one every two weeks or so. So long until next time!