Planes, Trains, and Mini-Cabs

I have a feeling that many of our first blog entries will be all about the subtle cultural differences we are observing on a daily basis. Today’s theme: transportation.
The tubes are great in many ways. Mostly clean, mostly fast, not terribly expensive considering the other more expensive options here. There are a lot of buses available, too. But, in just the past day, I have spent over 8 hours on some form of public transportation and have traveled a minimal distance.
The first trip was across town to the South East part of London for a job interview. It went very well and luckily the actual job is very close to our flat. There’s 2.5 hours.
Andy and I have had plans to go to Cornwall for a family gathering of some distant cousins this weekend. We left the house at 4:15 and it is currently 9:00 PM. We are still in transport (heading back to London) because the train took 3 times as long as normal and we missed our flight. We get to do the route all over again tomorrow.
I don’t mean to sound pessimistic. We are just learning the ropes here and some days are more challenging than others in ways that we don’t expect. The British seem to be very polite, so we were graciously given a full refund for our train tickets and hope that this time tomorrow we will be in the Newquay airport meeting our hosts. They have made such an effort to make it possible for us to come; we are very excited to see them.
God has definitely blessed us. Our new Landlords have opened their home to us last night and now again tonight. They have two daughters near to our age and they have all been so kind and taught us so much about London life.
Live and learn, learn and live. The airline that we are using to get to Cornwall also offers flights all over Europe (usually to lesser known destinations, but hopefully close to the better known ones). If you book far enough in advance, you can get flights for only $4.00! They charge a $50 tax, but still. We are considering a trip to Rome, Andy has a cousin there.
Well, enough for now, our stop will be coming up soon.
Hope all is well.
Peace, Mandy

P.S. In Africa, I would find myself thinking and dreaming in French. It’s only been a week, but I’m really getting sucked into the accent here and all of their quirky phrases. It’s brilliant!