ENGLAND - & i will never be the same again :-)

Piatok 9 Marca 2007
Friday 9 March 2007

toto tu je o mojom pobyte v Anglicku - od 16 Januara do 5 Marca 2007. Je to dost dlhe a preto to nebudem vsetko prekladat do Slovenciny - moji doma vedia o com to bolo a ti ostsatni - nech si to pekne precitju po Anglicky (v ramci podrastania v znalosti cudzieho jazyka! :-) OK?
Lucia

i found this country quite friendly. there were for sure no "cultural shocks" to be faced (as there were when i got to the usa a few years ago), except maybe the fact that the cars drive in a different lane, and one has got to look right first and only then left... that had sort of troubed me in the beginning, but, hey, we are people, we learn things fast, so, really, after a while right and left was not a problem anymore...

quite rainy. which is normal, given that it were - winter :-) actually, as a matter of fact, there was supposed to be some snow i hear, but - where in the world is there snow during a winter anymore (i mean which places where there used to be snow during a winter still get it... "global warming"? maybe"? probably)?

i flew from bratislava to frankfurt later in the evening on january 15th. got to frankfurt just before midnight. slept in the airport and then, in the morning, caught the plane to dublin (just after 10 am). then sat in the dublin airport for 4 more hours, then checked in for another - my last - flight. destination: doncaster (robin hood airport. nice name, is it? :-)) our flight was early. people i was meeting in the airport were a bit late, but - we managed to meet ok. they were my friend´s parents, nice couple, and very english, too. drove over to their place, had a cup of tea, and then drove to my friend's place, where he was expecting us already. his name was stephen. i did not see much of country really that first evening, but - hey - i had many more days to explore it, or if not, then at least to - see it (while walking around, running arronds).

my first week went ok. i "made friends" with surroundings. dared to go out, went to the library (to check opening hours), went down hill to town, went to tourist information office, to job centre, to bus station, just so, downtown. oh, so that you know what part of englandi am speaking about, it was in huddersfield, west yorkshire. mild, nice, hilly countryside around, and town itself (said to be the biggest one in the uk - hm, if that is what the "biggest" means, then their towns are quite small, i recon) very neat, clean and friendly. and, a thing i already noticed when visited london, very intercultural. which is ok. a big thing - i got a new sim card! so now i was able to - call... big time! i also learnt how to go grocery shopping. it may sound silly, "learn how to go grocery shopping", but it is actually quite a big deed, to go go the shop, for the first time, and to buy much for not too much... a nice little shop they had there, and quite well "equipped" (can't think of a better word, though i am sure there is one better! sorry - english is not my mother language :-)) the weather was ok. i mean a bit of sun, and a bit of wind, and a quite a big bit of - rain, rain, rain... well, we werein england, right?

the first week went by, i did things i had to do, got more familiar with the place, got used to the library system - which i say is very nice, and i am surprised on how many people actually do use the library every single day. people over home do not do that. or - could it be that i actually do not know if they do it back home? did not spend much time back home... hm... ok, let's say i like theid public libraries' system and that's it. thuesday my second week i went on a little adventure - went to halifax. wooow. i had a meeting there, in a small village close to halifax. the bus ride was plesant. the country around nice, too. it happened to be a nice and sunny afternoon, so i could enjoy the sunshine and its play with those 3, or 4 or 5 or more types of green of land around and of blue and light blue and clouds blue of sky. stoney homes, roofs, gred and white and blue home doors, and a bright air and just perfect light... felt happy-melancholic-fresh. and, exciting, too, as i was there for my own purposes which, i thought, could turn out to be very embarassing. which they did not. thanks God! i, instead, got to meet a very nice girl, a friend of a friend of mine, and i had a god time. and - i got a car ride back home, which felt really good. lorraine (which is her name) was nice. and a red hair. :-)

did i have "special events" happened to me over there? not really. i recall going to Mass on Ash wednesday. it was in leeds. february 21st. i had to go to job centre, too, to get my national insurance number. i remember i had a really bad headache that morning, and felt really really sick when got off the train, but then, while wainting to be seen for the ninumber, it went away. thanx God, as i felt quite... sick. yuk... and the mass then, yes. managed to go tho confession, which was good, as i wasnt in weeks, though i planned on it for awhile. ten th Mass went ok, it was interesting to see what the english are like during such ceremony - i mean the ashes etc. this is actually quite an experience - one travels the world, and the liturgy is the same all over, and yet - it is not. it is like watching people anywhere else - in the airport, or train station, or when in a park, so even in the church, when in a new country, it is interesting, always the same and yet always so different... made me feel at home and alone at the same time. wished i could be there with someone. and thought of my people back home.

the other "out of ordinary" thing was my trip to york. it was nice of stephen to suggest it. too bad we did not manage to go to more places, he would have wanted to go hiking, i bet, but - for that i did not have good equipment. however, the york day went all right. we did not make it to the early train, but, actually, i see it as a good thing, as in york there is not much to do really,once you get there... well, maybe one could walk the city walls, fine, but - with the weather we had on that day i believe th time we spent there was just about right. there was an interesting "intermezzo" to the trip, right in the morning (well, morning - right in the beginning, which could have been round 10 am :-)), and it was that the train that we were supposed to get on was late - delayed by something over an hour... fine... "pazienza" as the italians say... i started to think that instead of york we will explore huddersfield maybe?? but - it all went wel in the end and we did manage to arrive york, i witnessed, while in york, something that i believed to be anglican sunday service in york minster (by the way, did you know that emperor constantine got crowned cesar of the roman empire in york in 306 a.d.? i did not... wow). BUT - it was not. it was a ceremony in memory of 200 (i believe) years of annulled slavery... we were standing in the back of the church, behind a huge column, not seeing anything, for something like 2 hours... not seeing, not understanding, i wanted to leave. stephen, however, did not, so we just stayed until the - end... and got rewarded by walking around minster, which was worth waiting... beautiful gothic cathedral, like those in spain, like in toledo for example, but bigger and taller. i liked the chorus part in the middle of it. so middle-ages-like. with its atmsphere. and making me feel overwhelmend. and so small, and amazed. and grateful. i do not think, and this place, like many others prove it to me, that a man is just an animal... so the york day went very well, after all, and despite the late wake up, delayed train, missed Mass, and mistaken sunday service, and a few sad moments. the only thing i regret is that i did not take more pictures. so i could remember. hm, that though does depend on the mood and also th epeople that are with you when you travel. so this will mean that neither my mood, nor my company were in state of taking evidence of this - the only one - trip. wil do better the next time, right? ...

i do do like country site in england. or more precisely, yorkshire country site. there have got to be so many plaes to go to, to hike around, to see and to feel and smell. it is like one gets the feeling he (or she) could walk around forever. even those rainy days have something to them - atmosphere, melancholic and yearning - for - what for? a warm, cosy home. quiet, long walks. alone or in good company. where one does not have to say anything but understands everything that has not been said. i think souls can speak so loudly in those moments. it would have been nice to be able to have spoken to someone's soul. maybe i, at least, have spoken to that of mine...

:-)