Day 1 – I Thought You Were a Book

                  When I saw my luggage approach me on the electronic belt, my eyes were automatically drawn to the bottommost half, which was entirely split open, surely about to leak more guts!  I knew for sure that the case would weigh about 35 pounds now as a result of the loss of unfastened items (After I unpacked, I realized that I wasn’t missing a single thing!).  I didn’t even care, plus I looked like a downright fool struggling to heave that bag off the belt without using any handles or dividing the material open even more.  I succeeded finally, but lost my poise and levelheadedness feature for sure.

               As soon as I strode out of the baggage check, I saw Samuel, the boy that I would be helping take care of for these next few months!  He was wearing the most lovely Sully (from Monsters Inc.) costume to show off for me.  The sweetest little monster that I’ve ever seen!  It got even better when he began to chatter with his accent!  Even though I couldn’t really identify much of what he was talking about…it was still entertaining to listen to him.  His mum informed me about a few things that he was talking about though, which was quite humorous!  Because the name "Paige" is very uncommon in the UK, he would call me 'book' or 'newspaper' for a long while!  I had a kick.

I followed Michelle (mum), Andrew (dad), and Samuel (3) to their car.  I never considered that the whole opposite car affair would bother me.  But I almost had a panic attack in the back seat about five times when a car would speed by us.  It really is a bizarre experience.  England has some dreadfully cracked drivers and particularly narrow roads!  No wonder it’s harder to get your license here than in the states!

After we dropped mum off at work, I met Martha May Grant (dog)  then I went to sleep in the most pleasant bedroom ever!  All of the walls have this especially charming white wallpaper excluding one, which is a red that matches the brand new duvet and pillows.  I have two doors that open up into the garden which hide behind red and white curtains.  On the other side of the room sits a TV and a DVD player, which I have already used to watch Harry Potter with the boys!  ---If you are reading this Michelle, thank you soooooooooo much!  I sincerely love it!

I woke up about…a number of hours later, the same day.  I had absolutely no concept of time.  The rest of the kids were home by now, so I got to meet Rebekah (14), Jacob (13), James (10), and Luke (8).  I was also able to meet Elena (24) who is their nonofficial big sister, a previous au pair who has lived with them for five years.  She’s such a delight!  We all sat down for tea (dinner), which was curry and rice.  I never had curry before, but quickly fell in love with it. 

After we ate, Michelle took me to the store to pick up some groceries.  These stores are so with-it!  The first floor was stuffed with food, but then you can take an escalator up to the second floor for home goods and such.  The escalators are so incredibly fantastic!  They are like the flat ones in airports, but slanted up so that you can take your cart on it.  She picked me up some magazines so keep me busy late at night while adjusting to the time change, including one about the history of Manchester!  After loading the groceries into the trunk of the car, I almost got into the driver’s seat before Michelle reminded me that the passenger seat is on the other side…whoops.