Me Time!

Today, I spent the day with myself.

For an extreme extrovert, it is sometimes hard for me to tell when I truly need some massive alone time, but towards the end of this past week, I knew it was time.

Most of the 27 Americans moved out of the Hilton into their new accommodations on Thursday and Friday, but there have been some logistical complications with my housing; so myself, and the 3 roommates are still living in the hotel. The masses of the group decided to meet up in London this weekend to spend the night on the town. I, however, had no desire to go out, be around a lot of drinking, nor have to find/and pay for a place to spend the night since the train home ends at midnight; and I want to attempt to go to a church in Maidstone in the morning.

A PERFECT ME DAY! :)

I had breakfast with my roommates before they left for London. Then I rode the bus into Maidstone town center to hang out. I had a copy of a map and wanted to branch out of the main few streets I have grown comfortable with to see if I could find my way to the movie theater and the church I want to attend tomorrow. Since I was a little early for the movies, I walked across the river to the larger shopping stores like Asda (Walmart), HobbyCraft (Hobby Lobby), B & Q (Home Depot), and TK Maxx (TJ Maxx). I stopped in Asda to see what an English Walmart was like (no judgements anti-Walmart friends (JOY)). It was way nicer than Walmart in my opinion.

On the way out, I asked the security man to point me in the direction of the Odeon Theater. He pointed me back across the river and through the streets. These directions confused me because I thought the theater was somewhere on the side of the river I was on. Instead of following my gut and my excellent map navigation skills, I went with his word and crossed back over the river toward the direction the security guard led. Along the route, I saw a tourist sign for a Amphitheater and realized that the security man probably got lost someone in my accent and was sending me to the wrong place. I decided to turn around and find my own way --- which successfully landed me at the movie theater on the side of the river I originally thought it was on.

I planned to see Valentine's Day--which a bunch of the American group saw last weekend. I've only been to one other movie by myself, and was semi-exicted to do it again. However in England, or Maidstone at least, when you buy a movie ticket you are given a seat number, and the staff look at your ticket and direct you to your seat. I was placed in the middle of a pair of English pre-teen girls and another pair of English late teen girls. GREAT! My solo movie adventure put right me in the middle of British strangers. I felt like a loner. :(

I loved the movie though. I also appreciated being able to laugh a few times at American jokes that the English crowd did not get. I also wanted to yell "YAY Texas" when one of the actors referred to something as the size of Texas, but I thought it was a little too much for my stranger neighbors to handle. Besides, they did look at me funny when I laughed at the jokes they did not get. The girls to my right really liked the accents of the American school children in the movie. It reminded me of myself loving the British accents of the little girls in The Holiday.

I have realized over the past few days just how influential American is when it comes to pop culture. Everywhere I go....ie the hotel and shops --- American music is playing. Also, almost all the movies playing in the theater were American blockbusters. Half of the TV stations on my hotel room TV play American shows --- (I have been so thankful for the opportunity to watch Friends on a daily basis). It is weird. I can't decide whether I should think that England is obsessed with all things American, or if the US is just so dominate that it pushes its way into English life. hmmm.....

Towards the end of the movie, I forgot I was in England. So, when I left the theater, I was pretty sad thinking that I don't know when I will be in Texas again (it was kind of a scary, weighty thought) and I don't have any real friends here yet (besides the Americans, I guess). :( I will be glad to finally move in and begin to develop a routine.

I spent the rest of my town venture shopping around the "high street" -- mainly window shopping, but I did finally buy a world travel adapter pack for my mac at the fake apple store. It makes me laugh every time I say something and catch a store clerk off guard with my "accent." I usually get a really confused look for about two seconds, and then huh?, followed by me smiling and repeating my question.

I also headed the direction of the church, but never actually made it because it started to get dark. Hopefully, I will wake up in time to walk the 2 miles and actually find the church from the hotel, since the buses do not run on Sunday.

Oh random note.....everything closes SO EARLY here...like 5:30! All the shops on the high street, all the stores in the mall, everything. Maybe it is because it gets dark earlier. Thats okay because I had to catch the last bus back by 6:30.

The rest of the night I scrounged up some dinner in my room, watched part of Mona Lisa Smiles, fell asleep at 7:30, and then woke back up to find directions to church, and write this blog post :).

I have a few pictures to post to this blog post, so look back later.