Home Visit

On Saturday, we ventured out to Radwinter (which is about an hour train ride north east of London) to visit my cousin and her family. Mom and I had to take the Tube over to Liverpool Street which took a while and then get on a train out to Newport. The train ride was pretty uneventful except for how cold the train was on the inside. I suppose it was also cold on the outside so that makes sense but still, it was not pleasant. When we got off the train, it was snowing (snowing!!). We called Sonya to tell her we were there but they had to get the tires fixed so James (her husband) was running a little late. This wouldn't have been that much of a problem (and it still wasn't) except that the waiting room at the station was closed so we had no where to go to get out of the cold and wind and snow. We walked a block or two and found a gas station that was going under remodeling. We asked the guy working on the inside if we could wait inside and he let us. We talked to him a little bit. James arrived and we hopped in the car.

James drove us to their house. The sun was sort of shining but the hills were looking very green and "English". We arrived at their house (which was very cool looking picture 1) and came in. It was the first time I had ever met their two sons, Noah and Evan. My mom came and visited two years ago but both of them have changed a ton since then (Evan was 4 months last time). Noah is just about to turn 5 but is already reading quite well and writing some (picture 2 is Noah reading with Mom). He was a very cute kid. I had a student last summer who was also a kindergartner named Jamarcus and Noah sounds a lot like him but with an English accent of course. Evan just turned two not too long ago. He was being quite shy with us for most of the time we were there but when he wasn't, he was very cute as well and talked surprising well for his age. So we got to their house and Sonya had made a great lunch (and I'm not just saying that because she reads this blog). It was guinea fowl and rice pilaf with some salad. For dessert she made a butterscotch and banana pudding type thing. It doesn't really matter what it was called, it was so delicious. I love butterscotch and I love bananas so it was right up my alley. After lunch, we all hung out in their living room and read some books and played some games with the boys (or at least tried to, haha). Noah made a tower for marbles to roll down. It was very tall. The whole time we were in their house, it would snow for a while and then it would be sunny and then snow or rain and then sunny. The weather just couldn't make up its mind. My favorite part of the whole visit was when me and the two boys were looking out the window and talked about the snow. It was fun to just watch it fall with the two boys looking out too.

Sonya took me and Mom out and drove us to Saffron Walden which is a market town pretty near where they live. Sonya lead us on a little walking tour of the town. I really liked the cathedral. The spire sort of rose up out of the town and was very, I don't know the right word, majestic looking against the blue sky (picture 3). The inside was very nice as well. Saffron Walden also has quite a few really old Tudor houses (or at least kind of old, fake Tudor houses). The houses were all painted different colors (not as bright as the houses in Burano picture 4). Some of the houses had some designs on the outside of them. I forgot what it was called but Sonya said that that is something that only happens in Essex (the area they live in). Interesting. We also saw the ruins of a Norman castle. It looked just like the one I saw in Canterbury. I really liked Saffron Walden. I think, sometimes, I get so absorbed in the London big city life that I forget that the real heart of England is in the smaller towns in the countryside.

We went back to their house and hung out with the boys a little while longer. We were just about to get ready to head to the train station when Jim, my mom's brother and Sonya's father, called. Mom talked to him for a while so we didn't make that train. So we played and read more books until it was time to leave (picture 5 is Noah and Evan and Sonya while picture 6 is Noah showing Mom one of his books). We took a little while to say goodbye to everyone and left a little later than maybe we should have. James drove us back to the station. We got out of the car and walked across the tracks. While we were doing this, the train pulled up and we hopped on. In other words, we just BARELY made the train. One or two minutes later and we would have missed it. We were lucky. The train ride back was incredibly cold. We were glad to get on the Tube which was warmer. I got some tortellini from Tesco and Mom got some pasta salad which we had for dinner. We got back at around 8 so by the time we ate dinner and Mom left, it was already almost 10. I caught up on the news of the world and then went to bed again.

I was really glad to see Sonya and James and all her family (Sonya, James and Noah are looking up while Evan is looking down picture 7, I have one just like this but with Evan looking up and Noah looking down). They were so nice to pick us up and drop us off and make lunch and everything. It was nice to visit a place that really felt like a home. I haven't felt that for a long time. I know I had a good time and really enjoyed the experience. I hope it won't be another 7 or 8 years until I see them all again!

Bon Soir!