Saturday, 1-6-96
1:37 AM Broughton/Chester, Wales
7:37 PM Evanston (1-5-96)
Talk about expectations… I don’t know what I quite imagined my first night on my home stay to be like, but it sure wasn’t like this! ☺︎
After my 5 hr. bus ride here to Wales, during which I mostly slept, I arrived w/ the other 25 students at Hazel’s house. Hazel is the coordinator of the program in Chester for EIU (Experiment in International Living). She is said to match up the families & students well & I’ll say she did a super job matching me w/ the Barnes!
Helen picked me up from Hazel’s, actually she was there with other family’s reps. when we arrived. We came back here to their beautifully decorated home for dinner.
I got to ride w/ Helen in my first British car & when she picked me up I went to their driver’s side door (the U.S. shotgun side) out of habit.
After I arrived in their home I met her husband Simon. They showed me “my” room & I put down my stuff & grabbed their gifts (a coffee table picture book about Chicago & a box of Marshall Fields’s Frango Mints)!
Simon & I chatted a bit while Hazel finished getting dinner on the table… We spoke of football (soccer ☺︎), crime in Chicago, & I even used the U.S. map in the Travel Diary Sheila gave me to show where I live at home & to point out other parts of the States!
Dinner was a yummy turkey in sauce. The rest was potatoes & some veggies, which I tried but didn’t finish…
The beverage was a clear sparkling lemonade, which tasted sort of like Sprite.
For dessert we have vanilla ice cream & mini frozen apple pies.
During dinner Simon asked how I spent my Christmas which became the ultimate icebreaker!!! ☺︎ I began to babble about my family & minutes later Hazel commented that she’d forgotten what the question was! ☺︎
Eventually Simon & I moved on to the subject of politics, at which point Hazel left us & moved on to the dishes… Which though I offer, she insists on doing herself.
After dinner I showed them my pictures of family & friends from home. I also shared my camp pics & pointed out the Brits!
Then Simon, who works w/ semi-trucks, mentioned he was going to go to a local pub & Hazel said she was tired… This worried me & I thought it might be an early & uneventful night…
Yeah right…
Next thing I know, Simon has poured me a “Hooch” (alcoholic lemonade) & Hazel a Fosters beer!
At dinner Hazel spoke of them having a karaoke machine… Well, after Simon left for the pub, Hazel & I busted out the machine & karaoked everything from “Dancing Queen” to “Groovy Kind of Love!”
Soon she got another beer & offered me one, since I had finished my “lemonade!” She also asked if I smoked. I said no & then explained my recent temptation at the pubs the past few nights. She said she & Simon occasionally smoke little cigars! I asked if I could try one & that is when the real bonding began!☺︎ I smoked part of an entire ciggi! (Well, most of one & I even “inhaled!”)
After that we karaoked `smore, played on their electric drum set, & I even taught Hazel “The Electric Slide!” ☺︎
When Simon got back we were in the kitchen smoking & he was surprised to say the least! ☺︎ So he joined us & we all took some silly pics, earlier I had taken some sort of normal ones… except one of Simon & his phallic monkey! ☺︎
After our “family” smoke we got on the subject of their wedding (5 years ago). So then we watched their wedding video! I also got to see their album! ☺︎ I was very touched… Hazel even have me a portrait of them from their wedding!
Many stories came along with the viewing & by the end, Simon & I began discussing religion. I enjoy our discussions. They deal with the deep meaning of things, which as “Stever” says, “I am into!” ☺︎
What a crazy & awesome evening! I had no idea I would drink, smoke, do karaoke, & even watch my host family’s wedding video… Wahoo! I’ll say, EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED! ☺︎
Well, today/tomorrow Hazel will take me at half past 9 in the morning to tour Chester w/ the other ISA students staying here! As for the rest of my stay here… Who knows, but I am sure it will be a blast! ☺︎
YEE HAW! ☺︎
~ Later ☺︎
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Note from Present Day Kathy: This entry is one of the many reasons why I am so glad I resolved to journal regularly during my semester abroad in 1996. I likely wouldn’t have remembered that evening, or at least not in nearly the detail I recounted, and it was such a fun experience hanging out and bonding with my host family!
I could probably count on two hands the number of times I’ve smoked anything in my life, and the majority of those encounters were during my time across the pond. It was probably the most open I was to trying to things like that, being determined to have new and exciting adventures, and though it never became a habit, I did enjoy experimenting a bit.
Likewise, I don’t recall doing karaoke much over the years, so find it amusing that I did that then too! I used to not care for the sound of my own singing voice and reserved sharing it with very few, including the girls I grew up babysitting for, when I would sing them to sleep at night. However in recent years I’ve come around to not minding (and even liking) how I sing. So I might actually be up for giving karaoke another go, one of these days. I’ve heard about karaoke bars in the Chicago area, which I may need to check out one of these days.
Finally, not his real nickname, “Stever” is a guy I was friends with in college, who was a few years older, and used to give me advice on life and dating, at least from his perspective. He also would tease me about being into the deep meaning of things, which I was and still am, and try to get me to take life a little less seriously. When we met, my freshman year, I was somewhat on a mission to find the love of my life at school and he encouraged me to date around some, not worrying so much about meeting my future husband. Ironically, I met Bob after I returned from my semester abroad, the September of our senior year at U of I.
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Reminder: Unless I’ve been given permission to use people’s actual names, in most cases I’ve removed or replaced the names of the real people who were part of my journey/experience there, in effort to protect and respect their identities/privacy in my London Semester Journal entries. I will also not share details that I think and feel are too personal for anyone I interacted with, my loved ones, and me.
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Here’s the back story of My London Semester Journals from 1996, including what prompted me to revisit and decide to share them here in 2018. And here’s a list a list of the entries, which I will update as I share them.
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