On Wednesday & Thursday of this week, I got to go home with Zoe to meet her family & have some real home-cooked meals. We were supposed to drive, but Zoe's car is officially dead. We took the bus instead, arriving in Newport. From Newport, we took another bus to Pontypool. On that ride, I had my first introduction to Welsh gypsies. Nothing like the ones I have seen before! Arriving in Pontypool, Zoe & I caught another bus so we wouldn't have to walk up this gigantic mountain (she calls it a small hill) to her house. Instead, the bus took us halfway up & we only had to walk a short distance uphill. Zoe's house is adorable. It has a huge garden/backyard where her mom grows vegetables, plums (they have so many they can't give them all away), & apples (well, maybe 1 or 2 a year). They also have a pool, which we sorta laid by on Wednesday but Thursday was overcast & cold, so no tanning/burning that day.
Mrs. Kear made Sunday lunch for us, which is a rather big meal. We had chicken, gravy & stuffing, new potatoes, roast potatoes, veges (carrots, brocolli, cauliflower, cabbage), cranberry sauce, yorkshire puddings, parsnips, & cheese grits (which I brought). For dessert, we had derby pie & chess pie that I also made. (I told Zoe I would make traditional southern American food if I came with her.)
I met her sister Abby & her 2 kids - Dylan (6) & Poppy (2). Abby took us shopping on Thursday to Cwmbran. I also met Elaine, Zoe's sister-in-law & Geraint (15) & Becky (12). Jason, Zoe's brother was in London working.
On Thursday we went shopping. Then Liam, a friend of Zoe's, came over & hung out for a bit. For dinner that night, we had chicken curry & chicken soup from the leftovers. It was really yummy though the curry was a tad spicy! Zoe's dad drove us back to Newport to catch the bus back to Swansea. We got into Swansea around 9:30 & I was home by 10:30.
It was certainly nice to get away from Swansea & the housemates ... and even nicer to have a home cooked meal where I didn't have to cook or do the dishes!
1 comment:
I know you're just unspeakably busy with your dissertation and all, but I'd like to know what's going on with you--and this is pretty much the only sure-fire, any time way that I can do that. So update soon, please?
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