I met someone on the internet. We played WoW together and became friends. We spoke about a lot of stuff, including college and housing and other subjects. Her college looked very appealing to me and I decided to pay a visit.

She is the same age as me, we're both 18 years old. Needless to say, we needed permission for me to stay there from her parents, or in this case, her father only. He was skeptic at first and I don't blame him. He never met me and I could be whatever he thought I would be. All in all we convinced him and I'm glad we did.

I met up with a friend of mine, Liz, who enjoys being on the airport and I'm glad she came. It makes the (nervous) wait a bit shorter. We went to star bucks and got me some coffee. It's quite expensive though, I paid 5.50 for a coffee.

My flight couldn't have been better. It was fast and not much turbulence. We had some and I just unplugged my earphones to enjoy the frightened screams of the first-time fliers. I know it sounds mean, but it's just enjoyable to me :)

Once I arrived I needed to go with the trains. While waiting for the train I heard something familiar to me. Dutch! I decided to try my luck and approach them. It was a couple, most likely married. I just said (in Dutch) "Hi, I heard some Dutch here.". They were baffled, but friendly enough to help me out with the trains and other stuff I didn't know about.

It's said that the Liverpool accent is the hardest accent, and I can say it's quite hard. The ticket seller asked me if I wanted a single ticket. I confirmed that I was traveling alone. Little did I know he meant I wanted a single trip or a return ticket. Well, lesson learned.

After an hour of train sitting I arrived in the city of Preston. I think I'm spoiled with the Netherlands, but the train station made a bit of an old, used impression. However, when walking through it I realised the station wasn't old, it was antique. And I have to say, it has its charm. I phoned Anna and she told me she'd be there soon to guide me through the town and whatnot.

She arrived and we started to explore Preston itself. I was amazed by all the things that were there. We have the same things here, but close to everything is half the price of what we are forced to pay here.

feminine as I am, I started going on a shopping spree and wanting to look in every shop. The flight did take some toll on me though, and carrying all my luggage around wasn't pretty nice either. We decided to go to her home.

I almost gut ran over a couple of times, since I was looking the wrong side of the road. Luckily Anna was with me o stop me when I didn't see a bus coming :)

Once arrived I was amazed again. The house looked amazing! It was a shared-roof home, or whatever it is in English. They even build an extra part for the kitchen. Her dad apologized in advance for the mess that should be there. I didn't find it messy at all though. Sure, some things wouldn't be organized, but I feel comfy in a bit of a “mess" :).I feel it brings out the personality of someone, and the house reflects that. This house reflected a feeling of "I live how I want." in my opinion. And I like that lifestyle a lot :)It may sound bad or whatnot, but rest assured, things that needed care were taken care of. I'm really thankful to have stayed there.

We went to her room and started doing some fun stuff, like gaming or watching movies. Her granddad came over and made dinner, it was really good :o. Later that night we watched Ross Nobel, an English comedian, but I was too tired from the flight (more the getting up early part) and fell asleep.

We woke up and it was time to start doing stuff. Sorting stuff out for me. Generally speaking of gathering information, since I had a small plan of migrating to England. But first we needed some breakfast. Luckily we have gone to the co-op the day before (I spent 40 minutes in there, I was just amazed by all the English food) and got Crumpets. Crumpets are gooooood. I never had them, but imagine a sponge-like toast. The outside is crispy, but the inside is soft and spongy. you put butter on them and it melts into the holes, making it quite tasty.

We got onto a bus to the city centre, and from there moved to a place called Blackburn. It's the nearest place to go ice skating. Anna wanted to go and it seemed a lot of fun to me too. I hadn't skated ice for around 6 years so was scared I was going to fall a lot. Only fell once when I got cocky. I met a friend of Anna, and a friend of her friend. Was quite fun.

When we were done we got dinner at Pizza hut. We all ate pizza+pasta+drinks for 16 pounds. We were filled for 4 pounds each! That's impossible in Holland. Again, I was amazed. I offered to pay in return for cash, since that’s more useful for me. The waitress thought I was on a date with those three girls I think, since she automatically handed me the check and the pay thing.

Once we got back we did some more games and watched movies till we slept.

On Saturday we went to Anna's mum. I'm glad I got invited too. I got to see the puppies. And when they say puppies they mean German Sheppard’s bigger then Anna herself. We took them for a walk and stopped near Asda, a Wal-Mart shop. Her mum bought grilled chicken and we had a chicken sandwich when we got back. I think the chicken itself is worth migrating, but that's another story.

At night she made us Pea and Ham soup. This is similar to our “snert” but not quite the same. This pea'nham was way better. It comes with chips on top and it's really good. For dessert we had Jam roly-poly with custard. It looked like puke. It was luke-warm, and if you used your imagination a bit it felt like you were eating warm snot. It didn't taste that way though. Though it was simple it was really good! I really like the English food :)

On Sunday we didn't go out, all shops were closed and there wasn’t much to do. I helped out decorating the room with Christmas decorations. I'm supposedly really tall compared to people there. It was handy I could reach the ceiling without the help of a chair or something else. I rarely decorate but I think I'm going to do it more often. It brings more personality and coziness. For the first time in a couple of years I got into the Christmas mood.

Monday. College day. I went with Anna to her college. Yet again I was amazed. Her college is really big. Lots of courses going on and filled with people. It might just be that people stay friendly because I'm new, but I felt like I was accepted immediately. We played some card games and then got into class. Thankfully the tutor let me stay and enjoy the lesson. The lesson was about databases, the same thing by Dutch tutor tried to explain last year. Where he failed over the whole year, this tutor succeeded. I learned more in those hours then an entire year at my own college. This is another reason for me to try out college in England.

Once we got back we did the usual, games and movies.

On Tuesday we went into the city again. I was again amazed by all the prices and the stuff. We went to McDonalds, but that's pretty much the same everywhere :p

It being Tuesday meant "Tuesday Chippy's". Basically means that it's fish & chips day. Again, it was really good. Yummy. I invested in a couple of packs of crumpets, to take back to my home.

Wednesdays we went to Blackpool. It's more touristic then Preston and we gave it a visit. It had an arcade!:o We don't have arcades in Holland, and I think I was addicted for a while. Us both being gamers we thought we could beat one machine, called the stacker. It was a bit broken and every time we won we had to call someone to get us a prize.

At night her dad brought her to Asda. It’s an enormous shop. They have close to everything there. I didn’t get much apart from some shirts, polo's and crumpets.

Later that night I checked for my flight, and found out there were no trains running anymore. Anna's dad however, being the good man he is, offered me to give me a lift to the airport at 3 in the night. If it wasn't for him I'd be stranded and lose a lot of money. Even after all the things he's done for me I didn't have to repay him.

The flight back was quite boring. I was tired and didn't see much. I even went to college that day and told people about my trip. I'm annoying them now by saying "In England it’s..." too much.

I'm looking to visit again soon.

All typo's reserved.