Natalie in Leeds - for real this time

I'm sitting next to a barred window, near a plug-in that popped angrily at me earlier, with a fresh cup of tea (green with lemon, and not reheated). That's right - I'm officially in England. Before it's mainly been, "Natalie in Borders, worrying", "Natalie in Plymouth, panicking", and "Natalie in Manchester, freezing". I'm in Leeds now and all is well.

Ever seen the Nicole Kidman film, The Others? Well that is exactly what the British countryside reminded me of. As we trained to Leeds there was a thick fog set low in the valley and the country homes were consumed by it. It probably looked stately and beautiful to any other observer but with my great lack of sleep and foggy mind, I jumped to a Tom Cruise-produced movie.

The city center of Leeds is clean and lively yet it is juxtaposed with old, almost charred looking churches - making a very interesting city landscape. Students walking the streets here would fit nicely into Michelangelo's Cafe on State - well put together and very international. Everyone is very nice but I'm a bit worried about how my American accent sounds to their ears. After discussing this very topic with some locals I discovered that as long as you don't have valley girl accent, you are fine. In fact, many boys we met in this pizza shop around 2 am mentioned how much they loved American accents on girls. But this could have been because we were at a dive that sold 18'' pizzas for 2 pounds. And it was 2 am.

I've had this affinity for the English accent since I was 3 and danced around to Mary Poppins while eating chocolate teddy grahams. I like to think that I can do a convincing one. I think this so much that for April Fools Day last year I left voicemails for 4 people as Keira Knightley. Now, I didn't want to really go into the accent here but the potential for entertainment was so high and offense so low. Apparently my Keira Knightley is from the slums of London (maybe I'm just doing a pre-Pirates Keira?) and my normal English accent is actually tinged with Australian. I speak Spanish with a Japanese accent so I really shouldn't be surprised. But a quick tip to instantly sounds some form of foreign - just add a bit of r after an o. Such as "nor, I wouldn't fancy that". Or, "Sor, really I don't knowr wha' you are talkin' about".

I leave you with a beautiful picture of my fish and chips. Fish-n-chips? Fish an' chips?