Mei Grows Tall

(actually from June 29)

It’s an ever gray day here in the damp city of Manchester. My mom came home friday night, so things have been busier. Our day trip to liverpool on Saturday was hardly gray at all – the weather was beautiful, the air was relatively fresh and the sun shone brighter that I’ve seen since ninety degree days of an Ohio summer. It was a great trip, I saw Ruth’s family again, and we managed to see and do quite a bit:

• First stop, Merseyside Maritime museum – five floors of fabulous exhibits, including the International Slavery Museum and an entire floor dedicated to The Titanic, Lusitania, and Empress tragedies. I overheard this guy talking to his wife, and he said that he was surprised at how much he learned there. “I mean, you’d expect to learn some, but not every single time you turn a corner.” I wish we could’ve spend more time there.
• We walked back toward our next stop and had lunch, grabbing a couple sandwiches in the city centre and scarfing from a park bench. There was this really great street musician hooked up to a travel amp and playing acoustic guitar. He was wearing a cowboy hat and combat boots, and his singing was all right, but i liked him anyway. He had guts. It made me laugh when he did some Snow Patrol like i heard last time, but i winced when he butchered “Hey There Delilah.” We dropped some change in his guitar case.
• Shopped for a little bit, collected a new pair of shoes, then moseyed on over to the Walker Art Gallery and World Museum Liverpool. The art gallery had a special exhibit about the steam age and trains. I got to see a couple paintings that were in an art book i read a couple months ago. It was cool! I did some quick sketches of some of the paintings and drooled when i saw the classical sculptures downstairs. We only spent an hour in the World Museum, because it was nearly closing time, but i saw the aquarium, ancient civilizations, and the world cultures stuff. I wish I could say that i had the time of my life there, but that would be a lie – by then i was dragging my heels and ready for dinner. Oh well.

Of course, there was more stuff that happened in between, but those are the basic highlights. The train ride was over an hour, but the countryside views were cool. I drank a smoothie that was actually good, rode the liverpool underground, had dinner at a cantonese restaurant, and finally parted with my beat up gold flats. =[ They got a crack clear across the soles, one on each foot, and were looking pretty rough. RIP shoes, I will always love and remember you!

Well it actually looks nice out right now...it was raining earlier, but that goes to show how wacky the weather is here. We've got to buy groceries at some point, so perhaps we'll get out there and enjoy it before a tornado hits or something. I hope everyone else is staying warm and dry! (I guess i'll be posting this later)