Church, Castle Hill, Cricket, and Craziness!

We have now been to two weeks of church here in Huddersfield (actually the church is in nearby Halifax). This is us on our first Sunday at church. We got there about 20 min early because that was when the bus went. The ward is very kind and welcoming. We are pretty obvious here as the ward is kind of small. They just love having us participate (Erin, our instructor, plays the piano in RS)! Church ends at 1pm and the first Sunday here, we asked the elders (since they had ridden the bus with us) what time the bus left to take us back to Huddersfield, and they said 1:08. Well, it was 1:06, so we rushed out the door to catch the bus. Sadly, the bus stop we chose to wait at had a mysterious sign saying "BUS STOP NOT IN USE," but of course, we didn't see that until about 1:15. :) Luckily, some kind ward members offered us rides home. A couple of girls and I rode with our new friend, Luke, who we found out has a connection from his mission with a girl in our group (small world, even here in England!). He is really nice and gives us rides to any of the young single adult activities. This past Sunday he took us with him to the church to see the CES fireside (yes, rebroadcast a week later), and then on the way home, he took us to Castle Hill.

This is Heidi and Michelle with Luke on Castle Hill. It's beautiful up there; you can see 360 degrees around down on Huddersfield and beyond. The sun was just about to set, and it was gorgeous! But windy too! (as you can probably tell)

The view from Castle Hill

Wednesday was Michelle's birthday, so we went out to lunch at Nando's - where, as Luke says, all the girls go after they've been shopping, to talk about what they bought. :) It was pretty good!

The lovely birthday girl, Michelle :) HAPPY 22!
Then we went to an awesome game of Cricket. Our cool driver from the airport, Phil (the one without the tooth), took us with him to his 17-year-old son's game. He is the captain of the team and also their best bowler (pitcher). It was pretty chilly, but really fun!!
(Michelle and I very excited to watch a Cricket game)
Cricket is the official National Sport of England (even though most people think it should be football), and it was also invented here. Good thing we had Phil to explain the rules and what was going on. It's sort of like baseball but there are quite a few differences. Basically, the bowler (pitcher) throws it to the batter and they try to hit it. They can hit it in any direction; there are no fouls. Once they hit it, if it's not too close to them (their discretion) they run back and forth between the wickets (bases) and they count for points. There are actually two batters out there, one at each wicket, and they both run. The bowlers switch sides so each batter gets a chance to hit. If they get it to the edge of the field, it's automatically 4 or 6 points, depending on if it bounces (similar to a home run). There is more to it, but I won't bore you...They all wear white (both teams), with cute little sweaters or sweater vests. I love it! It's a gentleman's game, so there wasn't much cheering...just a bit of light clapping every once in a while.
(And yes, that's Castle Hill in the background)
A "bowl" (pitch) - Phil's son

And here's a short clip for you (sorry it's not long, my camera was dying) - this is a bowl, then a hit, and the batters running between wickets.

And last, but not least, MOVIE NIGHT! Michelle in her usual pirate garb (ha ha, not really usual)...and our popcorn! We have no living room, so we just gather in one room and watch it on a laptop.
We watched Elizabeth Gaskell's "Wives & Daughters." It's fun to watch those kind of movies (like Pride & Prejudice) now that we are here....it's totally what it looks like here!

Oh, and P.S. We have been banned from the hospital, not to step foot in there again!