June 2, 2010 4.58 pm This story is over 165 months old

My new start in Lincoln

Love Lincoln: Andrea Lilley recently moved from Southern Texas to Lincoln after getting married to a Lincolnite. Here she tells her short story of Lincoln life so far.

Editors’ note: Andrea Lilley is a new contributor to The Lincolnite. Find her bio and stories here. Below is her account of moving to Lincoln from the USA, and her initial thoughts of Lincoln.

My life before was nothing but giant BBQ’s and sunny beaches. Actually it was more like BBQ’s, sunburn and hurricanes. Living in a slightly large South Texas city wasn’t exactly magical.

For the moment I can safely say I did not live on a ranch and wasn’t intending on buying a gun anytime soon. The closest thing to a stereotype that I have going for me is that I can not manage to say vowels without drawing them out in the most extreme ways.

I went to university in Texas where I dabbled in as many forms of journalism I could get my paws on. First, starting out wanting to write for big city papers and slowly lowering that idea into wanting to be on radio. With that in mind I set out on little student radio internship deals and finally called the whole thing off with one class to go.

Why you say? I wanted to marry a Lincoln boy.

Many of you reading this have probably been here for years, I must say I am jealous. I adore the small town feeling and the fact that I can walk anywhere. There is a Spar up the road and a fair few bars to choose from five minutes from my house. I wouldn’t change a thing about living in Lincoln.

I can remember when I first landed here in March I thought I was living in a third world country. Small things that I had in life were no longer there. If you start comparing the little details you will be amazed by the differences.

No air conditioning! I thought England was always cold and raining but I was wrong. I spent one intensely sweltering weekend locked up in this apartment with the windows as wide as I could manage. Lincolnites, you are a tough people to endure such pain like that.

On days like that I wanted to be near a pit with charcoal. I wanted to enjoy the sun and BBQ but with this little apartment and no garden it wasn’t possible. Oh I wanted the good stuff… hamburgers, sausage, corn and hotdogs.

Where are the hotdogs? I don’t want them in jars or in cans I have to peel open. I just want to have a nice juicy ballpark frank! I guess these are the little things I can look forward to when I visit the family in the States.

Since March, I think I am finding my way. I love the glow of the Cathedral at night and the roar of random drunks leaving the bars. It’s always fun to find someone leaving Food First and singing love songs to all the windows in our building.

Oh Lincoln and your little quirks I do love you so. I have never seen swans as big as the ones in the Brayford and I was able to take my first train to get to you. You have given me the best fish and chips money could buy and without Steep Hill boutique 44 I might have died. Overall, Lincoln is where I can see my bones getting old and that beats out any sunny beach weather Texas could have offered me.

Andrea was born and raised in the U.S.A. and moved to Lincoln with her husband in March 2010. Andrea has attended The University of Texas in San Antonio and Del Mar College in Corpus Christi. She is currently taking a break from her degree in Radio & Television to explore the United Kingdom.