Hey there! We made it across the pond and are working on settling in (and getting over jet lag...oy!). I need to do a detailed post about our journey thus far, and hopefully I'll get to that soon. But for now, I'm a little too tired to really get into a lengthy post so I'll just give you a few pieces of information about how life is different here...in my limited experience of being here less than a week.
1. All the electrical outlets have on/off switches. I had to have a come-to-Jesus meeting with the girls about how they were not toys to be flicked on and off repeatedly. It's their favorite thing to do at the moment.
2. There are no outlets in the bathroom, except a little socket for electrical razors only. Ladies, that means no blow-drying, curling, or flat ironing your hair in front of the bathroom mirror! I guess they thought bathroom moisture and 220 volts of electricity weren't a good mix. Also, the bathroom light is either on a pull chain or a switch just outside the bathroom.
3. Most people have their washing machines in the kitchen, rather than in a separate room or closet. Many of them are combination washer/dryers, or people dry their clothes on a line, on airing racks, or draped over the radiators (the two latter happening at our flat right now!) We have the combo washer/dryer in the kitchen right now (the washing machine actually barely works, so we've been hand-washing a lot), but in our new house we actually have a laundry room with separate washer and dryer--score!
4. The grass is always green, even in the winter! So even though it's chilly here and rains a lot (which is usually more like drizzle, not thunder-stormy) when the sun comes out it seems like early spring.
5. Just about everything is smaller, from appliances to cars to food packaging (which reminds me, I just bought milk yesterday and we're almost out. The largest carton from the store I've gone to is 2 pints, but it says on there to use within 3 days. Food seems to spoil quickly here..maybe it's fresher and less processed?).
6. If you order water at a restaurant, you have to specify tap water or they will bring you sparkling/fizzy water.
7. The snack/kid foods seem to be less sugary than what we have in the States (not a bad thing!). I haven't actually compared sugar content, but from sampling yogurt, fruit snacks, peanut butter, and oatmeal bars, the products here seem significantly less sweet. I actually kind of like it. There are plenty of cookies (which are called biscuits here) and candy we haven't tried, though.
8. Eggs aren't refrigerated in the grocery store.
9. Pretty much everything is more expensive here. I'm quickly learning to not convert pounds to dollars when I buy something because it's just depressing!
10. All the clocks are in military time. My laptop screen, for instance, says 23:04 right now.
11. People don't seem overly friendly to strangers (hardly anyone smiles or says hello to someone they're passing on the street, for instance) but the folks we've actually been introduced to have been very warm and welcoming. Hopefully we'll be making new friends soon!
That's all for now...hopefully I'll have time to write a more detailed post soon!
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