Places we've been

Well, as usual, I had great plans for keeping the blog updated each week but it just hasn't happened.  Pesky little things like parenting and sleeping kind of got
in the way.  But in between moving into our new house and getting settled, we've taken a few weekend trips to see some of the nearby sights.  Here's a little rundown of the different places we've visited so far, and a few pictures (even though I'm not much of a photographer!):

WARWICK CASTLE



 Clint's a fan of pano shots.

Most surprising thing about exploring this castle? Climbing winding towers while carrying kids on an empty stomach makes you a little shaky/dizzy. Eat a good meal beforehand! We really enjoyed the visit, though, and bought a year pass because there was too much to see in one day!

KENILWORTH CASTLE

We just snapped this pic from far away, and right afterward Cbear got carsick, but we are excited to check out these ruins soon.


 STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

Somehow I can't find any pictures of Stratford, even though I know I took some! This is the birthplace of Shakespeare, and you can do a whole tour of his house, and his wife's, and his mother's farm or something, but we haven't done that. There's really cute shopping/dining areas, a canal where the girls love to feed the ducks and geese (and chase pigeons...Jellybean's fave pastime), a butterfly farm, and of course, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. I hope to catch a play there sometime!

OXFORD

The "Bridge of Sighs"

We spent an entire day just walking around looking at the amazing architecture of the university, museums and churches.

LONDON

Big Ben!

The Eye

We took a train (side note: I love train travel! Except when it's crowded and you have to stand...not fun.) to London one Saturday morning and did an open-top double decker bus tour to see the highlights.  Then we walked through Hyde Park while the girls picked every flower they saw, and then trekked back to Marylebone Station...walking was probably a bad idea at that point.  We didn't bring a stroller and both girls fell asleep while we carried them.  We were all very glad to get home!

The sights were awesome...but London is a bit of a crash-course in overcoming germophobia.  Taking the girls to the toilet in the Underground, then eating pizza from a tiny questionable shop nearby, public transportation, etc. was all a bit icky.  And I am left with the burning question: Where do people in London use the bathroom? Seriously, there are like zero public toilets. After searching and searching, I finally changed Jellybean's saggy diaper in the dressing room at TopShop, and the rest of us just held it until we got back on the train.

After visiting London, I have a list of places I'd like to go back and see in-depth.  On the top of the list are the National Gallery/Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, the Tower of London, and Buckingham Palace.

BLENHEIM PALACE

 Pano shot again!

 Gardens designed by the famous Capability Brown...I told Clint there's an idea for a name if we ever have a boy!

Blenheim Palace has been our favorite place to visit so far.  It's the birthplace of Winston Churchill, but we only got to breeze through his exhibit (the girls weren't impressed, but Clint and I were!).  We spent just a little time inside (it was gorgeous).  We ate at a cafe outside overlooking the gardens (while Cbear tried to throw sticks and rocks into the gazing pools...it was super classy) and then spent most of our time exploring the grounds and we didn't even get to see half of it.  We learned as we were leaving that there is a little train that takes you to a children's playground. I guess it's a good thing we got the yearly pass for Blenheim also, so we can go back and see the rest of it!

We have some exciting travel plans coming up, and I hope to be able to share updates soon! Cheers.

A Giftastic Beginning to Life in England

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of changes, and there have definitely been ups and downs.  Moving to a foreign country is certainly exciting, and while we are enjoying it, moving (anywhere) with kids is complicated, messy, and overwhelming at times. We still have to do the day-to-day business of raising them, only everything seems a lot harder because we aren't familiar with our surroundings and we can't call in our reinforcements.  But for the most part, we are settling in quite nicely and embracing the differences in life here.

I had so much fun doing the GIFs post a while back that I decided to do another one about our first month in England to give you an idea of what life has been like:

Our exhausted arrival

I am in a fog of jet-lagged exhaustion and NOBODY is sleeping.

One word: duvet.

Everything is great and we get go visit a castle.

Then homesickness strikes again.

How I feel when I meet fellow Americans over here.

Jellybean, every single time she tries to walk outside in wellies. 

What I imagine the neighbors in our flat think about our loud girls.

So we have lots of tea parties.

I have to institute this policy with cooped-up, cranky, fighting kids.

Trying not to sound like too much of a hick.

And then trying to understand other people's accents.

The British eat everything with a knife and fork.  I feel like I look like this in comparison.

We finally get to move out of the flat and into our house!

But I can't figure out how to work the freaking appliances.

Then I sort it out and am all about my new kitchen.

We keep forgetting to buy a bottle opener. Luckily Clint's a little more skilled than this.

Driving on the left side of the road.  The driver's seat on the right side of the car.  Roundabouts...with stoplights.  Wait, what?

Clint and I get to go on a date and we are giddy with excitement.

And then some black pudding is served with Clint's dinner.  We find out what black pudding is made of (fried pig blood and fat, anyone?).

We don't understand how they came up with this dish.

How we feel when the sun finally comes out!

Sightseeing/traveling with kids...there is no such thing as being too prepared.  Snacks are important, yo.

The girls on any given day, no matter where we are.  Giddy little destructive minions.

Strangers in a not-so-strange land

We have been in England a little over a week now...it still seems hard to believe we're really here!  The trip here went about as well as we could have expected...it turns out I should have been less worried about how the girls would do on the flights and more prepared for jet lag afterwards!  We didn't even get out the toys, coloring books, or iPad for them.  They watched the movies provided on the plane, read, or slept the majority of the time.  Thank goodness!

We had three flights and a total travel time of 16 hours.  The first flight was really rough...small plane, lots of turbulence, and me about to toss my cookies.  The most pleasant part of that flight was sitting in the plane bathroom with my head between my knees.  Ick.

Thankfully, the next two flights were on bigger planes, much smoother, and in business class (which I had never flown before and now I don't think there's any other way to fly...as long as I'm not paying for it, that is).  There was actually decent food and the seats were comfortable enough to sleep in.  The girls slept most of our last flight, which was overnight.

Oh, and just before the last flight as we were waiting to board, we were letting the girls run around in an empty area and they made their first little British friend.  Her name was Tilly, she said she was "nearly four years old" in the most adorable accent ever, and she and Cbear became immediate best friends chasing each other and falling into giggling heaps.  Heart. melted.  Tilly's parents were very friendly and gave us their contact info in case we needed any help in our new area.

We arrived in Birmingham, England at 7 a.m. (1 a.m. central time) and went through customs.  It was actually really easy.  Nobody searched us or went through our stuff...just a few questions for Clint, fingerprints taken and they made sure all our passport photos matched up with our faces.  All our luggage arrived (yay!) and the driver we had arranged to pick us up was waiting.  We made a short stop to exchange currency (ouch!  The exchange rate wasn't particularly favorable that day) and then we loaded up in a van for the short drive to Warwick (about 25 minutes).

After a bit of a long wait (with tired kids about to lose their shtuff), the man who was to let us in the apartment finally arrived, and we got to look at our temporary home.  For the most part it was clean and nice, and fairly roomy.  Over the next few days we found a few things that have made us ready to move into our new house...like leftover fish someone forgot about in the oven, and the gross moldy washing machine with water that keeps backing up in it.  I'm not even attempting to use it and just washing our clothes in the bathtub instead...going all pioneer women on it here.  The beds aren't great and it just doesn't feel like home, but it will definitely make us appreciate our own space once we have it again.

We spent the first day settling in and resting, and met up with our friends Ryan, Lindsey, and their adorable little girl Maggie.  They have been here a week longer than us and so were a little more familiar with the area.  We all walked to a pizza place nearby for dinner, and after that we were exhausted.

We spent the next few days trying to overcome jet lag.  You know what the weirdest part about that is?  Waking up in the middle of the night and wanting to eat dinner.  We have been hungry at the oddest hours. After a week, its finally getting better and the girls aren't waking up as often.  We can't wait to start sleeping all night again.

On our third day here we met up with a realtor and started looking for houses to rent.  Our realtor's name was Jenny and she was a hoot.  A little high-strung and crazy driver (I swear I though we were going to hit a pedestrian on multiple occasions!) but super nice and helpful.  She not only showed us the houses but also drove us around and pointed out things we might be interested in.  We looked at six properties the first day.  There were several we liked, but we ended up going for a large, modern house in the neighborhood we really liked. There is a play set and play house in the back yard, a playground, a few small shops, and fitness center within walking distance, plus it's close enough to Clint's work that he could walk or bike there on a nice day.  We feel very fortunate to have found such a nice place!  We'll probably even be a bit spoiled once we go back to the States.

Speaking of expectations being exceeded...before we came to England we had been mentally preparing ourselves to do without some of the things we've been accustomed to.  Surprisingly, that hasn't been the case at all.  We've been able to find most of the things we could ever need or want (with maybe the exception of decent ranch dressing...they have it here, but it just tastes like mayonnaise to me.  I've only been to two grocery stores though so I haven't given up on it.). We were prepared for small stores and limited selection, but there's a good size supermarket we've been walking to near the flat, and a larger one near our new house that's basically like a slightly smaller Wal-Mart or Super Target...lots of food, clothes, toiletries, and housewares.  We were even able to have a Mexican fiesta with Lindsey and Ryan, complete with corn tortilla chips and salsa!  The taco seasoning wasn't all that great, but once we're in our new place and I stock my pantry I can make some easily.  I'm just glad to find taco shells and tortillas!

Clint started work in the middle of last week and it's been going well for him (woohoo!).  The girls and I have explored a little, but plan on doing more this week especially because we got Jellybean a new "push chair" this weekend (stroller) since we hadn't brought one.  We've walked around town, seen the outside of the castle, tried a few pubs (all good!), taken the bus, driven through enough roundabouts to make Cbear and I carsick, visited a church, and spent lots of time with Lindsey, Ryan and Maggie.  The girls are in love with that family and get super excited when they come over or we go out!

I know I'm forgetting things, but I think I'll sign off for now.  We've been having a lazy morning and we need to figure out our plans for the day...it's sunny out so we should probably get outside for a bit. Cheers!

11 Random things about England

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!

Our Expat Journey, GIF Style

I love GIFs so much.  And since a picture is worth a thousand words, and because our emotions about making this huge life change have run the gamut lately, I decided that I could show you how we've been feeling through this process much better than I could ever write about it.  So, without further ado, I present our expat journey to date in GIFs:

Last spring, Clint and I talking about how awesome it would be to live in another country. 

Finding out an expat position is available in England.

Waiting for weeks and weeks to get the position approved.

Our initial reaction to the realization that Clint got the job.

Then it sinking in.

And then feeling like this.

Our family taking the news well.

And then my sister acting like this because I told her way before before anything was approved.

CBear finding out we're moving to a country filled with castles, where everyone talks like Robin Hood characters and Angelina Ballerina.

Jellybean is confused about what is going on.

Clint, preparing to fill out all our paperwork and get everything organized for the move.

Filling out endless paper work and keeping track of important documents makes us feel like this.

So then we give each other a pep talk.

We find out another local couple is going to the same city at the same time and we all do this.

My inner monologue on a very long conference call with Clint and the UK relocation lady.

How we feel meeting with a psychologist for a "cross-cultural adaptability assessment"

Finding out we won't get to go on a pre-assignment visit.

I get a little stressed and overwhelmed with everything, so I do this.

Clint and I when we get to cross something off of our to-do list.

I look at too many houses online and read an excessive amount of expat blogs, so I should probably do this.

Who's tired of filling out paperwork and providing the same documents over and over again?

"Let me get this straight.  You don't want us to take our furniture, but you don't want to provide enough in the budget to cover furniture?"

But then everything works out with the housing/furniture budget.

We find out the biometrics office is closed two hours into the drive there.

My reaction at our last small group meeting/dinner/prayer time for our upcoming move.

Me, amusing myself with this blog post idea.  I need sleep.

Stay tuned for more as our journey unfolds!