7 August 2010

I feel like I’ve been starving and it’s hard to motivate myself to walk all the way to the store just to get something. Especially with jet lag! Hopefully that will get better soon and we’ll be more used to this whole no car thing. I really do think it will be doable, it will just take some getting used to on our parts! I’m so glad that Grandma Rankin bought us some snacks for our journey (things like nuts, fruit snacks, and bread!) because all of us have enjoyed having a little bit to snack on when we are hungry! J

The first night in our new house was “eventful.” I was just finishing up with Christopher around 2:30 am when Nathan woke up screaming and screaming and screaming. Jeff couldn’t figure out what was wrong and was tired (well, we all were). The end of the story is that both boys were up for an hour screaming and crying and being mostly inconsolable. It was especially stressful because we aren’t used to having neighbors to worry about. I was so afraid that our neighbors would hate us and think we were “annoying Americans.” It’s kind of silly, but that’s how I was! Jeff and I kept switching off between the two kiddos trying to get them back to sleep. Finally Jeff turned on the light in Nathan’s room and let him play for a while. That’s not exactly what I would do, but if that’s how Jeff wanted to do it, fine! I did let Nathan eat fruit snacks when he first got up (to try to calm him down), which is also not what I would normally do, but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. Finally, Jeff turned off Nathan’s light and Nathan wanted me. He wanted to rock and then he wanted to lay down on his new bed and then he wanted to rock. I wasn’t interested in playing games, so I just put him back in his bed (pack ‘n play – he hasn’t started sleeping in his new bed yet) and sat down to wait out some crying. He only cried for about a minute and then went silent. Phew. We were all able to go back to bed and sleep until 11:30am! Yay for jet lag!

I peeled myself out of bed around 11am so that I could shower and because I wanted to help with the jet lag. It was hard, but I've noticed that once I get moving, I feel a lot more awake. We spent the day unpacking. Well working on unpacking. We did get things sorted and moved into the various rooms, which is nice. But it’s hard to unpack when you don’t have a dresser to put the clothes in or hangers to hang in the wardrobe! I also vacuumed all of the rooms and started sweeping. It makes me feel SOOOO much better. Even just doing that little bit helps. I can’t wait to get the house cleaned and looking nice. I really do think it will be a comfortable place for us to live. Different, but nice and very comfortable. I know I kept talking about how “poor” we are going to be, but I really can’t consider us poor. We have a safe, comfortable place to live and although we are a little bit “ghetto” with our mattresses on the floor and no cover for our IKEA sofa ;), we really do have everything we need! The hardest part for me has really been the lack of food, which I think we’ll slowly be able to take care of as we take more and more trips to the grocery store and start to stock up.

I made a shopping list for Jeff and he went to the store to get enough food to get us through the rest of the weekend. We aren’t eating big meals, but it’s still nice. Tonight we had eggs, bacon, and bread. Very gourmet ;). Tomorrow is Sunday so I am making meatloaf with salad. Monday is “leftovers” or in other words, more spaghetti! I think with all of this lack of food (though by no means literally starving) and all of this walking, I’m sure to fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes in no time! Haha

We gave Nathan a late nap and then ate dinner. After dinner we all took a walk together to visit the nearby park. It was a lot of fun. It is definitely different than a walk through an American suburb, but it’s not bad. The park is beautiful with two ponds, lots of ducks and geese, and two playgrounds. One is for older kids and one is for kids younger than 8. Nathan loved it. On our way home we got stuck in a rainstorm. The weather here reminds me a lot of Seattle. Beautiful, comfortable summers and rain that just drips and passes quickly. We let Nathan stay up until around 10 or 10:30pm hoping to ease him into the normal schedule again and hoping to avoid another 2am disaster (not that we put him to bed super early yesterday).

It's VERY common to see cars parked on the pavement (sidewalks) here. The double yellow means no parking, so they just park completely on the pavement!

The front of the flat. We were on the first (what American's would call 2nd) floor.

The toddler playground at the park. Everything is metal, which is quite different from the playgrounds I had become accustomed too in Texas.

Nathan taking the car for a spin (ok, this thing probably isn't metal, but the actual play set is!). I love that the steering wheel is on the left. That's not how it should be in Britain!!!

I can't get over how much Christopher has changed since we moved here! Nathan too, really.

One of the ponds at the beautiful park.

Walking home from the park. Houses that are attached (like the ones straight ahead) are very common here. Also, the sidewalks (pavements) look a whole lot like a road and at least where we live are pretty uneven and full of potholes!

So far I feel like I can be happy and comfortable here. Of course, it’s the weekend so Jeff has been home all day, which probably helps. Plus we’ve only just begun our life here! I am looking forward to having the Internet again someday and a phone just so we don’t feel so completely disconnected from everything especially since we don’t have a TV either. We haven't even been able to tell our families that we got here safely. But even without those things, life goes on.

The living conditions are definitely different here and here are some of the things that seem the most different to me:

· Everything requires an on/off switch. Even the outlets (each of them when there are two together) have an on/off switch that you have to turn on before the outlet will work. This is also true for the dishwasher and washing machine. You have to flip a switch and THEN turn them on like we normally would in the U.S.

· It’s obvious, but everyone drives on the other side of the street and their cars have the driver’s seat on the right. It’s a little strange, but not as weird as I thought it might be. The craziest part was when we were crossing a busy intersection to get to the grocery store. It was weird to have the cars on the wrong side of the road. You have to really pay attention to be the ones that are turning RIGHT and it is so different than what is "programmed" in my brain that the whole intersection gave me a headache. It was fast and cars were driving differently than I’m used to! The roads here in the neighborhoods are two lane, but that includes shoulder space. Cars are always parked along the shoulder in various spaces, so when two cars are driving toward each other on the road, one of them has to pull off to the side (in between the other parked cars) to let the other pass.Of course they do it while driving rather quickly. I think it would take me a while to get the hang of driving here! I must say that the roundabouts are the most strange. We have them in the states, but having ones that go left instead of right really confuses me – a lot more than I would expect. I think it would be a while before I felt comfortable enough to drive here!

· The windows don’t have screens. I knew about this before I moved here, but they really don’t! I end up seeing a few extra bugs, mostly spiders, which I don’t really love, but it isn’t terrible. Also, the windows open differently - they swing out, rather than pull up. I’ll have to take a picture because it’s kind of hard to explain.

· Our front door is up sort of like a step. You have to step up and then step down when you go through the door. I don’t know if all of the doors are like that here or if it is just ours.

· The washing machine is tiny and we have no dryer. I have yet to use it, but I think that will be one of the hardest things for me about living here. Our landlord did put up a clothesline for us out in our “garden.” Although it will add work, it’s kind of “cute” to think of line drying our clothing! I’m a little worried though because our garden isn’t attached to our flat and the fence is really low so anyone could come and steal our clothes. (Like anyone would want our clothing! ha) I saw someone else drying their laundry in their garden today though, so I think it’s fairly common. Of course, with the frequent rain, it could be interesting! I’m sure it will be an adventure! 

· Our fridge/freezer combo is teeny tiny! So is our sink. [Funny enough, our fridge/freezer at that flat was quite big by British standards and the sink had TWO holes, which is also really rare - so we were spoiled and didn't even know it!]

· At our flat, we have to “pre-pay” your utilities. Basically you put money on these little cards and then you insert them into your gas meter and electric meter. It tells you how many pounds (money) of gas and electricity you have left and if it runs out then your utilities stop working.

· We have to use a key to lock/unlock our doors and windows from the INSIDE or out. Talk about a fire hazard! I’m still getting the hang of actually locking the door because it is a bit tricky to make sure it actually locks. I keep misplacing my keys and then ending up locked in my own flat! Since we are on the 2^nd floor [which here is actually called the 1st floor], we mostly keep our windows unlocked, but not the door. I keep trying to make sure I put the keys in the same place so that if there is an emergency, I can get out!

· The cars themselves are a lot smaller here. In the U.S. a mini sticks out like a sore thumb. Here they just look normal.

· Using the pound is kind of strange. It will take me a while to get used to their coins which range from 1 pence, 2 pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, 1 pound, and 2 pounds.

· We have radiators all over the house for heat in the winter. There are also pipes running along the bottom edge in some of the rooms from the radiator into the walls. It’s really hard to get the spot behind the pipe clean and it’s pretty gross in there. I wouldn’t worry too much except I have two little ones to take care of. Supposedly the pipes get warm enough that a kid would pull their hand away, but not hot enough to burn them. It will be interesting to see how that all goes with little kids and how well they actually keep me warm this winter! I sense another adventure coming up in the future…

· At least in our flat, everything is somewhat shoddily done. The overall effect is nice, but there are a lot of gaps between the floorboards, where the carpet meets the wood flooring, etc. Also the carpet in Nathan’s room and our hallway is really nasty. Vacuuming it helped, but looking at them, they still look dirty because of how old and worn they are. We have brand new carpet in our room, which is nice. The carpet doesn’t have padding though. I’m not sure if that is typically here in the UK or not.

· Our faucet in the bathroom has a separate tap for hot and cold water. It’s a little bit hard (or impossible) to wash your hands with “warm” water when the hot water is coming out of one side of the sink and the cold water is coming out of the other!

· Our tub is up really high and is also long and narrow. The shower doesn’t have much water pressure, which I’ve heard is typically in the UK, but Jeff thinks that the shower head is part of the problem. There was originally a different one with a leak, but the landlord replaced it for us with a “used” (very used looking) one that Jeff says is even worse. I’ve also noticed a lot of the things in the bathroom are REALLY rusted looking.

I think the very hardest part of being here right now is how filthy our flat is. It’s mostly just really grimy. I am really missing all of my cleaning supplies and cleaning rags that I got rid of in Texas. I know I couldn’t have brought them over here, but it would be nice to have them right now! The broom that was left with our flat is really crappy too. It’s similar to a tiny push broom (so everything has to be pushed not pulled when sweeping) and the handle is broken. Then they have a little broom and dustpan to use, but they are pretty dirty and gross themselves. I can’t wait to get it clean and comfortable! The worst for me is the kitchen and fridge. I know it will take a lot of work to get clean, but I know it will be worth it.

Really though, even with all of those things, our flat is nice. I know that sounds like a long list of complaints or something, but they really aren’t. They are just observations of differences. I actually really like our flat a lot and I think it helps that I wasn’t expecting everything to be the same. It IS interesting to think that we are paying the US equivalent of what we paid for our beautiful 2,200 square foot house in Texas to live here in 730 square feet! (Yes, I measured how many square feet it is!)