Almost a month

I have been trying to formulate this post in my head for a while. Sitting down and typing it out has been a challenge.

So, here goes some of my first impressions- things I love and hate and some that just make me laugh.

A challenge and blessing is using online grocery shopping. You can’t see or touch things and the measurements online mean nothing to my American brain. On my first online grocery order, I ordered a box of kleenex that was labeled Man-Size. I figured that it meant a large box- you know, family size. I was very wrong- they should have labeled them giant-size. They were the size of hand towels! The box was close to 2 feet long and almost a foot wide. I jest not. What a woman needs for a really good cry but not to be flushed in large numbers. Too massive. On the other side of the online size issue was some yogurts I ordered. The name was in French (really helpful). The unit size was cheap and it included 18 of them. Sounded good for my yogurt loving kiddos. Little did I know that the yogurts were too small for average sized spoons! They are bite sized for grown ups! Daniel and Jonathan like to eat 3 at a sitting. For a super eco-friendly culture, these are a really bad idea- lots of non recyclable plastic cups.

Things I love- macaroni and cheese in a can (Jonathan and Daniel love it), walking everywhere, the weather this past week (google it yourself, I don’t want to make all our fellow Texans cry in jealousy), exploring new places, watching kids get more independent, no mosquitos, being close to starbucks and some great parks

I hate dealing with a letting agent- to ask for mildewed ceilings (bad) to be painted or for permission to take down nasty broken curtains- I feel like I’m asking for huge favors. The ignition on our gas stove doesn’t work so they brought over a lighter. Thanks a lot. I really need a second rack for the oven (one is missing- two are in the manual) but we need other things, too. I hate feeling like a pest, but we aren’t exactly paying nothing for this place. Now the ants that were here when we moved in don’t want to move out, but I feel like I need to take care of them myself.

I hate feeling nervous crossing the street. Pedestrians do NOT have right of way here. They might say they do, but they lie! Sam nearly got hit by a truck this morning just outside our church. It’s on a relatively quiet lane. He was halfway across when I heard a truck coming. I screamed and he ran back to the sidewalk. The truck driver didn’t even slow down or look at me to show that he had seen him. Took me a few minutes to calm my jitters and get ready for church.

While I love the new folks we are meeting at church here, I really miss our church family at COR. I’m trying to focus on enjoying new relationships, we’ve been amazed by the hospitality here so far. But it’s not home yet, really. We were so welcomed by the Agape staff at our conference in Nottingham. It was so reassuring- our presence is valued and we will be taken care of by fellow staff.

I love Skype- it was so fun to see Dave and Shirley on camera last night. The kids gave them a tour of the flat! So fun. We miss family. Jonathan especially misses Pepper. WE talk to all the dogs that walk by but we’ve only seen 1 or 2 cats in London. Not exactly Daniel’s favorite aspect of London- he misses the nasty neighborhood cats in Houston.

I’m hoping that homeschooling continues to go well this week. Anna should be starting school soon which will be nice, I hope. I’m sure that will be a nice dose of culture shock for all of us!

How we got here

So, I’m (Monica) backing up a bit from our internet woes to tell the story of how we came to be well settled in our flat.

The story starts with the careful packing (and repacking) of 17 large bags- three 70-pounders and fourteen 50-pounders.  I dreaded seeing my own weight each time I needed a base weight for a bag.   Eventually I grew numb, and the big bags were done.  Then came the carry-ons.  The nice thing, I thought, was that they aren’t weighed, so several were loaded down with books.  The others became catchalls for everything else that wouldn’t fit in the the big bags.  Since my parents were with us, together we had 16 carryons.  The boys complained mightily about the heft of their backpacks- especially since Sam was toting 3 small toiletry bags and Jonathan had all of Anna’s underwear!  The day of our departure arrived, and Chris’ brother Matt picked up all of our bags (and 2 grown-ups) in his truck.

in front of Matt's truck with all the big bags strapped down

After we all made to the airport, a skycap wheeled all our bags to the check-in desk.  A mean man in a Continental red jacket pulled out his tape measure and determined that some of our bags were 3 inches too long (10 of our bags!).  Our brilliant friend, Nader, suggested we stand the duffles on end and tape them down. The mean red-coat (pun not-so-intentional) had already left and a more sensible employee said he would let them go.  (A $1000 decision, thank you!!)

After that drama, the rest of the journey was fairly straight forward.  It’s much easier travelling with 4 kids who can talk to you about their concerns than with twin toddlers (our last international journeys)  Our bags were heavy so we were glad when our van driver Pascha met us at Heathrow Airport.  This was a large commercial relocation van, not just a paneled van.  He took all our bags to our flat.  After we unloaded the bags,  Chris and I drove with Pascha to IKEA.  Four painful hours later, we had all we needed to furnish our flat.  It barely fit in the van!

in our hallway with 1 of many loads of cardboard

We thought assembling the furniture would be the greatest challenge, but disposing of all the packaging was quite a chore.  We had to haul it to several nearby recycling bins.

Once we had furniture assembled, we started unpacking bags and filling in the gaps.  My mom put Anna to work scrubbing the grimy walls of our flat.  We got to do some fun things around town, too.  We went to parks and saw Big Ben.  We heard an organ recital at Westminster Abbey and one at St. Paul’s cathedral.  The only one with any jet lag issues was Anna- the rest of us just collapsed into bed every night in exhaustion!

We have walked a ton!  And no end in sight to the walking.  That’s just how it goes here.  The kids have complained about sore legs- we remind them that they are just getting stronger.  Chris and I have both been happily surprised with what pops up on the screen of our new scale!  Walking has already paid off!  We try to feed Daniel whenever he says he’s hungry- no fat to burn on that boy!

More soon, just wanted to record some about how we’ve been doing.  We love the weather right now- no-one has worn shorts since we arrived!

We will be away from our computer most of next week at our UK staff conference.  We were told to bring our swimming costumes.  Hmm.

I will write a post soon about the things I love and the things I miss so far.

British Beauracracy: A Tribute to Virgin Media

We offer this, our first blog post, as a tribute to British beauracracy. Before moving to London I spent hours on the phone in attempting to set up phone and broadband in our flat. BT wouldn’t work because there are no copper lines into our flat. Sky wouldn’t work because we can’t put a dish on our building. We had a fiber optic line into the flat, installed by Virgin Media. So, Virgin it was.

Problem was: the former tenants had Virgin into this flat and new service could not begin until they canceled their service. They attempted to contact the former tenants but they were not answering the phone. Hmmmm. Once we arrived, I explained that we were now living in the flat. They replied, “A rule is a rule.” So we have spent the past two weeks with no internet access in our flat due to this wonderful rule from Virgin. I spent several (frustrating) hours on the phone with them.

Yesterday the magic box came. We set it up and now we are up and running.

Now, finally, we can begin blogging. Thanks for your patience. We will try to update regularly.