England!

We made it! We have officially been here a week and it's starting to feel like home. Ok, that's a lie, but to say we are happy, healthy and have a great apartment would be an accurate statement.

Things that feel like home:
-I can still blog and listen to Shaun Hannity before bed. Thanks iheart radio.
-I turn on the TV and can find shows like NCIS, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends and The Big     Bang Theory.
-The apartment smells like fall
-I can still get BBQ sauce and cilantro at the store
-Boston still running around in his underwear
-Boston and Maddie fighting/making messes everywhere they go.

Things that are going to take some getting used to:
-The accent. Most of the time I'm like "Whaaat?" in my head.
-Stupid electricity is different and has burned out many of my favorite things. (and by many I mean two: my blowdryer and my scentsy candle warmer, ruined my day. Ok, not really, but put a damper on my spirits. If my flat Iron goes, I'll probably loose it.)
-The washer/dryer being the same machine in my kitchen
-Only being able to dry about 5 items of clothing at a time
-Taking 6 hours to do one load of laundry (that was even BEFORE i found out that you had to dry only a few things at a time)
-The money (pounds, etc)
-The eggs aren't refridgerated in the store. They're just in an isle. A regular, non refridgerated isle, like where you'd find bread and cereal. (If my grandma hadn't warned me about that, I probably would have freaked out and refused to buy eggs because I was convinced we'd get food poisoning. Apparently, eggs don't need to be kept cold. It just helps them last longer.)
Driving on the right side of the road/sitting in the passenger seat on the left.
-going left in round abouts.
-No phones
-no internet except when you're in the apartment.
-Stupid front door, and no doorknob. (more on that later)
-The shopping carts. It's like an entire ab/body workout to control them.

Things you can't find at the store:
-Grape Jelly/Jam
-Chocolate chips (i'm talking normal size you use to make chocolate chip cookies)
-Spice cake mix, Yellow cake mix
-Pumpkin smelling candles
-Macaroni and cheese (they have it, but it's in a can...no thank you)
-Sour cream
-family packs of chicken (most you'll find in a package is 6 chicken breasts.)
-Slides. Like park slides and swings. I know these aren't at the store and therefore shouldn't be included in this list, but you won't find them here unless it's a place you pay for your kids to get into because the government decided it's too dangerous....

Awesome things you can get here you can't get at home:
-Double Cream
-Amazing Custard
-Incredible Indian food from a jar! (it's like their Mexican food, entire isles of it!)
-Rice yogurt. I know it sounds weird, but I'm obsessed.

Weird words:
Trolly=shopping cart
pudding=dessert
ring them=call them
There have actually been a whole lot more, but I don't understand what in the world they're saying yet. Half of the time I feel like saying "Speak English!" Except they are. ha ha. Ok, I wouldn't really yell that, but I've noticed that if I'm not focused on them when they're talking I catch only about 10%. I may or may not have even kept on walking while nodding and smiling while someone was trying to talk to me because I could not understand what he was saying to me other than "Ma'am". I did however have a facsinating conversation with a worker at ASDA (think Wal-mart) who asked me if I was from New York, and told me he could listen to me talk all day. It was so cute. Anyway, as I figure out more what the heck people are saying and the words they are using I'll write them down.

Being here only one week, I still have a lot to learn, and I'm hoping I have time to adjust (happily I might add) to the way things are here in England. Chris is doing fantastic! I haven't seen him so awake and alert for three years! He will send me a message during the day saying he's amazed at how productive he's been and it's only 11 am in the morning! And at night we actually have time to hangout sans les enfants that's French for without the children. I don't know where that came from, maybe it's because I'm closer to Paris than I've ever been in my entire life. ha ha ha. The kids are in bed by 8pm (which happens to be 1pm Utah time in case you were wondering). We've been told by many we HAVE to watch Downtown Abby, so since it's 9pm we're about to start so we're in the in crowd.

Things to catch you up on:
-Disneyland
-Airplane ride over here
-getting settled and the first week.

Be excited. Be very excited. (ok, I'll be honest, there's not much to get excited about other than a few funny stories, but it's still worth reading. :)





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