No Place Like Home....s

Hey! I'm gonna blog.

Lots of things have happened since I blogged last. Here's a one sentence synopsis: We moved to a new house, had visitors for a month, visited America, then another visitor.

To get the ol' bloggin ball a rollin again, I thought I'd do a Britland vs "The States" list. See, there were a lot of things we were looking forward to in America. Space, fountain drinks, space, food, space, oh, and friends and family... Once we got there, though, I was looking forward to some of the Britishy things I'd left behind. So here they are, all organizationally layed out for you and whatnot!

God Bless American...

* fountain drinks * road space * Mexican food * mountains *

smoke-free beaches with sunshine * boating * junk food * hot dogs

* campfires * Old Navy * friends & family * country music *

exchange-rate making everything on sale for us people who are paid in pounds *

campfires * lack of inhibition * Slurpees and SnoCones *

Reeses anything * stores that stay open past 5:00 pm * SUVs and pickups *

weaponry (pocketknives, bb guns, etc) *

Good Old Britishy...

* roundabouts * cheese * chocolate * Indian food * public transportation *

accents * politeness * wellies * rain on the conservatory roof *

markets * healthy eating * spunky old ladies * friends *

international holiday destinations * history * villages * London

* Caramel Digestives * teapots * Lush bath ballistics * footpaths * countryside *

Primark * double-decker busses * the kids saying Britishy phrases *

overall Britishy-ness *

It looked all cute and in different fonts and sizes, but then it all went away, because sometimes blogger hates me. Enjoy anyway!

Cornucopia O' British-y Fun

Remember me? No? Well, my fault, I guess. I'll hopefully be a better bloggy-pal now since the boys are back in school (woo-hoooo!) but I was looking over another blog of mine and realizing I've made these empty promises before, so I won't fill this one full of well-intentioned lies, too. I have a lot to tell you, so instead of make a long post about one event and then make more empty promises to post about the rest, how about a Cornucopia O' Britishy Fun? Alright then.

*We went on a family vacation to Cornwall. It was rainy a lot and kind of chilly for the beach, but we expected that, so it was still buckets of fun. Buckets. On the beach just down the road from where we were staying they had a contest I've never seen before. No, no, before you even go there, everyone was fully clothed. Come back to me now... out of the gutter... there. They had about 30 numbered stakes in the sand along the shore. Groups of about 4-8-ish people each had around 45 minutes to build a giant sand pile by their stake, and then everyone from the group had to stand on top of it. Then you wait. And wait. Eventually the tide comes in, and if anyone from your sand mound gets wet, your group is out. Last ones standing win. It was about as exciting as it sounds.... "C'mon, Liam, dig faster!" "Go on, Gav, pat that sand down 'round the sides there!" "Here comes one! Oh! 'Bout got yer foot there, eh?" Really, though, it was a great example of Britishy competition. Americans would be too easily bored and give up after the first hour...or two... or three... but the Britishy Folks are amazingly patient and awesome and like their slow-paced fun times. Even when we gave up after a few hours, there were still about 10 groups standing and a whole crowd of eager sand...mound..standing..(?) fans there cheering them on. I love it.

About 2 hrs into the contest:

...and now about 3 hrs in...

*Another Cornwall highlight was Kynance Cove. It's like the Disneyland of beaches, and we had a blast. You have to hike down some cliffs to get there, and it's only there at low tide. Since the sand spends half the time underwater, it is perfect for sand castles. The tide leaves little kiddie-sized pools in the sand behind the big rocks, and the ocean-although freakin' freezin'- has good boogie-boarding waves. You can buy wet-suits, sand toys, and boogie boards in the beach shop, and the whole place is just amazingly beautiful. If you are in Cornwall, go there. Or else. (fist shaking)

*Moving on from our "holiday", Cap'n Jack (our 7-yr old) had a whole day of Culture-Training. (shaking head sadly.) He now is filled with such vital information as the fact that Britishy Folks like to talk about the weather, don't embrace change, and are often found waiting in queues. I don't know how he could have survived life here without that amazing 7 hour course. JimmyD had to do his business-y Culture Training at work, but we weaseled out of the whole Saturday they had scheduled for the entire family session. It would have been a great thing if they had bothered to do it before we moved here, or even within the first month... or two... or three of getting here. So the moral of the story? If they offer you culture training, get them to do it before you go or right after you arrive, or else just laugh at them and tell them you "couldn't be bothered" to do the course, thus showing your Britishy culture skills in your diss.

*The TV Licensing people are after us. We haven't gotten a license since we don't watch live TV, so they keep sending us threatening letters. We might have to get one, I don't really know. They have threatened a few times now to stop by and inspect our TV setup, and I really wish they would, so we would know once and for all if we really have to get the license. (Our TV is hooked up to a computer with all our TV shows, movies, and music on it. I don't know if we could get live TV on our setup.) On the plus side, it makes me feel all edgy and wild to be evading the TV police.

*Stinker has officially decided to refer to tomatoes as to-mah-toes. It was a long and well-thought out decision on his part, and he seems to be pleased with the course he has chosen. He also now refers to "having a turn" as "having a go". Like this: "Mom, can I have a go on the Wii now?"

*Here's a brief overview on shops (stores to us Americans):

-Boots sells beauty products and medicines, not... well... boots.

-Aldi has super-kick-butt-awesome prices on food. Go there.

-Go to the Market (market stalls, sometimes everyday, sometimes weekends, depending on where you live) for your butcher, cheese, and produce.

-Next has such cute little tiny girl clothes and shoes that it is dangerous, but in a good way.

-Marks and Spencers is pricey and posh, but has good quality and inexpensive school uniforms.

-Lush is... well... lush. Ahhh, the hippie-meets-valley-girl goodness of that bath and body store is heavenly.

-Sainsbury's has everything, like a Super Wal-Mart or Super-Target, but not at the same low prices. You can find deals on things like clothes or home supply stuff, but not really on food.

-Argos has what you need for your home and toys for the kids, and my kids can be entertained for hours looking through their ginormous catalogue. Once they are done looking at it you can use it as their booster-seat at the table.

Well, time to pretend to help as JimmyD gets the kids into bed. What? No, I mean... time to get them in bed. I hope the uber-random post I've just given you will fill the void I've left his last month or so, and I plan on doing smaller posts more often. Oh, I did it, there's a potentially empty promise. At least know, if it goes unfulfilled, that I have every intention of keeping it right now. Life (and amazingly slow internet connections) just get in the way sometimes. Until next time, may your oversized car fit into the tiny parking spaces of the Britishy world.

Settled In

I've been thinking a lot lately about what seems normal, what seems weird, what is still cool, and what I'm used to about being all Britishy. (Did you follow that? No? It's cool- read on.) We've lived here about 3 months now- and we've had our stuff for a little over half that time. We are now... officially... settled!

For the first month or so after arrival, people's favorite question was "Are you settling in alright?" The answer then was "No, because I'm sleeping on the floor and cooking with less stuff than you take camping." It took a while, even after getting our belongings... and unpacking and assembling all the Ikea furniture... to feel settled. I guess for all you future expats, here's what we found needed to happen (besides having our stuff) before we felt settled:

- Getting financial things set up.
This meant bank account here, transferring money home, reimbursements for our moving expenses all sorted out, setting up bill-pay for utilities, (well, first figuring out what utilities there were to set up), getting checks, figuring out how to write them, getting our debit cards, figuring out how to use them, etc. There are a million of things like that to get all set up and arranged. Even getting used to the new appearance of cash takes a while before it feels natural.

-Getting the kids in school and a routine.
This involved researching and visiting local schools, applying to the county school board, waiting, waiting more, meeting new teachers, getting uniforms figured out, and getting Stinker used to even attending school at all. He was only in pre-school at home three mornings a week, and here he's all-day real school. He did pretty well. Even after getting all the official things figured out, there are still new habits to form- where to leave backpacks and homework so we can find them, when to do homework, what to do in the morning vs. in the night to get ready.... all those things. We figured them all out just in time for school to let out for the summer.

-Meeting people.
No matter how outgoing and friendly you are, you can only remember so many names and info about people in the first few weeks. Some people can remember all that easily, but for me it took three... or four... or more times of hearing or asking some names before I really knew them. You need to know people's sense of humor, attitudes, etc. before you can really feel comfortable chatting with them. Even if you put forth a huge effort, you just have to hang around people for a while before you feel like they are not a new person to you. And then you have to hope that they aren't scared off by your vast amounts of crazy. Maybe that's just me, though... ; ) I was also busy worrying about the kids... and JimmyD... hoping they were getting to know people, too.

- Feeling like everyday things are familiar.
Roads, stores, pubs(restaurants), what food is at the grocery store, how your appliances work.... Whenever you move to a new place there are a few things that you have to get used to. In a new country, it sometimes seems like everything is just different enough to throw you off. Road signs are different, shopping carts are different (they move sideways like at Ikea and you have to pay to unchain them! You get your money back when you return it.) how and where you go out to eat are different. I can go to the store now without having to really concentrate. I swear I'm not a blonde. It's harder than you'd think!

-Language.
Now, I know that in England they speak the same language as we do in America, but they really don't. I felt extremely handicapped when I tried to speak. It's not just that some words are different- the phrasing is different, too. Then there are the times when a word or phrase that I know, but just don't usually use, is what's normal here. Confused? Here, I'll show you. An American would say "Just park by the curb while I run into the store real quick for some milk." Or at least a Rednecked American. A Britishy person might say, "If you'll just wait by the kerb to stop us getting towed, I'll pop into the shop for some milk." This is actually kind of a fun game. Let's try another one. Hmmm.... A Rednecked American out to eat with a kid throwing a tantrum would say, "Kid, if you don't knock it off right now you'll be sittin' in the truck while we eat." A Britishy person out to eat wouldn't have a child throwing a tantrum, but if they did, they might say "Thomas, let's not have a strop in the middle of the pub. I shouldn't like to have to put you in the Mini whist the rest of us all sit comfortably indoors to eat our supper. There's a good lad." The point of all this was: it takes a while before you feel like you can talk without sounding like an idiot. Then there's the whole accent thing. It threw me at first, but now I kind of forget that people have an accent. I forget that I'm the one with the accent, I guess. I'm always a little surprised when people on the phone know who I am before I say my name, but then I remember that I have a crazy American accent giving me away.

Things now are just about right. I don't feel so out of place that I have to figure out everything I do or say all day long. I do still notice the differences enough to feel like I'm on an adventure. Jimmy D and I still say to each other, "Hey- guess what? We live in England. Weird!"


PS- We dicided to take a long weekend holiday to Edinburgh, Scotland and a week holiday to Cornwall here in England. We'll fill you in on those as they happen.

Comfort Food

Look, I'm here, as promised! Oh, yes, the blog-tastic week is here! It will kind of be catch-up, since I have a lot of things saved up for blogs, like pictures and whatnot.

Since we've arrived, I have been thinking a lot about different cultures' ways of doing things. Everyone on the planet has the same basic needs, and everyone has their own ways of meeting them. No two people are alike, which means there are as many ways to do things as there are people on the earth. When you take that into consideration, it's surprising how many things are similar about cultures and countries across the world. Aaaaand now I'm sounding too much like I'm about to break into an off-key rendition of "Heal the World", so let's move on.

One of the things we take for granted is the familiar food that surrounds us. We don't stop to question every thing we come across on the shelves at the grocery store, because we have seen those items for our whole lives. We know to look for a blue box if we want mac and cheese, or what to expect out of salad dressing. (Betcha didn't know you had expectations of your salad dressing! Well, you do.) There ends up being a lot of value in that easy relationship we form with the things around us. I never would have put it that way until I went food shopping here. It's like the twilight zone: everything is almost exactly the same, but just different enough to make you think way harder than you should have to about things like cheese and canned corn.

I had noticed this, but it didn't really hit home until I took a trip to The Food Company. They are a pricey store that sells a lot of foreign foods. (I'll do the exchange rate conversion for you and tell you the cost in US Dollars) Including...

MOUNTAIN DEW!!!!

only $2.12 a can!

American Marshmallows

$4.01 a bag

Cereal

$9.01 - $12.04 a box

10 packets Quaker Instant Oatmeal

$10.07 a box

(Are you couponers from the U.S. just dying at that?! I used to pick them up on sale, with coupon, for like 50 cents at Albertson's.)

Good ol' Aunt Jemima syrup

$8.56

Box o' Jell-O

only $2.65!

Reeses PB chips (my cookies miss these!!)

$7.50 a bag

Betty Crocker cake mix

$5.30

I didn't buy any more than Jimmy D's Father's Day Mt. Dew (it's like liquid gold!) and a bag of Goldfish crackers, but just seeing the familiar boxes and bags was enough to tempt me into being ripped off for the sake of the warm fuzzies they brought! I didn't expect to feel so emotional about those things! It's not like there aren't substitutes here that are as good (or better) than these products, but they are not mine. It's like rooting for the home team.

Still, I'm not gonna pay 12 bucks for cereal, even if I kind of want to hug the box and bask in its familiarity. So, send me some stuff. ; )

Bloggin' It Old School

If you need the pics bigger to read them, click on them. Or get glasses, you old person.




Moving on to things we've been up to here in Britland... (I wrote that out too, but the picture of the writing didn't work.)

Videos O' Britishy Fun

Jimmy D was mowing today. It was sad, and a little bit funny. And sad some more. So... I decided it needed to be recorded for you. After I recorded it, I went on a video spree. The first one is something I will call:

Stuff Here Is Tiny

(I'm too tired to be clever with the title)

It's okay, though. I have realized that the tiny things force me to use moderation. Like with the laundry- instead of dumping everything in the kids' dirty clothes basket into the washer, and then nagging them about all the clean clothes mixed in, I actually go through them (or make the kids do it) and have less wash to do in the end. Or, maybe we just end up smelling a little funny sometimes. It's cool. And with the fridge, I won't have room for moldy leftovers. Bad for science, good for me. See?

Just to be fair, I also did one that I will call:

Not Everything Here Is Tiny, Some Stuff Is Huge-ish

That video was less awesome, though, because you see both of my chins as I lay on the towel. Or really, my chin becomes my neck in a very unflattering sort of way.

The last one here I will call:

British Pantry Fun

We went to Asda today. Asda is kind of like British Wal-Mart. It is even owned by Wal-Mart. I have thought the past few days that things are more similar to home than I thought they would be, (what?) but that was before I tried a big shopping trip. Everything is just different enough to throw you off and make shopping tricky. Hamburger is mince meat, and pricey. (I think). Bacon is not bacon as I know it. If I want bacon bacon, I have to get Pork Belly Strips (or something like that- they are downstairs and I am lazy, so close enough.) Sugar isn't with the baking aisle, it's by all the tea. I don't know if they have cocoa powder- it was hiding somewhere. Mexican products are expensive and scarce. The cheese, though, makes it all worth the trouble. I see now why Wallace is always telling Grommit about it.

Also, just an update on how we're doing. We've been crazy busy getting things done. We've called to have our oil tank filled (for the boiler), gotten pay-as-you-go cell phones, set up a bank account, found Asda, applied to get the boys into school, checked on utilities, internet, garbage pickup, met people in the ward, and eaten some cheese. And donuts.

We're Here!!!

We're here, schtep in time, we're here, schtep in time, umdiddleiddlee umdiddleye, we're here schtep in time!

Okay, sorry, but the event merited the singing.

We made it!

One 4 hr flight, one 2 hr layover, another 8 hr flight, a shuttle to the rental car place, and a 1 1/2 hr drive later, we made it to our house in England! Yay!!!

The flight was actually better than I thought it would be. We only had one major meltdown from a kid (Stinker didn't want to take his Dramamine because "it tastes bad", so he screamed, we threatened, and after everyone at the gate was staring at the parents forcing drugs into their child, he relented.). All three kids slept soundly through the overnight flight. We found a car large enough to transport our crazy large amounts of luggage. (A "people carrier", actually.) Our beloved SatNav got us smoothly to our house. There's a video of our SatNav/people carrier adventure on my Facebook page*.

I LOVE our house. I can't wait until our things get here to set it all up. I think we really got lucky getting it at the price we did- it is amazing. I was prepared for a tiny place with no closets, but this house is big and abounding with fitted wardrobes. (I would have usually said it has a plethora of closets, but "abounding with fitted wardrobes" sounds more British-y.)

Our first grocery shopping trip was... interesting. It didn't start well- we were barely off our nearly 24 hr. traveling adventure, so that was fun to start with. We went to the center of our town, to the shopping center, to see if we could get a phone, but the shops all close early. The shopping center was right next to a Tesco, so we decided to stay there and get some basics for our empty pantry. Outside I had to wait a minute and watch someone else to figure out how to get a cart. They were all chained together with locks on each one. Apparently, you put a one pound coin into a slot, the chain comes unlinked, and you shop. When you return the cart, your coin pops back out for you to take. I don't know if all grocery stores are like that, it might have just been this place. Inside was pretty normal- we found the essentials, but then at the register you bag your own groceries, but I guess everyone usually brings their own bags. The clerk gave us a stack of plastic ones to use, but they weren't on a stand, so we took a long time trying to get them open and unstuck. They are very thin, so I snagged a few extra for when our things inevitably broke through. Outside, Jimmy D had to take a few trips to the car. We were parked across the street in a car park. I'm pretty sure that while he was gone, Sunshine and I watched a drug deal. I'm think we'll find another place to shop next time. At least one with a parking lot outside and no drug dealers.

(Our town is very nice, we just found the most interesting place in it to go for groceries, I think.)

Well, folks, more to come later. Just wanted to let you know we're here, we made it, and everything is going well!

* Any pictures or videos that are too specific on who we are and where we live will be on my facebook page. That way I can leave my blog public. I mean, we're not that sneaky, but then at least I feel like I'm trying.