Things I Am Starting to Get Used To...

1. No open container law - people drink beer on the bus, in the park, walking down the street, on the playground, etc.

2. People standing in the wheelchair/stroller(they call them buggies) area of the bus and refusing to move when Charlie and I struggle to get his stroller in there (even though there is a sign that says priority should be given to wheelchairs and buggies. I can see why city people would get cranky after years of using public transportation.

3. Almost everything being closed by 8pm.

Update.

Hello. It has been too long since I have posted, but I am just struggling to get into the swing of things here and haven't felt up to it. Charlie and I are going to go out and do some exploring today. Here are some random updates:

I mastered getting Charlie/stroller on and off buses by myself.

Josh turned 28 on Tuesday, so I made my first purchase on amazon.com.uk.

We joined Blockbuster online since it is super expensive to rent movies here normally (3.75 to 3.95 pounds for one night!).

I figured out how to use Skype to call cell phones and landlines in the US. Now, if I could only get rid of the 5 hour time difference. Thank you to V, your voice mail made my morning because I was feeling lonely. I will try you tonight.

My mom, dad, and Ryan are in Florida at Disneyworld. I got to talk to them because of my Skype discovery and it sounds like they are having a lot of fun. I can't wait until they visit us, but I think my dad would hate it here. I am thinking of us taking a trip to Normandy.

Well, I am off for now.

Jeanne

Queen of the Castle Again...

Well Josh took his mom to the airport this morning and she is waiting to get on her plane back home. She watched Charlie last night so we could go out and see "Son of Rambow" (really, really cute movie). I really appreciated her help (even though she drove me crazy at times), but I am ready for us to get into our own routine. I feel a little funny about it all - like I was using her presence as my excuse for not getting settled and now I have no excuse. I think Charlie and I will go out and enjoy the sunshine and think about what we will do this year.

Snow?

It was in the 60s a few days ago and this morning it is snowing. I didn't think it was supposed to snow much here, especially not in spring...hmm.

We Made It!! Part 2: The "Flat"

Our apartment is really cute. I was pretty worried about what it would be like because Catherine kept apologizing in advance for how it looks, but I guess that is just her way. I think Charlie likes it a lot and feels pretty at home. He is already into a pretty regular schedule after one week of being in London which I find pretty impressive considering we had to get used to a new time zone. We are still settling in. I think I finally learned how to use hot water in the shower without asking Josh for help which is nice. Our toilet is different. It needs like a flush and a half to make it work and then it is uses an impressive amount of water. We don't have a door knob. We have a washing machine, but no dryer so there are two meat hooks in the ceiling and a long bar that the last people used to dry their clothes (I also have a drying rack). There is a laundromat around the corner, but it will be easier to do it this way since I have Charlie by myself most of the day. Hmm, what else... We were here for three days and someone buzzed our door to ask about renewing our TV license. In England, if you own a color TV, you have to pay for a TV license for each TV that can pick up British broadcasting stations. I told them that we didn't have a TV since we just got here and he said that he had to come in and search our apartment for unlicensed TVs. He looked in every room and gave me information about registering a TV if we buy one. It will cost us about $260 for the year if we get a TV. We are still undecided if we want to get one. I thought that was a little strange though. Apparently, we were in a database of apartments that don't have a license or who claim to have a black and white TV (there is a smaller fee if you have a black and white TV) so they inspect those places first. We love the bus system. I highly recommend the Number 12 Bus. You can walk to the stop in a couple minutes from our apartment and it will take you by all of the top tourist attractions. I appreciated that Josh's mom came to help us out and it was very useful for the first few days, but I am ready of have some privacy again. I don't feel like I can settle in completely until we are on our own. She is also driving me completely insane, but that is a whole other post that I will never write. This is such a rambling post, I am sure I will make more sense after I am here for a bit longer. I think we can all learn a lesson about getting making yourself comfortable in unfamiliar places. We just got back from dinner at Catherine's house. We looked over and Charlie had taken his pants off and had a big smile on his face.

We Made It!! Part 1: the Journey

Wow, I can't believe we left New York a week ago. It has been such a whirlwind. The flights were much better than I imagined they would be, but they were still completely exhausting. Here is the general travel schedule we had:

March 26th:

1pm: 45 minute car ride to the Rochester airport
4pm: flight from Rochester to JFK in New York City
5:30pm: arrive at JFK, take a train to the proper terminal, go through security again
8pm: flight from JFK to Heathrow

March 27:

2:30am (6:30am London time): arrive at Heathrow, go through immigration, get bags, find our driver
3:30am (7:30am London time): car ride to our apartment
5am (9am London time): arrive at apartment, bring up bags, meet Catherine (Josh's boss/our landlady)
10:30am: collapse on the bed


Charlie is a traveling champ. I was really glad that we used his carseat because I think it would have been a lot harder without it. He is used to being stuck in that in the car, so it wasn't such a stretch to be stuck in it in the plane. He almost fell asleep on the plane ride to New York City, but we landed while he was just groggy and struggling to stay awake. He fell asleep before we pulled away from the gate on the flight to London, but only slept about 2 of the 6 hours. We did a lot of walking around the plane looking enviously at the sleeping passengers trying to keep Charlie occupied. The Air India flight was awesome. I highly recommend flying with them. We ate awesome chicken curry for dinner and the flight attendants were really nice and accommodating. We watched bollywood shows and The Nanny Diaries (odd mix). Charlie was not as happy to be trapped in his carseat, but he did ok. We got to Heathrow and saw the immigration line and I almost cried it was so long. Charlie was already really wiggly and impatient and I couldn't imagine holding him in the long line. We got to the gate to the line and they escorted us to our own line and we went quickly through. Apparently, they let people traveling with small children go in their own line. I was thrilled. We got our bags, met our driver Barry with a thick cockney accent and tried to stuff our bags and ourselves into his car. It was over an hour from the airport to our apartment because of it being rush hour in London. Charlie was really good though. He spent most of the time looking out the window. Riding with Barry was our introduction to the various accents. It is embarrassing how often I have to ask people to repeat what they say. We arrived at our really nice apartment and met Catherine, Josh's boss and our landlady. She had fully stocked the fridge and cupboards with food so we didn't have to find a store right away. We collapsed on the bed and began our life in London. I have so much to catch up on, I will try to do it in parts. I have to run for now though.