Keepin' It Real

I feel like overall I've kept a pretty positive attitude with everything we've gone through so far, but I'd be lying if I said it's been easy. Here are just a few of the difficulties.

A random picture of countryside to break up the text

Not having easy access to public toilets. Especially with a 3 and 5 year old. Most restaurants or businesses have been really understanding if one of the kids really needs to go, but the reality is that many shops just do not have bathrooms at all.

Inconvenient restaurant times. Since we are still in temporary housing, we haven't been able to do much cooking at all. And it's not always easy to find a place to eat. There are sandwich shops, which are open late morning to late afternoon. Then the proper restaurants usually open around 6pm for early birds. There are a few fast food places, but not many (and no drive thrus). Also, if you don't have reservations for weekend dinner, you're basically stuck with takeaway.

We stayed in the round building for two days

Not having local friends. I know I will make friends, but it does get a little lonely not to have someone to text or hang out with. It's hardest for me in the mornings, when I feel chatty but it's still the middle of the night in the US.

Language barrier. Of course people from both countries speak English, but there's a wide variation of terminology. I'm trying to use the English (England English) words and phrases, but I haven't caught on with certain things. I say pants all the time, which means underpants here. Trousers. Trousers. Trousers. Someday I'll get it.
There's also a wide variety of accents. Not a big deal, really, it just can take a moment for your brain to catch up with a conversation including multiple people.

An actual key to one of the apartments we stayed in

Bacon. What they call bacon here is not what we're used to. It's thick and more hammy than bacony. We're still new enough that we get a little disappointed after ordering food with bacon.

Electric showers. Yes, these are real. It's supposed to be a more efficient heating method, as it only warms the water being used. Maybe we have only experienced awful ones, but it started out with a few minutes of ice cold water, followed by a few minutes of super hot water. And adjustments to temp in between take some time.

Park day

Moving around a lot. This has by far been the most difficult part of our move. The town we're in has a lot of festivals and events, so there hasn't been room for us to stay in one apartment/hotel until we get our own flat. We've been here four weeks, and are now in our sixth temporary residence. We've never unpacked anything since the longest we've been in one place is a week. Plus it's been really hard on the kids. It's bad enough that they don't have their toys and other things, but to be uprooted so many times has made them even more homesick. I'm really looking forward to settling in to one place and staying there.

I know that a lot of these things are either temporary or will improve with time (except the bacon). And once we are settled in and used to things, I'm very confident that we will really like it here.