Thanksgiving 2019

This year on Thanksgiving, I volunteered at the school once again for an American holiday celebration.

The Infants classes (which is Reception, Year 1, and Year 2) had a morning full of crafts and pin the tail on the turkey. But I had the best job of all - I helped in the tasting room. The American families brought in traditional dishes, and I passed out small portions to the kids. We had rolls and cornbread, pork stuffing, plantains, canned cranberry sauce, chocolate pie, pumpkin pie, and apple pie (with a sample of Cool Whip).

I served the foods while explaining what we were eating and some differences in American Thanksgiving and British Christmas dinner. Surprisingly, most of the kids at least tried everything, though they definitely didn't like it all. The most popular dishes of the day were cornbread, chocolate pie, and (for some) cranberry sauce. And I'm pretty sure that everyone loved Cool Whip- which was a completely new thing for the locals. The head of education, along with the head teacher and deputy head (like principal and vice principal) also popped in to sample all of the food.

At lunchtime, all parents and siblings of American students were invited to eat with the infants. The kitchen staff had prepared a turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade creamed corn, stuffing, and green beans. It was very tasty, and fun to share our culture.

That evening, Matt and I had parent/teacher meetings, so we had a quick dinner of our traditional English turkey dinner pies.

The following day, we picked the kids up early from school for a surprise. Miles was slightly disappointed that we weren't "celebrating Black Friday," but he soon cheered up.

We went to lunch at Pizza Express (one of the kids' favorites).

Then we went to the cinema to see Frozen 2. We had secretly packed Lily and Clara's Anna and Elsa dresses, so they were able to dress up. All three kids enjoyed the movie and the general fun of the day.

The seats are so roomy and comfortable

We did have a big Thanksgiving meal on that Sunday, and we invited another American family from the school to join us. Somehow I didn't take any pictures on that day, but it was a great time with kids playing and adult conversation. I'll have to make a note to get pictures next year!

One Year

Yesterday was the anniversary of our arrival in the UK. It really has been a whirlwind at times, and seems like it has been much longer than one year. Here are some highlights (and some not so fun parts).

-Moving around 6 times in 6 weeks before we found our apartment.

-Having the kids start school a couple of weeks after we got here. Not knowing the unspoken details on uniforms (although the school was very forgiving), and just the huge transition for the kids starting school in a different country.

-I heard from another expat about moving to England from the US, that you're in a place where everything is just slightly different. That's spot on for me. Things are largely the same, but it is an adjustment. Converting measurements and temperatures, different words and phrases, and trying to find your regular ingredients at the grocery store, just to name a few.

- First holidays. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Bonfire Night, Christmas, etc. Learning new customs (especially from the kids) and trying new things.

- Adjusting to not having as many visitors as we had in Colorado. Matt's mom visited in the fall, and we currently have visitors (yay!), but that's it so far. I think it's been rough on all of us to be so far away from friends and family.

- The beginnings of travel. So our only big trip so far has been Barcelona, but we actually have a couple more trips booked, so there will be more coming soon.

- Starting to make friends here. As an introvert, it's easier for me to stay in and do nothing, but I have worked on pushing myself. I'm taking it slowly, but it's coming along.

There's so so much more that has happened than just those things, but I wanted to keep it brief. It has been incredibly difficult at times, but if I knew then what we would have to go through, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I'm so grateful for the opportunity we have here, and am so glad that we can share this with the kids. Now let's see where this next year takes us!

Today I'm Missing...

Movie theater popcorn. The kind with loads of artery-clogging fake butter sauce. We haven't been to the movies here yet, but I know from other sources that you don't get the butter. You choose salty or sweet (um, no) and that's it. What I wouldn't give right now for a massive tub of the good stuff.

Spaghetti squash. I've seen so many delicious looking recipes lately, but unfortunately there are none of these squashes in the stores.
Doesn't this look amazing?

And finally, last week for some reason I was thinking about the town we moved from. I was picturing a particular stretch of road, and a pang of homesickness washed over me. Now, I honestly haven't had many instances like that over the past five months, and it only lasted a moment. It was just completely unexpected.

Image via visitarvada.org

Wouldn't you miss these views, too?

visitarvada.org again

Things I'm Missing/Things I'm Loving

Just a few things...

MISSING

Friends and family

Wifi (we have another couple of days before our internet is hooked up - 2 weeks after we called to set it up)

Colorado sunshine

Costco (there's one in Leeds, but we haven't gone yet)

Having a TV (we're getting one soon)

Having a yard

Tumble dryers

American sized ovens



LOVING

Being able to walk everywhere

We're starting to think about travel plans (& there's so much to choose from!)

Yorkshire Tea and an oaty biscuit or scone with jam and cream

Cider (the adult kind)

Being a bit distanced from politics right now

One Step at a Time

My grandmother never learned how to drive. Ever since I can remember, I had wondered why she didn't just get out there and do it, but after moving here I can completely empathize.
We've been here for a month and a half, and I'm still not driving. It's not driving on the left side of the road that worries me. It's the narrow streets in town, where cars park partly on the sidewalk on both sides. This leaves just enough space for two cars to get through (sometimes barely enough room for one). Even as a passenger this is frightening, as it feels like the left side of the car is much closer to anything than it actually is.
Roundabouts are another thing that worry me. I'm not talking about a dinky little roundabout like you can find in the States, I mean a 3 laner with 4 or more exits. And I can't even think about getting on the motorway yet.
But, I have to just get out there and do it, right? And last night I had a go. I drove from our place to the grocery store, which was about 2 miles and 15 minutes. I drove on one narrow street, and through two roundabouts. I got a little confused with the lanes in a roundabout, but I managed. I'm still anxious, and won't be trying to drive everywhere, but I'm proud that I did it. It has to get better from here.

Apartment!

We got the keys to our apartment today, and the movers come tomorrow with everything that came over on the boat. Hooray! It feels like we've been here for three months already, and I'm sure that our transience hasn't helped.

So, without further ado, here are some pictures I took of the inside. Please excuse the awful lighting.

Kitchen (bigger than the one we had in Colorado). There's also a separate water closet on this floor.

Living Room

Bathroom (there's a shower to the right of the toilet)

Bathroom storage

View from the bathroom. I'll definitely be closing those blinds!

Big kids' room, with built in wardrobe

Baby's room (tiny!)

Besides being tiny, the baby's room also has a built in desk. We'll just have to make it work.

Master bedroom

Master, much roomier than it seems here

There are three built in wardrobes in the hall, and that's where Matt and I will put our clothes. I'm excited about all of this storage space, because it's not uncommon here for there to be no closets or wardrobes included with the dwellings.

So after the movers drop everything off, I'm guessing we will be spending most of our time unpacking for a couple of weeks. Then we'll be settling into a routine, which doesn't sound that fun, but I'm looking forward to.

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.

Driving Test

I had to take a written driving test yesterday, or I can't legally drive starting next week. I read through the Highway Code, and although there's a lot of common sense stuff in there, there's also a lot that differs from the US. This test was hard, man. There were several questions that I hadn't remembered seeing mentioned in the book at all, so I guessed. And I guessed well, because I passed (yay).
There were about 6 of us taking the test at the time. We waited outside for our results, all talking about how we were certain we had failed. Matt was there too, since Clara couldn't take the test with me. When they called me in to tell me my score, he told the others that they'd be able to tell my results from how I came out of the room. If I looked all mopey, then I had failed. If I had passed, I'd try (and fail) to keep a straight face so others wouldn't feel bad.
And he was wrong, because I was just too excited. I jumped out of that room and yelled, "I passed!"

House Hunting

We've been looking at different houses and apartments since we arrived, and, you guys, this is hard.

We started out with a strong desire to live in the city (it's not a huge city, but we're definitely not in the country). We wanted to be within walking distance of the kids' school, in a three bedroom apartment. From our research, we knew that we wouldn't be able to find American sized rooms, but we were used to a semi-small, one bathroom house. Plus we got rid of a lot of stuff before we moved. Shouldn't be THAT big of an adjustment, right?

Ha. HA. There are three bedroom apartments in the middle of town, within walking distance of the school. And they are tiny. And expensive. Within about five days of arriving, we had to up our housing budget (honestly we were trying to get off cheap). I felt like we were on an HGTV show with a long list of must haves and a laughable budget.

We did find one place we liked. It was a plain set of buildings with modest apartments, but we could deal with the size. Plus it came with a garage that we could store things in. The best part was that it was about a 10 minute walk from the school. I emailed the agent with an offer, and the landlord basically said no because we have kids. That was a huge disappointment.

Miles took this picture

Since then, we've widened our search a bit to include some suburban type properties. These offer much more space, as well as small yards (gardens). And with three young kids, a detached or semi detached house sounds more favorable than being on the second floor of a small apartment. My kids like to run. And squeal. And run. But I admit to feeling disappointed at the thought of living in the suburbs.

So we just have to make up our minds. Do we want to live in the city or suburbs?

City:
Close to everything
Access to the lovely park, which has a huge play area, and events throughout the year
I can walk the kids to school
I can walk nearly everywhere (this is important because driving in the middle of the city terrifies me)
I can easily meet up with people
Wow, this driving thing influences me more than I'd realized.

But the cons are there too.
Very small accommodations (seriously, it's not uncommon for a third bedroom to be 7'x8', or sometimes smaller)
Some places haven't seemed well suited for young children
It's more expensive
It's not like we're going out to eat a lot once we move in, so how close do we have to be to restaurants?

Suburbs:
Larger living spaces
More for your money
More families (with more than one child)
Quiet
Storage space
I don't have to walk around in horrible weather

And the cons would be...
There aren't stores and restaurants around. Just houses.
I will have to learn to drive quickly, and drive much more often
I will have to drive into town for everything
We will need two vehicles
Will it be harder for me to make friends?

We have a few more places to look at, but we really need to decide asap. Cross your fingers that we make the decision that's right for us!

Driving

A shuttle picked us up at the Bradford/Leeds airport and dropped us off at the rental car place. I wasn't about to try driving just yet, but Matt was game. We picked up the car (which was one of the largest they had - no minivans here!), and loaded up the luggage.

I still don't know how it all fit

Now, I was already having some anxiety about even riding in the car here, which I'm sure didn't help Matt at all. We loaded up the necessary address in his phone, and turned on the audio navigation. I think the combination of the unfamiliar surroundings plus the stress from traveling had a big effect. Matt made a right turn just a little too wide, jumped up onto the curb, and popped the tire. Luckily we hadn't made it very far, so we went straight back to the rental lot. Matt filled out some paperwork, and we called a taxi.

We were both pretty shaken up by this point, and I vowed that I wouldn't be driving at all while we're here. It actually took me about 3 days before I even got back into the car as a passenger. 

Anyway, Matt caught a ride with a co-worker on Monday, and picked up the rental car after work. He was much more calm, and has since become more comfortable with driving. 

I'm still a reluctant passenger. The streets are so narrow, and even when there are two lanes, they're not always big enough for two cars to go through at once. It's commonplace for people to just pull up halfway onto the curb to park, and it really feels cramped then!

Matt said that when he spoke to his work contact about taking a written driving test, he inadvertently mentioned how nervous I am. And now it's noted that I'm a nervous driver, haha. So we now have the names of a few driving instructors that I can choose to take lessons from. I'm sure that's for the best, but I still plan on walking as much as I possibly can.

Who wouldn't want to walk through this?