Interlude: A One Year Update

To all and sundry: I've been having troubles with Photobucket lately, so I've been a little slow on the draw with the Italy posts. I'll tinker around with it some more later on, but in the meantime, today marks a significant milestone for us.

It was one year ago today, 24 April 2007, that I first landed in the UK, and found myself feeling like a fish out of water. I think back and can still remember the trepidation and excitement. It was all new - from baps to cocktail prawn crisps to riding the Tube and trains. Even after getting the house, I had to get my neighbors to tell me how to turn on the hot water, and wasn't entirely certain how to use the stove. I remember the general shock at the overall expensiveness of life in London. The multitudinous accents and sounds of London were overwhelming. One year on, I've adjusted - more or less. I mean, sure, there are still things that are "different", but most things have become routine. I'm not even surprised by Worcestershire Sauce flavored crisps. And, for those of you who are wondering, Worcestershire is pronounced "wur-stir-shur", sometimes dropping the 'r' sound from the middle syllable - and sometimes you'll actually hear it pronounced "wooster", although that may be slang.

Lots has happened in the year, with plenty of ups and downs along the way. A brief recap:

International Trips: 6
August, 2007: Paris, France
September, 2007: Dublin, Ireland (Mich only)
December, 2007: Birmingham, Alabama
March, 2008: St. Louis, Missouri (J. only - work)
March, 2008: Dublin, Ireland
April, 2008: Italy

Special Day Trips: Umm, a lot - among the honorable mentions are
Shere (filming location of 'The Holiday' - Mich and the kids)
Box Hill (Mich and the kids)
Guildford (Mich)
Star Wars Exhibition (Dalton and I)
Chinese New Year's Parade
Lord Mayor's Parade
Littlehampton
Stratford-on-Avon
Warwick Castle
and more...

Castles & Palaces Visited: At least 7, although there may be more
Kensington Palace
Hampton Court
Malahide Castle (Dublin)
Hever Castle
Warwick Castle
Versailles (Paris)
Tower of London

Things I still stop and stare at: 4
Tower Bridge
Big Ben
St. Paul's
Westminster

Visitors: 4
May, 2007: My mom
August, 2007: My mom and dad
March, 2008: Tracy and her mom
April, 2008: My mom and dad (in Italy)

More visitors please!! Time is now running out for you if you want to come, and we would love to have you. Don't feel that you are imposing - we would be overjoyed for you to come. Think of it as your chance to see London on the cheap. If you're interested, please let us know.

Lost teeth: 4
Two from Dalton, two from Maggie (Maggie lost her second right after we got back from Italy)

Care packages: Okay, I haven't really been counting, but there have been several - and I just want to say that we really, really appreciate them. So, thank you.

A recap wouldn't be complete without noting that Dalton rode a bike without training wheels for the first time yesterday. Mich got him riding back and forth on the sidewalk in front of our house, and he rode back and forth 85 times (he was the one counting, not me). He is now pressuring me to fix the flat on his bike (he was riding one of the neighbors bikes) so he can go riding around. I foresee several afternoons at the park in the future, especially now that the weather finally seems to be warming.

So, that's the year in summary. I think it's fair to say that it has been a year of obvious changes, and some subtle ones. The kids have continued to grow and do the things that kids do, and I think Dalton has finally caught the travel bug...he wants to go to Spain and Germany now, although I'm not sure why he picked those two places. We've had really long days, and really short ones (we're back on really long now, by the way - it's already light from about five or so until after eight). We've experienced pasties, meat pies, scotch eggs, Yorkshire puddings, fish and chips, scones and clotted cream, and mincemeat pies. We've handwashed dishes and hung clothes out to dry for a year. I've picked up some Britspeak - cheers, rubbish, and mate being the most common ones, and I think in Fahrenheit and Celsius now, and have definitely developed a higher awareness of exchange rates. For a little while, Maggie was exhibiting signs of picking up an accent, but it's disappeared now. We've struggled with schools, churches, transportation, groceries, and Dalton's nearly continuous ear infections. We've done our share of sightseeing and have dragged the kids around more places than I can think of. There's been 88 posts to the blog (counting this one), covering everything from Anne Boleyn to Woking, U2 to Henry Winkler (yes!!), Bad Ass Cafe, Hard Rock Cafe, Twinings, and the various chippies. We've celebrated Chinese New Year, Mother's Day, Guy Fawkes' Day, Halloween, and had our own solo celebrations of Thanksgiving and Independence Day. There's been insight gained: the old adage, "Whereever you go, there you are", has never seemed more true.

And there's still more to come... although we are certainly looking forward to coming home and re-establishing our connections with friends and family, we are also looking forward to the coming year and hoping to make it to Scotland and Wales before we leave. I would also like to have a formal "high tea", Mich and I are going to a couple of concerts in the coming months (more on that when we get there), the Promenades will start up again before too long, and we still haven't made it to a West End show. There's places in London that we haven't been to yet - "Little Venice", and (I admit shamefacedly) - Westminster Abbey come to mind. There's day trips to be made to Brighton, Cambridge, and Oxford (where I hope to have a pint in the pub frequented by Tolkien), among others - and if there's still time after all that, I'd like to revisit the Cotswolds, and I'd love to go a few more places outside the UK. To be sure, more trials will come our way as well, but trials come no matter where you are or what you are doing. Unexpected things will happen, and there will be twists and turns that nobody can foresee right now. And so, until next year, I return you now to our regularly scheduled blog.