Why We're Here

This is Vinny in front of Hogwarts. I mean the Royal Agricultural University. Vinny has been going to school there now for a week. So far the education has been a bit different from the United States. He is taking 7 courses (which is kind of a lot) but for each course he only has class for 2 hours once a week. Most of his classes don't and won't really have large amounts of homework. Just big projects and final exams. That leaves him with a lot of downtime. (Maybe?) Yay!!! So although we are here for school we are also really looking forward to spending a lot of time as a family exploring a new landscape and culture. And this is proof that the sun does shine here.

This is Vinny in front of our sweet ride for the next 5 months. A Toyota Avensis. Oh you've never heard of it? It's British. This little guy will hopefully make it possible for us to travel to a lot of different places in England, maybe even Europe (there's an underwater tunnel to France). That is if we are brave enough to drive around here.

If you look closely you'll see that the steering wheel is on the right side. We drive on the left side of the road. That's different and confusing enough on its own. However in addition to that all the roads here are half as wide as roads in the United States. For insurance reasons, I won't be driving at all while we are here and I am quite thrilled about it. Being the co-pilot and providing directions is stressful enough. Vinny has taken up the challenge like a champ and in the 10 days that we have been driving here has not been in a wreck which I consider a huge accomplishment. Nor have I caught him driving on the incorrect side of the road. And he has only been mad at me once for slacking in my co-pilot duties. I mean never! We never get upset with each other when we're driving. Or any other time.

k love ya bye

Here We Are

Happy New Year! We feel like we have had a great start to this year with a huge change- moving to England! We arrived in the U.K. December 30th and prior to getting here this move was equally exciting and terrifying. Now that we are here all that is left is excitement so that tells you a lot about my stress levels when we travel.

Travelling with a child is SOOOOO different from travelling alone. I know this is obvious but it really struck me on this plane ride. We had individual television screens with a large assortment of movies and television shows to choose from. I remember getting on the plane and looking at them and being excited to watch a bunch of movies that I hadn't seen yet. I actually thought I would watch several movies. I watched ONE movie on a 10 hour flight. I slept for 1 hour. That leaves me with 7 hours of trying to sleep/trying to get Truman to sleep/sitting there worrying that Truman would wake up when they came by AGAIN offering a drink/snacks. So..... I was pretty happy/exhausted when that was over with. I could go on and on about how horrible it kind of was but I look at that picture up there and I have decided they are just so freaking cute so I won't. And now it's over and I can just be excited about the rest of our time here.

Now we are in Stroud, our town of residence in Gloucestershire, England. We have not done much exploring yet. We have a car but don't have car insurance so that has limited us a bit. That and the fact that our child won't stop sleeping. Like, he went to bed around 9 last night and slept until noon today. (He woke up for a bit at midnight to celebrate the New Year but that was it). I am not complaining but hopefully by the end of the weekend we have more to show than the following picture. Which isn't bad considering it is simply from our kitchen window. Isn't Stroud quite lovely?  It could use a bit of sunshine but look at how green it is even in winter. We have also discovered a yummy place for fish n' chips so I think we'll get along alright.