Wow!! What a month we’ve had! Tomorrow (as I am writing this) will mark one month since our arrival to England. It feels like we’ve been here for at least half a year—it’s been a long month!
First and foremost, I have to tell you that England is just beautiful! We have been so blessed with wonderful sunny weather for the the past two weeks—windy and a bit chilly but sunny. People are very wonderful and helpful. Most are very polite and so well-spoken. When I speak to them, I immediately want to imitate their accent but I sound somewhat of a mix of Ukrainian, American and (dare I say?) Japanese-haha. One guy to whom I was talking, asked me if I were from Ireland. That’s a new one.
All right, so on September 10th, we signed our lease for the house, just a day after finding out that the windows in our house are single-glazed, meaning they only have one layer of glass in them which is not so good compared to double-glazed. Double-glazed windows are what keep your house better insulated and thus warmer during the winter. We were warned by many Americans to make sure our house has double-glazing or we’d be paying a lot more for gas during cold months. Well, on the website where our house was advertised (through the military), the description stated it was double-glazed, so we never bothered to check with the landlord until the day before we signed the lease. I was very-very sad and felt a bit cheated in a way. I had already so much invested in the house—kids were going to the school in the village—and there was no other house that we liked enough to move to instead. Therefore, we went ahead and took the house anyway, a bit concerned that we’ll be paying out of pocket every month for heat (we’ll already be using a part of our utilities allowance to cover the excess of our rent payment). Sorry for boring you with all these details…if we are moving again in a year to another house, you’ll know why.
On September 12th (yes, on my birthday) we got a HUGE present—our household goods and quick shipment arrived! All containers are always shipped to RAF Mildenhall, a big base an hour away, and then the movers drive it to our area. Only two guys came (compare that to a brigade of Japanese movers who came to unload our stuff). It took them almost till 4 pm to get everything done.
I must say that Japanese were excellent at packing our household goods! Nothing is broken so far (except one penguin cookie jar that we didn’t use anyway to Robert’s disappointment). British guys were very impressed with the packing job—Japanese built custom boxes basically for every piece of furniture. So we are very happy.
The first week in a house full of newly moved boxes is the hardest, and you forget how difficult it is to do it all once you are in the middle of it. After three days or so, we were eighty percent unpacked. The hard part that because only one bedroom has a built-in closet, we had to figure out how the whole storage/wardrobe thing was going to work. So now Katya and Alex have a wardrobe in their rooms, and we have two more wardrobes on the first level for coats and board games. We had to put some random items in random spots, at least for now.
….I have written a novel and haven’t even gotten to the reasons for my title!
Spiders are everywhere in England. Everywhere. I have no idea how they get inside but they do. I am not afraid of spiders, actually, so they are all right. Although seeing a huge spider in my bathtub does make me feel a bit uneasy.
Mice on the other hand is what I absolutely hate! As our neighbor put it, you don’t move out to the country if you don’t want to see any mice. That is so comforting...I guess this neighbor, Kim, has a cat who brings dead mice and birds and drops them at his front porch all the time. I have now found two dead dried out mice in the midst of gravel rocks on our driveway—gross!!!!!
Hedgehogs. I love hedgehogs! I actually remember seeing hedgehogs all the time in Ukraine growing up. In the states, no one seemed to know much about them. But here—they are everywhere! And they live in our huge backyard, somewhere. The reason we know they are there is because kids found two dead hedgehogs this week. Again--gross!! I am just so scared of all these dead animals….This morning I went jogging in our backyard (however funny that sounds) and I had to watch my step carefully being afraid to step on anything dead or alive-haha.
Oh, but we love our backyard! We play tag there every night. Kids are planning already where they are going to make a tree house next spring, well, it’s mostly Robert who is planning that. Since the weather has been so nice, they have been able to play there every day. Oh how we wish we had their friends here with them.
Garbage disposals. If you were to ask me today what is one thing I miss that I had in the states and in Misawa it would be a garbage disposal! Who knew that it made my life so much easier! Actually, it is not JUST the fact that we have to throw away our food scraps into a trash bin. It’s the fact that we have to separate all food and grass clippings into a special recycle bin. Somehow people can stand the thought of just throwing your food leftovers into a large trash bin and have it sit there for two weeks with no bags or anything. I finally bought some small compostable plastic bags so I could maybe put my food in there and then into the big trash bin. That’s another thing—rubbish is being picked up only one a fortnight…we’ll see how we manage that. In Misawa, we were spoiled by Japanese coming to get our recycle and regular trash twice a week.
Finally, a word about dryers. It’s something that most Americans take for granted—and I did until this month. Growing up in Ukraine, I knew first hand how difficult life could be without a dryer. No one every complained about it though there because really, there is not much you could do with a bad attitude anyway.
Military issues us a washer and a dryer. Although our washer is significantly smaller than what we are used to, it will do, I can adjust. Our dryer, on the other hand, is a condensed dryer. It takes a very long time to dry clothes but also it’s the kind in which you have to empty a plastic container on the bottom that fills up with water. I haven’t figured out yet how to make it work properly because the dryer just seems to shut off on its own when clothes are still damp. I do have a cloth line outside that I might have to start using to be eco friendly. Oh, and British love to be Green! It is a great thing, but as I can see—the whole recycling my food thing does make my life not as comfortable (yeah, yeah….I am whining). I cannot wait till I look back at my first few days here and just laugh at myself. I know that day will come-haha.
It’s almost time to pick up Katya and Alex from school. I promise to write more later. There is still a lot more I want to tell you about life here.
Cheers!
First and foremost, I have to tell you that England is just beautiful! We have been so blessed with wonderful sunny weather for the the past two weeks—windy and a bit chilly but sunny. People are very wonderful and helpful. Most are very polite and so well-spoken. When I speak to them, I immediately want to imitate their accent but I sound somewhat of a mix of Ukrainian, American and (dare I say?) Japanese-haha. One guy to whom I was talking, asked me if I were from Ireland. That’s a new one.
All right, so on September 10th, we signed our lease for the house, just a day after finding out that the windows in our house are single-glazed, meaning they only have one layer of glass in them which is not so good compared to double-glazed. Double-glazed windows are what keep your house better insulated and thus warmer during the winter. We were warned by many Americans to make sure our house has double-glazing or we’d be paying a lot more for gas during cold months. Well, on the website where our house was advertised (through the military), the description stated it was double-glazed, so we never bothered to check with the landlord until the day before we signed the lease. I was very-very sad and felt a bit cheated in a way. I had already so much invested in the house—kids were going to the school in the village—and there was no other house that we liked enough to move to instead. Therefore, we went ahead and took the house anyway, a bit concerned that we’ll be paying out of pocket every month for heat (we’ll already be using a part of our utilities allowance to cover the excess of our rent payment). Sorry for boring you with all these details…if we are moving again in a year to another house, you’ll know why.
On September 12th (yes, on my birthday) we got a HUGE present—our household goods and quick shipment arrived! All containers are always shipped to RAF Mildenhall, a big base an hour away, and then the movers drive it to our area. Only two guys came (compare that to a brigade of Japanese movers who came to unload our stuff). It took them almost till 4 pm to get everything done.
Our living room at the moment.
Yes, we are hopeful it will snow at least once this winter—the sleds made its way to England too.
Two of our containers are still in transit, but will arrive here by next week hopefully. I think they were held up because we had some snacks in our 72-hour kits. At the moment, we are missing a few furniture pieces, namely our dining table and chairs. It’s a good thing we have a low Japanese table—we’ve been dining Japanese style (I have no idea how they manage to sit on the floor for prolong periods of time without being sore).
Both Katya and Mark are staring at something to the side.
The first week in a house full of newly moved boxes is the hardest, and you forget how difficult it is to do it all once you are in the middle of it. After three days or so, we were eighty percent unpacked. The hard part that because only one bedroom has a built-in closet, we had to figure out how the whole storage/wardrobe thing was going to work. So now Katya and Alex have a wardrobe in their rooms, and we have two more wardrobes on the first level for coats and board games. We had to put some random items in random spots, at least for now.
….I have written a novel and haven’t even gotten to the reasons for my title!
Spiders are everywhere in England. Everywhere. I have no idea how they get inside but they do. I am not afraid of spiders, actually, so they are all right. Although seeing a huge spider in my bathtub does make me feel a bit uneasy.
Mice on the other hand is what I absolutely hate! As our neighbor put it, you don’t move out to the country if you don’t want to see any mice. That is so comforting...I guess this neighbor, Kim, has a cat who brings dead mice and birds and drops them at his front porch all the time. I have now found two dead dried out mice in the midst of gravel rocks on our driveway—gross!!!!!
Hedgehogs. I love hedgehogs! I actually remember seeing hedgehogs all the time in Ukraine growing up. In the states, no one seemed to know much about them. But here—they are everywhere! And they live in our huge backyard, somewhere. The reason we know they are there is because kids found two dead hedgehogs this week. Again--gross!! I am just so scared of all these dead animals….This morning I went jogging in our backyard (however funny that sounds) and I had to watch my step carefully being afraid to step on anything dead or alive-haha.
Oh, but we love our backyard! We play tag there every night. Kids are planning already where they are going to make a tree house next spring, well, it’s mostly Robert who is planning that. Since the weather has been so nice, they have been able to play there every day. Oh how we wish we had their friends here with them.
Garbage disposals. If you were to ask me today what is one thing I miss that I had in the states and in Misawa it would be a garbage disposal! Who knew that it made my life so much easier! Actually, it is not JUST the fact that we have to throw away our food scraps into a trash bin. It’s the fact that we have to separate all food and grass clippings into a special recycle bin. Somehow people can stand the thought of just throwing your food leftovers into a large trash bin and have it sit there for two weeks with no bags or anything. I finally bought some small compostable plastic bags so I could maybe put my food in there and then into the big trash bin. That’s another thing—rubbish is being picked up only one a fortnight…we’ll see how we manage that. In Misawa, we were spoiled by Japanese coming to get our recycle and regular trash twice a week.
Finally, a word about dryers. It’s something that most Americans take for granted—and I did until this month. Growing up in Ukraine, I knew first hand how difficult life could be without a dryer. No one every complained about it though there because really, there is not much you could do with a bad attitude anyway.
Military issues us a washer and a dryer. Although our washer is significantly smaller than what we are used to, it will do, I can adjust. Our dryer, on the other hand, is a condensed dryer. It takes a very long time to dry clothes but also it’s the kind in which you have to empty a plastic container on the bottom that fills up with water. I haven’t figured out yet how to make it work properly because the dryer just seems to shut off on its own when clothes are still damp. I do have a cloth line outside that I might have to start using to be eco friendly. Oh, and British love to be Green! It is a great thing, but as I can see—the whole recycling my food thing does make my life not as comfortable (yeah, yeah….I am whining). I cannot wait till I look back at my first few days here and just laugh at myself. I know that day will come-haha.
It’s almost time to pick up Katya and Alex from school. I promise to write more later. There is still a lot more I want to tell you about life here.
Cheers!
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