Monday, August 23rd 2010

Welcome to our very first blog post!  While we haven't too much to post currently, we wanted to start this blog as a way to keep everyone informed about how we're spending our time while in England and around Europe.  I suppose we'll abstain from describing our mundane breakfasts or what doing the laundry was like, and instead focus on the exciting stuff.  Oh, and it may not surprise you that I, Jillian, will be doing most (if not all) of our updates. 

So, as a quick wrap up of the past few weeks...
-I came back to Portland on July 27th (our 3rd wedding anniversary!) after being in Sheffield for Grandma's funeral.
-Kyle did awesome work getting our house packed up and ready for our property management guy to get the house rented out.  We were moved out of the house by the first week of August and we were staying with our friends Blake and Tricia on the other side of town. 
-I had my last day of work on August 9th.
-We spent the remaining time in Portland repacking things to bring to Sheffield and got everything condensed down to three bags each.  We also decided that we own too much junk.
-On August 20th, we boarded our first flight on our way to England!

Since we arrived in Sheffield (the town where we are living in Grandma's house, which is in Northern England and approximately 3 hours by car from London), we've been trying to get ourselves oriented.  Our bags decided not to join us for the final leg of the trip, so we didn't have any unpacking to do for the first 24 hours.  Instead, we slept at odd times, made fun of the goofy British TV commercials, and started familiarizing ourselves with the contents of the booze cabinet. 

It is now Monday afternoon (we arrived Saturday afternoon), and we've unpacked most of our junk, become a bit more settled in the house, and wandered into town to do some grocery shopping.  I still have some visa issues to sort out before finalizing the details of my employment, so we're just going to enjoy our time in a new place and make some preliminary travel plans.  I'd like to explore more of Sheffield, take a weekend trip to London, and do a whiskey tour in Scotland.  Our big travel plans will take shape shortly, but those are the short trips I'm scheming now. 

Kyle seems to be adjusting reasonably well to life in Sheffield.  (Since he's upstairs napping and I'm doing this post, I can talk about him all I want!).  He's understandably irked by the bathing situation (only have a bath and a poorly set up shower at the moment) and by the wild carpet in the house (see picture), but seems excited for this adventure.  He had two cups of tea today when we were visiting with our neighbor friends up the street!  He seems happy that we can walk to so many places and is of course excited to tackle the giant project that is getting this house organized.  And, he's here with his super-cool wife, so how could he not be happy?

We miss everyone in the US, but we are excited to have this opportunity to travel and learn.  It's hard to be away from family and friends, but we're looking forward to creating new friendships here in Sheffield.  I think that's it for now--keep in touch everyone!

Jillian

The house keys with a shape that made Kyle giggle.

Our makeshift double bed--just pushed the two twin beds together!  Please ignore Kyle napping in the far bed.

Me and the hydrangeas in the front garden.  Please ignore floppy hair due to muggy weather!

Our haul from the first big shopping trip.  I'm so glad Kyle carried the big backpack the way home!

A shot of the crazy carpet in the house.