British word of the day...

OK, so I am still alive. Just no internet. None. Could be another couple of weeks, so I managed to get online at the community center today, and thought I would let you know that we are still alive...

And yes, Jon, a people carrier is a minivan. I had grand plans of posting a picture of our new British spec, right hand drive, people carrier, but alas... no internet. So, soon there will be pictures of our new house, new people carrier, new yard with play structure, new bunk beds for the boys, new play room... ah life is good. If only we had internet, we'd be set!

Seriously, we're doing really well here and have our small shipment all unpacked. No idea where the other 9/10 of our stuff is going to go... but we'll deal with that when it gets here. Hope you are all well!

British word of the day...

So an American cooler is a full sized fridge.  Many older British kitchens have little mini fridges under the countertops, and that's it!  However, we noticed that many of the newer houses had space for a full-sized fridge in their kitchen, or even had them built in so they blended right in with the cabinets.  I can't imagine only having a mini fridge in my kitchen... I couldn't even fit all my milk in that!  I will have a full American cooler in my base kitchen, so I'm very excited.  

Speaking of milk, we have the Korea milk problem here, the largest container you can buy is a half gallon... sort of.  Actually we buy a 2 liter jug of milk.  One of the things that I find strangest about England is everything is in metric except for miles.  They still list their distances in miles and speed in miles per hour, even though weight is in kilograms and they sell 2 liters of milk.  Go figure.

That leads us to today's word.  People carrier.  As in, a people carrier has to follow speed limits in miles per hour, not kilometers per hour!

Local sights

Last week we took a bus tour to a nearby town, just to get to know the area a little better.  It is actually the town we almost rented the wonderful house in, and I'm hesitant to show you these pictures because you will see what a wonderful town it really is and think we're even more crazy!  However, it is only a half hour drive away from our new house, so we will be going there often, I'm sure!

Here we are outside the pub we had lunch in.  We have discovered the only thing cheap in England is beer... it is usually the same price as a soda!  

The Abbey.  Amazing.  They took us on this detailed tour of the inside, but with two little boys at nap time, we took a quick run through and then headed outside.  

Just a little more scenic than the Red Bull air races, wouldn't you say?

The new abbey is much smaller than the old one, and it's ruins are still visible.  They have made an amazing park in the ruin area.  They are right there, no fences or anything.  This picture was taken from the playground in the park.  It is a really neat area.  

One thing that has really struck me about being here after Korea, is that almost all of Korea was destroyed, and then rebuilt after the Korean conflict.  Here, even though there has been war as well, there are still tons of old churches and buildings around.  It's just a refreshing change.  As our tour guide put it, it wouldn't be an English town without a medieval church!

Here are the boys making friends with a little girl on the playground.  Oh, they're going to have an English accent before we know it!

Are we irresponsible parents for letting our three-year old push our one-year old on the swing?  I'd like to think of us as resourceful.  Hey, they're both happy aren't they... well maybe e is a little scared!


Have we convinced you to come visit yet?!

Our first London trip!

Well, we did it.  We took our first day trip to London.  How cool is that.  A day trip to London!  You might think we went to some amazing cultural sight.  Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, or the London Eye perhaps.  However, that is what a normal family would do upon arriving in a foreign county.  No, we didn't go to the Tower Bridge or London Tower, but instead our first trip was too... the Red Bull air races!  Yes, this was my husband's idea (I know you're all surprised), and he had this trip planned long before even arriving here.  Go on laugh.

So we got in our car.  Yes, the Jetta made it all the way from Korea.  We think somewhere along the way a forklift was dropped on it.  There is a rather large dent in the trunk... I mean, the boot, that will need repair, along with many scratches... but alas, that's another subject matter.  We drove the hour to the closest tube stop and headed towards downtown on the tube.  N was really, really excited to be on a choo choo! 

Then we arrived at the races.  The Red Bull air races are an obstacle course of sorts for these aerobatic airplanes to fly through.  Apparently there is a season, including several races all over the world.  Sort of a NASCAR for pilots, but with a much higher budget!  (And as far as I can tell, more reserved fans, or maybe that's just the British.) 

Here the course was set up on the Thames River.  Yes, the Thames River.  The pilots have to fly through the blue cones horizontally, and the red ones vertically.  I have to admit, it was really fun to watch!  I found myself cheering for the crowd favorite British pilots, just because everyone else was.  I'm not secure enough in my loud Americanism yet to cheer for the American pilots... don't yell at me!

This is one of the crowd favorite British pilots flying E's favorite plane.  I know it's hard to read, but that is the Breitling plane.  Yes, it's BRET's mother ship.

Here is the Red Bull plane flying through the blue cones that were right in front of us.  Pretty cool.  

The boys really enjoyed it as well.  After a week of house hunting, I think they were happy to be out of the car and watching a good show!  They're too cute with their raisins. 

Here we are watching.  You can see the yellow towers of the Millennium Dome in the back ground.  At least we saw one semi-famous London sight!

Ah, like father, like son!  Maybe another pilot in the making.

By the end of the day little e was beginning to lose interest in the planes flying, but those folding chairs... they are quite fascinating!  Did we lose anything down there buddy?

After the races were over I tried to get a picture of the three boys with the course in the background.  The boys were beyond squirmy, so this was the best I could do.  But you can see the river and the cones that the planes flew through.  Yes, through... not over.  It was pretty cool!

From there we hopped back onto the tube and headed back to our car.  On our way home we stopped at the quaintest McDonald's I've ever seen.  It was the cheapest dinner we could find (still equivalent to $23... ouch!) and had a play place.  Perfect for little boys who had been in bleacher seats all day long.  It was a great outing, and the first of many.  Maybe next time we will go to something slight more... historic!

British word of the day...

Yes, I have more funny phrases for you.  This one is my new favorite.  I heard it on a television commercial for a new appliance store.  They were advertising new "American coolers."  As in, I feel so lucky because I will have an American cooler in my new kitchen!  I'm off to study for my driver's test.  Look out UK, I'll be driving soon!