Simple Pleasures

Just to warn you, there are no fancy pictures or super exciting stories in this post. Nope, just a few simple pleasures we have begun to take full advantage of this past week in London.

My biggest "simple pleasure" discovery has been walking to Starbucks while Jordan is at school, getting a caramel macchiato (since they don't have my favorite drink, the cinnamon dulce latte), and reading. Yep, you heard me: reading at Starbucks. Okay fine, every so often there is some type of pastry involved. :) It sounds silly, but I never have the time (or take the time) to do this at home, and I have loved every minute of not having other obligations to think about other than my coffee and my book. The best part is, somehow, miraculously, Jordan actually is enjoying this as well when he joins me! Maybe the fact that we had to unplug our T.V. after realizing that we were watching it "illegally" has something to do with it... Seriously though, we have been book-shopping lately, and it's been a great change from plopping down in front of the T.V. at night.

Our next newfound love has been seeking out hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and we've found some great ones this week. There are so many different types of food here that are actually authentic. So rather than getting Chinese food from a place like P.F. Chang's, you are getting the real deal and being served by the cutest Chinese people who hardly speak any English (Don't get me wrong, I love P.F. Chang's, it's just a whole different experience.) And not to mention, most of these places we've found have literally been a hole in the wall, and small holes at that! :) It's definitely a different dining experience to eat at a restaurant with 5 tables than it is to eat at one with 50.

We seemed to have started a Friday morning tradition of sleeping in (since Jordan doesn't have class on Fridays), and Jordan making pancakes with bananas and Nutella. He knows the way right to my heart! 

He looks like a pro, huh?! It's actually pretty funny to see him cooking in our TINY little kitchen, but the end result is AWESOME. 

Sorry, I just had to do the close-up shot. :) Could it get any better than this?! The answer is "no." 

So next time you go to the grocery store, track down some Nutella, bananas, and pancake mix and enjoy this simple pleasure... I promise it's worth it! Jordan's mom, Brenda, actually makes the most amazing Swedish pancakes for Christmas, and I told him that I am going to introduce the family to Nutella next year as an addition. :)

On another note, we found out in the middle of this week that the Manchester United soccer game that we had tickets to actually got moved up to Saturday (it was supposed to be on Monday.) We did some scrambling, and managed to change our train tickets and our hotel reservation... so we are headed to Manchester TOMORROW!!! We are both so excited, Jordan's actually worried he won't be able to sleep tonight. :) I promise our next post will have plenty of details and pictures, and maybe even a video of the big game! We get back Sunday evening, in plenty of time to watch the Super Bowl; which, by the way, starts at 11:30pm here with the time difference. It's going to be a sports-filled weekend, and our first trip out of London!

The Mothership

It's true, we found the mothership. 

We ventured out this weekend to Harrods, which really is the mothership of shopping. First of all, it is HUGE... like an entire square block huge. Maybe even bigger. Obviously it has amazing clothes, shoes, etc, but it also has anything else you could think of - pet supplies, fitness equipment, home furnishings, electronics, specialty foods - you name it, it's probably there! It takes one-stop shopping to a whole new level. It's like a celebrity version of Walmart. :) 

Pretty overwhelming to say the least! They were having a huge sale, so we ended up buying some cool gear to wear to the Manchester United game next week... apparently it's a big deal to wear the right colors to the game, so rather than risk getting killed by the fans we went ahead and did what we were told. :)

Another reason we went down to Harrods was because I had a surprise for Jordan. Last time I was in London, my sister and I found the most AMAZING ice cream sundae shop in the basement at Harrods, called Morelli's. They have a menu about a mile long, and they make their sundaes into these insanely big works of art. Needless to say, it was a good surprise. :) Although, out of the whole menu, Jordan chose the classic chocolate sundae... he is a man of simple pleasures!

I'm not usually one to split desserts, but honestly, these are so big that you almost have to. We are excited to find reasons to go back and try a few different ones. :) Is this not reason enough to come visit us in London?! 

I think I was a little too excited...

Before heading to Harrods, we walked through Hyde Park, which is a really well-known park in London. It is also HUGE!! I fell in love with this tree, and I could have sworn it was the tree from the movie Big Fish. Don't you think so?

The park has some really neat fountains and courtyards. Jordan happened to like this one. Pretty majestic.

The next morning we decided to set out on our first fishing adventure, which turned out to be, as Jordan put it, a "comedy of errors." The pond Jordan had found online was a pretty far tube ride away, and we had to stop at a bait store first. So we pack up our stuff and head to the tube station, only Jordan had forgotten his tube pass, so we had to walk all the way back to our flat, fishing poles and gear in tow! We got back to the tube, traveled to where we needed to go, and found the bait store. The guys in there were really helpful... until they told us that January is the worst time of year to go fishing and that we probably wouldn't catch anything. Great, thanks. Since we had already traveled that far, we decided to go anyway. 

We found the cute little fishing pond we were looking for, that's the good news!

The bad news is, by the time we got there I was FREEZING. But I was trying to be tough, so I didn't say anything... Jordan finally got the poles all rigged up, and on my third cast my line somehow got completely tangled up. Not just a little bit. It was seriously straight out of a cartoon. I've been fishing pretty much my entire life, and I've never seen fishing line this tangled up. At this point, my hands are too cold to function, so Jordan is trying to untangle my line... finally, we both just start laughing, and decided to call it a day. 

Well, I had to try and chase the geese that were surrounding us first. That's normal, right?! 

We are excited to go fishing again in the spring once it's a little warmer, and when there are actually FISH to be caught! :) It made us realize how much we take for granted fishing up at my lake cabin in the summer... being out on the boat, getting a tan, drinking a Corona, catching bass - you really can't beat it!

We made it back just in time to head over to a nearby pub and watch a big soccer game on the big screen. Okay, "FOOTBALL," sorry! I don't know if I'll ever get used to that. Manchester United ended up winning, and it was fun to watch a game at the stadium we'll be at next week!

Yesterday, Sunday, we decided to do something I've always wanted to do: go to a service at Westminster Abbey. We ended up going to the 3 o'clock Evensong service, which turned out to be a pretty neat experience. It's crazy to think that Evensong services have taken place at the abbey for over a thousand years! Jordan hadn't been inside Westminster yet, and he was in awe; well, we both were. The service was very traditional, and most of it consisted of the choir singing and the organist playing. The sound in there is INCREDIBLE! I just finished the book World Without End, by Ken Follet, which is the sequel to Pillars of the Earth; both of which are set in the medieval ages of England, and revolve around these ancient cathedrals. As cheesy at it may sound, it totally took me back to the book and made me feel like I was witnessing something straight out of the medieval times. As a side note, I highly recommend both of these books if you're looking for a great read!

We can't believe January is almost over. It feels like we've done a lot, but we also have so much planned for the rest of our time here! We booked our flights to Italy and Greece for the second week of Jordan's spring break - woohoo!!! CAN'T WAIT!

Last but definitely not least, we want to wish my Grandma Helen a happy birthday! She is 75 years young today, and we are bummed we can't be there to celebrate with her. For those of you who don't know her, she is the most AMAZING woman, and I am so proud to call her my grandma. We love you so much, Grams!

P.S. Thank you so much to those of you who comment on the blog. It's so nice to have some confirmation that people are reading it. :) We appreciate hearing from you!

A Few "Firsts" for Us

With all the drama revolving around the presidential inauguration, I was pretty set on remaining neutral and not watching it. I know, I'm still an American citizen, but I kind of felt like I was off the hook since I was in the UK. And I had never watched one before, so why start now? But the Pace University students in Jordan's law program felt otherwise... in fact, they threw a party. Neither one of us being one to refuse free food, we went. :) Quite honestly, I'm not that into politics and I flat out refuse to argue about them. It's not that I don't care; and regardless of who you or I voted for, I just felt a little odd watching a celebration for our new president that seemed more like a celebrity rockstar bash. It is crazy to me that the whole world was watching. Even over here they showed on the news how all the elementary school students were learning about it. I never once remember learning about the inauguration of another country's leader. Why is that?! At any rate, it was a first for me!

While I'm on the subject of political matters, we have been lucky enough to be in London at a time where their currency, the pound, has been dramatically falling in comparison to our US dollar. When I came to London during college, the pound was about 2.1 in comparison for 1 US dollar (which basically means everything was twice as expensive!) This 2-to-1 ratio has remained the common currency exchange rate ever since; however, the UK suddenly has a suffering economy like we do, which, as bad as it is for people here, has been AMAZING for us! The pound just dropped yesterday to 1.37 in comparison to 1 US dollar. Needless to say, that saves us a LOT of money. We celebrated by buying a few of our flights out of London. :)

We see this sign in a shop window on our way to the gym every morning. Did I really just say "on our way the the GYM every morning?!"

On another note, we have been trying to come up with fun ideas of things to do in January since the weather isn't great, and since we are saving a lot of our trips and "tourist activities" for better weather and for when friends and family come to visit us. Jordan happened upon a website that talked about going fishing, and the next thing I knew he was online reserving fishing poles for us. :) Interestingly enough, the store we went to to pick them up was like an old-fashioned catalogue store. First, you pick (or reserve like we did) your items out of a huge catalogue, then you pay for them, then you get a number and wait in line until they get your items from their warehouse and bring them out to you. A whole new experience for us! Little did we know... 

Yes, you're seeing the picture above correctly. If you could have seen it in person, you would have died laughing. The poles Jordan ordered online were the correct ones for the type of fish you catch around here, only... they are literally 12 foot long fishing poles!!! We were "lucky" that they were both packaged in halves, but still, walking around the crowded streets of London with these HUGE boxes in our hands was not exactly part of the plan. We had taken the tube (the underground subway) to get to the store, but we were a little too worried to try and take the poles back home on it, so we decided to walk. How far could it be?

45 minutes, 4 freezing hands, and countless awkward stares later...

Here is one of the poles put together. Note that it barely fits in our tiny flat. :) Honestly, I was standing at our front door and Jordan was at the back wall by the window, and he could almost touch me with it!

That same night, we had planned on heading down to London's big movie theater in Leicester Square to try and catch the red carpet premiere of Valkyrie with Tom Cruise. Living in Spokane, we don't get very many opportunities to see big events like this, let alone famous people, so we figured it would be a fun experience. :) Last week when we went and saw Defiance, we were able to get the guy at the movie counter to tell us when all the big premieres took place. With the whole fishing pole incident, we were a lot later than we had planned on, so we didn't get a great spot, but it was still fun to be amidst all the excitement and energy!

We did end up seeing Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, but we were nowhere near as close as we thought we'd be. Also, we were a little bummed because we were at the far end of the red carpet and we thought for sure the stars would get dropped off there and walk the whole carpet. Rookie mistake on our part! Tom and Katie (do you like how we're on a first-name basis now?!) got dropped off at the far end of the red carpet near the paparazzi and then just went inside. :( We were a little disappointed, especially after we'd seen a picture in the paper recently of Will Smith taking pictures with the crowd at his last premiere.

We did manage to get a couple pictures of them though, even though you can't really see them. In this one they are right below the big flash. You can actually click on any of the pictures, and it will make them bigger.

The funniest part was that we recognized Tom Cruise because of Katie, and how much taller she was than him. :) Again, this one their backs are to us. Click to enlarge the picture!

After all was said and done, the whole thing was a little anti-climatic. It was definitely cool to be there, but as we walked away, Jordan and I kind of laughed at all the hype... I mean, they're just PEOPLE. Right?!

On a different note, we have some super exciting news of another first for us!  No, I'm not pregnant. I know some of you were thinking that... well, stop! :)  From the moment we first started planning our trip to London, Jordan has wanted to see a big soccer game over here. The only problem was that once we started looking into tickets, we discovered that they are outrageously expensive! I'm talking like one-month's-rent expensive. Not really doable for us! He had pretty much conceded to watching the big games in pubs over here, which is still a lot of fun, but nowhere near the real deal. 

Well... yesterday he was sitting in class, and his professor announced to the students that she and her husband have season tickets for Manchester United. For those of you who don't know, that is probably the biggest and BEST team in the UK, and probably in the sport of soccer in general. Sorry, it's actually called "football" over here, my mistake! Anyway, she offered her tickets to the students on a first-come-first-serve basis for any game that's during the week, as her and her husband usually go to the weekend games. The stipulation was that the students had to email her once class was over for the dates they wanted. Although he won't admit it, I'm pretty sure Jordan sprinted home, dodging traffic and pushing innocent people out of his way to get to his computer. :) It paid off though! We got tickets to a Monday game, February 2nd, vs. Everton. Manchester is actually a couple hours away, but we managed to find train tickets even though it was such late notice... it's amazing how it all fell into place! We are so stoked!!

P.S. Our flights to Ireland and Scotland for the first week of Jordan's spring break are officially booked! :)

I Walk, Therefore I Am

We decided to "celebrate" Jordan's completion of his first week of school by going to a sushi bar we've been walking by almost every day, called Yo! Sushi. It caught our eye because the whole dining experience is so unique: you sit at a revolving bar that has hundreds of different, colored plates with mostly sushi, you pick which ones you want to eat at your leisure, and then when you're finished they count up your total by the colors of empty plates you have. It is a pretty cool idea, and even though it was overpriced it was awesome sushi!

By the time we hit our budget, we were still hungry, which is almost always the case when we get sushi. Does this happen to anyone else?! So we did what anyone would do... walked over to the grocery store, got a frozen pizza, wine, chips, and a jar of Nutella to finish off our dinner. :)

Side note: I originally discovered Nutella on my first trip to London, and absolutely fell in love with it. Actual love. True love. Anyway, if you haven't tried it, they actually sell it at most grocery stores (including Costco), and it is something you shouldn't miss. I recommend it with bananas. Or just with a spoon...

The next morning we slept in, Jordan made pancakes with bananas and Nutella, and we set off into the London rain. We made this unspoken commitment to ourselves to walk as much as possible, partly to see the city and partly because it's a good workout! Well, first things first, Jordan needed a haircut (another thing you don't really picture yourself doing in London.) So we found a little place, took a chance on a £6 haircut, and it actually turned out great! Here's the new do.

We wandered all the way down to Parliament and Big Ben, and finally made it across the Thames River (which, by the way, has a silent "h" in the pronunciation.) We both agreed, it looks a little cooler from this view. :)

Also, right across from Big Ben is the London Eye. Pictures really don't do it justice - it is HUGE in person! Each one of the capsules holds up to 25 people, and the entire ride takes over 30 minutes to complete. Apparently, the Eye is London's answer to the Eiffel Tower as the world's highest observation wheel. And I stand corrected, you can ride it in January now (when I was here last time it was closed for the whole month of January.) 

Jordan has been dying to see the movie Defiance, so after our walking excursion we went and took in the London movie theater experience. There are definitely a few differences, the first and most obvious being the price of the tickets. For 2 tickets, we paid £27... no longer will we complain about $9 movie tickets in Spokane. :) Also, they have assigned seats, so there is no need to get there early. The movie itself was good; not exactly what we expected, but worth seeing nonetheless. 

Today we woke up to blue skies, a rare occurrence in London! Again, we decided to walk, and ventured down to St. Paul's Cathedral. St. Paul's is one of London's oldest and most famous cathedrals, known for its dome. Not only is it beautiful, but it's neat because you can actually climb the stairs to the dome! Inside the dome there is a "whispering gallery" that is 170 feet across. Jordan and I tested it out and both went to opposite ends, and we whispered to each other from that far away and it was as clear as day!! It was so crazy. Then we walked up even more stairs to the main base of the dome, which has 360 degree views of the city. In all, there are over 300 steps that get narrower and narrower the higher you go...

Feel the burn!!! :) Yes, we're dorks. Honestly, you feel like the stairs are never going to end! 

The pictures got slightly out of order. Sorry!! Here is a view of the famous St. Paul's Cathedral dome. As you'll notice, there is scaffolding all along the side of it from this view. All the cathedrals I've ever seen are always being repaired; it seems like a never-ending process since they are all so old! In fact, the "Golden Gallery", which is a viewing area at the very top of the dome was actually closed to the public for repairs and will be until April. I'm not complaining... the trek to the very top is 530 steps!

Another view of St. Paul's from the main entrance. The dome is kind of hiding towards the back in the middle.

Jordan taking in the view once we reached the top.

Beautiful London...

Okay, we slipped into "tourist mode" and had to take pictures of each other once we'd reached the top. :) It felt like quite a feat!

A little wind-blown, my calfs were still burning, but hey, I made it!

One more view of St. Paul's once we left. I think this is my favorite view. It's interesting because you can't really photograph any of the cathedrals in their entirety because they are so massive, and from each view they seem to take on a whole new look. 

After St. Paul's, we walked across the river to the Tate Modern Museum of Art. We hadn't heard much about it, but after our visit to the National Gallery, which we loved, we figured it would be a cool thing to see. The entire ordeal turned out to be a total comedy hour... First of all, the Tate contains super-modern "art" that doesn't even really look like anything. I'm talking about objects all strewn about on the wall or the floor that are actually supposed to be a piece of art. We perused in total silence for the first 20 minutes, both trying to act mature and interested. And of course, everyone around us is in total awe, and looked genuinely intrigued by paintings of squares and wall art with sticks. Finally... it honestly was straight out of a movie... we both look at each other and were like, "Uh, do you want to go?!" This is why I love my husband. :)

I will have everyone know, we both love and appreciate art, me especially. It just was a whole new take on "art" that maybe we just weren't quite mature enough to handle. :)

In the last 2 days, we have walked probably close to 8 hours. Not kidding! Needless to say, by the time we finally made it back to our flat tonight we were both beat. We quickly decided on a night in with grilled cheese and tomato soup, and a few episodes of Brothers & Sisters, our newfound love. :) My sister lent us the whole first season, and my Mom just shipped us the second season since we're almost done with the first! If you haven't seen this show, I would seriously recommend it!

This is a random picture I took on our way home today from St. Paul's... couldn't resist the cute orange slug bug. :)

Pub Grub

We had our first Fish & Chips meal at a pub yesterday, which I think is almost a right of passage in London. :) And we were both pleasantly surprised - it was pretty good! Everyone kept telling us how awful the food was in London, but we have yet to eat a bad meal. Even though I've been here before, I don't think Jordan really trusted my judgement since I love food. In general. All of it. Especially if someone else makes it for me! :) We have heard though that London has upped its food standards in the last few years, so I guess that's in our favor as well.

Side note: Jordan was thrilled about me taking a picture of him with his fish & chips in a pub. We don't look like tourists, right?!

Jordan started school on Monday, and likes all of his classes so far. Well... except for one class that he has AT LEAST 100 pages of reading assigned for each class meeting (which is twice a week.) Ugh! They do have high expectations for the students, of course, but all of the professors understand that 95% of what they'll take away from this program is the cultural experience, not the classroom experience. 

We saw our first theater performance on Sunday, called Stomp. Again, no pictures allowed. I saw Stomp when I was here before, but I am trying to pick and choose what plays Jordan will actually enjoy... he doesn't enjoy the theater scene quite as much as I do. Yet! :) But guess what?! He actually REALLY liked it!! It's pretty hard not to. The performance consists of no spoken words, only the performers dancing and making music from things like garbage cans, sinks, bags, trash, etc. There are really no words to describe how surprisingly amazing and entertaining it really is. We kept saying how Josiah, Jordan's brother, would have absolutely loved it! :) When we were walking home after the play, we walked by a pub and were shocked to see it completely FULL, like standing-room-only full. This is about 4:45 pm on a Sunday. My first thought was, "Oh my gosh, these people over here sure like to drink!" Little did we know, Chelsea was playing Manchester United in soccer, which is basically the equivalent to the Super Bowl over here... maybe even bigger. I'm not exaggerating, every single pub on our walk home was just as crowded! We went in one for a while and watched, but the game was almost over. Needless to say, we are excited to stake out a spot for the next big game!

This week has been an interesting transition. I think it finally hit us that we are actually living here, which means everyday life here - grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry, down time. It's been frustrating because I'm still trying to track down one of my textbooks for my online class, something you'd never think you'd be doing in London! Once that starts, it will occupy a lot of my time while Jordan is at school. Also... this is going to be a laugh to most of you who know me well... we joined the gym at Jordan's school. So between working out and studying, our days are getting more and more full. We are trying to save our bigger adventures for the weekends. There is so much to see, but we are trying to spread it out a little bit since we have such a long time to see it all! 

I had to post this picture because Jordan's uncle, Joel, who has been to London, gave us a mission to try and find actual, thick milkshakes. He said when he was here, the only "milkshakes" he could find were basically frothy milk. Well, last week we were in the Camden Market and we came across this sign, and I couldn't resist posting it. :) Granted, we didn't try them, but judging by the sign, I think we found a winner!

P.S. We actually booked our first trip out of London! We are going to Paris March 13 - 15... we are SO EXCITED! 

We miss Target, History Days, and a LOT of Walking!

I've been meaning to post this picture, but needless to say, things have been a little busy! We were able to stay with Julie, Joel, and Beau for a couple days in Seattle before heading to London, and Johanna was also there with Tyler and Chase! It was a full house, but lots of fun. The night before we left, they surprised us with this cake... so cute! And SO GOOD! :)

Since so many people asked about where my clothes were going to fit in our TINY place... of course, everyone's top concern... Jordan forgot to video our biggest closet that has room to hang clothes as well as 3 full drawers. Not to mention, under our bed/couch, there is a trunk for us to fit all our coats! Quite honestly, we have plenty of room for everything, miraculously! After moving in though, we realized there was a lot of stuff we still needed. We are close to a lot of grocery stores, so food wasn't a problem, but honestly, good luck finding "household goods" like hangers, towels, blankets, and pillows. We were honestly beginning to think maybe people in London just didn't use those things! Where the heck is a Target when you need one?! Even when we'd ask people where to find household items, we'd get blank stares, or simply a response of "I have no idea." Great. In the end it was probably a good thing because we ended up wandering around quite a bit, especially for a blanket, but we finally did find one. We were a little worried we were going to end up breaking down and buying a tourist blanket with a UK flag or something. :) We deliberately wandered into Picadilly Circus, which is like the Times Square of London! So many people, so much to do, and so ALIVE! We have a feeling we'll be spending quite a bit of time around there in the future. 

A little cheesy, I know, but we had to take the classic red telephone booth pictures. I still think they are so cute! Although, I must say, they smell terrible!

My husband, the poser. :)

The last couple days have been SO COLD. We aren't quite sure if it's because you're outside so much longer or if it's actually just that cold, but at any rate, we decided to try and do a lot of "inside activities." First we visited the British Library, which is literally a block from our flat. There are some amazing historical documents there, such as the original Magna Carta, original handwritten Mozart and Beethoven sheet music, and my personal favorite, an entire display on the Beatles with actual lyrics and songs written out on scratch paper by the band members! It made me think of my Dad. :) Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside.

Next stop was the British Museum. Jordan is way more into history than I am, but we both found all of this completely fascinating! The museum is HUGE, first of all. Right when you walk in the first wing there is the Rosetta Stone... now, if only I could explain what it is! Well, here's a picture. 

Surprisingly, the wing that intrigued me the most was of the ancient Egyptian times. They have some of the original statues, like this one of a Pharoah, that was from Moses' time and even before! It's so surreal to stand next to these statues and try to wrap your brain around how old they are...                                                                                                                                                          

Okay, we debated whether or not we should put this one on here, but decided that since it's history we would be okay. :) To date, this is the oldest mummified human remains ever discovered - they approximate all the way back to 3500 B.C.  A little gross, but cool!

Two "great" men... Alexander the Great (an original statue from his time), and Jordan the Great! :)

We were dying laughing because we saw a group of elementary school kids on a field trip at the museum, and we thought how funny it was that we used to go on field trips to the Cheney Cowles Museum in Spokane for our field trips in elementary school... I think these kids in the UK are getting a little better grasp on history considering they are seeing things that are over 5000 years old, compared to 200 years old. :)

Finally... we made it into "downtown" London today; well, the more well-known part of London I should say. We toured the National Gallery, which houses original famous paintings from Van Gough, Monet, Leonardo Da Vinci... just to name a few! Again, pretty fascinating to see the original paintings when you've seen prints of them your whole life. Obviously, no pictures allowed in there either, darnit! The National Gallery is located right on Trafalgar Square, where we caught our first glimpse of Big Ben.

Walking through the streets of London...

I still love the double-decker busses! And if you look hard in this picture, you can see the London Eye in the background. We are planning on going on that, but it is not open in January.

Here it is... Big Ben! We didn't get the river view because we were on the opposite side, but we're pretty sure we'll find time for that in the next 4 1/2 months.

This one's for you, Mom... Westminster Abbey. Again, not the best view, but we were a little rushed and FREEZING. Not joking. We had planned to make an afternoon of sight-seeing, but decided it would probably not be worth having to have our fingers and noses amputated. 

We are excited to figure out a schedule and routine once Jordan starts school on Monday. It's so nice not to feel pressured and rushed to see everything since we have 4 1/2 months left, but there's still that subtle guilty feeling if we're not out and about every second. We are also trying to figure out our identity a little bit... are we tourists? are we not? We're trying our best to blend in. :) So much is different here in comparison to Spokane. Actually, we're not quite sure the two cities can be compared. We have been walking a TON, and really are starting to like it, but it's funny to think that in Spokane we complained when we got a parking spot downtown that wasn't within 2 blocks of our destination. Well, at least we'll burn some calories while we're here! :)

We are loving our adventure here so far, and will try our best to keep you all updated! Cheers!

P.S. This picture is for Lindsay (and Cilya & Nick.) It will only make sense to you three. :) Let's just say that I pretty much bumrushed Jordan out of the way and made him take this picture. CHIVES. No more words are necessary.

Our New Flat! Courtesy of Jordan Records

My Grandma Ha got us this awesome, tiny video camera (literally, the size of a phone) for Christmas, so Jordan thought he'd make a video of our TINY, cute new flat. :) Not joking, it's under 200 square feet. I don't think we'll ever call our house small again! It's great though; we managed to fit all of our stuff, all the bills are included in the rent, and best of all it's only a 5 minute walk to Jordan's school!

We also have our new address, so email us if you want it! We also ended up getting cell phones today, but we're pretty sure we can only use them in the UK. So, if you're coming to visit us we'll send you those phone numbers too. We're going to cook our first meal in our new home, and then head to bed... Jordan's school orientation is tomorrow morning!

We made it!! With a few "blessings in disguise"...

We are in London! Hallelujah! The trip has been a little rocky so far, but for the most part the negative things have actually turned into positives.

Our first flight out of Seattle was delayed 2 1/2 hours (wish we had known that when we woke up at 4:45 am...) The good news is, the guy who checked our luggage didn't charge us the $75 fee on our overweight bag because the flight was delayed so long. Consequently, we missed our connecting flight in Toronto but were lucky enough to get on standby and made it out the same night. Because our flights were all screwed up (and because Murphy's Law still applies to me even though I changed my last name), our bags didn't make it to London. The good news is that we didn't have to stress about hauling 200 pounds of luggage to our hotel, and so we were able to take the underground tube for £8 rather than pay £60 for a cab. 

It's pretty much been a comedy since we've been here. I, being the "more experienced traveler," thought I would impress my husband and take the lead with everything. Yeah... not so much. First of all, I almost was denied entry into the UK when we went through customs because I mentioned that "if I could, I would like to try to work part-time." Apparently, that's a big no-no if you don't have a visa, and I have a warning in my passport because of it. Awesome. Then, I tried to get off at the wrong tube station, and Jordan had to pretty much flail me back through the doors like a two-year-old. Awesome. We eventually made it to our hotel, which is quaint, to put it nicely. :) We take for granted how spacious everything is in America! We were determined to stay awake until at least 6:00 pm so we could try and get on the local time quicker; we were both exhausted, but we set out for some lunch and then to go find a place to live. At this point, I felt like I could fall asleep on the sidewalk and my stomach was doing cartwheels, but we both convinced each other to tough it out! Needless to say, at lunch I ate 3 bites (which is a big problem... I usually eat everything in sight.) We finally found the place to advise us on flats, and I didn't even make it into the meeting because I was throwing up in the bathroom, and might I add, I found the bathroom JUST in time! Awesome, again. Finally, my amazingly patient husband made the call that we were going back to the hotel to sleep... so we slept from 3:30 yesterday afternoon until 7:30 this morning! 

Our hotel is a bed & breakfast, so we go down for breakfast this morning, and I, again, could hardly eat (and I LOVE breakfast!) Not three steps out of the breakfast room, and I am running for the nearest bathroom - thank the Lord that "W.C." on the door meant "bathroom" because had it been anything else I would have thrown up all over it. Awesome. So, again, Jordan makes me lay down while he ventured out to get some Sprite and crackers, and then he set off alone to look around our hotel for some flats. 

Side note: I have the best husband ever.

This is where it gets good! One of the flat complexes we have been looking at online for the last few months happened to be about 300 steps from our hotel. He came back to tell me and by that point I felt good enough to go check it out with him.

Drumroll... WE FOUND A PLACE! It's tiny, but very safe, in a great area, and all our bills are included in the rent. Not bad! We are moving in tomorrow, and I will definitely post more about it then with pictures, but here is a picture of the outside. It's called Cartwright Gardens.

Pretty cute, huh?! And Jordan is convinced that had I not been sick we would have wandered farther out and probably wouldn't have found it. Another blessing in disguise. :) Although, not to sound too picky, but next time I'd prefer for the blessing not to involve puking. 

Thank you for your prayers so far! We have definitely needed them, and felt them be answered. Our adventure begins!

P.S. Our luggage just made it the our hotel! One less thing to worry about. :)

All Our 49.9 Pound Bags Are Packed!

We are one day away from leaving for London! And the impossible has happened... we fit everything into 4 bags and 2 carry-ons. It's a miracle! Well, okay, that's not entirely true. We went over weight on one bag, but we figured it would be better to have a little extra room than have all of our bags be packed to the brim and exploding. :) Just so you can understand my initial packing stress, here is how the packing process started. (Side note: this is my hell!)

By the grace of God, we decided to book a one-way flight to Seattle instead of renting a car, which turned out to be the best decision we ever made since the pass has been closed due to the weather lately. We flew out of Spokane this morning, which was slightly emotional, but we made it. You can't see all our bags here, but needless to say, THEY ARE HUGE!! We were so relieved to have everything packed, and then all of a sudden thought, "How the heck are we going to haul all these bags around London when we get there?!" I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

Here are a few pics from the last couple weeks. Maggie usually loves the snow but was a little uneasy due to the fact that it was taller than she was!

We got home one afternoon to find the world's biggest icicle hanging from our front porch. Rather than take a normal picture, Jordan of course had to dramatize it. Only my husband. :) Doesn't this make you excited to see our pictures once we get to London?! 

We had an amazing Christmas, and we got to spend time with both of our families. Here is a picture of us at Stone Ridge, the resort Jordan's family has gone to before every Christmas since he was little.

A couple quick updates... 

1) We found Josh a roommate to live in our house while we're gone, which means our entire mortgage and all our bills are covered! Such a blessing!!

2) Jordan lucked out this year; my Mom drew his name for our annual Christmas Eve gift exchange, and she got him (well, both of us really) a trip to St. Andrews in Scotland! Playing golf at St. Andrews is one of Jordan's lifelong dreams, and most golfers' dream at that! St. Andrews has the oldest golf course in the world, and not to mention Tiger Woods' favorite course. :)

Other than that, we are just really excited to take off on Sunday morning! We have been planning and saving for this trip for almost a year, and it's crazy to think it's finally here. Usually before any big trips I've taken I've been anxious and nervous, but not this one. I think knowing that Jordan and I will be experiencing the whole thing together has given us both a sense of peace and excitement. We are still a little stressed about finding a place to live once we get there, but we know it will all work out somehow. I'm not the best at "flying by the seat of my pants" so say a quick prayer that we will find a place within the first couple days! 

Stay tuned... next post will be from LONDON!!!