First trip to England
My first blog - Since we are going to have some major changes in our lives, I thought I'll try out blogging. That way I can keep track of what is happening and anyone who wants to can keep track of us!
Well, Josh and I went for a week to England to check out what our new life may look like. We spent most of the time northwest of London, in and around High Wycombe, where Josh's new employment will be. Our hope was to find a school for Sarah and maybe even a home to rent. Overall, we loved it there and the people we met, but we did have some challenges:
The most challenging part was navigating the streets of England. Our rental car was tiny and the streets are so narrow there that I was in a constant state of anxiety. Here's an example of a "normal" street with cars parked on the right and left side of the street making the 2-way street a one-way street.
In addition to that, some of the roundabouts there are horrendously complicated. Our biggest nemesis was the roundabout by our hotel in High Wycombe. In fact, the entire week we never got the roundabout correct on the first or second try, even with circling it twice. Here's a picture of our nemesis:
Driving through England was stressful, but the sights compensated for that stress. I loved seeing old churches and cemeteries, cute pubs, old parks, etc.!
All the people we met in England were extremely friendly. We visited 3 private schools to find one suitable for Sarah and all the administrators in these schools were extremely polite and helpful. The reason we looked for a private school is because no public school was willing to take a 15 year old!! Josh called all the public schools in the area and they all said they wouldn't take Sarah because the students are tested at age 14 and 16 and with Sarah being between these ages, she would mess up the test scores for the school because she wouldn't be ready for the GCSE test that 16 year olds take.
Luckily, the private school we liked best, is only 5 minutes walking distance from Josh's future workplace in High Wycombe. This Chalfont school does not follow the typical British school system but is based on the IB (International Baccalaureate) Program. The Headmaster of the school reminds me of Dumbledore on steroids: Lots of white hair (no beard), loves the kids, is very wise and also extremely adventuresome. Every year he takes the school kids on several adventurous trips, that look so fun that my only question was: "Do you need any parent volunteers?!"
During the entire week we were there we were only able to see 4 homes that were available for rent. Housing is about as crazy as in Utah since Covid. Most homes that were listed for rent that we were interested in were already under contract. If you're not the first one to have a look chances are very slim to get it. So, not surprisingly we did not find a home for rent. Good thing Josh will be heading over first, end of April/beginning of May and hopefully he will find something for us to live in. He's also way more pickier than me, so whatever he picks, I'm pretty sure I'll be happy with it. Here is one of the homes we looked at, that rents for £3200 (~$4200):
Rent prices for a medium sized home with more than 1 bathroom is about £2700-£4000 /month ($3500 - $5200). Crazy!! To buy a medium sized home costs about 1.5 million pounds! So buying isn't an option, also because our credit score does not transfer over to the UK.
Some fun visits we did were to Oxford and Cambridge. Beautiful college towns with history galore! Hurray for me! As we walked through Oxford, we ran into some senior missionaries and they spontaneously offered to give us a 10 minute tour of how C.S. Lewis got his inspiration for the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Here's the Wardrobe door. C.S. Lewis actually jumped over the door and landed on snow.
Here's the lamp he saw when he landed:
and another door with a lion and creatures that gave him the inspirations for the book.
Oxford is a beautiful city. I loved it there and can't wait to take some of the free historical tours that students offer there.
This is the camera: (which means round). Fascinating building, used as a library and right next to C.S. Lewis's sights.
Below is the stunnging All Souls College - In contrast to its name, the college is not accepting all souls; in fact, only 1-2 students are accepted into the college each year!
Btw, not all UK buses are RED! In fact, they come in blue, green, pink, orange and all kinds of colors!!
Cambridge is also extremely beautiful:
A typical activity around Cambridge (and Oxford) is called punting, (which is similar to riding one of Venice's gondolas). For £30 per person you can go punting with a guide or for £60 you can rent a punt and go punting yourself and hopefully not fall into the river!
Cambridge has 31 Colleges, including King's college, Queen's college, and Christ's college. They are all majestic buildings, and I was nonstop taking pictures while walking through town.
We entered Christ's college and found out that Darwin attended this college:
Of course, we had to get dinner in Chinatown. It was very good and cost about £15/plate.
Then it was off to see Mamma Mia at London's West End, near Chinatown. The musical was very entertaining and well done. The tickets started at £27, which are the seats highest up in the gallery. (If you care about the play/musical, it would be worth getting better seats!)
The walk back to the tube was beautiful. I especially loved the Ukrainian colors displayed next to the London Eye:
London was exciting and I can't wait to explore more.
Next we were looking for a auto mall, since we have to buy a car. We googled for the closest one to where we were and google pointed us to one close to the Motorway. Well, this auto mall was no where close where we expected it to be, but more to where we would find a hidden boyscout camp, through the forest and out in the nowhere.
Talking to the salesperson, we found out that buying a car in the UK is nothing to what it is in the US. First, you are only allowed to drive one car per day, because it would cost too much in gas and wear and tear to the car shop. Next, you have to find the car on Autotrader first, contact the place where the car is located and arrange for an appointment to test drive that car. The test drive is more to make sure that the car is not a lemon, rather than finding out if that model of car is what you really want. Somehow the buyer is supposed to know exactly what car you would want to purchase, without test driving several cars. Most cars sold are tiny, because anyone with a big car will be punished by never be able to find a parking lot big enough and forget about fitting in any parking garage stall!
Here are some more pictures of High Wycombe around Josh's new workplace Rayspec and Sarah's new school Chalfont. Nearby is a beautiful large park called the Rye:
Here is Josh's new workplace: Rayspec
And the neighborhood around his work:
I love this sign:
Even though we didn't get a house, we're happy to have found a school for Sarah and identified some areas around High Wycombe where we'd like to live. We will be back!
THE END
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