The first 2 weeks in England were exciting, but also a bit rough. We arrived from Utah on Aug. 6th, Saturday afternoon, and brave Sarah left for the London FSY (For the Strength of Youth church camp) the following Monday for 5 days, not knowing one soul! I signed her up back in July for the London FSY, not really believing that we will get the Visas on time. It was a bit of a miracle because I felt strongly I should sign her up for it and it will work out, despite all indications that we wouldn't make it on time. So there she went and she had a great time and made lots of new friends. Some interesting observations she shared: What British people think of America: politics, guns and grease (as in greasy food!) Also, many Brits like just ketchup on their salads and the salad dressing here tastes like toothpaste. And British KitKats are way better tasting than US KitKats. The Brits are a bit more reserved and took a bit longer to warm up to each other, but after that they are very friendly.
While Sarah was having a great time at FSY, the rest of us were busy getting our house set up and trying to buy a whole bunch of things like anything from scissors to a TV stand, a freezer and a dryer. Most of the bigger things I found on Facebook Marketplace. A great place to buy second hand stuff! And then Josh and I got a bit sick, but luckily it wasn't horrible but did slow us down quite a bit. In fact, according to Janette I set a new record on how many naps someone can take in one day!
Janette was very helpful in helping us get settled. Here's Janette's improvised picnic table:
And here's Janette making us paninis:
Our biggest purchase was a new (one year old) car, a Toyota Rav4. It was not easy to get a car, since they get sold here very quickly. In fact, we had to pay for this car before we could even see it! Getting insurance for the car was also a nightmare, since we don't have British driver's licenses yet (what most insurance companies' require). It was a huge headache for Josh to figure out all the details, but after one week of us living in the UK we got our car! When Josh first showed up with our new car at work, all his coworkers' comments were: 'Wow, that is a big car! That must be an American car!' Looking around in the parking lot, it does seem to be one of the bigger cars here. It's been very helpful though, because we can fit things like a dryer, a freezer, a TV stand, or Janette in it!
Our new home is nice, but needed some repairs. Everything takes longer here, after one week we finally had some handymen come to fix some leaks in the bathrooms, but we're still waiting for them to come back and finish fixing some water damage, a stovetop burner that is not working and some non functioning outlets. Sarah has also been busy cleaning every spiderweb that is in our house - an impossible task! For some reason, spiders love our area and will build a web again as soon as we take it down, to her chagrin!
My biggest mistake here so far was doing laundry all in one day (before we bought a dryer). Soon I had laundry hanging all over the house, including towels, sheets, and underwear... Well, one of the first things we bought was a dryer! Even though the dryer and the washing machine are a lot smaller here I'm very grateful to have both of these! Josh's mistake was thinking for an entire week that the stove was broken, only to find out later that there is a switch that he needed to flip to turn it on. He used just the microwave for an entire week before finding that out! In fact, every outlet has a switch that needs to be flipped in order to make it work:
Another difference between US and UK is the gas--or in the UK "petrol". Diesel is served with a black handle, and Unleaded has a green handle! A very important difference to remember and that Josh made sure we all knew!!
Gas (I mean petrol) is about double the price of the cost in the US: £1.69/liter = about US $7.66/US gallon. By the way, a US gallon is smaller than a UK gallon! 1 UK gallon = 0.83 US gallon.
A few more random differences:
- everything is organized on the left side (not just driving), such as the grocery store, walking on the street, etc.
- fries are called chips here and chips are called crisps
- a musical number is called musical item
- breads, spices, fruits and veggies are cheaper here than in the US!
- Sarah's school doesn't start till Sept. 6th and summer break started on July 7th. She will have a 2-3 week break just about every 2 months
- income tax is 45% here!!
- drinking fountains are almost non existent here
Well, I'm sure we will soon find out more differences, but so far we love learning to live here and are mostly having a good time.
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