The Week of Becky and Seepy-Seepy

It took us a few days to get caught up on sleep from the whole moving ordeal… and to be honest, I don’t know if I’ll ever feel caught up on sleep again in my life, but we’ll call it good for now. Rachel woke up and cried for about an hour our first night here. (Sorry Becky!) We had a little chat the next night and told her we wouldn’t be coming in anymore during the night. She looked me in the eye and said “ok”, and we haven’t had a problem since! Amazing.

Ok, the good stuff:

-The midwife (also named Becky) came to THE HOUSE to take a medical history and check up on me! So cool. She was very understanding about our situation and helped me feel better about having a baby in the UK. She got a good heart beat and measurement for baby Alice, and showed me a few things I could do to help turn her around. My babies like to face my back apparently. I’ve since turned her around, and my back pain has decreased significantly! Yay!!!!

-House hunting: we found THE PERFECT house. In our budget. 3 bedrooms. Really nice interior. Completely furnished! But it was a 45 minute commute to church and friends (2 bus rides) and even longer for Paul to get to school. I stayed up all night trying to decide if we should take it and in the end, I decided we’d have faith that something would turn up closer to where we want to be. Ugh. It still hurts just thinking about it.
**Side note: I mean no disrespect to England, but almost every house I’ve been in here seems much smaller, draftier, and run down compared to American housing. Obviously space is an issue-it’s a smaller country. But I’m realizing how spoiled I’ve been in America-even my dorms were more cozy than some of these places! Yikes!
Also, you can’t just call one realtor or drive around to look at places to rent. There is a website (rightmove.co.uk) where you can search for housing, but then you have to call the “Letting Agency” to set up a viewing. So I have to make a bunch of phone calls to set up viewings and try to get them during a time when someone can drive me around. About half the time, the place has already been taken by the time I call, or the day of the viewing, the agency calls to say someone just took it off the market. Then, when I do get to view a house, the pictures made it look WAY better than it actually is, but I refuse to get down about it. It’s only been one week…

-Banks: I let Paul figure this one out. He walked into town and had to work with several banks until they could find a loophole to let him open an account. Apparently, every bank says you have to live in the UK for 3 years before you can open an account. What? That can’t be right, but it’s what we found.

-Cell phones: We borrowed a cheap little cell phone from a friend and we are doing “pay as you go” until we set up a plan. It’s hilarious. I can’t even figure out how to text. Doesn’t even have T9! Haha! We’re so spoiled.

-Travel: We mostly stayed home and made phone calls or worked online to get things settled. Becky had school, but she drove us around in the evenings when she got home. We also walked into town once or twice. So cool…

-Lichfield: Is DARLING. There is a cathedral from the early 1700s, and from pretty much anywhere in the town, you can hear church bells chime. There are tons of cute little parks, and Becky took us into town to play at Darnsford Park (Dunsford?). Amazing! Swings are all hard, flat seats here. And the toys and play structures all seem old-fashioned, which is fun! It’s such a fun little town, but it’s too far from school and you have to pay extra to switch counties on the train commute.

-Shopping/Cooking: We basically starved all week. I don’t have many recipes memorized, and I was so overwhelmed, I couldn’t think clearly about what to make! Plus, none of the brands in the store look familiar! Everything comes in much smaller portions. Lots less salt. Way less pre-packaged meals. (Even the ones they do have are so much healthier than US junk.) Chips *crisps* look like regular chips, but they have flavors like “Prawn” “Smoky Bacon” “Roast Chicken” and others. Ha! We’ve gotten used to them, though. Still haven’t found a good chocolate milk substitute, but I know it has to exist.

-Chocolate-I don’t think I’ll ever miss American chocolate. Galaxy, Cadbury, and even cheap brand chocolate is better here than anything I’ve had in the states. This will save my life for the next two years.
-School-Paul had “International Orientation” this week. AKA-how to get drunk and meet other international singles. Ha! He went the first day to take a tour and get registered, and then he spent the rest of the week with us. I’m so glad we had that time together. I hardly changed a diaper or lifted a finger all week!

-Homesick-Of course, but no tears yet. 

-Luggage: Did I mention it took 4 days for my suitcase to get here? I had to borrow maternity clothes from a friend and wash underwear at nights. Ha! Of course. What an adventure!

-Church-The ward is much smaller than any ward I’ve ever been in, and there aren’t very many young people. Rachel only had two little friends in nursery with her! Crazy! But we love it. The accents make it easier to pay attention-somehow it’s more interesting 

-Becky made us dinner a few nights, and she is SO good with Rachel. They are already best buddies! They watch Tangled and Frozen together, and Becky helped us find toys and things to play with. We feel like we’ve known her forever, but we just met last week! The rest of the family is in Chile on holiday, and we can’t wait to see them on Sunday!!