USA all the way.

This post is going to fall into the "quick and dirty" category of blog life.

But then, what doesn't these days?

We just returned from a fabulous trip to the States on Sunday afternoon, and will embark on a trip to Salzburg/Vienna/Prague on Wednesday morning.  I'm fairly sure we're walking a tenuous line between ambitious and just plain crazy.

But while we're here in the UK we'd like to see as much of Europe as we can possibly afford see.  And when the girls and I can tag along on Josh's business trips it really helps toward that end.

So, back to the US of A.

We spent a fantastic two solid-packed weeks of grandmas and grandpas and cousins, snuggles with our dog Riley, hugs from friends, water parks, and twin baby boys.


The kids both did great on both flights, praise God!  We dumped Caroline into Juliet's baby car seat both ways and it worked like a CHARM.  I'd highly recommend this strategy!  The lap belt becomes a game of how crawl out of it.  But a 5-point harness?  Perfection.  Not to mention a nice incline for good sleep.  And Caroline may or may not have watched Cars 2 five times over the two flights, so kiddie head phones were perfect.


Miss Juliet got to meet all kinds of family and friends.  I'm so glad we were able to travel with her when she was still tiny.  She got to meet 6 of her 7 great-grandparents, along with countless other family members and friends who have been loving her and praying for her from afar.





My Oma, Ben's girlfriend Annie, my brother Ben, and my cousin Erin with baby Juliet


My grandpa and mom


My cousin Elizabeth and Aunt Jo, my Grandma (who MADE that awesome quilt as a baby gift for us!), my Oma, and Juliet's cousin Aiydan


I got to take some pics of Montoya's kids - aren't they cute?






We threw my two in there for a few shots as well.




The only thing getting Caroline through the photo shoot was a sucker!


We adults got to catch up with loved ones, too.  As much as Skype and FaceTime help us feel close to people back home, it just isn't the same as sitting on a friends' couch, enjoying breakfast out at with grandparents, or laughing around a kitchen table over glasses of wine.

And NOTHING comes close to holding new babies.  My BFF and cousin Erin went into labor with her twins two days before we arrived in the States.  I was afraid I'd miss their birth all together, but those handsome rascals decided to make their appearance at 35 weeks.  I'm confident they just wanted to meet Auntie Jessie. 

Holding hands with Hendrick, handsome Andres.

Since they were tiny, they spent 10-ish days in the NICU.  I got to visit them there almost every day I was in town (thanks to my parents, who babysit my kids!)  I loved seeing their precious little faces, and even getting to hold and feed them.  But I loved getting to see Erin become a mama even more.  She's amazing at it.


My mom postponed her annual Valentine's Day breakfast so that we could be a part of it. The tablecloth and the pancakes in particular take me back to my childhood, when she would get up early and make us a special candlelit breakfast complete with heart-shaped pancakes before we went off to school.


After a few days in Grand Rapids, we headed up to Northern Michigan (Traverse City) with Josh's parents (who had generously agreed to fly to Michigan from Texas, sparing us yet another flight with the girls) to see Josh's grandparents AND stay at the Great Wolf Lodge, a fantastic indoor water park.







Josh's grandparents with Josh and our girls.

Caroline and Josh's mom (Nana) playing stickers.  Nana always comes prepared with treats!



After Traverse City we headed down to Columbus (by way of Ann Arbor for dinner with the LeComptes) for a few days.  And I took way too few pictures!  But suffice it to say we enjoyed several breakfast, lunch, and dinner dates with old friends.  WE MISS YOU ALL!


And then the girls and I were back in G-Rap for a hot minute before we flew back to the UK.  But those two days gave us the chance for family fun at my parents' gym, and one more opportunity for me to snuggle Erin's twins (who were home - hooray!)




Josh and I spend countless conversations hashing out differences between US and UK life.  And in the course of those I like to hand out the "gold stars."

History.  Quaint.  Old.  Castles.  Abbeys.  Cathedrals.  Medical care post-childbirth.  The River Thames.  Charming little towns.
Gold Star UK

Restaurants that provide enough ice and ketchup.  Oyster Crackers.  Goldfish.  Barbeque.  Low prices.  Pay-at-the-pump gas.  Pei Wei.  Good pizza.  Drive-thrus.  Low prices, again.  Graeters and Jeni's Ice Cream (for Josh).  Larger parking spaces.  People we love.

And Target.
Gold Star USA

Suffice it to say we indulged in a variety of old US favorites in addition to spending lots of quality time with friends and family.  And as much fun as we're having in the UK, there's truly no place like home!

Fumbling with the Queen's English and customs...

We're almost four months into this British adventure, and different bits of the local culture have been seeping into our lives.



We eat cottage pies and sticky toffee pudding.  We actually have soft spots for both.  Spotted dick is on my list.

There's quite a bit these days that feels normal.  We know that a "surgery" is a doctor's office.  "Pudding" means dessert.  And a "lift" is another (better?) word for elevator.  And we're completely comfortable using those words.

For one thing, it's just inevitable that we start using British terms instead of their American counterparts.  When we have to interact with the outside world, it's nice to avoid blank stares.  Why make things more difficult than they have to be, when we can just as easily discuss "car parks," "cots," and "holidays" (parking lots, cribs, and vacations)?

More than that, however, we make a conscious effort to use British words when we're talking to Caroline.  She'll probably go off to school in the next 6 months, and we don't want her to be completely clueless about "ice lollies," "nappies," and "rubbish bins" (popsicles, diapers, and trash cans).  In fact, she would tell you that she rides around in her "buggy" (stroller) and that Juliet sucks on a "dummy" (pacifier).   And "Mummy"?  Yes, it's what I hear when she's whiny.  Mummy-mummy-mummy-mummy.  Just as fun as you might think.

And when we send her to school?  The terms are all different.  Instead of preschool she'll go to "nursery."  But when she plays with the other young kids while Josh and I are sitting in church?  It's call "creche."    

All of that feels normal.  But we're still getting used to a few things.

The spelling trips me up all the time.  Typing "water color paints" into the search field at amazon.co.uk doesn't turn up much.  Because of course, they're "water colours."  And then there's "fertiliser."  And "tyres" (as in car tires). Since Josh operates within the professional world, he has to deal with this a lot more.  Not too many people care about what goes into my email correspondence.

I learned yesterday via Wikipedia that the "rocket" I'm always eating on sandwiches and in salads is actually arugula.  Good to know. Thank goodness for the Internet.  I recently had to Google what my English friends meant when they would sign off emails and texts with an "x" or "xx."  Like I figured, it just means "kiss." 

And there is quite a bit that's just completely beyond us.

The catch-all word of "cheers," for instance.  It's a bit of a cross between goodbye, thanks, catch-you-later, etc.  Heard all the time.  And it's a common email sign-off as well.  Maybe it's a little too British for us?  There's no way we can pull it off.

Saying "half seven" instead of "seven thirty" to describe the time of day?  We can't pull that one off either.

I also have some vague notion that there are a few definitions of the word "tea," including the beverage, the mid-afternoon snack that involves scones, and an early dinner.  And I'm fairly confident that the context of the conversation gives hints as to which someone might be speaking of.  But at this point, I'm fairly clueless.

And the European double-kiss?  One kiss for each cheek.  Neither of us have mastered it yet.  Which cheek do you start on?  Are there times when you just kiss one side?  Are they always back to back kisses or can you stop in-between for a bit of conversation?  Can you see what all this adds up to?  AWKWARD.  And it's one thing when my girlfriends do it.  Completely different when my OB (called a "consultant") greets me that way.

I'm sure we'll continue to try - and mostly fail - in our dealings with the intricacies of the language and culture of our current home.  It's mostly a fun experiment.  Here's hoping the double kiss thing gets more comfortable with time.

On UK Driving

Watch out, I can drive in the UK!


I first got behind the wheel on the drive up to Scotland.

From a legal perspective, we're actually able to drive on our US licenses for a full year, and then after that we have to take a driving test.  Does that seem a little backward to anyone else?  However, we'll take it... we have a year to practice!

So when you're driving in the UK we're talking about driving on other side of the road and the other side of the car.  Not to mention road signs that are unfamiliar, and a few other oddities besides that.  Josh had the advantage of learning from a coworker, so he a had a bit of a head start on me.  It was actually pretty helpful for him to learn first, because he could explain things to me from the perspective of a US driver.



Our current car is a VW that Josh's company rented for us.  Oh yeah, we're rocking out the station wagon (known as "estate" around here).  It runs on diesel, which means that a tank of "petrol" lasts FOREVER.  But then when it needs more, hello 3x as expensive as US gas.  And this car actually turns itself off with every stop.  And then when you lift off of the brake it turns itself back on.  Very strange, but whatever.


Car Seats.
Since UK and US cars are made slightly differently, their regulations on car seats are different.  Thus it isn't legal to US car seats in a UK car.  So we had to buy Caroline a new one once we got here.  Some of the brands at the store were familiar to us, but we basically chose one that was recommended by baby store employees and random Amazon reviewers alike.  And, when you push the button to release the straps to take the child out, the straps actually spring up, all ready for the next time you need to put her in!  Josh hated our last car seat and is in love with this one.  We'll also have to get a new baby car seat before New Girl shows up.

So we found out about our move to England and then 5 days later found out about New Girl.  My first instinct was to freak out, and I chose car seats as that point at which I did so.

Josh: This is great news!
Jessica: But, but, you have to buy new car seats when you're over there.
And we'll have to buy TTTWWWWOOOOOOOO.
{pause}
Josh: Um, I think we can handle that.


The other side of the road.
This was the easiest part to get used to for me, both as a driver and a pedestrian.  I didn't think about it before coming here, but when you're walking you automatically look one way or another when you cross streets.  I took me a little while, before I even got behind the wheel, to remember which way to look.  However, after walking around for a couple of weeks prior to driving, it didn't seem all that weird. 

The other side of the car.
Definitely more difficult.  That's because my sense of space is all thrown off.  I mean, in an American car you know that you don't have much room to your left, but you have quite a bit to your right.  And you can quickly judge how/when to turn into a parking spot, and where you should be within the lane.  It's pretty much second nature.  Driving from the other side of the car means re-learning how much space you have on either side of you.  As a result, it's SUPER easy to drift within your lane.  I'm fairly confident that I just might side swipe a parked car one of these days. 

The streets/traffic.
One of the main reasons I might run into a side-swipe problem is that the streets are SO NARROW.  Not so great when you pair that with my spacial awareness problems above.  The street we live on is technically okay both ways, but actually only fits 1 car in 1 direction at a time.  So there's a bunch of gesturing via flashing lights about who gets to go first.  And then getting on the main road is only slightly better.  These are old streets in an old city, so I totally get it.  However, it almost makes me pee my trousers every time I'm on a road and see a big red double decker bus coming opposite me.


Oh, and the traffic sucks. Big city meets those same old narrow roads.  Or, in this case, a simple matter of dumping 3 lanes of highway traffic onto surface roads.

The road signs.
Kudos to England. These are remarkably clear and easy to read. There are signs on the sides of roads as well as a lot of signs painted right in the lanes.

Getting on the M25? 
You want to be right here in this lane.

Thank you, England.

And the road side signs are just as helpful, especially with those pesky roundabouts (see below).
Image courtesy of random flickr search.


Another random tidbit.  Most road signs heading out into the countryside have sweeping titles like "THE WEST" and then they include the specific road name almost as an afterthought.

THE WEST (M4)
is what I see on the way to the airport from our house.  As opposed to M4 West, which is how most American highways are labeled.

The roundabouts.
These are hard to get used to. There are very very few "normal" intersections around here, but rather roundabouts everywhere. There are specific rules about which lane to be in when you approach the roundabout, and then once you're in it you kind of drift to the outside in a very specific way depending on where you're getting off. Some involve traffic lights, and others don't.  And woe to you if you get off at the wrong point, or don't use your blinkers appropriately, or don't drift over in quite the right way!  You'll get honked at every time. 

Image courtesy of random flickr search.

All in all, we're still living.  The car is intact.  I've made several trips to the airport by myself, and one trip out into the country as well.  That's in addition to a fair amount of weekend driving with Josh sitting next to me encouraging me along.

Tomorrow we're going on a trip to Germany.  It's our last opportunity to travel before A) Caroline turns two and we have to buy her an airline ticket and B) I shouldn't fly anywhere any more.  We're renting a car and are curious whether or not going back to "normal" driving will feel strange.  And then we'll also have the Autobahn to deal with!  Should be interesting...