This has been the best week! I got to have two nights out for dinner with friends, I got to meet up with my old playgroup and see how much all of the babes have grown, I got to see my old ING DIRECT friends and received a visit from several friends who drove hours to come see us. It has been so wonderful!
I wish we had more time to spend with everyone individually to hear about their life and how they're doing and what they've been up to. As I have mentioned before, I would be perfectly happy just staying here and calling it a day in London. But, I have been reminded that I can't think that way. We've got a long way to go, and honestly, I know there will be lots of great things that happen there in the next few years. It's just hard to be reminded of how many people we love here and know that we are going to have to leave again.
12 November 2012
06 November 2012
Trader Joe's
This might seem ridiculous, but I honestly think that the thing that I've missed most in London is Trader Joe's. (This is not equivalent to missing people.) It is such a wonderful store.
Viv and I went there this morning to buy groceries for the week. The cereals are delicious, the hummus is delicious, the salsas are delicious, the trail mixes are second to none and the wasabi roasted seaweed is out of this world.
I'm a happy camper with a kitchen full of food that I've missed so much!
Viv and I went there this morning to buy groceries for the week. The cereals are delicious, the hummus is delicious, the salsas are delicious, the trail mixes are second to none and the wasabi roasted seaweed is out of this world.
I'm a happy camper with a kitchen full of food that I've missed so much!
04 November 2012
Oh, America!
This morning I woke up very early and laid in bed watching the room get gradually lighter waiting for Mark and Vivian to wake up. (Viv woke up around 2:30 in the morning and stayed awake for a few hours. I woke up around 1:30 a.m. and am pretty sure I never really went back to sleep. I'm usually pretty good at adjusting to jet-lag. We'll see if this trip is different.) Viv started whispering first. As she lay in her room whispering about who knows what I laid in bed dreaming about what I would order at Butterfield's for breakfast. As soon as Mark woke up I said, "Ready to go to breakfast?" He was a bit taken aback, but after a few minutes we were all up and on our way. I was SO excited.
I expected to be a bit disgusted and ashamed by the portion sizes here after living in London. The breakfast places we go to serve you a very reasonable sized breakfast that you don't feel bad about finishing in one sitting. At Butterfields I was thrilled by the portion sizes. So much food and it still costs less than our meals in London. We took two boxes home with leftovers and will have another full family breakfast tomorrow! It was also really fun to order a coffee and have them come continue refilling it. What a luxury. Bottomless drip coffee!
We also headed over to Oak Brook Center to pick up a few items that I have been waiting to buy once we came back: like a winter coat. Things here are just so much less expensive! Once again, I expected to think that Oak Brook was ridiculous, but it was wonderful. A bunch of stores in one place with really wide walkways that Viv could run through to her little heart's content! It was fantastic!
Occasionally I would hear someone speaking with an American accent and turn quickly to see who it was. Then I remembered that most of the people here sound like that. In London I find it really exciting to meet other Americans. Not because they're really that hard to find, but because I wonder what they're doing here and what we must have in common.
This afternoon Mark and I sat in the basement and watched the Bears game. Oh, how I've missed lazy Sundays watching football (American football that is). It's familiar, I know the names of the players and I like hearing the commentators talk about past seasons that I remember watching. It didn't hurt that the Bears absolutely CRUSHED the Titans. Always a fun viewing experience in that case. Mark and I were almost giddy as we sat on the couch soaking up the American-ness of the afternoon.
We do like London. We may even love London. We have been there 6 months and really have come a long way. We will enjoy the time that we live there. By the time we come back (and we will definitely come back) we will probably be very sad to leave all of the people that we've grown to love there, but I am already looking forward to the day that we come home.
I expected to be a bit disgusted and ashamed by the portion sizes here after living in London. The breakfast places we go to serve you a very reasonable sized breakfast that you don't feel bad about finishing in one sitting. At Butterfields I was thrilled by the portion sizes. So much food and it still costs less than our meals in London. We took two boxes home with leftovers and will have another full family breakfast tomorrow! It was also really fun to order a coffee and have them come continue refilling it. What a luxury. Bottomless drip coffee!
We also headed over to Oak Brook Center to pick up a few items that I have been waiting to buy once we came back: like a winter coat. Things here are just so much less expensive! Once again, I expected to think that Oak Brook was ridiculous, but it was wonderful. A bunch of stores in one place with really wide walkways that Viv could run through to her little heart's content! It was fantastic!
Occasionally I would hear someone speaking with an American accent and turn quickly to see who it was. Then I remembered that most of the people here sound like that. In London I find it really exciting to meet other Americans. Not because they're really that hard to find, but because I wonder what they're doing here and what we must have in common.
This afternoon Mark and I sat in the basement and watched the Bears game. Oh, how I've missed lazy Sundays watching football (American football that is). It's familiar, I know the names of the players and I like hearing the commentators talk about past seasons that I remember watching. It didn't hurt that the Bears absolutely CRUSHED the Titans. Always a fun viewing experience in that case. Mark and I were almost giddy as we sat on the couch soaking up the American-ness of the afternoon.
We do like London. We may even love London. We have been there 6 months and really have come a long way. We will enjoy the time that we live there. By the time we come back (and we will definitely come back) we will probably be very sad to leave all of the people that we've grown to love there, but I am already looking forward to the day that we come home.
03 November 2012
We're back!
We have arrived back in Chicago safe and sound (for the most part).
The journey went really well aside from the last hour which involved an overly tired toddler screaming, getting flagged at customs for having apples and not having our pre-arranged cab waiting for us (I was REALLY tired).
Vivian did really well on the plane. We brought lots of activities to do but when it was about her nap time I decided to let her watch Mary Poppins. Our philosophy on planes is: just give her what she wants. We worry about health, discipline and being a good person when we're not trapped in the air with hundreds of people just waiting for her to act out so that they can tell their friends about the screaming kid on the plane.
So, after Mary Poppins she watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse over and over and over again. It's possible that the girl watched close to 6 hours of tv. Her poor little brain must just be fried! Now we need to be sure to do lots of active, fun, enriching activities while we're here to make up for that.
Viv fell asleep in her carseat within 10 minutes of being in the car. So, I started looking around and evaluating my "reverse culture shock." There wasn't much. People here are fatter, but I expected that. Roads here are wider and things are more spread out, but I expected that too. The thing that I had kind of forgotten was how things aren't quite as beautiful here. That sounds weird, and driving from O'Hare to the western suburbs probably isn't a fair comparison, but I consistently notice in London how effort is put into little details to make things aesthetically pleasing. Not to the same extent here (in general). On the drive I saw what seemed like hundreds of boxy warehouses. Efficient, I'm sure. Necessary, I'm sure. Just not very pretty. I haven't yet been downtown, and it's been long enough since I've lived there that I'm probably going to be surprised by what I see. I'm heading down on Tuesday to meet a friend for dinner, so I'll let you know.
We got home, put Viv to bed, marveled at how happy we are to be back and then went to bed ourselves. Long day, but we are SO happy to be "home."
The journey went really well aside from the last hour which involved an overly tired toddler screaming, getting flagged at customs for having apples and not having our pre-arranged cab waiting for us (I was REALLY tired).
Vivian did really well on the plane. We brought lots of activities to do but when it was about her nap time I decided to let her watch Mary Poppins. Our philosophy on planes is: just give her what she wants. We worry about health, discipline and being a good person when we're not trapped in the air with hundreds of people just waiting for her to act out so that they can tell their friends about the screaming kid on the plane.
So, after Mary Poppins she watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse over and over and over again. It's possible that the girl watched close to 6 hours of tv. Her poor little brain must just be fried! Now we need to be sure to do lots of active, fun, enriching activities while we're here to make up for that.
Viv fell asleep in her carseat within 10 minutes of being in the car. So, I started looking around and evaluating my "reverse culture shock." There wasn't much. People here are fatter, but I expected that. Roads here are wider and things are more spread out, but I expected that too. The thing that I had kind of forgotten was how things aren't quite as beautiful here. That sounds weird, and driving from O'Hare to the western suburbs probably isn't a fair comparison, but I consistently notice in London how effort is put into little details to make things aesthetically pleasing. Not to the same extent here (in general). On the drive I saw what seemed like hundreds of boxy warehouses. Efficient, I'm sure. Necessary, I'm sure. Just not very pretty. I haven't yet been downtown, and it's been long enough since I've lived there that I'm probably going to be surprised by what I see. I'm heading down on Tuesday to meet a friend for dinner, so I'll let you know.
We got home, put Viv to bed, marveled at how happy we are to be back and then went to bed ourselves. Long day, but we are SO happy to be "home."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)