Update via pictures

Since it's a holiday weekend Matt and I are going to take a small road trip. We were thinking about going to London but then decided since we both have been there we would rather go somewhere we have never seen. We decided we are going to take a road trip in Matt's new car to Cardiff Wales! I am really excited to see the town. It is on the coast and there are some beautiful castles to see there. We get to move into our house on Monday, I will get my car from the port hopefully next week and Matt got a VW Passat. We are slowly starting to get our life back here :) Here are some pictures from the last couple of days...

Loving a pint of Guinness

Ely Cathedral (5 miles from our house)

Live music at a pub

What I have learned so far...

So its only been about 4 days since we got to England but there are a couple things I have learned since being here....

1. The roads are small so practice all your curb hitting in the rental car BEFORE your car arrives.

2. Things are spelled differently here: curb is kerb and tires are spelled tyres I am sure there are many more but those make me laugh.

3. The british people love their pubs and beer, they don't let Sundays hold them back and I am pretty sure "sunday fun day" started here :)

4. I have never had to concentrate so hard as I do when I drive here. "Left side of the road stay on the left side of the road" constantly goes through my head, it's hard!

5. British kids and their accents are by far the cutest thing ever!

6. The bees are out to get you here. No joke, they attack and they love their beer too.

7. British people wear dark clothes which is unfortunate for me because all my bright neon clothing I brought is a huge indicator that I am American.

8. Round abouts are a tricky business, especially when its your first time on a huge five point roundabout. ALWAYS look right and NEVER shut your eyes and pray you get out alive.

9. Pay attention because cars will park on the side of the road and if you aren't looking you can hit a parked car really easily here.

10. Beer is flat and warm here, you get over it but what I wouldn't give for a cold IPA with some carbonation.

Driving in England

Driving in England.....I survived! haha It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but that's not to say I will not be nervous every time I get behind the wheel for the next month or so. Matt wanted to go look at a car he is interested in buying today so I thought "hey why not try and drive today!" The dealership was about 30 minutes away and I had to go through this double roundabout that is scary as hell to me. I made it and didn't get in an accident so I call that a really good day! Once I get use to driving here it will probably be time for me to visit home and i'll be all messed up again. Once I get my car I know the whole steering wheel on the wrong side of the car is going to get in the way...but I'll deal with it when the time comes! After looking at a car for Matt (which we may end up buying) we went to the town of Ely. This is by far my favorite town so far and it is only 5 miles from our new house. (oh btw we got the house we wanted!!! yaya will be moving in in the next couple of weeks and will take lots of pictures to share).

Ely has different markets every weeks and today was the farmers market. Everything smelled to delicious I can't wait to shop there every week! There is also a beautiful old cathedral in the town and someone was getting married there today so we got to see them taking their pictures outside.

Ely Cathedral

The town of Ely

After looking around the market we went to a pub to get some lunch and a pint.

I am loving exploring the area and can't wait till we can move into our new house :)

We are in ENGLAND!

We made it to England safe and sound :) We have only had about 2 hours of sleep but we decided to stay up to try and beat the jet lag! Our friend Randy was nice enough to drive the 2 hours to Heathrow and pick us up and take us back to the base. It was really nice to have a friendly face greeting us when we got off the plane. Once we got to the base we went to a bunch of different places to check in and sign up for newcomers briefings and the driving class we are required to take. We got checked into our hotel and then went to rent a car! Everyone says you will get use to the whole driving on the other side of the road things but I honestly do not know how that is going to happen for me! It was so stressful driving around town and I wasn't even the one driving Matt was! The roads are so much smaller and the amount of times I thought we were going to hit someone had by heart rate up the entire drive! Regardless of that the area is beautiful and I really enjoyed driving through all the towns around base to do a little exploring :) When we were driving through a town called Littleport we caught a realtor showing a family a house and he agreed to show it to us too, and I loved it! Matt had found the same house online a couple months ago and it is still on the market. We are going to try and get all the paperwork started on it tomorrow! I know its the only house we have looked at but hey when you know you know and I have never been big on "shopping" even when it comes to houses. Looking forward to exploring more of the base tomorrow and maybe by the end of the weekend I will have the courage to try and drive! I am so glad we got here close to a weekend because there is so much boring stuff you have to do to in process that the weekend will be a nice break from everything and hopefully we can go get our first pint at a pub tonight.

I have no pictures to show this post because I don't have my iphone but hopefully get a phone tomorrow and I can share some pictures of the amazing towns around here!

Life Update

It has been so nice having Matt back for the past couple of days. I can't get to use to it because he had to leave for Maine for a couple days to say goodbye to his family and he is a groomsman in his friends wedding. When Matt comes home we are leaving two days later, I can't believe how close it is getting! Over the past week we have had to say a lot of goodbye but we have also had some time to enjoy ourselves :) Matt went sky diving for his birthday with my step-dad Rick! He has wanted to sky dive for so long and so I set it up for him to go when we got back from Korea and he loved it!

Matt took Dylan and I indoor rock wall climbing one day. It is something Matt has started to do a lot while he was in Korea and we are hoping we can go together in England too :)

Sport Rock where we went climbing

On Matt's actual birthday we went to a Nationals baseball game. I surprised Matt by getting a birthday shout out to him on the jumbo screen. The rain held off till right after Matt got to see his name on the screen! After the rain the game restarted and the Nationals won :)

Well next time I post it will either be from an airport on my way to London or we will already be there! ekkk!

Matt's Home and Bon Voyage Party!

It has been a crazy couple of days starting with Matt arriving home a day late because he missed his connection, but he finally got home! The welcome home committee that we were going to have meeting him at the airport didn't work out due to the missed flight but it was the best feeling in the world to hug and kiss him again!

My dad and stepmom hosted a goodbye party for us and all of favorite people came out to say goodbye. We seriously have some of the best friends ever and I feel so lucky to have all of them a part of our lives. Here are some pictures from the party! :)

We have one week left till we are off to England! This next week is full of excitement but a lot of tears and goodbyes. I know living in England is going to be an amazing experience for us but that doesn't take away from the fact that I will be living in another country without my friends and family around to make me laugh, spend the holidays with or have a shoulder to lean on when I need it. I will defiantly be living outside my comfort zone, but it will be good for me and I know I cannot go another day without living with my husband.