We have arrived!

After getting on a plane yesterday at 6:50pm Sunday, we touched down in London at about 1:30pm on Monday. The reality that we were moving abroad slowly began to creep up on us as we were driving to the airport and it really hit when we were looking out the window landing in London. We had a stopover for a wedding in San Francisco this weekend and up until that point it had just felt like one of our weekend getaways to visit friends. Now that we've arrived, there's no pretending we are headed back to Seattle anymore.

The most difficult part of our traveling hasn't been the flight length or so-so airline meal; it's been lugging around our 8 bags. It truly feels like "baggage" and not in a good way. Maybe our stopover has made it harder because we had to load the luggage onto the first plane, bring them into a friend's house for a night then check into a hotel room; only to check out of the hotel, load them on a second plane and check them into a new and much smaller hotel (we are literally walking all over our luggage right now to go to the bathroom, enter our hotel room, get into bed, etc; it's a sea of bags!). They've also been an added expense that we didn't account for from the rental car in San Francisco to international baggage check fees to the £80 cab ride we had to take into the city. We are not "luggage cart people"; I've always prided myself on how well I can pack and this has hurt my pride... I mean, we were the people that only took 2 small carry ons to South Africa for our 2 week honeymoon!  I will definitely be remembering this when we return to Seattle : )

I also experienced my first moment of feeling completely lost as we were trying to find an HSBC bank and apple store. I have a pretty good sense of direction but could not get my bearings at all! Luckily though, Aaron had his and that's why we are doing this together.

So now after a long stopover and a lot of traveling, we are fighting the jet lag. I was exhausted at 7pm and now I'm wide awake at midnight. Plus there's all of the emotions of change. Tomorrow we are going flat hunting and we are really excited! We see 12 different places and hopefully, maybe, possibly one could be our new home in London : )