Happy Thanksgiving!

There have been lots of new experiences for us this year and we added one more yesterday: first time cooking a turkey! Only set off the smoke alarm once and it turned out just fine : )

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my mom, our only two friends in London, each other and thanks to technology, our family in the states. We are thankful for many things this year among them each other and wonderful friends and family, but also FaceTime and the internet. Even being 4,782 miles away from home we were able to experience a little bit of thanksgiving together : )

Happy Thanksgiving from our newlyweds-abroad home to yours!

Wild Turkey Chase

Ordering groceries is very common in London. If you think about it, it makes sense. Your nearest store is likely a small corner one and you have to walk everywhere so you can never buy more than you can carry.

We had the brilliant idea to order our Thanksgiving meal ingredients last week to be delivered this morning so that everything would be worry free! Plus we were having a hard time finding a turkey so this solved that problem (turkey meat is a lot less common than in the states - there are hardly any turkey sandwiches here! Only chicken or ham... I guess chicken for me!). 

This morning, the delivery man showed up right on time... but he was turkey less. Ummm come again? He was really sorry and very nice about it; they just didn't have any turkeys or cranberries in stock! He brought raspberries to replace the cranberries and then realized I was probably trying to make cranberry sauce to go with the bird. I hear that chicken and raspberry sauce go quite well together ; )

This sent my mom and I on a wild turkey chase to the nearest large supermarket and then the bird rode the bus with us home. Quite an experience but we found one, and it's now taking up our entire fridge space- lucky bird!

Boxed In

What a day it has been. I don't even know where to begin.

My mom arrived in London yesterday and I am so thankful that she did. Our shipment was supposed to come at 8:30am, but at 8:30 the unloading crew arrived and our truckload of stuff did not. The driver was stuck in traffic and would be at our flat at 10:00am. That time mark came and went; the driver would now be here at noon but in the meantime the unloading crew had to leave to attend to another shipment. At 11:45am the truck arrived, but our unloading crew was nowhere to be found. Finally at 12:15pm, the circus was accounted for and ready to begin unloading.

Boxes upon boxes came into our flat. They were piled high like a kid's fort. I thought we'd gotten a pretty large place with lots of storage, but when we began putting our stuff in it, it suddenly didn't seem that roomy anymore. They began unpacking things and putting them on every flat surface they could find. This moving is different than any other I've ever experienced because instead of slowly being able to unpack while you move, it felt as though all of our stuff was just dumped out at once. Everything was in disarray, and clutter in my living spaces seriously bothers me. And then they unpacked one of the boxes with a damaged, caved in corner. Out came our Wedding Guest Book, the cover bent and ruined beyond repair.

A few other things were damaged in the move, but they can all be replaced. Our guests' signatures and well wishes cannot. I was defeated and exhausted... but I cannot tell you how nice it was to have my mom there with me. I don't know how I would've handled it had she not been. Aaron thinks we can possibly save the pages of the book and just replace the cover; he's also my level head when I get emotional... which I never do, right? ; )

At least we now finally have our shipment though. The only other silver lining is that the moving company was delivering one more shipment after ours: Anthony Hopkin's furniture. Pretty cool that our boxes shared a truck with his items. Ummm, I think they may have forgotten to unload something else? : )

Tonight I poured myself a large glass of Barons wine from our home shipment and it is delicious: another little piece of Seattle that I'm grateful for. Our flat is nowhere near put together - but it's getting there, and I'll take that.

Moving Problems

Our US shipment arrives in 21 hours... the countdown is on! We shipped everything at the end of September and yes, it is just now being delivered.

That's a long time to be without all of your kitchen supplies and half of your shoes and clothes. Since then, we've had to find ways to be creative and make do with what we've had. Think back to my previous wine bottle post. Below are a few problems we've experienced because we don't have our shipment, and since we live in a hashtag world, feel free to follow each one with #movingproblems

• After spending 30 minutes trying to cut a whole onion with a small plastic knife, I am finally finished!
• Aaron, can you finish your coffee so I can use our only mug?
• No, these black and white pictures hanging on our wall aren't of our friends; they're just our landlord's creepy artwork...
• Just strained some ground beef with a plastic knife, paper plate and lots of paper towels, no big deal
• Plastic bowls melt in the microwave? Who knew!
• We only have to freeze for five more days until our winter coats arrive
• Can you go grab the bathroom towel so we can get this out of the oven?

Here's to hoping our shipment actually does get delivered tomorrow because cooking a Thanksgiving meal will definitely be a lot easier if we actually have cookware : )

What's on the Telly?

Great question. Now that we have internet and cable (hooray!), I've been learning what to expect from British TV.

American shows that are almost always on:

• New Girl - Yes! We can continue to watch the hilarious dilemmas of Jess, Nick, Winston and Schmidt. They are only re-run episodes thus far, but I'll take it!
• The Big Bang Theory - Unfortunately, Aaron and I despise this show. I do like Jim Parsons but only because he went to USD and was my graduation speaker. If we loved it, we would be in Telly heaven because it is LITERALLY ALWAYS ON
• The Real Housewives of... something - New Jersey, Atlanta, [insert US city here]
• How I Met Your Mother - I've seen every episode but I still love this show : )
• Food Network - yes, the same shows as the US channel. They show it just to torture us with how amazing food can be...
• Hallmark Christmas Movies - these will be playing on our TV until New Years. Sorry Aaron!

A guide to British shows:

• The Only Way is Essex / Made in Chelsea - think Laguna Beach or The Hills. This follows the lives of wealthy London teenagers and their "real" drama
• Embarrassing Bodies - it's like a car accident: so bad you can't look away. This medical show takes a look at patients who have... ummm... something embarrassing that they are visiting a doctor for and broadcasts it to the world! Sounds logical to me. Let's just say British TV pushes a lot more nudity boundaries...
• You've Been Framed - UK's funniest home videos. And just like America's, they are mostly from the 80s
• Come Dine with Me - 5 people compete against each other to win 1,000 pounds. They all host and cook dinner for each other, and then vote on best food/entertainment. It's awkward and hilarious

I'm sure there are quite a few other shows left to be discovered but for now

That's all folks!

Our Social Network

People always ask if we are homesick. I don't know if homesick is the right word. 

Do we miss Seattle? Yes. Do we miss our friends and family? Yes. Do we miss things about our life in Washington? Yes.

But home is now here for 3 years, and truth be told, home is wherever you say it is.

Before we moved over, one of the most daunting things about coming to London was making new friends. During high school, you've known the people for what feels like forever. In college, everyone is making friends so you're on the same playing field. With work, you're constantly around the people so you naturally find some with the same interests as you. But making friends without these things is pretty tough.

One of the best things we've gotten to experience out of the move about our friends and family is their willingness and eagerness to "set us up" with their friends and people they know who live here. People I don't know that well have offered their contacts in London, and we have a started a small network from friends of friends. It's like an awkward dating game but that's essentially what we have to do here.

We've also met people through Aaron's work and one person in particular... It really makes a huge difference having a good friend here who can introduce you to their network of people : )

So maybe when you don't have high school, college or work, you make new friends through your old ones? And if this is the case, I'd say we have some pretty good chances!

Now who's in for a friend date? : )

Turkey Travels

We are back to the cold weather and busy London life! Here are a few highlights from our trip:

Myra - One of our first excursions was to Myra where we saw an ancient Greek theater and cliff graves believed to date back to 4th century B.C. Like most of the sites we saw, the theater had been destroyed by an earthquake and then rebuilt. The detailing on some of the marble was remarkable; there were many faces and designs carved in. The weather wasn't too bad either : ) sunny and blue skies!

Lycia - The following day we took a boat ride to Iztuzu beach where we saw a Loggerhead Sea Turtle and blue crab. The Loggerhead Sea Turtle is an endangered species, and our guides had to throw in blue crab as bait in order to get it to surface. We saw one a few times but very briefly; not enough time to snap a picture!

Iztuzu is a narrow spit of land that has the Mediterranean on one side and the Dalyan river on the other. Some people in our group were brave enough to swim in the chilly water but we just dipped our toes in... we certainly got a taste of what European swimsuits are like!

Ephesus - Next we visited Ephesus which was an ancient Greek city and then later a major Roman city. It too was destroyed by an earthquake in 614AD and is now being restored. It was incredible. There was so much history in the rubble and it was hard to imagine that it was once a huge, flourishing city.

Below are a few of the many snapshots we took while we were there:

• Top Right Photo - These are actually toilets from the communal men's restroom. Because the toilets were made of marble, the masters used to make their slaves sit on it to warm them up before they were used... yikes! Woman were also in the restroom to sing to the men so there would be entertainment. Sounds like two terrible jobs to me!
• Middle Photo - This is the entrance to the Library of Celsus. It was once the third largest library and held 12,000 scrolls but they were all destroyed by fire when the earthquake struck. There's a few sculptures and Greek writings on the outside that of course Aaron could read (Fraternity life taught him well!)
• Bottom Left Photo - Ephesus used to be a city next to the sea. It had a huge port which led to many sailors coming into the city to drink and have fun. This carving which was on a walkway leading into the city shows a foot, woman's head and a heart; it was a sign that showed the direction to one of the cities brothels!
• Bottom Right Photo - This was the theater seating 25,000. In it there were performances and during the Roman period, Gladiator fights. There's actually a huge Gladiator graveyard in Ephesus too which is how they know there were fights here.

Right as we were finishing our tour at Ephesus a thunder storm suddenly hit. Dark clouds and huge drops of rain rolled in quickly. Aaron and I had no jackets or umbrellas, so we ran for cover under one of the archways along with another crowd of people. We all packed in like sardines under the small arch. Once we had squished in, we realized that we were with an entirely different tour group speaking a foreign language; talk about the odd people out! We were awkwardly right in the middle of the group, but couldn't move. We stood laughing and asking "is this really happening?" for about 10 minutes while the clouds passed watching people walk by drenched from head to toe. When we were ready to leave, it was nearly impossible to squeeze out. It is one of my favorite memories from our trip : )

Pamukkale and Hierapolis - These cotton castles are natural hot springs made from terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water. Pamukkale means "cotton castles" and Hierapolis is the ancient city that was built just above it. We waded around in the water for a while and traveled down the different pools. In order to preserve the minerals, you can't wear your shoes in! I kept thinking that it was snow and I expected the water to be cold, but it was actually pretty warm.

We also walked to the Hierapolis theater which overlooked the Pamukkale and went inside a museum with ancient artifacts, sculptures and tombs. The museum was built inside an old Turkish bath. I love Greek mythology so I really enjoyed seeing the sculptures and marble carving depicting the Greek Gods, Goddesses and myths.

Turkish Carpet-Making, Jewelry and Leather Shop - On the last few days of our trip, we visited a few factories and shops along the way to Antalya.

The Turkish Carpet-Making factory was really cool. We watched Turkish women make the carpets (top left photo); it can sometimes take up to a year to finish a carpet depending on the size! And we unexpectedly came home with a Turkish carpet of our own : ) We haggled until we got half price and it was our one souvenir from the trip which we love. But when we were buying it, the woman charged us euros instead of pounds and then wanted to charge us the remaining amount in pounds. She did not realize who she was talking to! Aaron jumped in about the rate that HSBC would give us to convert our pounds to euro and that we would ultimately be paying more for her mistake... basically only things that someone working in foreign currency would know. In the end we got a little more knocked off the price and I was pretty glad to have him with me because I would've just said, "yeah, sure. That's fine!"

The Leather Shop was a different story. Who knew leather was so expensive? We saw a fashion show and then they called two people up from our group to model some of the jackets... I'll give you one guess as to who was called up?!?! Yes, Aaron and I were Turkish models. I swear that they picked the most hideous leather jackets to put us in though! There is photographic proof but I will not be putting any up here : )

Antalya - This was the city we flew into and left out of. In the collage above, the top right photo is a picture of the city and the bottom left photo is a picture of Hadrian's Gate built in 130 AD. We walked around and also visited a waterfall which was gorgeous. The coast was amazing - blueish/turquoise, clear water.

All in all, a great trip to celebrate 6 months of marriage. But it is good to be home : )

The Wheels on the Bus

Go round and round and round and round... Well, you get the idea : )

We have covered a lot of distance in Turkey. We've seen a ton, but have also spent a lot of time driving. Here are three hilarious things about the companions on our vacation or holiday as they say in Britain : )

1) We are with all Brits - You'd have thought we brought London to Turkey if you saw us here! We left to go experience Turkish culture and instead we got more British. But in a way it's been really good. It's nice to hear about all their stories, gather advice and find out why they love the UK.

2) They are all from the country-side - Central London?!? With the traffic, noise, people, chaos... that's where you live?? There is a clear divide between those who live in central London and the Britain country-folk. We are hearing so many different British dialects... But also nodding and saying "uh huh" and then asking each other, "what did they say?"

3) They are all a little bit older than us... Okay, a lot a bit - We stick out like a sore thumb: Americans living in central London in their 20s. Apparently it's uncommon for young working professionals to take a one week trip in November to Turkey, who knew! Did we miss something when we booked this trip?

All joking aside, they are incredibly friendly, hilarious and we've actually had a lot of fun with our pleasantly unexpected companions : )

Now for a few photos:

To prove that there are cats everywhere in Turkey, here are two stray ones out of the 50 we saw sitting on the marble carvings at Ephesus. Ephesus was amazing but I will blog about it when I get back. Believe me when I say on my actual camera I do have better photos than just ones of cats : )

And this is Pamukkale, it's name means "Cotton Castles". These unbelievable white limestone terraces with turquoise water look like snow, but are actually pretty hot! Aaron and I got to wade around in them for a while which was quite an adventure : )

More to come!

Turkish Delights

Three things there are plenty of in Turkey:

1) Pomegranate - whether it's juice form, powder, actual fruit, tea or syrup, there is plenty of pomegranate. Locals love it and tourists "eat" it up

2) Rummy Cube - Aaron and I have played this at every hotel we've been in and we've seen locals play it on the side of the street... Good thing we love games : )

3) Cats - wow. I've never seen so many stray cats in my life. We counted 8 in one patio area of a restaurant. And yes, they all remind me of Olive (my sister's cat). Cat got Turkish tongue?

Now for a few photos:

An old amphitheater where they used to have plays, townhalls and even gladiator fights.

And our boat ride today to the Aegean Sea... We saw 4th century BC tombs (background... really eerie!) and turtles but of course I couldn't get a very good picture on my phone. I was too slow as a turtle : )

More from our trip to come!

And Our First Trip is To...

Start the drumroll please, or should I say drumstick...

TURKEY!

Looks like we are still going to have Turkey for Thanksgiving this year! Gobble gobble! Yes, I've been making really bad jokes like these all week : )

We didn't imagine this would be our first trip but Aaron is taking next week off and we found an amazing travel package to Turkey, so we thought, why not? We leave tomorrow morning and head to Antalya which is on the southwest coast. From there we travel up along the Lycian Coast making stops along the way finally returning back next Monday for our flight home. The weather in London has been rainy and cold (similar to Seattle) so we are excited to get away in the sun. It sounds like a perfect time for a vacation!

Denied!

No cell phone for you. Yep, that's a thing that happened.

Aaron and I were denied for cell phones because we have no credit in the UK. "But sir, I promise we aren't criminals!" Yeah right, we totally look the type: Aaron in his nice work suit, me in my Burberry scarf and our freckles. The freckles are what did us in.

We were denied for contracts by three phone companies, but we passed the credit check for one phone company that doesn't get service in our flat. So then the choice became do we get phones that don't work or do we wait it out a few more months to get phones that do? We chose to wait.

This is one thing we are finding: the UK has extremely tight security for everything. Whether it's opening up a bank account, trying to get a cell phone, renting a flat or setting up internet, everything takes a long time, has triple checks and nothing is easy. The really nice guy who was helping us at the phone store told us the reason they have such a strict check is because the UK has a lot of debt, particularly with cell phone companies.

There was a work around though. I walked out of the store with a month-to-month SIM card plan that will allow me to build up credit with that network, and hopefully in three months we will pass when we are able to apply again. The only thing is that my phone is.... an Android (and not a new one).

The first phone I owned was a chunky black and white Nokia that had snake. Next I upgraded to a sleek flip phone Motorola razr. Then I settled, where I've comfortably been for the last 6 years, on an iPhone.

But at least I have a phone and a little change is good! It's not like we just experienced a lot of change by moving to London too or anything : ) And it's only for 3 months, maybe more; I will be fine. But the little miss Mac computer, iPad, iPhone user in me is saying, "come again?"

The Battle With The Washing Machine

Have you ever had a "thank goodness for modern day technology" moment? I've had about a thousand of those here. Last night is probably in my top three.

We finally got the washing machine fixed yesterday. It was not user error the water source just needed to be connected. It's always a win when it's not you that was the problem : )

Last night we decided to do a load of wash. We've had to do a few loads since we've been living out of our suitcases and it was starting to be about that time again. It started fine, but then after about 30 minutes of running, it stopped, everything was still soapy and all of the lights were flashing. At the Airbnb flat we stayed in, I had to empty a water container from the dryer, so I looked around for a similar feature but couldn't find one. We turned it to the spin out and dry only cycle, and discovered that this is what seemed to be the problem. The water was not draining in order to move it to this cycle.

We took matters into our own hands. Grabbing a bucket and towels draining the water out so that we could retrieve our clothes. We weren't getting this fixed tonight and I didn't want our clothes to be ruined. As we pulled them out, they all seemed to be tinted blue. Yes, the detergent tinted our light colored clothes blue.

We moved them to the bath tub and began trying to rinse the soap from them. As I was ringing the wet clothes out and handing them to Aaron so he could hang them, I had one of those "thank goodness for modern day technology" moments because I could not do this every time we needed to do laundry. And yes, I was also a little angry.

Looking back it's kind of funny. Still just kind of: this image of sopping wet blue clothes decorating our bathroom while I curse and Aaron tries to calm me down. But one day it will be really funny, and we'll say, "Remember that time we battled it out with our washer?" It definitely won.

Walk Til You Drop

is London's motto. Or at least, it should be.

We have been doing so much walking since we've been here. It is a way of life. Everyone walks. It's how you get places - to the grocery store, a pub, a restaurant, work, a bus/tube stop, everywhere.

It took a few days for my body to adjust. You don't think that walking can make you sore but it depends how much walking you do! I've already ruined a pair of shoes and my feet are constantly tired. And this is coming from someone who was onsite at an event for ten days where all I was doing was walking up and down and around the huge convention center. 

I miss not being able to drive, but walking places is oddly refreshing. It's nice to be outside in the crisp autumn air with everyone else. You can actually take time to see different shops on the streets or like I said in my previous post, discover something you didn't know was there. When you are driving, everything happens so fast and half the time you are on auto-pilot.

But I do have a few lessons learned with all this walking:

• You need really comfortable shoes. They have to fit your foot perfectly, otherwise you are going to be hobbling home. I don't know if I'll ever get to wear high heels again!
• You need a lot of pairs of really comfortable shoes. Even my most comfortable shoes hurt my feet after I've been wearing them for a day. Guess that just means I need to do some "walk and shop til you drop" for more shoes : )
• You need to dress for the elements. In Seattle people rarely bring umbrellas with them. But when you are caught in a downpour while walking somewhere kind of far away an umbrella comes in really handy. Aaron and I learned this the hard way as we ran from awning to awning trying to make it back to our hotel without being drenched!

I really don't mind all the walking... for now. But talk to me in a year and then I'll tell you what I really think : )

Nobody Said Moving Would Be Easy

...and it hasn't been. It has been very tough, but it's been an adventure.

We finally have a home, but it's still very much in the works. After moving in on Saturday, we discovered that we had no heat or hot water. You think all you really need is a roof over your head and food on the table, but the minute that your house is freezing or you can't take a shower, you realize there a few other things you don't want to live without : )

After sorting out both of those issues yesterday, we discovered a few more. Last night, we tried to cook dinner in our oven, but it's actually a gas oven and was a little tricky to start. We got it going and let it cook for a few minutes until one of our detectors started beeping. I'm convinced that it was the carbon monoxide detector which is actually pretty scary. Thank goodness our flat has a working detector otherwise things could've ended very badly! Then today, I tried to do a load of laundry, but our washer wasn't starting. It could be user error, but I also tried a few trouble shooting suggestions from the manual and I believe it's an issue with the water connection.

And we still don't have cell phones or bank cards. We've been without phones for two weeks now which has been really frustrating at times. Cell phones make life easy and information immediate, and we've had to come up with workarounds for everything. We can't look up when buses are arriving or leaving so we have to go to the bus stop and look at the timetable. We can't look on our GPS to get directions so we have to use our paper maps or ask someone for help. We can't text each other if we are running late or have a quick question so we have had to find other ways to communicate. And I'll admit that I can't upload a photo, check social media sites or chat with friends as easily as I'd like to : )

But I've been trying to see the silver linings in all the frustration, confusion and adjustment. Silver linings like:

• There's something very satisfying about arriving at your destination by your own accord.
• We are really figuring things out for ourselves and not just relying on immediate information.
• And the most important is that there are a quite a few things we would've missed out on had everything been easy. Like an adorable little store called "Cotton and Cologne" that I stumbled upon while trying to find us bedding. Or London's equivalent of the Dollar Store called "Poundworld" which is amazing for buying cheap kitchen items while we wait for our US shipment of dishes and cookware to arrive. Or the great pub we found last night where we met other Americans and watched all the NFL games until midnight (go Hawks!) just because we don't have TV in our flat yet. 

We are disconnected from the world, we are confused by a lot of things and yes, we do get lost.

But maybe that isn't such a bad thing?

Bonfire Night

Yesterday was Bonfire Night in London. We started the day having no idea what that was, and the day ended up being one of our most memorable in London thus far.

But I'll start from the beginning: yesterday we woke up and moved out of our Airbnb flat and into the place we will now call home. It felt so good to pack up our 8 suitcases one last time, try to pile everything into a British cab one last time, and yes, drag/yank them up stairs one last time. 

Once we got a little settled, Yacine and his girlfriend, Becs, came over to see our new place and they asked if we wanted to go to Bonfire Night with them. We are still living by the motto "don't say no to any opportunity" which is something that we did before we left and are trying to continue here. So we said "Sure! We'll see what it is like."

It was our first Fulham game of the season so we headed to a pub by the river to enjoy a few pints before the game. The pub was packed with Fulham fans and the location was really cool. It was a pretty windy day and there were tons of sailboats on the river. The boardwalk that follows the river from the pub to the stadium actually reminded me of the Mission Beach boardwalk in San Diego minus the whole beach thing : )

Fulham lost 1-3 (they played Manchester United) but it was still a really fun atmosphere and we realized we need to learn the Fulham chants in order to be true fans!

Afterwards we grabbed some wine and beer at a local store and then headed to Bonfire Night which was at a park in the Chelsea area. Bonfire Night was unbelievable. 

Bonfire Night is essentially the British Fourth of July. It is a huge party with firework shows and bonfires. On November 5, 1605 a plan to blow up parliament by a man named Guy Fawkes was foiled. They discovered his plot and tortured and killed him. The British have been celebrating on the Saturday closest to November 5th ever since. 

There were about 20,000 other people in the park and tons of food trucks. We had our first fish and chips there and then watched the most amazing firework show we'd ever seen. There was music set to the show, and it lasted for about 30 minutes.

We both agreed that this was one of our most memorable nights in London so far, and it left us wanting Bonfire Night to happen every month! Now, whose ready to come visit us on November 5, 2014? : )