Life at Goldsmiths

Alright, time for an update!  We got moved into our flat and have started welcome week activities at our university.  We are waiting on the Internet router to arrive at our new flat to have Internet access, but until then we have to walk to campus to use wi-fi.  Both Brandon and I have officially enrolled as students and have fancy new student IDs.  We have met some new friends and some staff, and have enjoyed the social gatherings organized by the university.

While getting to know our way around campus and town, we have noticed a few differences between college/life in the States versus here in Britain...

1) Since the legal drinking age is 18, alcohol is not only allowed on campus, but provided by the university at most of their sponsored events.  There is also a bar on campus that is student run.  It is open every night of the week and hosts frequent events.

2) Even though alcohol is allowed, being obviously drunk is socially frowned upon.  Everyone drinks, but everyone knows when to stop.  Drinking is a social event, not an excuse to get ranging drunk.

3) Everything happens a bit later than in the US...meaning we enrolled yesterday and classes still have not started yet (they start next week). As most of you know class in the US has been in session for over a month now.

4) One does not "line up" or get in a "line".....one must "queue" or get in the "queue"

5) Most things are smaller than in the US.  They drive tiny cars, roads are small, restaurants are tiny, our refrigerator is tiny, with freezer space that will barely hold an box of frozen food along with an ice tray.  Our flat is also very small, about the size of a hotel room.  I promise to post pics eventually, once we find a place for all our stuff and get settled.

6) Clothes dryers are not typically provided in homes.  We have a tiny little front loading washer, but no dryer.  So we are becoming creative in how we hang/dry our laundry.

7) Dates are written and spoken with the day first then the month: i.e. 25 September

8) The weather cannot be predicted, it could be sunny and in the mid-60s in the morning, and turn gloomy rainy by midday.

So needless to say, while there is a bit of culture shock moving to the UK and getting used to subtle differences, it is still really similar to college life in the States.

Finally, just wanted to let you know that we did get a chance to meet the Royal Couple...they were kind enough to stop by Goldsmiths welcome week and say hello to all the new students! :)

Kate and William at Goldsmiths!

Getting closer to feeling at home...

The past few days we have continued to be "tourists" in London.  We are still staying in a hotel and are becoming pros at riding the tube system and figuring out the bus routes.  We are taking advantage of all the free museums in town, (see previous post!) and are getting used to the lingo.

Last night we went to a board game meet-up, that we found posted online, at a pub to meet some people and play games.  Some of you may know that we both enjoy playing board and card games, but not the usual games like Monopoly, Life, etc.  We enjoy the "hard-core" games that require a bit more strategy and less dice rolling.  Last night we learned a few new games (Love Letters, and Avalon), and taught some people one of our favorite games (Bonanza - farming beans!).  It was a great night and the first time we have gone out and met people in town.  They meet up and play board games every week so we will probably make it a re-occurring event in the future.

We also have an update on our housing situation.  We decided to put a holding deposit down on a small studio apartment about 10 minutes walk from campus. The flat (apartment) is small, only one room (living and bedroom studio), with a small kitchen and bathroom, but it is in a good location so we can walk to campus, rather than take public transport.  We then had to wait a few days for a back-ground check, to prove that we are good people, and get the approval of the landlord to become tenants.  We just heard today that everything looks good and we can pick up the keys tomorrow!  So we will be able to leave the hotel and move into our own flat!  I will make sure to post pics once we get situated in the new place.

Here are some more pics of our recent adventures....

At Buckingham Palace - but have not seen any Royalty, yet...

View from the top of the London Eye

A ride on the London Eye

At the Prime Meridian Line - I am in the Eastern Hemisphere and Brandon is in the Western

Thanks for following us on our adventures!

The Weekend

We have spent our first weekend in the UK.  We started Saturday with a flat viewing in Brockley, south of Goldsmiths  a little, where we saw how much more space we could get for the same price as right close to the university.  The tough choice is to decide if we want to live farther away and pay for transportation, or live closer and have less space.  Everything is expensive here or it seems that way to us because we have not paid rent in the last 3 years due to our deal with working for St. Matthews Church.  Most flats are going around £800 and if we want to share a house, it's around £600.  One thing that hit us hard is that most places want you to pay 6 months in advance if you do not have a UK guaranteer.  For those of you bad at math, £800 x 6 is 4800 that they want us to pay at once.  Looks like we are going to be getting jobs so we can do all the fun stuff we want to do this year.  I bring up the housing talk because we felt like we were spending all our money already.  That brings us to our weekend.

We looked at free things to do in London and boy are there a lot.  We have a 7 day pass for the tube so we can travel as much as we want.  Saturday afternoon took us to London Bridge and Tower Bridge.  London Bridge is nothing special, except that it's not "falling down."  Tower bridge is what everyone thinks of when they think London (that and Big Ben).

We stopped into Cafe Rouge because Emily wanted a proper meal and got breakfast food at 11:30.  We continued on across the bridge and walked around the Tower of London. 

It is interesting to note that this building was built in stages beginning in bout 1100AD (that's almost 1000 years ago!)

We hopped on the tube and decided to go see if the queen was around :)  We headed to Buckingham Palace and viewed from the outside.  

Sunday began with a trip to see the Imperial War Museum which was only 1 block from our hotel.  We saw how Britain dealt with WWI and WWII.  We also saw a very nice Holocaust exhibit.  The Museum was free.  Lunch came next and then we headed in to the heart of London again to go to the British Museum.  We managed to find 2 geocaches on the way. 

At the museum we saw the Rosetta Stone and the actual stones from the Parthenon (when we were in Athens, GA this past summer, we went and saw a copies).  Sorry, no pictures as it was drizzling outside.

We have noticed the weather changes really fast here.  It started sunny and clear this morning, went to cloudy by midday, and rained this afternoon.  We are getting used to the cloudy, wet, cool weather, but it is not ideal. 

Tomorrow we are taking a ride on the Eye, going house hunting/visiting school, then off to meet people in the evening.

One Lost Passport, One Hour in Iceland, and One Afternoon in London

Hello from the UK!  We have finally made it here after a long and stressful journey.  We left Boston yesterday evening after saying goodbye to the Hadelers.  We had a great time venturing around the Boston area and look forward to seeing them again soon, maybe they will come see us in London!?!?

Saying Goodbye to Caitlin and Chris

We then boarded a plane to Reykjavik, Iceland.  The flight left at 9:30 PM and was five hours long.  In order to board the flight we had to show our passports (this is important to the story later...).  On board, each seat had its very own TV screen, so you could choose your own entertainment.  I chose to re-watch a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory to calm my nerves and laugh a bit, then tried to get a little sleep.  Once the flight landed in Iceland (at a chilling 6 degrees Celsius, around 42 F) we unloaded the plane. We knew we had a little over an hour in the airport, so we took our time.  As we found a seat to wait, I started looking for my passport just to double check that I had it and could not find it!!  So I calmly took a deep breath and quickly found an information desk to tell them that I had probably left it on the plane. As I mentioned earlier, I needed it to board the plane so I knew it must be there.  As I began explaining what happened to the nice lady at the desk I start tearing up and loosing my control.  She radioed the plane and after a few tense minutes they were able to retrieve my passport.  At least I made the mistake now and will be more careful with it in the future!

Anyway, the Iceland airport was very nice.  A small friendly airport that has very updated facilities.  I wish we could have stayed longer and actually seen a bit of the country (they advertised hotsprings, volcanoes and glaciers!), but that may be its own separate adventure someday.

So we boarded our next flight to London Gatwick (the little known south London airport) at around 7:45AM Iceland Time, for another 3 hour flight.  This plane did not have the fancy personal TV screens, so I tried to sleep through most of the flight.  Finally we landed in London at noon local time, which messed with my head because it felt like 4AM.  After clearing customs (thankfully with my passport/visa in hand!) and getting our bags (which we have a lot of...) we made our way through the crowded airport to the express train into town, to Victoria station.  At Victoria station we hailed a classic black taxi and made our way to our hotel room.

We are both pretty exhausted at this point so we decided to take a quick nap and freshen up a bit, then head out into town.  It was a beautiful day in London, slightly cloudy and around 64F and we wanted to enjoy the weather because there is rain in the forecast for the next three days...  We decided to start in Oxford Circus in search of mobile phones.  After buying a cheap pay-as-you-go phone (can't get a "smart" phone without a bank account, can't get a bank account without an address, and can't get an address without a phone....such a conundrum....) we decided to walk around London.  Without boring you more with specifics here are some pics of what we saw on our first afternoon in our new city.

Trafalgar Square

Big Ben and the UK Parliament Building

Thames River and Parliament Building, Brandon is blocking Big Ben...

London Eye

Our first meal in London, at a French Bistro, panini sandwiches, coke and sparkling limonade -
not very British but tasty all the same!

Tomorrow we have plans to look at a few housing options and the next week we will be on the search for a new home.  Check back for more postings on our international house hunt and London adventures.

Boston Buddies

We have officially left Illinois, and made our way over to Boston, MA.  A roommate of mine from college moved out here with her husband a few years ago, and we decided to stop for a few days to visit them and check a few more National Parks off our list before leaving the country.  This is our second visit to the Boston area, but the first time was in the early spring and not everything was open at the time.

While here we have gone on several hikes to see splendid views of the city and get in a little bit of exercise.  We have also visited Lowell National Historic Park, Longfellow House and Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, the Adams National Historic Park and the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.  

Along with these national sites, we also made our way to Plymouth, to see where the first pilgrims landed in America.  Seems appropriate since we are now going to the country from which the pilgrims decided to leave...

Check out the pics of our Boston adventures!

Boston Skyline

Caitlin and Chris

At the Adams NHP in Quincy

Adams House

Lowell, MA NHP

Plymouth Rock, where the Pilgrams landed

Spectacle Island, which used to be a trash processing island and is now a National Park...

 Tonight we board a plane to leave the country!  Our next post will be from the UK!

Packing List for a Year Abroad

Tomorrow we leave Illinois and head to Boston, MA for a few days to see our friends before making the long plane ride over the pond.  So here is a post regarding my packing list for our year abroad.

While this post may only be interesting to a few people, I thought it would be fun to show you what clothes I have decided to bring with me on my year long trip to London.  I got most of my inspiration from this website, http://www.academichic.com/2009/05/27 but I have tailored it to fit my style and needs.  I have also been doing research on "Capsule Wardrobes" and how to mix and match few items into many outfits.  I love this website as well, as she has great ideas on mixing and matching clothing items: www.puttingmetogether.com

I am still bringing more clothes than I probably should, but I have also managed to fit it all into one large suitcase and one carry on size.  We were originally going to ship our heavy winter coats and other items, but since Brandon has decided not to take his tenor saxophone we are able to bring one more checked suitcase to carry those items.

So here is the packing list of my clothing items...it does not contain things like PJs, underwear and basic tank tops...but it is pretty complete besides that!

Jackets:

A grey blazer and jean jacket.  Not pictured...rain coat, North Face jacket and blue wool pea coat.

Casual tops:

Maroon tee shirt, purple long sleeve top, black tee shirt, navy striped long sleeve tee and grey long sleeve tee.

"Smart Casual" tops:

Orange floral top, purple and yellow top, various black patterned tops, blue color block tank, navy striped tank, purple long sleeve tee, navy floral top and lace sweater

Sweaters and Cardigans: I am bringing a lot of these, since they can be layered and will be the majority of what I wear through the chilly months in London.

Grey cardi, striped cardi, yellow cardi, green cardi, pink cardi, white cardi, tan cardi, green sweater, maroon sweater, camel sweater, black/blue colorblock cardi, and grey/black colorblock cardi.

Button down tops: can be layered with tee shirts and sweaters for multiple looks.

White, green, brown striped, black and chambray.

Pants: 

Camel trousers, black corduroy skinnies, burgundy skinny jeans, two pairs dark jeans, jean capris, khaki ankle pants, black ankle pants, teal ankle pants, navy shorts and black shorts.

Skirts:

Grey midi skirt, black patterned skirt and purple knee-length.  All three of these look great with thick tights and boots to wear in the fall and spring months.

Dresses: since the picture was taken I have decided to take out the white and purple patterned dress, since it is not as versatile through the seasons.

Black dress, navy dress, lace dress.

Scarves: every website I read about capsule wardrobes says "invest in scarves," because they can instantly update and change your outfit, so I have recently purchased several.  There are even a few more that have been purchased since, that are not pictured.

Also not pictures is my jewelry and other accessories (like belts).  I recently received some neat jewelry pieces when my grandmother passed away, that I hope to incorporate into my looks as well.

Shoes: I have since decided to leave the navy vans at home, since I have multiple other pairs that will work in their place.

Black boots, tan wedges, nude pumps, tan flats, tennis shoes, grey "toms" (actually from Gordmans,) grey vans, black flip flops and black wedges.  I am hoping to purchase a pair of taller boots when we arrive in London to wear through the winter.

Here is my large suitcase packed full with clothes and supplies.  My carry on will hold my oboe, and a weeks worth of clothes, just in case the big one gets delayed!

Wow! That seems like a lot of clothes, but trust me, it is only a portion of my wardrobe and took some careful consideration on my part on what to cut and what to bring.  I was mostly focused on what can mix and match with other pieces and what can be worn through many seasons.  

I will also be taking a backpack with my laptop, iPad, purse and a few books.

Things I am NOT taking with me and will be purchasing when we arrive: hair dryer, hair straightener and curler, shampoo, conditioner and other toiletries, (except a small 3ounce bottle of each to get me through the first week or so,) towels, bed sheets, pillow.  

I hope you enjoyed seeing my packing list! I will have to take some outfit pictures while I am there to show off what I have learned about mixing and matching!!

Goodbye

Emily and I said goodbye to our first place we lived in as a married couple.  Here's a picture.

We are all moved out and packing up our bags to leave on Saturday!  Stay tuned for more updates.

A Farewell to Princeton

Yesterday Brandon and I, along with the help of his parents, loaded up our belongings on a trailer and moved out of our house in Princeton.  So, I feel that it is necessary to say a few thank yous to the people and places that made my four years (five years for Brandon) in Princeton special.

To the people and youth of St. Matthews: This church has been so wonderful to us since we moved to Princeton!  They allowed us to live in the parish house and helped us "get on our feet" as a young married couple.  As the music director, I made some people uncomfortable with my "contemporary" songs and choices, but they embraced the change and allowed me to experiment and learn.  The adult choir put up with my crazy warmups and the bell choir was patient and willing as we learned from scratch!  There were also those outside the music groups that supported us and encouraged us and made us feel like family.  I can't thank this church enough for the love and support it has offered us and you will all be dearly missed.

To the teachers, students and parents of Princeton Elementary: I have learned so much these past four years about teaching, working with young people, interacting with parents and just overall being an adult with a real job!  You have all helped me grow as a person and a teacher and I thank you for being patient when I made mistakes, as well as celebrating with me when things went well!  Thank you especially to the administration who supported the music program in every way, even as the music programs in communities around us dwindled away.  I hope that you all have a great school year and I hope to one day come back and continue to work in Princeton community.

Even though I do not know what the future holds, if we will come back to Princeton, or end up in a new city, we are thankful for the experiences and people we met in Princeton.  Even though it is a small town, it is full of life and promise.  The arts and performing scene is alive with Festival 56, the Prairie Arts Center and the Community band and choir.  I know Brandon and I have so much more to offer in this town if our path brings us back.  But for now we will say goodbye to Princeton and look forward to our new life in London.