We Made It

Hello! My Posts may be very few and far between as the Internet is very expensive over here. Don did some research and we would pay about 4 pounds ($8.00) for ½ hr. of consecutive internet service. But he said if I wanted to write a Post, he’d take it into work and download it for me onto my Blog. It’s a little inefficient, but it works.

First of all, let me say that we’re all getting our exercise. We walk EVERYWHERE, all the time. But the children don’t even complain because it seems like such a European thing to do.

We arrived last Sunday after having some trouble getting through Immigrations. I was afraid the Agent wasn’t going to let us into the country. She detained me for quite a while and asked many questions about the children’s schooling, how long we’d be in the country, etc. We finally got our luggage, found our driver, loaded up, and headed for the hotel. It was about ½ hr. drive from the airport in Manchester to our hotel in Warrington. There was a bit of a mix-up over the room for the children – although the rooms are all non-smoking, someone had been smoking in it, and it smelled like a tobacco factory. With Dane’s asthma, it just wouldn’t work, so they put them one past there, so they’re two doors down from Don, Daelyn and me instead of next door. But it hasn’t really mattered. They’re in our room all the time, anyway. We settled down for a nice nap and woke up when Don came in from work, anxious to get us and head to church.

Monday, the children and I set out to familiarize ourselves with Warrington. We walked all over town, went shopping at the nearest grocery store for milk and bread, paper plates and napkins for our room. We found the bus station and figured out how to use the buses. We rode a double-decker just for the experience – the driver of one that was no longer in service recommended to us that we hide out on the top level and not tell the driver we needed a return, thereby only paying for a one-way ticket but doing the whole circuit. He said that’s what he’d do under the circumstances. Then, when no other double deckers showed up for that route, he motioned to us to get on board and told me he’d take us, although he was supposed to be off work. We had quite the joy ride.

Which brings me to another point. I’ve never met so many nice people in my entire life. The children are spoiled rotten. The maid who cleans our room bought them each several different types of candy so they could try “English treats”. The woman who supervises the dining room downstairs, where we eat breakfast every morning, because it costs 19.99 pounds but is included with our room, bought Advent Calendars for each of the children and brought them into work one morning to give us. They each have their own now (I only do one for the whole family) and Deanna’s runs through New Year’s, with a chocolate for each day, beginning Dec. 1. Our favorite waitress brought them a bag of double chocolate muffins to keep in the room “in case they get ‘ungry, love” and the man that drives the shuttle that goes from our hotel to the bus station is always very kind and has Dane tell him how much we owe him and figure out how much change we need, then makes him count it out to make sure it’s right. It’s like we’re being spoiled by an entire country of people.

We checked out the train station and rode a train out of town on Thursday for a Thanksgiving dinner. One of the Americans that works with Don found a place that was serving a traditional Thanksgiving meal and made reservations for all the remaining Americans in the office, including us. We met there for dinner at 5:30 and had a wonderful adventure. The children and I had to take a train, then a bus to get there.

We also took a bus to Culcheth, a little village outside of Warrington, which is where we’ll be living. Our apartment is undergoing renovations, “refurbishing” to the English. We thought it would be fun to go and have a look as well as figure out the best way to get back and forth from Culcheth to Warrington, which is the City and where we’ll need to come to take trains to just about anywhere. We got off the bus at the library and the librarian copied us a map of the Village (refusing to charge me, although I’m sure it costs for everyone else) and showing us where the park, grocery store and bus stops were near our house. She also asked about the children’s schooling and told me to come and see her once we were moved in and she’d help me find appropriate materials for home-schooling them. We walked to the house and met the painter who encouraged us to look around. The house is lovely, but small – 3 bedrooms upstairs, 2 large and one small, and a bathroom. Downstairs is an entrance hall, a “lounge” (VERY small living room), a nice little kitchen with beautiful new cabinets and a lovely range and double sink, and a dining room with tile floors and double French doors going out into the backyard. I need to look it over better once we get moved in this week, but I suspect we might flip the lounge and dining rooms.

We’re having a wonderful time. We feel like real Warringtonites now. We know the town well and even gave directions to the cab driver who brought us home Thursday night and didn’t know where our hotel was. This past Saturday, we went to Chester which was a Roman walled city and still has the walls going all the way around it. The original walls were built in 70 A.D. and Deanna was intrigued.

We plan on hitting Liverpool next week, but I want to get settled in the house. It’s very difficult to do school in the hotel room, all crammed into a tiny little space.

Next on our Agenda is York (Kelly, if you read this, you never gave me the name of that place where we should have tea – send us an e-mail. Don downloads them from work and brings them home on the laptop.) We’ve done just about everything possible in Warrington. On Sunday, we went shopping after church (St. Elfins has the 3rd largest steeple of any Parish church in England) and then went into Town Centre for the lighting of the Christmas Lights and a town festival. In Chester on Saturday, they were having a German Market in the center of town. Deanna and I had bratwurst and I had gluewine for lunch.

We feel like regular Britishers. We’ve had fish and chips in a Pub and Daelyn even sampled black pudding (blood pudding, for those of you that don’t know). The rest of us knew better, but Daelyn couldn’t believe it really was cooked blood, so he kept trying it. I hope to be able to write again soon, but that’s enough for this Post. Pray for the children – everyone has terrible colds. Dane’s asthma kicked up, but we’ve gotten his coughing under control now. However, Deanna’s has deepened and sounds terrible. I’m afraid we might have to see a doctor soon, which would be terrible. The Chemist (we’d call them Pharmacist) gave me something for “chesty colds” but it hasn’t helped Deanna. And it rains daily and nothing ever really seems to dry out. We’ve gotten fairly accustomed to the rain – you just assume it’s going to rain and set out prepared for it. But I washed my flannel pajamas several nights ago and they haven’t dried out yet. I tried the blowdryer, the heated towel bar, and the pants press, all to no avail. And I desperately need to do wash. I’ve been able to wash underwear and socks in the room, but pants have gotten pretty muddy and we’re all running out of clean clothes. On the Agenda for tomorrow is finding a Laundromat.

Pray for Don’s stamina and the children’s health. Other than that, we’re doing GREAT and loving England – every little thing about it. I still can’t believe we’re here, but I have just to look around at all the Tudor-style buildings and hear the passers-by on the street to recall. God is good and this is such a tremendous blessing to us. I still am in awe of his goodness to us.

I’ll write again soon when I get a chance. Ta-ta for now, luv.