Well, we made it! We're getting settled into our new flat on Kensington Square and enjoying our new surroundings. Our one-bedroom flat isn't the biggest place in the world, but the location is spectacular. It is to be expected that square footage in the heart of London comes at a premium. It's definitely sufficient for us, though, and we should have enough room for people to come visit, as well.
We have had to make some adjustments, including...
Most Everything Is Smaller
Tiny dishwasher, mini fridge, smaller beds, narrower hallways, and a little laundry machine that serves as both a washer and a dryer. The last one kind of made us laugh when we discovered it, but it's definitely an improvement to be able to do laundry in our own home now!
Weather
The weather is different, obviously, from sunny California. The transition was actually much more gradual than we expected. It was cold and rainy during our last few days in California, and it was sunnier and warmer than usual here our first two days. It's since cooled down a little bit, but it hasn't been bitterly freezing cold yet. I'm sure that time will come, but I haven't had occasion yet to break out my overcoat, so I think we've still got some wiggle room. We have had a few hints of sunshine, but the sky is typically pretty gray. The days are also shorter here, given the higher latitude. It's usually pitch black here by 4:30 or 5:00pm.
Public Transportation
Not having a car means having to work to shop and get groceries. As much as I love driving and the freedom to go pretty much wherever you want whenever you want, we both have very manageable commutes to work/school (35-40 minutes each). London does have a really great transportation system. We also live just a block away from a really great shopping district, so we don't have to carry groceries too far. Our flat is on the 2nd floor (which would actually be the 3rd floor in the States--they don't count the ground floor as the 1st floor), so lugging up four 70-pound suitcases upon our arrival did catch me a little out of breath. Our flat came "fully furnished," but we ventured out to Croydon to get a bunch of household items at Costco and IKEA to fill in all the gaps.
Our Costco/IKEA run was pretty hilarious. We were brave and decided to try public transportation over renting a car. Maybe a foolish choice, but we felt like superheroes when we finally made it back. We looked pretty funny to any observers on the tube, bus, or tram--Brittany wheeling my old suitcase stuffed with an inflatable mattress, a 4-pack of pillows, and a bunch of sheets and kitchenware; me struggling with a little plastic luggage cart toting several awkwardly large boxes strapped down with twine that nearly toppled over a few times when boarding and exiting the train.
Cash Over Credit
Cash is usually a much better option than paying with credit. In the US, we pay for everything with our credit cards in order to get reward points. I also like being able to track all of our budgets and spending patterns on
Mint.com, and we avoid interest by paying everything off before the end of the billing cycle. When you use your credit card overseas, though, most credits cards charge a "foreign transaction fee" of about 3% on every purchase. They say it's to cover their costs of exchanging currencies, but basically it's just an excuse to charge bogus fees. So, with a few exceptions, we've started paying cash for just about everything. Certain banks like Barclays allow us to withdraw cash at their ATMs at a fair exchange rate without any fees. It is kind of annoying to have to carry cash around, but it is kind of fun to do the math with their notes (bills) and coins.
Staying Connected
Staying "connected" has certainly been more challenging. We're used to being able to make calls, check email, and surf the web any time, any place. One week without a fully functioning iPhone? How did we survive?! I got my Blackberry from work now, and we unlocked Brittany's iPhone and got a family plan so that we can talk anytime for free. Unlocking her phone was a nerve racking experience. We tried going to Apple in the US and the UK, and they said they couldn't unlock it. We tried AT&T in the US and every single carrier in the UK, and none of them said they could help us. Finally, we went to one of those shady corner shops to unlock it.
You hand them the phone, they take it into the back room to tinker, you wait nervously for about 40 minutes hoping you didn't just get scammed, and 15 GBP later, you have an unlocked/jailbroken iPhone. We then took it to Vodafone, and Brittany was back in the game. I wanted to wait to unlock mine until we see how Brittany's turned out. I actually hate my Blackberry, so I'll probably end up using it just for calls and work email, and then use my iPhone for everything else. At least now I have ammunition any time a Blackberry user starts trash talking on the iPhone.
We do have digital cable TV and wireless internet in our flat. We also discovered that Google Voice still works over here, so we are able to call US numbers for free as long as we're logged into our Gmail. So, if you ever need to talk and don't want to pay the international rates, just have us call you back. It'll be completely free, and the call quality's surprisingly good. Even if we call your cell phone, we'll be calling from a US number, so you still won't get charged international rates.
Roehampton University
Brittany had her orientation on Friday to get familiar with the campus and the university system. She had to work extra hard to get into the right classes for school. Roehampton University doesn't allow international students to pre-register for classes, and none of the classes she requested in her study abroad application were granted. We were nervous for the first hour or two that she wouldn't be able to take any classes that would help her get closer to her degree at SJSU.
There was a point in time we were seriously considering the possibility that it might not make sense for her to even participate in the study abroad program. Thankfully, we were able to catch the convener (think "dean") responsible for the photography program to discuss her situation. After a good share of explanation and negotiation we were finally able to get all three of her desired modules (think "classes"). Each module is the equivalent of two standard classes in the US, so she should be kept pretty busy this semester. She does only have classes Tuesday through Friday, but marks (think "grades") here are almost entirely comprised of one or two big assignments--either a huge paper or exam.
Working at KPMG
KPMG has a beautiful new office in Canary Wharf where I had my first day of work on Tuesday. Working in an urban setting definitely has a different feel to it. The office is amazing, though I'm still adjusting to having such an open floor plan. There aren't any cubicle walls, so it's challenging not get sucked into all the conversations and phone calls going on around you. I'm excited to get into the full swing of things this week, though, and it looks like I've got some exciting work ahead of me over the next six months.
Hyde Park Ward
Our ward here is much more, um, American than we were expecting. The Hyde Park Ward meets in a nice part of the city that's home to lots of famous museums. It seemed like over half the people there, including the bishopric, were from the States, though. There are a lot of other young American families here temporarily for work or school. We were actually looking forward to hearing lots of British accents at church, but I suppose the Yanks will suffice! The ward typically has a lot of visitors and tourists, including some of the students at the BYU London Centre. They actually labeled us as long-term residents, given that we'll be here for six months! So, over time, we should have plenty of opportunities to meet lots of different people and hear some interesting stories and accents.
Sorry for rambling on so long. I should probably have smaller, more frequent posts, rather than the occasional epic. If there's anything I skipped, though, feel free to leave a question in the comments. We love and miss all of you, and we look forward to seeing many of you over here in the coming months!
