25th April 2007
I feel like I am letting everyone down. That I am supposed to be adapting so well, and meeting bunches of people etc. But that is not happening. And I don’t know how to make it happen. And it feels like the clock is ticking. Like I only have so much time to be “ getting used to stuff” and not knowing anyone. That when that time is over, I am just a loser and people wont “ cut (me) some slack”. How long do I get say, “ We just moved here and I didn’t know ( fill in the blank)” Or “ Hi. I just recently moved here.” How long can I mistakenly call trousers, pants( which are underwear here, or as Emily would say, another name for knickers), and people not think me insane when I say “ I showed my husband these pants I just bought” or that I am sharing just WAY too much information. How long can I not know any of the other moms until it’s not that I am new, but that I’m just “that mom” that no one talks to. Especially when it means that they don’t want to let their child come over, or invite Emily to their house. [ on a side note, some of these people are VERY wealthy. I don't have anything against rich people, but I fear that our house will seem like the servant's quarters compared to what they are used to. ] How long are people at Alex’s work going to be understanding when he says he has to go home because his wife is about to crack from the build up of all the little things ? Or for them to not think he is married to a total wack job when they ask if I am “all settled” and he says “Not really. She is afraid to leave the house except to go to get Emily at school” How long will my friends listen to me complain about how things are just different here.
My mother wants to hear that this is just one big adventure and that things are just peachy. She says that I need to just go out and meet people. She doesn’t understand that it is not that easy. The school Emily goes to, and to a certain existent English schools, is not like the schools her kids went to in the States. There is no PTA. The church we have gone to has a Mom and toddler group, but it’s full. So is the Brownie troop. The couple scrapstores I have found by looking online, don’t have weekly crops. And the ones they do have are often during the week and during the day. I am going to try find one to go to. But I run into the problem of the ones during the week that I could go to because it is at night and I could maybe get Alex to come home early, that I don’t know where I am going and could get hopelessly lost. With the GPS it took me 45 minutes to go what should have been 15 minutes to get home from the uniform store. And an hour to go what should have been 20 to the doctor, because I kept missing turns and exists in the round a bouts and you don’t just pull over and turn around here. This was during broad daylight. Hopefully I will be able to find one that has crops on the weekend. I know it may sound like I am just making excuses, and that all I do is complain, but my point is….doing things here just isn’t as simple as you would think. And I have been trying, you can see because I can tell you the snags I have run into. Places don’t have websites very often, and you have to call to get any information. I’m used to looking up on line. I do not like talking on the phone to people I don't know, strange but true. I am not an auditory person, and just do not do well getting information over the phone. I am also very bad at understanding accents. I have a hard time when I am face to face with the person. Plus, I am not doing well with terminology. So, put me on the phone, which our phone is not very good and the volume is really low, trying to process words I am unfamiliar with , using words that I fear may be insulting or just really make me sound “simple” ( that one I know what it means), and not understanding about a 1/3 of what they say. This is not a good formula. I mean, I know more excuses. It is totally my fault, I mean I am here and have to learn the language so to speak, and I am the one talking funny. It’s just that things like this make it so much harder to do what used to be simple things, or would be isimpler if we had moved with-in the states. I guess the fact that I am a big chicken doesn't help much. =)
Wiggles here is loosing her patience and I have to go hang up my clothes. It is sunny today and a good day to hang stuff outside to dry. I can't tell you how strange I feel saying that.
Cheers ( which I am told can mean: hello, good-bye, thank you, or a couple other things. See
why I get comfused?)
02 May 2007
The little things
24, April 2007
It really is not one or two big things that make living here in England difficult for me. It is the hundred little things that when you add them all up, are just driving me crazy. They are so tedious that I just get so exhausted. Things like the fact that I can’t plug in my electric toothbrush in the bathroom because they do not have electrical outlets in the bathrooms here. I already have to dry my hair in my bedroom. So that means we have to keep the toothbrush plugged in somewhere else or not keep it charged and then suddenly it doesn’t work. The result has been not using the darn thing for the last month. Today I found the charger and decided I was going to recharge it so I can once again use it. The regular toothbrush I have been using is looking kinda icky. First I tried plugging it in in our bedroom, but because the plug adapters do not stay attached very well, it would not stay plugged in. So in the end I had to bring it to the kitchen and lean the electric teapot against the plug so that it would stay in and the toothbrush would charge. The high lime deposit in the water is something else. Already all our pots and pans look all chalky. So, all the water needs to be filtered. It taste gross, and I can hardly stomach using it to brush my teeth. I really try not to think about it. Anyway, so all the water the girls drink, all 5 gallons a day, needs to be put through this jug with a filter in it. Without good planning and refilling, most of the time the water is not very cold. To cook, the water all has to be filtered. So on those nights that I need to heat up water for pasta AND steam some veggies, it takes like 5 minutes to get the water. The jug thing is not that big ( NOTHING here is very big). I don’t like cooking in the first place, and this is not doing anything to increase my desire to do more. But we can’t even eat out very much because it is very expensive and there are not that many places to take kids. Many of the pubs do not serve children at all, only during certain times and depending on how busy they are, or just not conducive to children. The one time Alex and I really went out” when we came in January, dinner took like 3 hours. And it wasn’t like hanging out during a MOMS Club board meeting. Meals are just really drawn out and if you don’t ask for the bill, you could be there forever. The only going “out” to eat we have done has been Pizza Hut at a little mall. We have ordered pizza from a couple places, but it is just not the same thing. They do have a couple “American” restaurants here, including the only Macaroni Grill in England. But I am afraid it will just kill my enjoyment of the food and then when we go back to Michigan I wont be able to eat it anymore, though I guess it might just taste that much better. But I just could not have steak at Outback here considering the way they over cook the beef, and then they cook it some more. We are talking bone dry. I think you have to go to like Central London to one of the really fancy places. I take back what I said before, we did go out a second time in January. It was in London at a place called the Goucho Grill. Along the line of Shula’s ( Don the Miami Dolphin guy). I did have a nice filet. For us and a couple we were with, the bill was 200+ pounds, which equals close to $400. And this was NO place to take a child. I do not have sophisticated taste. I just want a good cheese burger. I swear, when I get off the plane I am heading to Red Robin or even better, Cheeseburger in Paradise.
Gotta go. The little one needs me. Til later
It really is not one or two big things that make living here in England difficult for me. It is the hundred little things that when you add them all up, are just driving me crazy. They are so tedious that I just get so exhausted. Things like the fact that I can’t plug in my electric toothbrush in the bathroom because they do not have electrical outlets in the bathrooms here. I already have to dry my hair in my bedroom. So that means we have to keep the toothbrush plugged in somewhere else or not keep it charged and then suddenly it doesn’t work. The result has been not using the darn thing for the last month. Today I found the charger and decided I was going to recharge it so I can once again use it. The regular toothbrush I have been using is looking kinda icky. First I tried plugging it in in our bedroom, but because the plug adapters do not stay attached very well, it would not stay plugged in. So in the end I had to bring it to the kitchen and lean the electric teapot against the plug so that it would stay in and the toothbrush would charge. The high lime deposit in the water is something else. Already all our pots and pans look all chalky. So, all the water needs to be filtered. It taste gross, and I can hardly stomach using it to brush my teeth. I really try not to think about it. Anyway, so all the water the girls drink, all 5 gallons a day, needs to be put through this jug with a filter in it. Without good planning and refilling, most of the time the water is not very cold. To cook, the water all has to be filtered. So on those nights that I need to heat up water for pasta AND steam some veggies, it takes like 5 minutes to get the water. The jug thing is not that big ( NOTHING here is very big). I don’t like cooking in the first place, and this is not doing anything to increase my desire to do more. But we can’t even eat out very much because it is very expensive and there are not that many places to take kids. Many of the pubs do not serve children at all, only during certain times and depending on how busy they are, or just not conducive to children. The one time Alex and I really went out” when we came in January, dinner took like 3 hours. And it wasn’t like hanging out during a MOMS Club board meeting. Meals are just really drawn out and if you don’t ask for the bill, you could be there forever. The only going “out” to eat we have done has been Pizza Hut at a little mall. We have ordered pizza from a couple places, but it is just not the same thing. They do have a couple “American” restaurants here, including the only Macaroni Grill in England. But I am afraid it will just kill my enjoyment of the food and then when we go back to Michigan I wont be able to eat it anymore, though I guess it might just taste that much better. But I just could not have steak at Outback here considering the way they over cook the beef, and then they cook it some more. We are talking bone dry. I think you have to go to like Central London to one of the really fancy places. I take back what I said before, we did go out a second time in January. It was in London at a place called the Goucho Grill. Along the line of Shula’s ( Don the Miami Dolphin guy). I did have a nice filet. For us and a couple we were with, the bill was 200+ pounds, which equals close to $400. And this was NO place to take a child. I do not have sophisticated taste. I just want a good cheese burger. I swear, when I get off the plane I am heading to Red Robin or even better, Cheeseburger in Paradise.
Gotta go. The little one needs me. Til later
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