Monday, September 25, 2006

Adjustments

It is good to be back online! I feel reconnected with the world. This has been an incredibly difficult move. Friday and Saturday were just one long continous day for us-- 45 hours without sleep! During that time, we were running constantly with barely time to eat, drink, or use the restroom. Leaving our family and home was emotionally draining, but the flight was good although turbulent and not conducive to sleep. We had 7 very heavy bags plus the stroller and 3 carry on pieces of luggage and once we got to Heathrow we had to lug all that stuff down to the tube and change trains twice to get to Brighton. You only have like 30 seconds before the train doors close and the train takes off, so we would have never been able to do it without some of Allan's friends helping us. Poor guys, they didn't even know us, but they labored very hard for us. When we got to the flat, there was much to do since we had no household items with us. All we brought were clothes, books, baby stuff, and our computer, which unfortunately, did not survive the flight. Some of the furniture in the flat was missing too. But the porter (he takes care of maintaining the facility) is very helpful and has brought us everything that we need as soon as could possibly be expected. Shopping here has been a bit of a nightmare so far. There is so much that we need, but since we don't have a car we have to take the bus or train into town which takes about 30 minutes, and even then, we're having trouble finding everything because things are sold in individual shops, not big stores like back home. And since I have no idea where anything is and people have no idea what I'm talking about half the time, it is challenging. Saturday night was a very low point for us both since we were so tired and the place was so small and different and we couldn't find bed sheets and the computer was broken! We both pretty much just wanted to go home right then and there. But we're doing much better now after two full nights of sleep and two days of attempts at marketing. We have a working computer, sheets, dishes, towels, pillows, and hopefully tomorrow we'll get some groceries. :)

I must say that Britons are wonderfully nice people. They are all very friendly and willing to help you out. As soon as I fgure the new computer out, I'll post some pictures of our place. We're still putting it together, but we are very thankful to be here by God's grace. We've already experienced some trials, but He has been faithful to see us through as always. But I am glad that Friday and Saturday are safely in the past and I never have to live through them again. Please pray that we will be an encouragement and a witness to the goodness of the Lord here on this campus.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome HOME! :)

Anonymous said...

melissa stole my comment. :)

it is amazing how many similarities there are between us and the british - and AMAZING how DIFFERENT two countries which speak the same language can be. :)

i'm sure you'll really enjoy learning the newness of things 'round there - i'm glad you made it safely and in one piece, even if the computer did NOT... bummer!

heidi jo

Anonymous said...

so glad to see you blogging again!

Kilby said...

Wow, I can't believe I forgot to check your blog for so long. I've missed a lot! Time to start reading...

Anonymous said...

Hi Jordan, I'm enjoying your blog! I especially love the beautiful pictures of Iain! Matt wants to set Skype up for me now, but it's 11:45pm here. Hopefully tommorrow. Your pictures of England look like postcards. Brian looks great in his helm! I love it!