One year ago today...

...We stepped off the plane into a whole new country and a whole new life. We were sick, tired, disoriented, nervous and a little bit lost. But more importantly we were ready to start this new, exciting journey.

Last night Brent and I were reminiscing on our first few days here and can't believe how much we have changed. We hadn't given that much thought before but as Brent pointed out, we are very different people now, but in a good way (hopefully). We've learned a lot and changed some bad habits and made some new ones and opened our minds a little.

Things we've learned in the last 365 days:
-What bangers & mash, treacle cakes, toad in the hole, pasties, squash, suet, swede; humped toucan, pelican and zebra crossings and WC's all are along with the new meanings to some of our standard terms (pants, vest, wallet, etc).
-English food tastes different. They don't use very many preservatives and no artificial colors or flavors and I haven't seen the words "partially hydrogenated" anywhere. That's not to say everything is healthy here but at least there are less chemicals.
-The difference between London, Kent, Somerset, Liverpool, Yorkshire, and Geordie accents. Not to mention the basics: Irish, Scottish, Australian and South African.
-South Africans are some of the nicest and funniest people we know and most of our friends (church and non) are South African.
-How to properly use words/phrases such as "right then", "sorry", "cheers", "ta", "eat in/take away", "quid", "p"
-How to pronounce odd looking English locations: Twickenham, Isleworth, Islington, Leicester, Leicestershire, High Wycombe, Slough, Weston-Super-Mare and countless others.
-Brent has had to learn lots of new spellings for words for when he writes reports at work.
-"Pudding" does not actually mean a smooth creamy substance eaten with a spoon for dessert or a snack. Depending on who you are talking to pudding could be cake, it could be like a bread pudding type thing or more commonly they could just mean dessert. Except for Yorkshire Pudding which is something completely different eaten with a savoury meal.
-The English typically don't make eye contact or smile at strangers on the street, which has been really hard to get used to. Don't get me wrong, they are pretty friendly once you get to know them but they aren't going to just smile at anybody, let alone look you in the eye if you don't know them. They are very personal people and don't bother with niceties in public. In fact, I once smiled at a woman's baby and she gave me a dirty look like I was going to steal her child or something. Now I hear this whole issue is more of a London thing, and we have had better experiences up north and in the south. But still, it takes some getting used to.
-If the sun is out, so are the people, usually scantily clad and sunburnt. This past summer was pretty warm and sunny and everywhere we went there was at least one man without a shirt on and a girl in a bikini top. And everyone was beet red.
-Once you make friends with them, British people are really funny and quiet at the same time.
-Speaking of quiet, everyone speaks so softly. I have the hardest time at the post office and the bank because they are quiet AND behind glass. I think I'm adjusting though, I don't find myself saying "sorry?" as often anymore. I don't think that means I've quieted down, I just think my ears have adjusted.
-London is a beautiful city, especially at night. Brent loves his walk to the train station and for most of the winter would tell me at least once a week how nice London looks at night with all of the lights and the river.
-Walking everywhere, although a hassle sometimes, isn't so bad. I haven't driven a car in over a year and Brent only drives when we're on vacation. Life without a car is interesting but we have both lost over 20 pounds mostly just because we walk so much.
-Spring in England is pretty much the closest thing I can think of to heaven. Last June when we took our road trip we were in awe the whole time. It's just so gorgeous.
-It's really not as scary as you think to move pick up and move halfway across the world. Thanks to skype and other modern conveniences, it's been a fairly easy adjustment.
-We are no longer apprehensive about travelling to other countries. In fact, it's really fun and we look forward to every chance we get to travel. Our first big trips were to Paris and Egypt and we were pretty nervous but since then we feel pretty confident.
-When we move back to the US, we need to travel more and explore the beauty of our own country. There are people here in England that have barely ever left the UK and that's just sad. It makes us think that we take advantage of our huge country with all of it's diversity. You could travel the US up and down for years and still not see everything.
-2 years is NOT enough time. Not only do we need more time to travel, we need more time to travel! We've only made a very small dent in our list of places to see and that just won't do.
-European PTO is fabulous. 25 days is standard and since we didn't know that last year, we got to carry our extra 5 over and now have 30 days this year. Sadly, we're already running low after the trips we have planned for this summer.
-Last but not least, living in England is exciting and fun and gives us lots of opportunities but for the most part it's just regular life in a different country. We still have our ups and downs and hard times and we're still struggling with exams and getting pregnant and we have church responsibilities and limited funds and even more limited time. It's not a 2 year vacation and it can't be all travel and excitement all the time but it's wonderful and amazing and we love it. We are so grateful that we get to have this experience. Once-in-a-lifetime.

So, Happy Anniversary, England! Thanks for letting us stay awhile.