Well, we are safe and sound in York, and we very much appreciate everyone's prayers and good wishes. The weather has been significantly kinder to us over the past few days as well. All in all, we are quite glad to be "home" and are making progress at settling into our new life.
I know stories about foreign driving often bear similar validity and command all the eye rolling of a big fish tale, but I do feel compelled to share a couple of highlights from ours. I actually did fairly well with staying on the right (which means left) side of the road. KaT had to gasp a few times when I started to make a wide left turn, but there were no major mishaps in that regard. After stern warnings from a few friends who know, we were very worried about driving out of London. However, that turned out to be quite the easiest part. I didn't have to think much about sides of the road because there was always a car in front of me to follow. Also, although it took us a little while to realize that street signs are posted above the first story on the sides of buildings, it was nice that most streets had prominently displayed names. It was once we were out of London that the trouble began. Apparently the shires in northern England are not fond of visitors and have conspired to keep them out by using only provincial directives to aid in navigation. It's wonderful to know that such and such castle is down some road, but does not help much when one is looking for a Hertz Rent-A-Car or an Ikea. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that none, and I do mean NONE, of the roads here are straight, nor do they continue to bear the same name for more than a block or two. Thus, I may be on Road A going north, not even pass an opportunity to turn, and find myself doubling back on Road B without actually having done anything wrong. On our way from Leeds back to York after picking up some necessities at Ikea, KaT and were halfway to Manchester before we realized we'd headed in the wrong direction (laugh it up Joy and Andrew).
The city of York is absolutely breathtaking. On my facebook page I have uploaded a series of pictures taken just on a short walk back to our apartment after we dropped off our rental car. We haven't even had time yet to visit the famous sites, and already we have fallen in love with the quaint charm of our new city. It's amazing to us that the Victorian homes are the tacky new "eyesores" here! Every single street is rife with knick-knack shops, bakeries, tea rooms, pubs and plenty of major retailers, all housed in buildings from before America was a gleam in Benjamin Franklin's eye. I'm reasonably certain that the pub down the block from us was Tolkein's inspiration for "The Prancing Pony" in The Fellowship of the Ring and KaT has emitted many an audible squeal as we have walked by various tea houses and bakeries.
Unfortunately, we have to leave the charm of the streets and return home each night. We are living in university owned housing, and university owned housing is just university owned housing. None of the furniture matches, our couch is replete with conspicuous stains and the only room that does not have a tacky, industrial door is the bathroom, which has a glorified curtain. Oh yes, and I must mention the bathtub. Many of you know that in our last apartment we were only able to take a shower. Well, now we get to make up for all of the missed baths as our tub has no shower nor any way to possibly install either a shower head or a shower curtain. When in Rome, right? We are doing what we can to make it feel like home, but funds are limited and, even if they weren't, it just isn't a very appealing space. Even I find myself somewhat anxious when I'm here too long. I can't begin to imagine what it's doing to KaTrina.
We are trying to finish sorting out all of the amenities that we need so that we can begin our job hunt. We appreciate your prayers for patience and humility as we get accustomed to our new apartment. We will also be looking for jobs very soon and hope that those we find are at least somewhat fulfilling and marginally lucrative. We're specifically praying for some kind of opportunity for KaTrina to learn more about cake decorating and for her to be able to book a few wedding makeups here and there. My studies don't start for another week, but I have some placement tests in the coming days for which I would appreciate some divine intervention. Thank you all for your prayers and support. Hope to post again soon!
