We've been enjoying our time in our apartment ("flat") so far. We're on the 2nd floor, but it's really the 3rd floor because they start at zero.
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| Here's us at the door to the front door that leads to the stairs that lead to our flat. |
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| Here's the view from our flat. It's some sort of engineering firm. Not a great view, but it's fun for people watching. |
Now for the inside:
There are three bedrooms, so the boys share a room, and Anna has her own room, like at home.
Our bedroom has a vanity area, which works perfectly for Kevin's work space. Well, okay, it's not perfect. Having your workspace and your sleeping area all in the same room is not ideal. But, anytime something happens that isn't exactly to our liking, we just remind ourselves, "hey, we're in LONDON!"
Here's our little kitchen/dining area. Notice the salads, which Kevin and I ate for dinner. I made grilled cheese for the kids. Food has definitely been a challenge. We're trying not to eat out all the time, but I've had a hard time figuring out what to have at home. The local grocery stores have so much premade food - like sandwiches and salads, and they're pretty cheap, but they're not really kinds our kids would like. I think that a lot of Londoners eat those though, because they're on the go so much. Plus, you can't stock up on lots of food at home, because kitchens are so small and you have to carry all the food home from the store (no car), I'm guessing. So, we've been eating lots of salads, spaghetti, and eggs at home. The kids have loved having grilled cheese sandwiches or nutella and ritz crackers (you can find nutella anywhere!)
And here's our den area. The big pile of pillows in the right side of the picture is from Anna making a big pillow throne out of all the pillows that were on the window seat.
And here's some souvenirs that Anna has bought so far - Mittens, Shelly, Nessie, Penguinita, Dolphina, and Rabbinita (surrounding the horse Dr. Pepper who came with us from Kate Washburn's home)
Here's two boat souvenirs Justin bought.
And I here I have to mention an exciting occurrence in our family. Justin lost a tooth! He didn't even realize it was loose until he at some "crispy bacon." We had eaten out for breakfast, and the kids were excited to see this "crispy" American bacon. Bacon in England, and most of the United Kingdom I think, is more like Canadian bacon. But the crispy bacon was more chewy than crispy, so it apparently loosened up Justin's tooth!
Justin was excited to get pounds instead of dollars from the tooth fairy. Although, the tooth fairy had a little trouble counting up the pence coins to equal a pound (kinda like cents and dollars). Justin asked why he got one pound and twenty pence. I'm still working on identifying the coins correctly!
The last thing I'll mention is going to church. We went to church Sunday morning at All Souls Langham Place (for those of you who've heard of John Stott, it was his church before he passed away last year).
It's very traditional looking on the outside, but inside, it wasn't quite as ornate. It actually felt more familiar than anything else in London had. That sounds a little weird, but I'll try to explain. As soon as we started singing the first song, I immediately teared up. I felt like it came out of nowhere! I haven't been feeling homesick, but being in a church full of believers (I think) and worshiping and singing somehow felt homey to me. I've really been enjoying our time in London, but everything takes so much thought - which direction to go on the tube, how to work the oven, how to work the washer/dryer (that I swear only holds about five pieces of clothing!). At church, things felt more familiar. And also, it was great to hear God's word, and sing songs about his faithfulness and love. On a somewhat unrelated note, a neat thing about All Souls is that there was a variety of people - young and old, and lots of different nationalities.
So that's a little slice of life after a week in London.
1 comments:
Great apartment! Sorry about your tiny washing machine. Have you noticed how they call the Tube the CHube? Mind the Gap! That is so cool you guys got to go to the All Souls over there. Gives you a sense of what THE CHURCH really means when you travel and worship.
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