1 September 2011
SAN CARLOS, CA
Writing the date--"September"-- makes me realize that Lily's and my departure is now imminent in a few days instead of a few weeks. We're making great progress checking off the "to-do" lists and each of us now has a partially packed suitcase sitting on our bedroom floor. Plus, the house is almost packed up. Last weekend Peter made incredible repairs and improvements throughout--painting, power washing, organizing the basement and garage. . . I'm very impressed and proud of how energetic and efficient he is. He's been planning and working the past six months to develop and prepare his Bay Cities team to run operations day to day. I'm also proud of the girls and all their work to prepare from selling granola and earrings in the UUFRC Christmas boutique to babysitting to helping advertise and sell items at our August family garage sale.
The September date also projects me back ten years ago when we moved to the UK the first time--Peter had an assignment with Cummins in power generation, which took our family to Canterbury, Kent for 2 1/2 years. We arrived just weeks before 9/11 and looking back, I realize how that autumn was one of the most challenging in my life. Not only did that tragedy shock the western world, but we had many adjustments to make to our new environment as well. We had been living in Beijing the previous three years where I was spoiled by "household staff"--a nanny and a driver. Now I had to learn how to drive on the left side of the road (thankfully, for this UK stay we will be using public transport!), wash clothes without a dryer (only Americans count that as a hardship!), adjust to living in a rural environment, a new school for the girls, a whole new culture that I naively assumed would be very similar to the US. . . This time there will be no doubt elements of culture shock, but we're coming as already confirmed "anglophiles" and we're plugging into an already established Study Abroad program through AIFS. More on that later. . .
Beth
SAN CARLOS, CA
Writing the date--"September"-- makes me realize that Lily's and my departure is now imminent in a few days instead of a few weeks. We're making great progress checking off the "to-do" lists and each of us now has a partially packed suitcase sitting on our bedroom floor. Plus, the house is almost packed up. Last weekend Peter made incredible repairs and improvements throughout--painting, power washing, organizing the basement and garage. . . I'm very impressed and proud of how energetic and efficient he is. He's been planning and working the past six months to develop and prepare his Bay Cities team to run operations day to day. I'm also proud of the girls and all their work to prepare from selling granola and earrings in the UUFRC Christmas boutique to babysitting to helping advertise and sell items at our August family garage sale.
The September date also projects me back ten years ago when we moved to the UK the first time--Peter had an assignment with Cummins in power generation, which took our family to Canterbury, Kent for 2 1/2 years. We arrived just weeks before 9/11 and looking back, I realize how that autumn was one of the most challenging in my life. Not only did that tragedy shock the western world, but we had many adjustments to make to our new environment as well. We had been living in Beijing the previous three years where I was spoiled by "household staff"--a nanny and a driver. Now I had to learn how to drive on the left side of the road (thankfully, for this UK stay we will be using public transport!), wash clothes without a dryer (only Americans count that as a hardship!), adjust to living in a rural environment, a new school for the girls, a whole new culture that I naively assumed would be very similar to the US. . . This time there will be no doubt elements of culture shock, but we're coming as already confirmed "anglophiles" and we're plugging into an already established Study Abroad program through AIFS. More on that later. . .
Beth
