It Gets Better...Right?

It’s been very hard trying to enjoy being in England. With all the military red tape we have been going through since we’ve been here, we have a bad taste in our mouths. My husband commented that, as exotic as it sounds to receive PCS orders to an overseas base, the military drains the excitement once you get there with all of their regulations, stipulations, complications, and a whole bunch of other “tions;” plus their general unhelpfulness with all the matters you have to attend to because of it (“it” being the military).

We continue to try and make the best of things. The thing we are most disgruntled about at the moment is our housing situation. We have been in temporary housing for three weeks now and are desperate to have a “Home Sweet Home.” We have been missing that since October. Also, we found out this week that our “Household Goods” shipment (i.e. the “big stuff,”) has made it into the country and has received the OK from Customs. Hopefully we will have a place to put it soon! We really miss our stuff…

One of the hardest things for me has been the fact that we are in a foreign country (one that I have been desperate to visit since I decided on a bachelor’s in English Lit), and we haven’t been able to get out and explore much. At first, the problem was driving. We were afraid of driving on the British roads and in a British car. (Driving on the right side of the car really messes with your depth perception and spacial judgement! And, the UK has much stricter driving laws. You can get a ticket for driving while drinking a coffee…what?!)

But now that we have overcome that hurdle, we have another obstacle preventing us from exploring our new residence: snow. Ironically, our taxi driver from the airport told us that it hardly ever snows in England and that, this year, they were having an unusually warm winter. Well…our arrival must have upset the balance of things because it has snowed several times since we have been here and has been bitterly cold! And, the icing on the cake, it hasn’t gotten warm enough to melt any of the snow that has fallen.

At first the snow was nice. It was the dry, fluffy kind that makes perfect snowballs and snowmen (and women!) Not the kind of wet, icy snow that makes everything slippery and dangerous, which is what we got in the southern US, where we are from.  

 

This was us on the first day of snow.

This is on the seventh day of snow…from the window in our room in Temporary Lodging, stuck. We are just sick of looking at it.

 

My son, who would brag to people back in the states, saying “I’m moving to England! It snows everyday in England!” (Not sure where he got that idea from, but the point is: he was excited about the snow!) But on the fifth day of having snow in England, he asked, all exhausted and whiny, “When is the snow going to go away?”

Surely. Surely. It will get better…right?

First Impressions

We have now been in England a week and so far…we are not impressed. I know one week isn’t long enough to give it a good go but this has just been a bad week. Not a single thing has gone right, or even gone smoothly or easily, for us since we arrived.

It’s not entirely England’s fault though. In fact, very little of our disappointments have to do with England itself. It’s the military we are put out with. But I’ll get to that in a minute.

There are some things that we have already discovered that we miss about the US. The first thing is the sun! Being from the south, where the sun is ever present (and hot), we love sunshine. But we have only seen the sun on two occasions since we have been here and it lasted probably a total of three hours combined. I noticed the funniest thing about the weather here just as we were flying into London last Saturday. While we were still at “cruising altitude,” I could not only see the sun, but it was brilliantly bright! However, as soon as we began to descend to land, we dropped below an immense dividing line of clouds that completely blocked the sun. It was like a whole other world up there above the clouds!

What really isn’t fair is how the clouds block out the sun and its glorious warmth during the day, while the nights are crystal clear with almost never a cloud in sight.

Another thing we miss is good, reliable internet. Now I cannot speak for all of England; I have heard that you can get good internet here. But where we are, which is “in the country” as everyone keeps reminding us, you cannot get good internet, which is just ridiculous for the technological age we live in and the dependency we have on it.

 Thirdly, we miss good cell phone service. We just got cells on Wednesday and already we can tell that the service here is not comparable to that in America (specifically, with our previous carrier AT&T). By "service," I mean coverage area. Again, everyone keeps saying this is the result of living in the country. But even “in the country,” you can still get a decent signal where I am from. But, I will say this for the carrier we signed with: they have reasonable prices on their plans (not something you will get in America, unless you get a “go” phone) and you practically get your phone for free, depending on the plan you go with.

Now let’s talk about the military side of things.

There really is just too much to say here so I’ll give you the run down. On my husband’s first day of in-processing, someone took him to get a rental car and just dropped him there…with no instructions on how to drive a right-handed car or how to drive on the left side of the road. Not only was that dangerous to all the other drivers on the road, but it was also just plain disappointing on their part. They are supposed to take care of their own.

But he survived. And he is doing fairly well with driving, he usually only hits one or two curbs. Me on the other hand…Well first I had to wait to drive until just yesterday because the rental we had was a stick. I can’t drive a stick. Don’t have the coordination. So when my hubbie bought his car this weekend (that is an automatic), we took it out for a drive and I got to practice.

I did ok until I got into a very busy (and cramped) town and clipped someone’s side-view mirror. I decided I had enough practice after that and I’ll leave the driving to my hubbie for now. But anyway…

Since we have been here, we have received very little direction on how to get settled in. There has been very little communication or instruction from the military (who dictates how and where and when we do get settled.) This is very frustrating for a family that has been in this transition period for months now and is ready to get settled!

My husband was given several checklists of things to get done for his job and his new station. But they haven’t given him any direction as to when he has to get it all done, when he is supposed to report to work regularly, etc. We feel like we have been left to “fly by the seat of our pants,” so to speak. When all we want to do is get back to a routine.

Needless to say, we are all still feeling that “No rest for the weary” sentiment from my last post. Fingers crossed things will start looking up by next post!

Rewind! Fast-forward!

Oh my goodness, time flies! I have so much to tell y’all!

I guess you can tell from the countdown clock that we are finally in England! (And our visas came in!) YAY! It was a whirlwind trip too, let me tell you. But more on that later.

First, let me back up to Christmas. It snowed very heavily here at Christmas, which was a sweet surprise. We rarely get a White Christmas here. But this year, it was a tiny bit of a nuisance because, well, we had things to do!

We had been waiting until after Christmas to drive our car to Dallas for it to be shipped to England. The snow made this difficult but we couldn’t let it stop us. So we rented a car and drove both, our car and the rental, to Dallas in snow and ice.

We have heard so many horror stories about other military members having to wait 2 and 3 months for their cars to arrive wherever they were stationed. But our paperwork says it should arrive no later than February 11. Which is only about 5-6 weeks after we dropped it off to be shipped. I guess we’ll see…

Since the military will only pay to ship one vehicle overseas, we had to sell our other one quickly after the Dallas trip.

Then we had to vacate our townhouse and move into TLF on base. (That’s Air Force lingo for “Temporary Lodging Facility.”) Now, I’m sure that doesn’t sound like much since all of our belongings had already been shipped. But we had 14 suitcases (10 full-size and 4 carry-ons) to tote in our tiny Toyota Corolla rental. It took several trips… This was essentially the culmination of our “Hurry Up and Wait” period before getting on the plane. Our departure date ended up being rescheduled to two days earlier than it was supposed to be. But that worked out because, by that point, we were so tired of waiting around.

So here we are! And I’ll have you know, this move encompassed my very first plane ride! Yep. Never been on a plane before. And neither had the kids. (Being in the AF, my hubbie was an “Old Pro” at flying.) But in a matter of 18 hours, we flew over 3500 miles in two flights. That was quite an experience.

The first plane ride really scared me. It was only an hour and 20 minutes but it was a small plane (only two rows of seats) so I felt all of the taking off and landing very strongly. The kiddos thought it was super fun though! They did really well on that first flight. Much better than me.

The second one was different. It was a much bigger plane (Boeing 767) with many more people on it. In fact, it was completely sold out. Now, I am just a tad claustrophobic so this ride was much more nerve-racking for me than the first, if that makes any sense. But this plane also had more to offer (like TVs in the headrests, dinner, breakfast, etc.) so that made it a little more tolerable…Until we all got sleepy.

Fortunately, the kids slept for a few hours. They were in the two window seats across the aisle from us so they had plenty of room for their tiny selves to sleep. But Hubbie and I didn’t sleep a wink. We were in the middle three seats (with me smack in the middle of him and a stranger). It was muy uncomfortable. So when we landed in London, we had been awake for almost 24 hours (taking into account the 6 hour difference) and were so grumpy and exhausted.

But as if that wasn’t enough, we then had to fumble our way through London Heathrow and find our 10 suitcases (4 carry-ons in tow) and locate our taxi drivers (Thank God those had been pre-arranged!) We had about an hour and a half drive from London to RAF Mildenhall. The kids slept the whole way. I tried to stay awake and view the scenery but I did fall asleep for about 30 minutes in the taxi. After we got to the base, we had to check in to TLF and then lug all of our suitcases to our room. But we couldn’t rest yet…

Not 30 minutes after we got to our room, my hubbie’s supervisor called and wanted to come by. Talk about an unwelcome guest. But you know what they say… “No rest for the weary” (or the military!)

Bah! Humbug...

I think my “Christmas spirit” was shipped off with the rest of our stuff, Y’all. I am finding it really hard to get into Christmas this year.  Normally this is my favorite holiday. I love the decorations, the get-togethers, the FOOD, and yeah, the shopping.

But this year, I don’t get to do any of that. (Except the get-togethers.) I can’t decorate because all of our Christmas decorations were shipped two weeks ago. I can’t cook any of my favorite holiday foods because all of my cookware is gone. And I haven’t been able to do much Christmas shopping because we don’t have room for Christmas presents in our suitcases. Anything we buy (or receive) for Christmas we will have to ship to England on our own dime since all of the rest of our stuff has already been sent.

So needless to say, Christmas doesn’t really feel like Christmas this year.

We couldn’t let it slip by without at least having a tree. We decided on one of the “Charlie Brown” variety. It aptly reflects our feelings this Christmas.

Yes, that is a towel being used as the tree skirt.

To add fuel to the fire, our Visas have not come in yet. (YIKES!) The British Consulate e-mailed me earlier this week to let me know they “did not receive” certain documents as part of our applications (although I know beyond a doubt they were in there). So I had to get more and overnight them. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, right?

Fingers crossed that the visas (and my Christmas spirit) come in time!

Not Today

Today I am not as excited about moving to England as other days. Today was a very dreaded, sad step in the moving process. Today I had to say “Good-bye” to one of my babies for possibly the next four years: my sweet Sheltie, Luna.

 

This is not the first animal we have had to give up over this move, either. We had a Boxer, my husband’s baby, which we had to find a new home for as well. And then we had a cat, my first pet cat, that went to another home too. This has been especially hard on the kids. They just did not want to give up their furry friends!

You see, for some incredibly stupid (and assuredly ridiculous) reason, the military will not pay to ship our pet with us overseas. I don’t know what the reason is. I can only assume it is because the military does not see family pets as “essential” to their “mission.” Whatever the reason, it's not good enough. And I say it is stupid and ridiculous because, although they will not pay to ship my sweet dog, they will pay loads to ship our furniture (also, not “essential” to their “mission.”)

If given the choice, I would choose to have them pay to ship my pet over my furniture in a heartbeat. They actually have full sets of furniture (beds, living room furniture, etc.) that we could “rent” for free while we are there.  If they offer such a service, why oh why would they pay to ship our furniture when they could use that money to pay for the shipping of family pets??

She is staying in a good home while we are gone, to be sure, and we have known for some time that we cannot afford the plane ticket+British customs fees to take her with us. It was going to cost roughly $1600 to fly her to England (and almost double that for the Boxer!). Plus we would have had to drive her to another airport because animals have to fly on direct flights. There are no direct flights out of our small Southern state. And she would have had to fly alone because the airline the military is flying us on does not fly animals to the UK. Period.

 But I did not know I would be saying “Good-bye” so soon.

This weekend, we went to visit my grandparents once more before the move. We brought Luna with us and they really wanted to keep her for us while we are gone. Although I know this means she will be in good hands, I was not prepared to give her up this early before the move. I wanted to hang on to her for as long as possible. But as my grandparents live out-of-state and not being able to make another trip before we leave, we had no choice but to leave her with them during this visit.



Last-minute Playtime

After having to sell our house, and giving up three pets, moving to England isn't looking so exciting right now. Today, I am finding it hard to appreciate or see the opportunity in going. Today, I just want my Luna home. 

Moving Day No. 2

We survived another bout of packing and shipping. This time, our shipment consisted of the necessary items we will need to have as soon as we get there: towels, dishes, sheets and blankets, pots and pans, etc. A smaller truck was sent this time, with only one large crate. But we filled it up, nonetheless. This shipment will get flown over on a plane and then all we have left to take over to England is ourselves and our luggage.

 

Since all of my cookware just left, cooking for a family of four will be a challenge over this last month, to say the least. To make do, we kept one small pot, one baking sheet, one baking pan, and purchased a cheap sauté pan. All of these things will either get tossed or have to be shipped over on our dime if we want to keep them. 

We also kept three coffee mugs, two for my husband and me to have our morning coffee, and one for our daughter who loves to drink hot tea. For dinnerware, we decided to purchase 4 cheap plastic plates, cups, and bowls; one for each of us. This way we eliminate the waste there would be if we used paper dinnerware. We will just have to wash them a few times a day.

 

Some small appliances we got to keep, sort of by default: toaster, blender, and our precious Keurig coffeemaker. First let me point out that, for those of you that may not know outlets are quite different in Europe than they are here in the states. Not only are they shaped differently, but they use different watts. In order to take and use any electronic devices from the US overseas, you need adapter plugs. These can be very pricey, especially if you need several for different items. For that reason, we chose not to take the toaster and the blender. They are cheap appliances and it would cost about the same to replace them over there as it would to purchase adapters to plug them in and use.

The Keurig is a different story.  We loved our Keurig. It is an amazing (and rather expensive) convenience. And makes a very acceptable cup of coffee. We had every intention of taking it over with us and purchasing an adapter for it. So the night before the movers came for this shipment, we unplugged it and started to clean it when we noticed a problem: there was water sloshing around inside of it. We tried everything to get it out, even unscrewing the bottom to try to drain it. After several attempts with no success, we went to Google and learned, to our utter disappointment, that the internal water reservoir cannot be emptied.

When we told the movers about our dilemma, they informed us that the Keurig could not be shipped if it could not be emptied. (Thanks for the fantastic design, Keurig!) I can’t tell you how heartbroken my hubbie is to leave it behind. Needless to say, we will not be purchasing one of these when we get to England. It’ll be a regular ol’ coffee maker for us.

 

Moving Day No. 1

I really did not think this day would ever come. I saw this day from far off in the distance months ago when we got our orders. But I didn’t really think we would ever get to it. So as I stood in my living room while the movers were bustling all about me, wrapping my stuff, packing it into boxes, carrying it out of my life for the foreseeable future, it felt very surreal.

Now here I am in an unbearably empty and cold townhouse, with the sound of my fingers hitting these keys echoing off the walls and the very intrusive blaze of the overhead light interrupting what would be a normal, warm, relaxing night on my comfy couch under the soft glow of a table lamp.

But this is all just part of a process, right? A journey, or as I prefer to call it, an adventure! The step before this was filling out and sending in our visa applications. That was quite a nightmare. I had no experience with that kind of paperwork and (not surprising) no one at the base here could help me, not even the person who accepts the applications. Go figure.

So I did the best I could and turned them in. That was almost three weeks ago. (We were told the we would get the visas in three weeks.) Haven’t heard a word since. The man in the applications office informed us, as we handed in our paperwork, that me and the kids cannot enter the UK without the visas (yet he wouldn’t let us turn the apps in until we were less than two months from leaving …)Thanks for that, Mister.

Now, we are at one of the last steps in the moving process: shipping our stuff. The first shipment was yesterday and that was shipping all of our big stuff and non-necessities: all furniture, knick knacks, some clothes, some kitchen stuff. This, the biggest shipment, will take 2-3 months to arrive in the UK. It was packed away into plywood crates and is being carried off to the ship that will convey it to England (assuming there are no hurricanes, typhoons, or other crazy mishaps. Cross your fingers!)

We were “authorized” to ship 9000lbs at the military’s expense. So, for that reason, a full-size freight truck showed up at our tiny townhouse complex Friday morning at 9:00 sharp. I did not think we had enough stuff to fill up all of the crates it brought. I was wrong. I think our total came to around 5700lbs for this shipment and it took them all day…

They packed everything in sight. Even my dog’s bowl that I accidentally left on the dining room floor. Poor Luna has to eat out of Tupperware containers for now.

Even though that shipment is going out now, one month before we leave, we will have already been in England 1+ months before it arrives. The next shipment, which will be picked up on Monday, is our “unaccompanied baggage.” This includes all of our necessities that we will need as soon as we get there, such as pots and pans, towels, sheets, etc. We are “authorized” 1000lbs for this shipment and it will actually fly over on a plane.

Once it goes, we will be absolutely living out of our suitcases (all 12 of them) and eating sandwiches off paper plates for the next month. It’s going to be rough.