hello london, nice to meet you

One week as Londoners in the books; we are adjusting well and venturing little by little into city life!

I crave the social connections through Instagram, but having to rock the iPhone 3 means no more until a new phone is obtained. Finally, I gave up the desire for quality pictures and will resort to the old-school way of plugging in the phone to the computer, uploading and dumping on the good ol' blog. With a bit of doctoring from iPhoto, they'll have to do...

Highlights from our week:

Blue skies. 

What a tease to move when the weather is lovely, because soon it will be crap and we will be left wondering how we got duped so easily into thinking the weather 'isn't as bad as everyone said.'

The view from our rooftop terrace of the Gherkin

 Exploring parts of town, which I'm sure we'll never tire of. This is in Marylebone, where the expats seem to live as we found a Chipotle and all kinds of embassies. 

These buildings, though!

Regent's Park. I could live here with the squirrels and roses to keep me company. Next summer promises open-air Shakespeare plays and paddleboats on the lake. 

Anyone else find this amusing?

Guys, Saturday night was epic-- we got to watch the Gator game, in REAL TIME, in a REAL SPORTS BAR while eating REAL chicken wings (and not on our couch at 2 AM in the morning!)

Plus, I made a new bff who went to the same church as I did in college, knows some of the same people, and planning on moving to our neighborhood. 

Jesus truly provides!

More blue skies equated to touristy activities, such as searching for the queen in her stately palace and wondering how the guards would react if I crossed the line and tried to climb the gate. 

Working on job-hunting and settling, which involved me sitting on my rear for hours at a time figuring stuff out. Like, how do we register for National Health Insurance? And forms upon forms for the signing of our apartment (send prayers our way, please, that it goes through!) new phone plans, making appointments for internet in our new apartment which apparently won't happen for another two months? The deets on the dog, shipping our stuff over, finding a new church home... whew! 

All things to deal with when you move anywhere, but more confusing trying to figure out how to do it in a culture different than yours. Good thing it's all in english.