Are you kidding me?

That's what I've been finding myself thinking a lot. It's been almost a month of life in "full swing" here. Well past holiday mode. (Though that still hasn't totally broken me of novel holiday abroad eating habits, though.Cornish Pasties! (*only* cheese and onion, though) Cadbury Picnic bars! Cherry bakewell tarts! Exciting flavoUr crisps! Cheese!). Weeks ago I was about to write about how the grass is still mighty green here, work is great, going home at 1pm on Friday is great, a sudden decision by HR that it's in our best interest to give us December 24th off, too (we didn't have it off, originally) is great (and so wouldn't have happened like that stateside without an act of congress at work, or something) I'm getting more used to driving, making new friends here, meeting new and interesting and nice people.

But also, traffic, oh gosh the traffic! It's like the infrastructure here just wasn't built for this! And I'm traveling opposite of the "bad" commute, where I see cars on the opposite side of me at a standstill. But still, the average speed displayed on my car's output display is 25 MPH. I'm pretty certain that's not inaccurate. Aside from that, there's frightening gas prices ("pence per litre" meant nothing to me until I started filling up my gas tank and saw how much, in pounds, a full tank is. I don't even want to think about the conversion to dollars.), more difficulty getting to other countries than I had to deal with from Stateside, my internet *still* is not set up (though sure enough BT is already trying to bill me. (And if you need to call tech support or customer service lines, *you* get charged for it!) And this here connection I'm now posting from is via Dear Hubby's BT wireless account), weather: as bad as they say, roundabouts: as bad as they say. I can't get any package delivered to my house and have already had two adventures driving around town, trying to hunt things down at the local FedEx or Royal Mail offices. And don't get me started on my GPS and how maps seem to work here (or not), in general.

Nobody said it would be easy. Even my best friend who lived in England for two years said that she envied me, but also that she didn't. Hubby jokes that it's like a third world country here. And everybody loves to "apologise for the inconvenience". Now I see that they're kind of both right.

But, I'm working out the bugs. It definitely helps to have immense quantities of patience. And a comfortable chunk of money. And the sweetest, most helpful and patient and caring husband ever.

Here, have a picture! From the Museum of Childhood in London. There is definitely more to report on and photos from that (the dark and bizarre backstories of each Teletubby, cheerful surprise displays to be found), as well as photos from Poland, and from last weekend's trip to Berlin. Which somehow seemed more tiring and like more effort than going to Berlin from the US for a long weekend, like I would normally do.

As for now, it is far too late, and it is also pouring outside. (surprise surprise).
More later! Hopefully sooner!