What am I looking forward to most this Christmas? Two words:

The Doctor

Oh yeah, and spending time with family and stuff… 😉

Well, my second experience with the NHS was hardly better than the first. I finally reached the point where I could no longer put off registering with my local GP. So on Monday morning I walked around the corner, went on into the surgery, and told the receptionist that I needed to get registered. She gave me a form to fill out, a vial for a urine sample, and a paper listing my appointment time as 2:20 p.m. on Wednesday, the 12th of December.

And so this morning I filled out the form, and collected a sample, and I left work early to go get my health checked and get registered with a GP. I turned up just before 2:20, gave the receptionist (different one from Monday morning) my appointment sheet, and was sent to an upstairs waiting room which wasn’t so much a waiting room as a few chairs arranged in a small corridor near the lift. And I waited. And I waited. And I waited. For an hour and twenty minutes I waited. Finally a doctor who had gone past quite frequently while I was waiting asked who I was waiting for. When I told him, he said, “I think she left.” So he brought me back down to reception to try to figure out if the nurse I was meant to see was, in fact, gone for the day. “Oh yeah – she left a while ago,” confirmed the reception staff. Apparently, another woman who had an appointment for Friday at 2:20 had showed up and the nurse who was meant to see me saw her instead and, thinking she was done with her appointments for the afternoon, left to go home. Why the reception staff didn’t notice that the woman who was seen instead of me was there on the wrong day and why they didn’t put me in their calendaring system when I showed up are both beyond me. But the fact that I could sit there for almost an hour and a half without anyone realising that I had been forgotten doesn’t make me all that thrilled about being a regular patient there. Even more troubling was that only one of the four reception staff had any interest in apologising and taking any sort of responsibility. The attitudes of the other three made it quite clear that they thought it must be my fault because how could they possibly be in the wrong? For that matter, they didn’t even really seem to have the time of day to figure out what had gone wrong and, more importantly, how to remedy it. They were more interested in talking about their own aches and pains.

Funnily enough, while I had been waiting, I had perused the results of a patient survey that they had posted on a notice board in the waiting area. The doctors in the practice, the facilities, and the ease of scheduling appointments all got very complimentary remarks, and the greatest complaints were reserved for the reception staff. In the “what we’re doing about it” section, there were notes that they would have some in-service training for the reception staff. It seems that they either haven’t gotten around to it yet or it didn’t take.

After rescheduling for the Friday before Christmas, I went home and had a couple of hours to cool down (and finally have lunch) before James and I got the bus to Moorgate and walked over to All Hallows for their special Wednesdays on the Wall Advent/Christmas/Epiphany service. It was a lovely service which included meditations led by Malcolm Doney on some of the icons that are part of the just-ending Wallspace exhibit. (Sorry if you missed it. It was quite something!) Also as part of the service, Garth Hewitt read some words from Canon Naim Ateek, a Palestinian Christian who Garth had interviewed earlier this year when he was visiting Palestine. I transcribed that interview as part of the work that I’ve been doing for Amos Trust, and it was nice to be able to experience a little of the fruits of my labour! The visual focal point of that part of the service was the Walled Nativity. (Please do follow that link – and this one too – to find out about it if you’re not already familiar with the concept!)

After the service there was mulled wine and mince pie, and then the folks who were still there gathered around the piano to sing some more Christmas carols. The acoustics in the church were just fantastic, there were some very talented singers involved, and all in all it was just brimming with loveliness.

The previous night had held plenty of loveliness of another kind: we went to the Royal Albert Hall to see Crowded House with Duke Special opening and ended up in a backstage dressing room afterward hanging out with many friends – old and dear ones and lovely new ones including Pete (aka Duke Special) & his wife Heather, Paul (aka “Paul Pilot”) & Rachel Wilkinson, Ben Castle, Beth Rowley & her brother John, Matt Hales from Aqualung, Jayne McConkey (a surprise visitor from Belfast), and Jude Adam who is one of the loveliest people on the planet and if you don’t know her, well, you’re missing out.

And the Christmas loveliness is really just begun. Lots of work parties, family gatherings, carol services, etc. yet to come. Two weeks from today, we’re off to the States for a visit. It’s almost too much loveliness to bear.

(Yes, two blog entries in one day. Do I get a gold star?)

It’s been almost impossible not to get caught up in rugby fever these days. Against great odds, England is playing in the Rugby World Cup final this Saturday against South Africa. They are the underdogs for sure, and even if I don’t actually get around to watching the game itself (although I think I just might…even though I don’t really understand it yet) I will be pulling for them. And if they win, I will be cheering as enthusiastically as if I were actually English. Heck – it’s not like they have any American rivals, so who else would I cheer for? 🙂

So here I am, nearly at the end of week 2 of my new job, and I realised I hadn’t blogged about it yet! (Did you catch the UK spelling there?) Most people who actually read this blog will have heard about my new job via other sources of information (hooray for Facebook!) but in the interest of using this space to log significant milestones and events in my transition to life in the UK, I’ll add it here.

The job search process certainly had its frustrating moments. I applied for about a dozen jobs that I saw listed online, mostly at jobs.ac.uk (jobs in higher education), charityjob.co.uk and thirdsector.org.uk.. Some of them I felt more qualified for than others. But from most of them I heard back not a peep. I did get invited to interview for jobs with Westminster Theological Centre and University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business London Campus. But before either of those hiring processes finished, I was offered a job by Ann Pettifor of Advocacy International. James worked with Ann back in 1999-2000 on the Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt campaign. When he ran into Ann at Greenbelt this year, she asked him to stop by and chat with her about website help. I tagged along and ended up getting a job out of it!

Technically, I’m doing two different jobs at Advocacy International. I’m working 2 1/2 days a week for Operation Noah as Logistics and Operations Officer. I’m doing things like helping get them set up as a registered charity, hiring new staff, and helping with various other administrative and HR bits. I’m also working one day a week for Advocacy International and will be working on keeping track of contracts with our clients, finding new office space, and who knows what else.

Ann’s goal is that eventually I’ll be working full time on various campaigns that AI is managing, but to fill in the other day and a half per week currently open in my schedule, I picked up some short-term work for Greenbelt. (That’s job #3.) It will only last a few weeks, but hey – it’s another bit of income that I wasn’t getting for sitting around the flat. And it will help pay for our plane tickets back to the States over the Christmas and New Year holidays. Hurrah.

I’m enjoying my work so far. I have terrific colleagues. I’m doing a lot of different things. And I’m discovering that I have indeed picked up a lot of useful knowledge and skills from my past work experience. I am, however, looking forward to getting to the point (a few months down the road, I’m sure) where I actually feel like I know what I’m doing most of the time and am not just making it up as I go along. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the 9:30-5:30 workday (with an hour lunch break), the government-mandated 4.8 weeks of holiday (as of 1st April, 2009, it will go up to 5.6 weeks), and making money in pounds (even though I haven’t actually gotten a paycheck yet).

It’s good to be employed.

Last Sunday Dave Tomlinson’s talk at St. Luke’s was about identity which, of course, got me thinking about how all the big changes in my life recently have affected my sense of identity.

For the last twelve years, so much of my identity was wrapped up in Calvin College: my job, my various roles, and who I was to the people there. Yesterday I was on the Admissions website checking out the new photos of the Admissions Counselors (most of whom used to be my Admissions Counselors), and it was so weird not to be part of that world anymore. It’s also really strange when Calvin events are posted on Facebook, and I know lots of people who will be going to them, but I’m not one of them.

So far my primary identity here in London/the UK is “James’ wife.” That’s not a bad thing, and I’ve formed some great friendships with people who originally met me as “James’ wife.” But there’s a whole lot more to me than that. I think that one of the reasons I so treasure my friendship here with Lisa is that not only is she a fellow American negotiating London, but she first met me and James at the same time and doesn’t have a history with James that goes back further than my history with him.

My musings about identity are nothing approaching “crisis” level. I’ve always had a pretty solid sense of self. (One of the glorious things about being a “thirtysomething” is that it doesn’t even matter so much as it once did.) I’m still a wife and a daughter and a sister and a granddaughter and a friend. I’m a lover of music, film, books, good food, good wine, etc. (Culture snob?) I’m a person of faith whose faith compels her to want to make the world a better place, especially for the marginalized and underprivileged. Those are a lot of good things to be. And as our life develops in London, I’m hoping to become a lot more things: neighbor, contributing church member, co-worker, regular patron, [hopefully someday] mother… and who knows what else. I’m looking forward to finding out.

In the past couple of weeks I have often been asked how I like living in London and if I’m homesick. My usual answer has been, yes, I really like living in London and no, I’m not really homesick. For one thing, I’ve just been too busy to even think about being homesick. And besides, I’m someone who usually likes change and newness. Last night, however, one song (“Laughing” by The Winterpills) sent waves of homesickness crashing over me. I desperately missed our wonderful, beautiful, character-filled, BIG house on Auburn NE. I missed our tree-lined neighborhood. I missed the Fulton Farmer’s Market. I missed living a block away from Kirstin & Rob and lingering over a bottle of wine on their front porch. I missed being in a very familiar setting where I knew where to get a good latte and a terrific sandwich. (We really miss Marie’s!!) I missed knowing exactly where things were located in the supermarket. (Shopping at Sainsbury’s down the street takes me a loooong time.) James was appropriately sympathetic and did manage to cheer me up after a while. He also pointed out that it’s probably good and right that occasionally I really miss the good things about our life in Grand Rapids.

So far, though, life in London is pretty good. There are a few lows: not having a job is starting to get a little frustrating as it causes the days and weeks to feel a bit shapeless. Sleeping until 9:30 or 10:00 every morning has it’s nice points, but it does make the days feel awfully short too. Nevertheless, there’s a lot to like and new things to discover everyday. We’ve been doing a lot of travel around the city by bus which is a great way to get to find out where things are located that aren’t within easy walking distance and how things fit together geographically. We’ve been going to church at St. Luke’s where a number of our friends are already members, and I think it will be a really good church home for us for now. We live about ten minutes walk from our friends Matt & Clare and have seen a good bit of them already. We’ve actually been able to see quite a bit of our London and Oxford friends which has certainly eased the transition. We’ve been to some good gigs and have quite a few more on the horizon. And we’ve been to one amazing exhibit at the Hayward Gallery.

Our flat is very nearly to the condition we want it, and even though it’s less than half the size of our Grand Rapids house, it’s sufficient for the time being. We’re learning a lot about what we want and don’t want in a place when we come to buy, something we hope to do within the next 6-9 months. I definitely need a place that has a garden or balcony. Our current flat doesn’t have any space where I can be outdoors at home, and I find I feel a bit claustrophobic at times even with all the windows thrown wide open. We live near several really lovely parks, but it’s not quite the same. We also need either a three-bedroom place or a two-bedroom place with a much larger second bedroom than we currently have, especially if James continues to work from home. I also need a gas hob/range in the kitchen. Our electric one is driving me crazy, and for someone who is as into cooking as I am, it simply will not do long term. When we were looking for a flat, I told James, “I can live just about anywhere for 6-12 months.” Knowing me as he does, he didn’t quite believe me (and he was right), but we’re both learning to make do and are working to shape our living environment to our needs and preferences where we can. It helps that the location is about as ideal as it could be for now.

I’ll close this post by noting for those who have been wondering, my first Greenbelt was all I had hoped and more. The festival was blessed with absolutely perfect weather – it was warm and sunny for most of the weekend and didn’t rain at all. I met so many delightful people – many of whom I had been hearing about from James for a long time. Singing backing vocals for Sarah was just a treat. There was so much good music (if you haven’t checked out Duke Special yet, you are missing something spectacular!) and many more interesting talks than I was able to get to. Camping with Team Fury (the Belfast-Nashville gang) was a rockin’ good time made even better by Padraig’s camp stove haute cuisine. All in all, it was a really terrific weekend, and I can’t wait until Greenbelt 2008! (For now, don’t miss James’ Greenbelt photos.)

I tell you what, folks: if you are negotiating for something, you want to have James Stewart on your side. The man drives a hard bargain! (If you are negotiating a handbag purchase in Vietnam, you want to have Sarah Sahr on your side, but that’s another story entirely…) Despite the fact that Foxtons (estate agents) were incredibly annoying and frustrating to deal with, we have ourselves a flat in London.

We arrived in the UK on Friday, the 3rd of August, and by Monday the 6th we were in London looking at flats. We looked at four flats on Monday and another six on Wednesday, four of them with an agent from Foxtons. A couple of them really appealed to us, but only one had the ideal location going for it, and in addition it was £15 per week cheaper. So on Thursday afternoon, we went in to Foxtons office and put in an offer for £5 per week under the asking price. Our offer was accepted, and on Friday afternoon, we signed the contract and agreed to Monday as move-in day. Oh, if only it were as straightforward as that…

We had heard from a number of our friends that Foxtons can really be a pain to deal with. They give the appearance of being service-oriented, but when it comes down to it, their underlying agenda seems to be to get as much money out of you as possible and to make your life difficult in the interest of… well… we’re not even really sure in the interest of what. They wanted both James and I to submit an employer reference, a former landlord reference, and a bank reference along with a deposit for the equivalent of six weeks rent and the first month rent up front. James went back to them and said that landlord reference requirement was ridiculous given that we’ve been homeowners for the last three years, and the work references would be difficult to obtain since he’s self-employed and my former employer is the U.S. And bank reference? Really? What the heck? So they said we could forego those with a guarator letter (which James’ father was happy to sign), three months of bank statements, and six months rent paid up front. (!!) James said, six months seems a little much, how about four? Which they then accepted. (Note that all of James’ interaction has been with a Foxtons agent who supposedly is bringing our proposals to the landlord, but we’re not really sure how much of it actually went back to him and how much was just made up by Foxtons.) However, when James asked how much money we needed to bring to the contract signing (deposit + rent up front + Foxton’s fees), he realized that when they agreed to four months rent in advance, what they meant was four months + the one month that’s regularly part of the contract. In other words, we were really paying five months up front. Grrr.

That wasn’t the worst part of it, though. All along throughout our interactions with Foxtons we expressed our desire to have a six-month break clause in the contract given that we are hoping to buy a place soon. The way the housing market is going here, each month that goes by means that we’re going to be paying more when we come to buy. Ergo, we don’t want to be stuck in a twelve-month rental contract. So we wrote the six-month break clause into our offer for the flat, and since we didn’t hear any objection via Foxton’s, we expected that to be written into the contract. Au contrare! Apparently Foxtons was just ignoring that bit and hoping we wouldn’t notice it wasn’t in the contract. In the end, the landlord agreed on a nine-month break clause, but still. That was totally sucky and deceitful of Foxtons. We’re not impressed. It would be lovely if we could just say that when we come to buy a place we’re not going to look at Foxtons properties at all, but alas, they have quite a few properties in the area, and they actually have one of the better websites for looking at properties. But if it comes down to two places that we really like and one of them is represented by Foxtons, that would be enough to push us to the other one.

Despite the ickyness of that process, we’re really delighted that we found such a great place in just a few days. We’re eager to get settled and start our life in London. Now we just need the rest of our belongings to actually put into our new flat. As far as we know, it’s all still in customs limbo. With any luck we’ll have it before Greenbelt (which starts on the 24th) but we’re not holding our breath. Watch this space for updates…

After eight weeks of traveling through Northern California, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, China, and Mongolia (an absolutely wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime trip capped off by a miserable nine hour layover at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow – horrid place), James and I have arrived in the UK and now begin our life here.

There are so many details to sort out – getting a flat, a job, a mobile phone, NHS and National Insurance numbers, bank accounts, etc., etc. It’s a little overwhelming, especially whilst dealing with jetlag and travel fatigue. We’re also still waiting for our shipment of stuff which was sent from Grand Rapids just over eight weeks ago. It sure would be nice to have that as I’m a little tired of the three pairs of trousers and six shirts that I’ve been wearing for the last two months.

Lots of people have asked me what I’m going to do for work when we move to London, and my standard answer has been, “I don’t know. I’ll find something to do!” Thinking about that while traveling around the world was rather difficult, but now that the travels are over, it’s time to get down to doing a serious job search. One of the challenging things as far as that goes is there is so much I’m interested in doing. It’s a little hard to know where to start. My twelve years working in Admissions at Calvin gave me skills to do a lot of different things: project management, event planning, marketing, public relations, hiring and training, supervising professional staff, public speaking and presenting, hospitality, etc. So that could lead me in all sorts of different directions. My passion for art and culture and my involvement with community radio and with Calvin Student Activities (including planning the Festival of Faith and Music) could also play into a job search.

When I think about what I’m especially passionate about, though, a couple of things particularly stick out: 1) dismantling racism, working toward racial reconciliation, and helping others with the process of discovering how systems of privilege and oppression affect them and the world around them; and 2) working with others to put talents and resources to use effectively to build the kingdom of God on earth, and helping others along the way to discover how they can be part of that grand project. How that translates into a job description, I’m not exactly sure! Some more specific things that I’ve thought about looking into doing include: working with British students who want to study in the US (my comprehensive knowledge of the US higher education landscape could be very useful there), working with international students at a UK university, working for a travel company, leading anti-racism training programs, working for a community-based non-profit or arts organization, or working at a specialty foodstuffs shop. (I know, that last one seems a little random, but I love food, I love to cook, and I love being in those sorts of stores. I’d love to work for Art of the Table or Martha’s Vineyard branches in London, but they don’t seem to exist yet. Maybe I could start a franchise…)

So… all that to say, if you happen to know of a job opening in the London area that might suit me, please let me know (and if you’re interested, you can download a PDF of my CV here). I’d appreciate all the references and advice I could get!

As James and I planned our trip around the world, I have to say that what I got excited about most was the thought of eating in all of these places. Bloggers like Meg, Heidi, and Adam got me especially excited about eating in the San Francisco area. We were most certainly not disappointed. So here, inspired by The Amateur Gourmet, is my pictorial review of the wonderful food that delighted us in Northern California.

Our first morning in California, we woke up in the Marin Headlands International Hostel famished having arrived at 10:00 p.m. — too late to find much open on a Sunday night without having driven at least 20 minutes on very windy, unfamiliar roads in the dark. We stumbled on a great little bistro called Caffe DiVino on a Sausalito side street, and had some tasty (albeit dripping with oil) egg dishes. For lunch that day, we had paninis custom made for us by the owner of Bella Luma in Petaluma, Craig Stammler, who decided that it was too boring for each of us to have the same thing, even though that’s what we had ordered. He didn’t let us down! We intended to go back for Palazzolo’s gelato (shipped across the country from Saugatuck!) later that night but they were closed by the time we got back. Weren’t too disappointed though, because our supper at small, classy Italian joint called Risibisi – a shared selection of small plates including caprese salad; spinach and arugula salad with shitake mushrooms, crispy bacon, shaved manchego, and balsamic vinaigrette; and hand-cut pommes frites with marinara dipping sauce – was scrumptious.

On Tuesday, after doing some wine tasting at Cosentino — which we definitely recommend, especially if Bob Silva is the guy out front guiding your tasting — we followed Bob’s suggestion and had lunch in downtown Napa at Downtown Joe’s. My reuben was pretty good as was James’ cheeseburger, but the most memorable part of the meal were the dozen miniature mugs that arrived at our table when we requested the taster of all their brewed-on-site beers. After lunch we drove back to San Francisco, checked into our hotel in North Beach, dropped off our rental car at the airport, then took public transportation back to the Financial District from which we walked back to North Beach via Chinatown. Upon arriving back in North Beach, we decided to grab supper at Caffe Puccini. Excellent decision! The spaghetti carbonara that I ordered was some of the best that I’ve ever had. And while James’ chicken parmigiana was a little dry, the fettucine with marinara that came alongside of it was just delicious. It was all pretty basic food but seasoned just right. The strawberry ice cream that I had to top off the meal was incredibly fresh. All in all, a good choice for eating in North Beach.

Wednesday started with a cable car ride down the hill and then a bit of a walk to the Mission District where we found on the corner of Guerrero and 18th one of the most anticipated stops of our trip to San Francisco: Tartine Bakery. After reading Adam’s description of the franginpane tart, I was dying to try it. And oh. my. word. It was fabulous. The crust was so flaky. The huckleberry filling was so juicy and fresh. And the almonds on top were toasted to perfection. I only dream of being able to bake something that good. James had the double pain au chocolat (made with Scharffen Berger chocolate) which was also amazing. And our mochas were perfect too – not too sweet. (We found that to be pretty consistent with mochas in SF. They know how to make them there.) We were tempted to buy a whole lot more baked goods in Tartine, but our eating in the Mission had only just begun.

After spending a good bit of time browsing in Modern Times, undoubtedly one of the coolest independent bookstores on the planet, we grabbed some coffee a few blocks down at Ritual Roasters. Lunch was at Taqueria Cancun where we shared the Super Burrito al Pastor (with marinated pork). Besides the meat, it contained rice, fresh cilantro, Mexican cheese, pinto beans, and avocado. Qdoba couldn’t hold a candle to this burrito. This was the real thing! One burrito is huge too, and was plenty for the both of us. After a bit more walking around, we stopped into the Dolores Park Cafe for some refreshment and journaling. Dinner on Wednesday was chicken kebabs, rice pilaf and spinach salad at the home of Dave, Kate and Ivan Austin-Groen: a treat to have a great home-cooked meal and terrific company to go along with it! After dinner, Dave took us to Mitchell’s Ice Cream, a San Francisco institution since 1953. Their flavors are fascinating! I wanted to try at least 10 of them. In the end I settled on the Halo Halo, a combination of Buko, Langka, Ube, Pineapple, Mongo & Sweet Beans. James had the Mexican chocolate. Good stuff!

On Thursday morning, we grabbed pastries and mochas at the original Caffe Trieste to eat on our way up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower. After our trip out to Alcatraz, we came back and walked along the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building where I had a soft shell crab po’ boy at The San Francisco Fish Company. The crab had that great fresh shellfish taste that made me think of going to my Oma & Opa’s house in Sayville, NY when I was young and eating stuffed clams. From the Ferry Building we got a bus to the Upper Haight and walked around there a bit, stopping to get online and have coffee at Rockin’ Java. We then walked 13 blocks down to the Lower Haight and stopped for Chimay at Toronado Pub, a recommendation from our good friend Adam who used to live in San Francisco.

Dinner on Thursday was perhaps the culinary highlight of the week: nouveau soul food at Farmer Brown. The amuse bouche was miniature jalapeno cornbread muffins served with maple butter – and intriguing start to the meal. I ordered the fried chicken with mac & cheese and southern greens. The chicken was wonderfully juicy, and I even allowed myself the indulgence of a little bit of the crispy skin. (C’mon – it’s southern fried chicken. You only live once.) The mac & cheese was made with Tillamook Cheddar, paprika, probably shallots and I’m not sure what other flavors but it was terrific. The southern greens was a mixture of chard, cabbage, collard greens and maybe some others, again uniquely flavored. James had the pulled pork sandwich which came with BBQ sauce on the side, cole slaw, and handcut chips. He thoroughly enjoyed his choice as well. Oh – can’t forget the angel biscuits. We ordered those at Dave & Kate Austin-Groen’s suggestion and were glad we did. They were light and buttery and just light years better than Pillsbury biscuits out of the can. Our only regret was that we didn’t have room for dessert, especially since from our first scan of the menu we had been looking forward to the key lime pie and strawberry rhubarb pie! We’ll just have to go back for those another time.

Friday was a day of going back to our favorite places from earlier in the week. We had breakfast at Caffe Trieste again and this time stayed there soaking up the atmosphere. We also went back to Ritual Roasters and Tartine Bakery. This time James had the jambon and gruyere croissant and I had the Idiazabal & Membrillo (“lightly smoked sheeps milk cheese with quince jam”) pressed sandwich. Soooo good! We also had a couple of Scharffen Berger mini chocolate cookies and a slice of Valrhona chocolate cake. We really want to take Tartine to England with us. Although if we lived around the corner from it, we’d both be broke and fat very quickly. So it’s probably just as well…

And after that, we were back to our hotel to get our bags and off to the airport for our flight to New Zealand with wonderful memories of our taste adventures in San Francisco!

More photos of our San Francisco meals and other highlights of our time there can be found here.

Next time… Eating our way through New Zealand!

Since the last time I wrote anything here, a number of significant things have happened. We sold our house (via word of mouth – thank you Steve!) and have since closed on the house and gotten rid of a lot of our possessions. As I write we are in the last hour of a two-day yard sale which has been quite successful thanks to the abundance of sunshine which defied the predictions for a weekend of rain.

I also now have four new visas in my passport. We spent an hour and forty-five minutes waiting in line at the Chinese consulate in Chicago to get the Chinese tourist visas. The Vietnam visas were mail-ordered. The visas for Cambodia were applied for online and emailed to us. And on May 21 we went back to the British consulate in Chicago,
and got my UK settlement visa. The gentleman to whom we explained our situation informed us that we saved $530 by applying in February: in the last three months the application fee had gone up from $520 to $1050. Eek! So even though we had to make an extra trip to the consulate, we were in Chicago anyway (for the excellent Arcade Fire concert at the Chicago Theatre) and it was definitely worth it for the money we saved!

Our house is getting very empty now. It’s a little sad. We sold a number of things – including our dining room table – on Facebook. (Go Facebook Marketplace!) Friends and family took a lot off of our hands as well. In the next few days the major task is sorting through what’s left and deciding what to do with the stuff that we’re not having the movers haul off to London for us. We also still need to sell our car. Know anyone who might want to buy a 2003 Mazda Protege? It’s a great car and we’re looking to make a deal!

Another major thing that has happened in the last week is that after 12 years of professional work in the Admissions Office (plus another two as a student worker before that), I had my last day of work at Calvin College. A lot of people have asked me how I feel about that. It’s hard to say because I still haven’t really had that much time for it to sink in, and I don’t know that it will really hit me until sometime next September when we’re settling into some semblance of normal life again albeit normal life in totally new setting. There are certainly aspects about working at Calvin that I will miss a lot – mostly the people there who are so dear to me. Twelve years was a good run, though, and having anticipated my last day for a good 18 months, it felt like the right time.

Plans for our Big Trip Around The World are pretty much in place. One week from tomorrow we will fly from Chicago to San Jose, and the adventures will begin. Keep an eye on this space for stories and highlights from the other side of world!