Monday, October 26, 2009

Some kind of normal!!

Life as we now know it, officially started this week! For the first time in almost 5 months we are able to settle into some kind of routine again ... and to be honest it's a very welcome change for us! Mark had a good first week in the hangar ... his hours are 7.30am-4pm and the week began learning about all the different machines and tools he'll be using and finished starting some mini projects to practice some new found skills ... including lots of riveting! Alongside the practical bits there will be a lot of studying involved too ... check out the pile of textbooks he'll be wading his way through over the next year or two!!
While Mark was settling in to working in the hangar Jenny and Abigail were busy having fun together at home!! They walked into town together quite often as the weather has been gorgeous (clear blue skies and gorgeous reds and golds in the trees!) and the top end of town is only a 10 minute walk away! They have started attending a 'babytime lapsit' session at the library ... songs, rhymes and stories for 0-2 year olds! They've been getting all the day-to-day things sorted as well ... but it's not too strenuous ... as there's a drive through option for most things including banking!! While we're looking for a second car, Mark has been getting a lift into the hangar and Jenny and Abigail have been collecting him ... hopefully we'll be able to find and cheap and cheerful banger for Mark to use soon! Below a couple of Autumn photos up at the airfield ... the colours are past their best ... but you still get the effect!
There have been a few other highlight this week ... on Thursday evening we had the opportunity to join some friends as they went and had dinner with an Amish family. John and Fanny Yoder were extremely warm and welcoming to us and it seems they open their home on a regular basis to people who are interested in the Amish way of life. The food was delicious (especially the peanut butter!!) and it was a real eye opener to see how they live a much simpler way of life including the solar lamp that we rolled from room to room once it got dark! We also went to the apple butter stirring festival in Roscoe Village last weekend and spent some time there watching the actual apple-butter stirring and other entertainment they put on ... as well as looking at all the tents with different crafts and local businesses! It was quite a cold day that day ... below are a few photos, including Abigail all wrapped up snug!!
We thought we'd leave you with a few more random differences between life in the UK and life out here in Coshocton!
  • There is no A4 paper - the equivalent paper size is slightly shorter & wider
  • Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine both have American accents ... shocking!!
  • There is never a need to know the exact dimensions of your car ... the roads are so wide and the parking spaces are so generous that the margin for error is huge!
  • Quite a lot of foods have a cinnamon or peanut butter flavour option!
  • Johnsons Baby Powder smells different!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Weird yet wonderful!!

Living in small town America is very different even to living in the sleepy village of Dorset back in the UK ... some call it 'charm' ... and others 'frustration' ... but we're trying to embrace it as much as possible and enjoy the differences!! Coshocton County's former motto describes it very accurately "A friendly place with a slower pace". (Below are both the US and Ohio State flags.)
There are so many little things we notice in day to day living that are done differently ... although in time we probably won't notice them at all ... until someone comes to visit and points them out to us!!!
  • One obvious difference ... we now drive on the other side of the road ... but the speed limits are a lot slower ... so journeys are a lot gentler and less stressful ... you just don't get there as quickly ... but nothing is too far away!
  • Milk is sold by the gallon ... full fat milk is red-topped (would have been skimmed back home!) & skimmed is pink-topped ... is that cos only girlie girls are expected to drink it?!
  • Mobile phone technology is ... interesting! The US may be one of the most developed places in the world ... but here in Coshocton county the phones and the service are something we would have been used to in the UK 5-10 years ago ... the technology isn't great, no sim cards, free mobile-to-mobile minutes are only if you're on the same network & you pay not only to send a text but to receive one too!!!
  • Returning goods to a store is SSSSOOOOO much easier ... no interrogation necessary and hurdles to jump ... which has been great for us as to begin with we kept buying the wrong things!!
  • Buying gas (petrol to you Brits!) is colour coded differently too ... green for diesel and black for unleaded ... the complete opposite to what we're used to ... thinking caps on at the pumps!!
  • Everyone has time for each other in a way we haven't experienced for a long time and are genuinely helpful and interested in who we are and what we're doing!
  • Programmes on the TV which have watched in the UK are literally twice as long in the US ... as there are twice as many ad breaks!!
  • Bread just doesn't taste like bread here ... we can't put it into words as to exactly why ... but it just doesn't taste right ... we've invested in a bread machine to make our own ... and to those of you who have been following the saga on facebook ... the original one which lost a start/stop button has been returned!!!
We're trying to experience as much as of local life as possible and pick up the different ways of talking about stuff too ... it's a much bigger cultural shift than most friends and family appreciate back home!
Abigail continues to take it all in her stride ... she finally has her new cot ('crib' in the States!) up and loves it ... she was running backwards and forwards in it when we first put her in it and didn't want to come out!! She's been sleeping so well ... evening meals are generally earlier out here ... so we eat with her at 6pm, she goes to bed at 7pm ... and hasn't been waking up til 8am ... we're usually up before her now!! Here's a photo of her displaying her morning bed hair!!
We did a couple of days of orientation this week and Mark officially starts work in the hangar on Monday (19th Oct) so Jenny & Abigail can work out what their weekly routine will become too!! Please remember us all as we fit into all our different roles!! Also ... our shipping is now due to arrive in the country on October 20th ... we're hoping it clears customs quickly and can be transported to us without too much hassle!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Country Living!!

We're settled into our new home now ... and have picked up our wheels ... so are fully mobile and functional ... just waiting for the shipping ... which should have arrived somewhere in the States today! We're enjoying our home a lot ... and Abigail seems to have settled well in her new brightly coloured room! She now sports four teeth very proudly ... the bottom two arrived on significant days for us ... the first on our flight over and the second, the day we got the keys to our new home!
As Mark doesn't start in the hangar until October 19th we're trying to make the most of this time as a family to get to know the local area and experience as much of small town American life as possible! This week was the Coshocton County Fair ... which is a big deal out here, lasts a whole week and kids get that time off school!! We saw lots of animals there but were fascinated by all the fruit and veggie displays as well as some of the super-sized categories that people entered ... check out Abigail with the pumpkins!! There were also rows of half-eaten cookies which had been judged on previous days and even a 'giftwrap' category!!
We have also been enjoying the 'fall' colours and some of the amazing countryside which is right on our doorstep! There is truly an Autumn season here ... and it's beautiful! This afternoon there was an MMS family Wiener Roast and Hayride (for the uninitiated among you a 'wiener' is a hotdog ... it had us slightly confused as we had to bring our own ... but we worked it out!) It was a great chance to meet some of the other MMS families in a lovely setting and Abigail had a whale of a time on the hayride pointing at everything, giggling and jiggling around!!
We also visited Roscoe Village which is a 'old style' America with some of the traditional crafts, leather work, black smith and shops which sell more traditional goods ... it's just on the outskirts of our town and has a big apple-butter stirring festival later on this month ... watch this space as we hope to go!!
Another more practical thing we've done this week was to join the library ... the local one is quite impressive ... a good selection of things for us and for Abigail ... and with a limit of 100 items on your card I think it will keep us occupied for quite a while!!! Unbelievable!

Friday, October 02, 2009

Home Sweet Home!!

Hello Again!! Well ... we've achieved quite a lot in a short space of time since our arrival in America!! We're learning the many occasions when English words that we use aren't English words the Americans would use (and vice versa!) ... for example over here a 'pocket book' is a handbag ... or when we say we're going to have some tea ... they think we're just having a drink rather than some food in the evening!! It definitely makes life more interesting!!! Other differences include drink cans being 25ml larger than in the UK (so Jenny rationing herself to one can of coke a day ... gets a little bit more to enjoy out here!!) ... no complaints there!!
As well as sorting out the details of our new lives here ... we've had some fun goofing around as a family too!! Here's Abigail enjoying a jumbo pair of oven gloves ... which she thought were hilarious!! On a more serious note though we've done a lot since we got here (thank you for all your prayers about the details!) ... we've found a car (just waiting for the money to arrive so we can go and pick it up!!), taken and passed our written and practical Ohio State driving tests ... (the most nerve racking part of the whole moving across the world thing!) ... and found the new Beckwith family home!! See below!
We picked up the keys and signed the contracts this afternoon and will be moving all the furniture we bought from a departing MMS family tomorrow!! Then it'll just be case of waiting for our shipping to arrive from the UK! We have had a tentative date for our things to arrive in the USA ... 10th October ... it'll then have to clear customs and be brought to Coshocton ... which we're hoping might only take a few weeks ... so please keep that in your thoughts and prayers as we'd rather see it sooner than later!! We'll leave you for now with a couple of pictures taken on our front porch this afternoon ... but will be back once we're settled in our new home ... with internet up and running!!