Day 1

So we just finished up week 1.  We can't decide if it went fast or slow.  Just right I suppose.  We're going to try and blog about our adventures to help people keep tabs on us while we're gone.  Perhaps live vicariously.  We'll (hopefully) each take turns creating entries, the boys included.  Here are some highlights from our first week.

Day 1:
The travel day is a long one.  You leave the house on a Thursday afternoon, depart Thursday night and arrive in London about six hours later but 12 hours with the time change if that makes sense.  We decided to fly out of Dulles because the United flights are direct from there.  The car picked us, our 8 bags, 4 backpacks, and 2 carseats up at 4:00.  We were still frantically packing boxes that morning of things that somehow got missed by the packers to ship to my APO address.  After shipping the remaining seven boxes of stuff, we were ready to go.  It started to rain as we pulled out of the driveway, which we took as a sign that Annapolis was sad we were leaving.  The boys promptly fell asleep and the drive to Dulles was uneventful.

After checking in and getting through security, we had our last meal in the States for a while and got on the plane for our flight (10pm departure in the hope that everyone will sleep on the plane.)  I sat with Lincoln.  Victoria and Dempsey sat together and lucky for Dempsey, they had three seats between the two of them, which allowed him to lay down.  Sleep on the flight was sporadic and fitful, but we manage to get some sleep.  We arrived in London at around 10am on Friday morning.  Luckily for us, there was no line at passport control and while it took a little while longer at the border since we were coming in with visas for three years, necessitating some extra scrutiny, it was fast all things considered.  We gathered our bags, which were waiting for us.  I changed some money to pay for the car waiting for us on the other side of customs.  We loaded our stuff and got in for the two hour drive to Cheltenham.

Thankfully, Victoria and the boys (and even myself for a spell) slept on the car ride to our new home.  The key on the first day is staying awake all day and then crashing around 7 or 8 or 9 that night.  It sets you up for success getting over the jet lag.  We arrived in Cheltenham around 1:00 local time (8 am Eastern.)  We arrived at our new flat which is on the top floor of a townhouse across the street from a park with a play ground.  The boys love it.  Our sponsor family was at the apartment.  My work selects a sponsor family to help you with the transition.  Our sponsor family has 3 boys.  The older two are the same age as Lincoln and Dempsey (and as it turns out they are going to be in class together.)  They had stocked the apartment with some essentials, bought us sim cards for our phones, left us a bottle of wine, and their kids made cards and cookies for the boys.  Wonderful welcome!  We freshened up and then all went to lunch at a pizza place in an old church not far from our flat.  Then we went to the park across the street and the boys all played hard together for another few hours.   We took leave of our sponsor family and walked around town for a little while, mostly just to stay awake.  We had a pint and a wine in Imperial Park while the boys ran around some more.  We grabbed dinner and brought it back to the flat.  Victoria managed to stay awake until 7:00.  The boys, surprisingly, were pretty full of energy all day long and I had to cajole them into going down about 8:00.  Everyone then slept for about 15 hours.