Moving in

Our house was packed up for shipping the third week of July. They took our beds, kitchen stuff and some random furniture. We figured we wouldn't have space for a dining table, a huge couch and many places had built-ins, so we didn't bring dressers. Stuff was supposed to go on a boat the first week of August. It left 9th of Sept. 

We needed a place to stay when we got here, without all of our stuff, so Matt's company (some third party, actually) kept sending us these 2-bedroom serviced apartments that are about a 45 min tube ride away from the school. Nope. Not gonna work. I looked at air bnb every night, for within a mile to American School in London. ONE day our air bnb popped up. It was SO much cheaper than other options. I figured it must be fake, but we booked it and prayed. We could get it until 3 Oct. We asked a few times if we could extend, and they said no.

MAGICALLY, our stuff made it to the UK on the 24th of September. It cleared customs early the next week, and it is getting delivered tomorrow and Tuesday! We aren't sure if we will be able to sleep in our beds and find sheets, pillows, etc. tomorrow, so we do have one night in a hotel, but by Tuesday evening we should be good to go (just in time for Kol Nidre!).

We have been slowly moving into our new place. We got the keys on Wed. Kids and I went over that day. I set up the internet. Thursday we had some delivery of Amazon items (I pushed PURCHASE when I saw that prices were about to skyrocket - go UK economy...), so I spent a bunch of hours there. Saturday after Koby's soccer game, we all went over and brought ALL of our stuff that we don't need for the next three days in two UberXLs. We unpacked and had a few other items delivered. Spent many hours there before heading to the Michigan game (go blue!). Today we went back, as we brought a piano we bought (electronic keyboard with weighted keys - an ASL family was replacing it with a real piano), I did a huge grocery shop and we got our first IKEA delivery. 

As I mentioned before, we had SLIM PICKIN'S. There was almost nothing livable. But it turns out, I think we done good. Our landlord seems super nice. It's part of a mews row (I don't know what it's called), so it's on an alley with about 10-12 other neighbors, and we have met a bunch, and they're SO SO nice! Many have come out to say hi. Turns out half the block is Jewish (?? who knew!?), and genuinely they just seem so nice. When we looked at the place I accosted some guy coming out of the street to ask where he does his grocery shopping and if it's a great neighborhood. He was so friendly, loves it and said he hoped we moved in. Another lady stopped us on the street to ask about Sam's violin, and she said, "you will absolutely love this neighborhood. It's so civilized." (I told my kids that means they have to stop singing songs about penises - loudly - on the street. And also quiet burps). So far, we are really happy. It's ONE ROOM too small, but I think we will be ok.

The entrance to our little street is just after the beautiful tree 

Our unit is the second one - with the darker windows and no white eyebrows

Entrance to the little street

This is our little mews house street. Used to be where the rich people of Belsize Park kept their horses and carriages. There's an old pic of it from MANY years ago in the place - I'll post that too. So so old and cool.

This is the outside of our place. Can see the garage, door, and then above the garage is the kitchen, french doors that open but you can't go out, and the other window is in the stairway

Above that is our bedroom

Super cool door!

Walking in, there are stairs to the right, a powder room, and if you go straight you go into the guest bedroom, and Sam's room on the left, after the entrance from the garage.

Powder room with a cool window

Kids playing ping pong in the main room

Entertaining themselves in an empty house. This is in the guest room

Main room, from the stairway. This will be the dining area, and on the right will be the living area

Standing in the dining area looking towards the living area. Kitchen through that archway on the right

Kitchen straight out of 2005 or so

Our bedroom

Super bizarre hidden bathroom in the cupboards?

Boys' room. Will be a squeeze. They have a small toilet off their room

Sam's room and bathroom

Boys finally got the front seat on the double decker bus. WIN!

Rosh Hashana

We always go "home" to Michigan for Rosh Hashana - at least when it's not the heat of a pandemic. We do one dinner with Matt's family and one dinner with my family. Usually we even go to shul one day with each family. It's nice. 

I have gone to TE in Newton for high holidays, usually Yom Kippur, since we moved to Boston. No one said hello to me. I didn't know anyone. When I caught someone's eye, almost no one said Shana Tova - they almost always looked away. I usually went alone anyways, and even though I knew some people from kids going to Hebrew School there, I never saw any of those people in shul on high holidays. I truly hated it. It felt so so impersonal and DEFINITELY not like my community. I didn't dress like them. I just felt like I so didn't belong in that community - they (not the shul, but the people) were all set and didn't need new people. I somehow lived there for 7 years and went to that shul for almost all of it, and it was really so not my thing. And I am someone who really appreciates shul and Jewish community. (Until I found Minyan Maor - but I didn't get to go there for High Holidays, since I connected with them during sukkot before the pandemic and then again last December.)

On the contrary, the New London Synagogue was SO SUPER nice. People were so friendly and nice. When I caught someone's eye, they smiled and said shana tova. Many people introduced themselves and asked who I was. All the kids were in the main service for part of the first day's service, and the people around us talked to them, smiled at them and told them after that they were well behaved (they were all reading their own books. They also talked a lot. They were not THAT well behaved, but we appreciated the positive feedback). I was even asked to open the aron kodesh for one part of the amidah repetition. People were dressed at all different levels of fanciness. It feels so inclusive and so not judgy. You can really feel it. And it starts from the top. At shul on shabbat, the Rabbi reminded everyone (the shabbat regulars) to include the people who only show up on RH and be welcoming. There was a note from him on every seat. It really was welcoming. The Rabbi also invited us for first day lunch, which was so so so nice. I had been connected to him from good friends of mine, Liba and Ethan, and he told me that Liba was so welcoming to him when he came to JTS in NYC, and I wonder if he is paying it forward - or perhaps he's just so super nice. Whatever the motivation, it really helped us feel included and like this Rosh Hashana was really nice.

The other nice part was dinner at our friends', Stephanie, Brad and Oscar (from our time in Singapore). It was so so nice with other families that we really like and had a lot in common with and the food was amazing. It was the type of dinner where the kids all happily go play, they actually ate the dinner and they had fun, and we had lovely adult conversation with really quality people. It was suuuuch a nice night that we so so appreciate right now as we don't really have our own friends (other than them!).

Second day we usually are with family, but this time the kids were devastated to have to miss ANY school (they really like school!), and we weren't with our family, and THEY didn't love shul. So they went to school, and Matt and I volunteered at the shul. I was a greeter and he did security. That was nice as well. 

In other news, we are working on getting out of our air bnb and into our house. We got the keys yesterday. We set up wifi. We confirmed our shipment is (hopefully!) coming Monday and Tuesday. We have to be out of here on Monday, so we booked a hotel nearby for Monday night (Samara's birthday). Step by step. We have things coming to the new house for the next few days until we move in (like a mixer, fans, instant pot, TV, drying rack, etc - things we didn't bring or couldn't bring because of the power), so I will be there a lot waiting for them to be delivered. It's a super cool space. I'll take pics today and post them.

We also met up with another good friend from Singapore and her amazing sons in Hampstead Heath on Sunday, and that was lovely. Elie and Amiel really enjoyed each other, and they're only a few months apart, born a building apart in Singapore. Quality people, and we will live near them, which is awesome. 

Random photos as usual

We went back to the Michigan bar to watch the game with other alumni. This one was stressful but fun. 5pm kick off. Same for this week. I think Michigan is gonna get clobbered when they play a real team. #overrated

A peek into our fridge. Pretty similar to what it had in the US. We really haven't had to adjust our diet at all - unlike when we moved to Singapore

Sam and I were free on Sunday am while the boys went to football, so we went to Brick Lane Market and the Flower Market, and they were amazing. Especially the flower market. Can't wait to get plants for our house.

I got dahlias to remind me of the flowers that Susie always brought me in Newton. I miss them (and her) so much.

One of Stephanie's amazing spreads (but a bad photo)

After school yesterday we had nothing to do and a few hours to stay out of the house (Matt was working at home because he had violent food poisoning the night before - not sure what it was from, but he's fine now). We went to the new house, and the three kids played all over the completely empty house. This was gymnastics practice in our new guest room.

Thoughts on the Funeral

 We are super removed from British life here. The American School isn't 100% American, but it is SUPER international, and also I don't go there or really talk to anyone, so I absolutely don't know what it's like to be British right now, losing the Queen. But we had a mild experience, so I might as well document it.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, nearly all shops had messages posted about how they are mourning the Queen. Flags have been at half staff until this morning. People have been going on a pilgrimage to Buckingham Palace as well as Westminster Abbey for the last 11 days. 

In our experience, school was closed on Monday, and we both watched the ceremonies on the TV and went for a walk to see what it was all like outside. 

Overall, the funeral service and all of the ceremonies around it was the most amazingly choreographed thing I have ever seen. I don't think we will ever see anything like that again - so many people. So many different groups organized. Perfect sounds. Perfect visuals. Truly unbelievable and flawless. FOR FUCKING HOURS. Every bit was more beautiful and intense than the last. Until about 1pm - we were then pretty done and figured she could make her way to Windsor without us watching.

I was going to kill my kids, given it was a long weekend, and we're still in an airbnb and people are definitely all going through transitions in different ways, so I went for a walk. Nearly every shop that was part of a chain was closed. McDonalds. All major grocery stories. Mobile stores. Banks. Many mom and pop shops or mom and pop restaurants were open. It was a weird sight to see buses and lots of people but most things were closed. We were gonna meet a friend at the park, and the park was CLOSED. Gate actually locked. But luckily we found another park, so we got to play a little football and football (both kinds) and play with some pups. 

It was definitely a weird day. The whole nation was aware of this intense ceremony. I'm sure many people truly don't care and others have negative feelings about it all, but overall it did feel a bit heavy. Not only because of the constant helicopters we can see and hear from our house that were hovering over it all. There was something in the air.

Sam and I met the boys at Camden Market after they had football and we went to shul. We had lunch and then shopped for hours. We could stay all day.

Abbey Road Studios! Just a few blocks from shul. Dropped the kids at Hebrew school and figured we should check it out

THE Abbey Rd crosswalk, but we got the angle wrong. Next time

The grocery store I have been going to, noting they will be CLOSED for the funeral

Matching

We went to see Matilda. Train troubles on the way there, so we had to RUN through Covent Garden, then got out and found we were in SoHo, the Theater District and happened upon Chinatown. What a weird experience to have done no research, not know the city you live in and then just find these SUPER cool areas!! But it was COMPLETELY packed with people, so we hopped on the tube at Piccadilly Circus (there were queues to get on the train - bumper to bumper in the whole tube stop. I nearly had an anxiety attack and we probably got covid) and found dinner in the quieter areas out here. I was worried we were getting close to Hangry.

Chinatown - who knew!?

Watching the pomp and circumstance on the TV at our air bnb

Most stores closed on Kilburn High Rd.

Many shops had signs up in honor/memory of the queen

Temporary Normal Life

 Since the last post, life hasn't been too interesting. I have spent a LOT of time trying to research travel (booked Paris for October break, Athens for Thanksgiving, Michigan for April and working on December and February), lots of time researching broadband, cable, mobile and also a trek out to IKEA to sit on some couches. We are temporary (we think...), so we are going full IKEA on furniture we need here. Time has also been spent on measuring our new house (the boys' bunk bed WILL fit in the room we had hoped it would, Sam's room will NOT fit all of their things), a leaky sink in our air bnb, finding physio (that's what they call physical therapy here) for me - I start Tuesday, and a dentist for all of us. So it's been a busy but boring week.

Sam was sick over the weekend. When we went to go home from their friend's house on Friday night, they all of the sudden were non-functional, and didn't really get out of bed until Sunday night. I got them early from school on Monday, but by Wednesday they were back to normal. Koby then got it Wednesday night and missed school Thursday and is still coughing. Following the NHS advice, we are not testing for covid. But I don't believe it's covid anyway - I think it's a straight up cold.

Matt went on his first work trip from here. He went to Cairo from Sun until Wed. He had a good trip, and I survived. I texted the one friend I had who was already here and asked if she would be my SOS. I spent a long time building up my SOS network in Newton and had to put it into action multiple times with Matt out of town (Nancy helped when my dad had kidney stones. Sarah helped with Koby needed stitches and when Sam ate rubber bands - WTF. Caroline took all the kids when Matt sliced his finger). It's hard to be in a new place with no network. And also no car. I keep wondering what will happen when someone is truly sick and can't walk to school with the others. Can I leave Koby home alone for a few to walk the others to school? If he can't walk and he shouldn't go on a bus or tube, I'm not sure what I do if I don't have another adult...Stuff to figure out.

I went to Borough Market on Tuesday, just to check it out. It had lovely cheese, olives, stuff like that plus some amazing stalls of "eat now" food. I got a lovely flat white at one stall, the best spinach feta roll I have ever had at Bread Ahead and I got croissants for the kids for an after school snack, and then I got two kubbeh from an Iraqi stall. All was truly delicious. I had nothing else to do that day and didn't have to get the kids for a few hours, so I walked to check out all of the hoopla at Westminster Abbey. It was the day they were taking the Queen's body from Buckingham Palace to Westminster, so there were people lined up EVERYWHERE waiting for that to happen. There were load of people. Loads of security. Announcements that asked people to leave the area as it was "full." I got nervous they would stop the tube coming to Westminster, so I hopped on it and went home just in case. Life has felt pretty normal otherwise, though nearly every store has a sign up that says they're mourning the queen or something similar to that. Oh and the kids don't have school on Monday (I think Matt also doesn't have work, but I forgot to ask). EVERYTHING will be closed.

The kids started after school activities. Elie is doing self defense, taekwondo and 3-d printing. Koby is doing fencing, taekwondo and something with computers. Sam is doing homework club, swimming and ice skating. There was a little bit of disappointment, but all in all, it was a good start to those. 

Wednesday night was back to school night for Elie and Koby's classes, so we got to visit their classes. They provided childcare for new families, so BOTH of us got to go. It was Matt's first time in the school, other than when he went to play basketball last week, so that was a bonus. Their teachers, classrooms and the school continue to impress us. A lot. 

We had an interesting night on Thursday night, as the rabbi had some new families at his house, and it was a super intense round robin of who we all were (probably about 15 people?) and one person who has had an impact on how we got to where we are. The goal was to have some familiar faces for Rosh Hashanah services next week. It was so nice, and we will indeed have some familiar faces. The shul is interesting. Once I learn more, I'll post more about it. In the meantime, Sam and I should probably leave for shul to catch the torah reading...(boys are at football with Matt). We also left all three kids to go to bed on their own. That was interesting. Luckily we got three babysitter numbers at the rabbi's house. We were only a four minute walk away, so it felt not super risky. And everyone survived. (barely)

It was a messy leak, and it's weird to clean out under someone else's sink

See the poster mourning the queen at the grocery store. Aunt P, I do most shopping at Sainsbury's and some at Waitrose (like tortilla chips, hummus, fancier stuff). Plus challah and bagels at Panzer's. And we love the snacks at Marks & Spencer. No Tesco yet, but we did get lollies (popsicles) at a Tesco Express a few mins walk from our place.

walking across westminster bridge. LOTS of people everywhere

yummy kubbeh

koby is often dressed up as ASL security guards

At the Imperial War Museum there was a video of Jewish kids from Muncacz which is where my grandma was from - this was kids singing before the war. My grandma could literally be in this video.

Boys wanted pics of them in front of major vehicles for their friends Evan and Ethan at home to see. They LOVED this museum. Matt and Sam stayed home bc Sam was sick.

Interesting Time to be in London

 Tuesday "we" got a new Prime Minister. And now the Queen. What an interesting time to be in London. We watched the BBC last night for a few hours as they processed the news. To be honest, we haven't really talked to British people (or really anyone at all) about it, and today's walk to school and quick stop at the grocery store felt normal. So it's hard to understand the big change right now. We will see how this plays out. I hope they talk about it in school.

We had brought the kids to Buckingham Palace and Tower of London and learned about Queen Elizabeth II's coronation and reign, so I'm glad we had a tiny bit of background before all of this. It will definitely be interesting to live through this here.

Separately, a quick update on my medication. I went to pick it up. It was there. It was free. I mean really. 

And we signed our lease. We get the house on 28th September.

And our stuff got loaded onto a ship, and it's supposed to finally leave the US today. Fingers crossed. If it does leave today, it's schedule to arrive in England on 24th Sept, and it takes about 4 days to go through customs and some time to schedule delivery. But if it will only be a few days or a week that we won't have it, we might just find another air bnb rather than renting furniture and buying kitchen stuff. What a pain and waste of resources that would be. Let's see what happens.

We also got our air shipment yesterday. Horray for ping pong paddles, footballs, cleats, shin guards, games, shoes and clothes! 

Food prices: I cannot believe how cheap food is here. It's possible that inflation has been recently INSANE in Newton and also I shopped at Wegmans, which might not have been my cheapest option. But here I'm also shopping at a nice store, and it's just so damn cheap. 0.20 for an onion. 1.65 for three big bell peppers ($3 at Wegmans). 2.10 for a clump of grapes that would have been $6 at Wegmans. I have had to do little shops every few days so I don't make the same mistake as before where I have too much to carry...but I am still fully loaded with four bags of stuff, and it's usually about 25 GBP. We had anticipated a serious increase in costs here, but so far we are paying less rent than we are earning on renting our house in Newton, food is cheap...though we have already started booking travel, and that is ADDING UP (especially since we have that third kid - finding spots to stay in Europe for a family of five is no joke). So maybe it will all balance out. 

And finally, a short description of how our life is a bit different than it was in Newton. We have no car. But kids are living a kinda similar schedule. So how? Yesterday Elie had a playdate at a friend's house. Samara had a playdate at another friend's house. Koby came home after school. About an hour after he came home Koby and I walked in the rain to a bus, took it to Elie's friend's house. It was a 20 minute journey in the POURING rain. Grabbed Elie and walked 15 minutes to Samara's friend's house. We were soaked. But about a block from the friend's house, there was a woman struggling with her son on the street. I think she must have had some sort of stroke. We ended up calling 999 (911 here) and talking to the dispatcher and staying with them for about 15 minutes until they had an uber coming to take her to the hospital. The ambulance could get there in TWENTY FIVE MINUTES (WTF???). Picked up Sam, walked to the bus (again, pouring. soaked. soaked. soaked), took it up a few stops and walked home. The whole adventure was about an hour and a half. Home at 6 for a meeting for me. Each stop was about a mile in between. On a nice day it would have been the same amount of time to walk and not bus. It's just a whole new world and takes a lot of time. And again, similar to life in Newton, dinner is supposed to magically appear. But we made it. And we dried.

Random photos:

K at the bus stop on the way to get Elie

K looking out his window

S has new friends. But luckily they have the same backpacks as our friends from Newton. Phew :) (photo evidence about midway through the pics on this post)

Elie and Koby are obsessed with this par core course. (is that how you spell it? what is it anyway?). Thanks to Oscar who showed it to them

Registering with NHS

We registered with NHS (the National Health System), and I had a similar experience to what I had the first time I used the health system in Singapore. It works!!! 

The US is so complicated. Insurance. Doctors in network. Out of network. Deductibles. Premiums. Complicated offices - it's all so complicated and frustrating.

When we got here I searched for a "surgery" (primary care office) right near our place and found one that wasn't closing and was accepting new patients. We registered last Saturday. An auto-response said it would take up to two weeks to get us into the system. Monday I got a text that our whole family was registered. Done.

Wednesday I messaged them (they don't accept phone calls) that I needed to figure out how to get my progesterone that I take for endometriosis and adenomyosis, as I have 2-3 weeks supply left. I figured no one would get back to me, and it would be a black hole. I got a text that I had a phone consultation scheduled for the next day at 2:30. Damn.

The next day I got the call at 2:37, and the pharmacist listened to my story and said she would figure out getting me the prescription in the short term, and she would refer me to a gynie here who could manage my case. She said that might take some time, but they would get the medication for me until I could get the appointment. She then called back and said she needed more info, because I also have an IUD with progesterone, so it's not common to have the extra pills on top. (TMI? Sorry - search here to read all about my uterus. I have blogged all about it in case it's helpful for anyone, and I have gotten some random people reaching out from it, so I'm glad I did!). Friday I uploaded the notes from my doctor visit when it was prescribed to me, and I got a magical text that they have sent the prescription to the Boots closest to me. I pay a standard NHS fee per product, which is apparently 9 or 10 pounds for ANY PRESCRIPTION. 

I haven't gotten it yet, but I can't believe how easy that was. In two days. And apparently the gynie office reaches out to me to schedule an appointment.

Other updates:

Thursday I saw 7 houses. I saw a few in St John's Wood, a few in Belsize park and one in West Hampstead. The ones in St John's Wood were not liveable. And I think we want to be a little farther from school (and the neighborhood is a bit too fancy for us). I LOVE LOVE LOVE-d Belsize Park and also West Hampstead. There was only one in Belsize Park that was liveable (we're talking musty, no windows, TINY bedrooms, weird...), and there was a great house in West Hampstead. We were able to arrange viewings for Matt for the two finalists, and we all schlepped out there after school. Kids were fine with either. Matt said he could never live in the West Hanpstead one for various reasons. It is a longer commute for everyone (kids would take the tube to school), long walk to the tube, felt too far removed for him. Inventory is SO SO LIMITED, and it felt like we would be left on our own out in the cold if we didn't go for one of these (agents said nearly nothing coming online). So we put an application and deposit for the one in Belsize Park. They're doing a background check on us now. I hope we pass! It's a bit of a weird layout, but we think we can make it work.

Thursday evening was Middle School back to school night, where I went to all of Sam's classes for ten minutes each. They blew me away. What they teach. How they teach. I was really impressed. This school is really cool.

Friday I did nearly nothing - lots of catching up online, and I tried to not walk at all, since I was so so pooped from the previous day when I walked TWELVE MILES (and 9 the day before etc). We walk so much here. We had a nice Shabbat dinner (we can't invite anyone - we don't have any extra chairs or plates...) and went to the park for a change (NOT).

Saturday the school had a new parent orientation to the school at a high level and also the PCA (like the PTO) and community activities. They had a presentation which was great, by both the head of school and also the head of the PCA. Then they had a gym full of tables representing sports programs, dance schools, running clubs, churches, women's groups, etc. So you can learn more about what's interesting to you. And there were also tables for each grade with a grade rep sitting at it, so you can meet other parents. It was so well organized and so nice for newbies like me. So helpful. 

Saturday afternoon we donned our Michigan gear and headed to Paddington Rec for the kids to go nuts and then we went to find a bar where people were watching the Michigan game. We took the Tube to the London Eye, sat in the park and ate delicious pastries, walked around a bit and then followed our phones to where this bar was supposed to be. It led us into this alley COMPLETELY FILLED WITH GRAFFITI. I was like, "Matt...you think this is safe...with kids..." It truly looked shady as hell. We followed the map and a random American bar appeared, and lo and behold there were Michigan fans upstairs! We watched the first half of the game before the kids lost their minds. Luckily they had a ping pong table, so that helped.

Today we spent a bit more than 4 hours in transit trying to get to and from Greenwich. We did our research and found that there's a super cool train (light rail) that goes through the skyscrapers and ends up in Greenwich. We took the Tube for about 30 minutes to the end of a line and walked about 10 minutes to a light rail station. We walked all over the place in a crazy maze to find out that this specific cool train was not running. We were told to go to another station and take a regular train. So we walked another ten or so minutes to find that, and it also had no trains running. So we walked to yet another station and took the regular train. (Bonus, we walked across London Bridge). We finally got there around 12:45pm. And we found that there was a half marathon with 16,000 participants. Clearly we did not do enough research. It was truly insane, and all streets were blocked off. We went to the market, grabbed lunch, took it to the park and then went to the Royal Observatory and learned about tine, longitude and the Prime Meridian. It was interesting. Getting back to the train was also a maze, and a long queue, but we met a super nice couple who kept us company. We took a boat back to London proper and hopped on the Tube at Westminster back home. We haven't moved since. That was nearly 5pm. With SO much of the day in transit. Greenwich was pretty, but we didn't have the quiet, relaxed town experience. Another time.

Greenwich with Canary Wharf in the background

learning about angles and measurements

and telescopes

Prime Meridian

Live graffiti action

The bar was to Elie's right. I mean, it was a bit unexpected...

Samara in the downstairs. I'm not sure my kids had been in a bar before. And we all ate inside - me for the first time in a restaurant SINCE FEB 2020!!!

Watching skateboarders at Southbank Centre

Go blue!