Last Post!

This is a bittersweet post to be writing. And to be honest, I have started writing it a few times.  How do I conclude this great hobby I had over the last two years?  I have thoroughly enjoyed writing about our adventures, near and far.  I guess you'll have to keep up with our lives by visiting with us in real life! ha!

Overall, we have been getting acclimated pretty well.  We are super busy, with something going on almost every weekend from now until the end of the year.  No complaints here, as we like to be busy. But who are we kidding, hopefully we can squeeze in a couple days where we lay on the couch and watch TV all day long.  It is needed every once in a while.  And American T.V.---enough said!

We are back in our house, and boy does it feel amazing!  We got possession back on August 29th, and spent the next two weekends moving all of our things.  We are pretty much settled, but a few little projects around the house are on the agenda.  The joys of home ownership! 

I have been working on creating the blog into a book.  You never know what will happen with the internet and technology in the future.  Jeff and I have a friend that was abroad earlier in life, and made a Angel Fire website.  Many of you may know what I am talking about---others may not.  Either way, it is no longer an active website, so all of her posts about her travels are gone.  I don't want that to happen, so I have decided to make my blog into a book! I have been trying out many websites, so if anyone has a great suggestion--please let me know. 

Other updates---My job as a first grade teacher is going well.  I love teaching that age, and my students are so sweet.  It is a challenge at times, but I am definitely glad I made the switch to a younger grade.  I have quite a few funny stories to share.  Feel free to follow Mrs. Becker's Class on Twitter to see our learning in action! Jeff worked really hard and interviewed for a promotion at work within the last month.  He is now the Component Engineering Manager.  He hasn't been on the job too long, but seems to enjoy this new position a lot.  Very proud of him!

Check out our map on the right side of the screen (if you're on a computer).  Check out all of the places we visited.  It is exhausting just looking at it! We are hoping to put a map up in our house with all the places documented that we visited while abroad. 

A big THANK YOU to family, friends, and even the complete strangers around the world who read about our experiences.  My blog was viewed over 16,500 times since it was created (And no, my views were not counted in this total), most of which were read by people in the US (duh), UK (duh), France, Russia, Germany, & Poland.  Although, there were about 25+ more countries represented in the count.  I really appreciate all of your support, kind words, and encouragement to write 151 meaningful posts throughout the last two years. Many people have asked me if we plan on going back to do another secondment.  My answer is that we are ready to stay in one place for a while.  But never say never!

I want to leave you with a song by one of my favorite bands, OneRepublic, that really made me reflect on our experience abroad, especially with the lyrics:

"I, I did it all
I, I did it all
I owned every second that this world could give
I saw so many places, the things that I did
With every broken bone, I swear I lived."

 

It really made me stop and think about how blessed we were to be able to see and experience what we did, as life is short.  Take advantage of the time we have on Earth.  We tried our best to take advantage of every moment we had abroad.  And now for the last time ever....


On to adventures after Us in the UK....

Jeff's in Norway!

Like the British Open post, I won't be commentating this post although I wish I would because *SPOILER ALERT* these pictures are gorgeous.  Jeff had an amazing time in Norway.  He did many new things that we had never experienced before...so lots of jealousy rolling in!

Jeff flew from Edinburgh, right after The Open to head to Oslo, Norway.  He got in late, and then caught a really early train to head to the Fjords.  This is an absolutely stunning area with mountains and lakes (about 6 hours away from Oslo by train). Jeff rode a few trains to get to this magical area.  He was able to get off the train a few times to snap a few photos. You can tell a difference in the beginning of his trip, and later as there was snow on the mountains later on in his trip.  I asked him about the weather, as he wore a warm jacket but was wearing shorts---you do the math on the temperature.

He said the boat ride was amazing, and the pictures did not do the scenery justice.  After his time in the Fjords, he took a night train back to Oslo.  Jeff said this was a really cool experience, as he had his own little room with bunk beds.  He slept great in the area and arrived in Oslo really early the next morning.  He explored the city and headed to the airport.

This country was especially important to him to visit, as his grandfather is Norwegian.  His grandfather & grandmother are so special to him, so I know he is so happy to be able to share this experience with him.  For those that remember, we also visited Denmark, as his grandmother is Danish.

Enjoy these gorgeous pictures. I know I did!

If you'd like more information or commentary on these pictures...feel free to ask Jeff. Muahahahaha!

On to the next adventure...

Jeff Goes to the British Open

Unfortunately, there will not be many words to this post (minus the ones I am writing as an intro).  Since Jeff isn't going to write about his experience at the British Open.  The Open took place at St. Andrew's (one of the oldest golf courses in the world)...I thought I would at least share a few of his pictures and a little of the back story for you all.

Jeff drove up to Edinburgh, Scotland (about 5 hours from Nottingham) on July 18-19th to meet up with some of our other American friends (Julie and Andrew) living in England.  The three of them enjoyed the experience, although I am not sure how much golf they were able to see because it was so windy that they postponed play until the weather cooperated.  He was able to see Tiger Woods play and a few other people, which would have been awesome. I am definitely jealous I missed out on this trip. 

On to the next adventure...

Unexpected Adjustments

I wasn't really planning on discussing this type of stuff on the blog, but many people have been asking me if we are having any unexpected adjustments moving back from the states.  Now, I have been home over 2 months, things are seeming pretty "normal" to me.  But there were some differences that I have noticed and it did take me longer than expected to be reacquainted with life in America.  I know it sounds odd, since I was born and raised in America...but living abroad for a year and a half really does mess with you when coming back.

1)  I had a sense that I didn't belong.  We went into a restaurant on Day 2 of being back and waited for our food...I just got this weird feeling that I didn't belong. I actually almost started crying---it was really weird.  I felt like I didn't belong in America, and I didn't belong in England.  I can't really explain the feeling.  It has since passed, and I feel like an American again. haha

2)  I have been extremely excited to go to the grocery in America again.  People are so friendly.  I love having conversations with the cashiers or other customers in line.  There is just something inviting and comforting to talk to a stranger about random things.  You never know when you could make a person's day by being nice to them!  I never was really able to do that in England, mostly because the minute they heard my accent they started asking questions about America.  Now, this was fine in the beginning...but when you live somewhere for 1.5 years, you're hoping to fit in at that point.  That's where my fake British accent came into place.  Yep, many of you didn't know this.  I would often say "Thank you" , "Cheers",  "Have a good day", etc. to people in stores so they wouldn't know I was American.  Hints, they stopped asking me those questions...

My first outing at the grocery in America.  It was the small one downtown, so it wasn't as intimidating. But loved getting some of our favorite foods!

3)  Laundry. AHHHHH! If you are a loyal follower, you know how excited I was to be able to do ALL my laundry in one day (wash, dry, fold, & put away).  I do not need to go on as this was a happy EXPECTED adjustment.

Small but mighty. Still bigger than our UK one, and does SO much better.  In two weeks...I'll have an even bigger one. AHH!

4)  Interesting enough, the food in America bothered our stomachs at first.  I had a really difficult time eating out, and not coming home with an achy belly.  I think food in England is just so much cleaner and lacking the extra hormones/chemicals/whatever you call it---was just better for you.  Who knows the logic here, or if I am all wrong in my thinking? It is the only thing the other American wives and I can come up with!

5)  Being available all the time.  This one was definitely unexpected, but the feeling of being overwhelmed with the amount of texts, calls, etc. In England, my phone conversations were done via Skype and done once a week with a friend/family member. I have absolutely LOVED talking with friends over text and phone conversations, but at times it can become overwhelming given I was not used to that for our time abroad.  I'm not sure I can explain myself on this one, as it is a GREAT thing to have my American phone back to communicate easier...it was just a bit much at times. I'm still getting used to it!

6*) This is a bonus one, as it was just a funny unusual experience.  We were at church, and a new [British] pastor was speaking, sharing the announcements for the congregation.  I didn't immediately recognize that he was British, and just was listening to the announcements.  He said "Indianapolis", and I immediately freaked out thinking, "Oh my goodness, he is speaking about Indianapolis...I live there! No one ever knows where that is over here!"  Then I felt completely dumb, realizing HE was British in America...and not ME being American in England.  I then realized that I was not recognizing he had an accent at all, which was an odd feeling.  Hope you followed that---it is past 11:00 a night, and I'm getting a little loopy in my storytelling. I promised to finish the blog, and by golly that's what I'm going to do!

Overall, Jeff and I are so extremely happy to be back in the states.  We have appreciated our time abroad, but there is no place like home. 

On to the next adventures...

So Many Updates from America

So many of you want a bit of an update on our adventure over the last few weeks months in the United States.  I have started writing this post a few times, but then was distracted and never finished...  Most of you know that Jeff, Mackey, and I all headed back on the same flight.  Unfortunately, Jeff had to go back for the month of July.  But we sure did accomplish a lot in the 3 weeks he was home.

Our home for the first two weeks was the Omni Hotel.  We enjoyed our stay here, and it definitely started feeling like "home".  Although, we absolutely were over the whole eating out thing.  It is difficult to eat out and still stay healthy.  I think we did pretty well with our food choices, given what we had.  But I'm not going to lie, we had Mexican food three times (2x was Taco Bell alone).  Haha!  We enjoyed seeing family and friends.  We also enjoyed picking out an apartment the first day we were back.  I had planned on living with my parents and couch surfing while Jeff was back in England, but we found a great deal on an apartment downtown...so we went for it.

Every few days we were moving things from our storage unit into the apartment.  We didn't take too many loads, and we only have the bare essentials in the apartment.  It still looks nice, and will be a great home until our renters move out of our house.  We get possession back September 1st  August 29th (things change when you start and don't finish posts).  We had a great location for the fireworks on July 4th! It is fun being a resident of another part of downtown.  We also just picked up all of our UK belongings.  They arrived at my parents house 2 weeks after Jeff returned from England.  Lots of boxes to move into our apartment, and move back out in a few weeks. Moving. Moving. Moving.

Moving Day in our apartment

 Our lazy spot to watch fireworks.  Still pretty good view, but it would have been even better on the parking garage to the right in our community. 

Our boxes from the UK. They are still just sitting there. Other than finding a few pieces of clothing, those boxes are staying there until Move #3 of the year! 

I also was able to move things from my old elementary school and storage into my new classroom.  I love my new classroom, as it has so much storage!  I hate when clutter sits out, so it allows me to hide all of my teaching materials.  I have also been able to meet a few members of the staff, which has been great. Update: I have been in school now since July 30th, and I am loving every minute of being a first grade teacher.  The kids came in so small and clueless on Day 1, but we are already seeing some improvements and growths..which is awesome!  I'll try to add some classroom pictures before ending the blog. 

We also bought a VEHICLE! We test drove quite a few small SUVs, and ended up purchasing a 2015 Jeep Cherokee, which I am in love with! It is the perfect size for us, and has all the new features we were looking for in a vehicle.  No pictures to post, as Jeff and I don't want to jinx it! ;)

Jeff has a rental property he owns with a few buddies. We also spent a late night cleaning that place from top to bottom.  We put in a new microwave, did some painting, heavy duty cleaning, and made sure it was all ready for the new tenants to move in the next day.  This was one of the reasons Jeff had to come back for those 3 weeks. 

We even had time to go on a mini vacation to Cincinnati, Ohio for a wedding. We were able to catch up with close friends and have quality time to catch up on things we may have missed.  The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time.  Jeff and I were also lucky to be able to fit in a small vacation with Jeff's family to French Lick, Indiana.  His family go almost every year, and we missed out last year---so we were looking forward to that quality time with his family.  We had a great time hitting up the casino (and winning a little money!), golfing, tennis, and some pool time (although the sun was not being our friend that week).

French Lick, golfing (I won!)

Jeff headed back to England for the month of July and even did some traveling (a few posts to come on that...and no he is not writing them).  Are you surprised!?  During the month of July, I was in my classroom almost daily setting things up and preparing for my new adventure in a new school/grade.  My mom was a huge help, as always.  She spent a couple days downtown with me to help with my classroom and spend some time together!   I spent lots of time with my nephews, niece, and sister...making up for lost time.  I also had the pleasure of going on a small vacation to my family to St. Joseph, Michigan to get a little beach time in! We had a great time and beautiful weather.  I enjoyed the quality time with them all.

 Indianapolis Zoo day with my sister, nephews, and niece. 

 Spending time with my wonderful parents

 The construction site. This kid was literally rolling in the dirt at one point. I think there was even some snow sand angels....

 Covering Daddy with sand!

 And Miss. C. had the best place in the house with her own personal tent!

 My sister, Mom, and I

Sweet baby, Corina

Let's see...what else. Well, Jeff is now home from England, as of July 29th.  It is great to have him home and be on the same page.  We have been really busy getting back into the swing of things at work, packing for our next move, and continuing to see family/friends.

A few more posts to catch up. I am trying to finish all of these posts that have been sitting in my Drafts section of my blog now for, well 2 months.  Whoops! I guess people were right when they say Americans are always go-go-go. No time for anything! I know you are all patiently awaiting closure to our amazing experience abroad.

On to the next adventure...

Flying with a Cat {Part II}

Many of you might remember my post when we got here about bringing Mackey over here.   There was a LOT of paperwork and vet work that had to be done to make sure he arrived safely.  And just to remind you, he did not go into quarantine.  That is only for animals who do not meet the health certifications or their owners did not follow the country's guidelines for bringing animals into the country.

 You probably wonder if I get anything accomplished during the day. Look at that face!

Preparations
There wasn't so much of a paperwork trail and even vet visits when coming back into the states for Mackey.  We had to go through a third party vendor, as the Petsafe program we used through United does to opperate from the UK to the US. Weird.  We found a company that we hope will work out just fine, although we had to buy ANOTHER cage for him to ride home in.  We bought one from United at the airport when we were moving him here...assuming we'd be good for the way back as well.  Well it wasn't big enough. Now we have a cage that could fit 3 of Mackey in there. Maybe he'll meet some friends and they can hang out at "his place" on the plane. 

I should have put his old cage together, so you could see a comparison. 

We had to make an appointment for him to see the vet no more than 10 days before travel.  We made his appointment for the Monday before we flew out.  All I needed from the vet was a letter stating he was "fit to travel".  Mackey also needed to be updated on a rabies vaccination, but we took care of that last July. I walked him down to the animal clinic, which was quite the workout.  The veterinarian checked him over, and Mackey of course was a complete love bug.  Everyone loved him.  The vet wrote a letter that he was "fit to fly" and that he was up to date on his vaccinations.  I was relieved that this part went well, and the only thing we had to worry about was the flight and customs aspect of it.  

Mackey was waiting for his turn!

Exploring the room and being nosey, as always

The Day of Flying
I was a nervous wreck the day we had to take Mackey to the airport...FOUR hours before our flight.  That means we met the pet transportation people at 4 AM!  They collected his paperwork, we transferred him into his hard cage, and they drove away.  I fought back tears as I was so nervous for him.  The service we used was fantastic, as they even sent Jeff a text when Mackey was checked in and ready for flight.  We had not even made it back to the hotel before they sent the text, so that was reassuring.  He was a top priority.

After our long flight to New York, we had to grab our luggage and head out to the car service we hired to take us from cargo area to cargo area for the next ~2 hours.  I felt like I was on a game show at one point, as we were on a time crunch to get to our next flight in 2+ hours.  After we got into the area, we went to the British Airways cargo area to pick up paperwork.  From there, we went to another cargo area to wait in line for some sort of stamping of our paperwork in customs.  I left with the driver to go to an ATM to pay a final payment to get Mackey back.  By the time I got back to Jeff, he was finishing up the paperwork and we headed back to the original cargo area to get Mackey.  I make this seem so easy...it was to some extent---just time consuming.  

They brought Mackey out, and HE WAS ALIVE! That is all I could think about...  We took him out into the parking lot, and switched him from his giant hard carrier to his soft carrier for the next flight.  He was a little overwhelmed, as I can still vividly remember his little legs going limp and swaying from side to side.  Poor thing. Jeff and I continued to pet him in the car to calm him down.  We had to take him back through security, where (yep, you guessed it...) Jeff had to get him out of his carrier and walk him through the security gates. Too funny, and the employees loved it.  He did well, and we were off to sit at our gate.  Our flight was delayed just a bit, which was great because it gave Mackey some chill time.  He was all sprawled out in this carrier and extremely comfortable, which made me feel good.  He rode underneath the seat in front of me.

My wonderful parents met us in Indianapolis to collect him, as we were staying in a hotel downtown for the next couple of weeks and wanted Mackey to get settled as soon as possible.  It was a quick hello with my parents, and they jetted off (no pun intended) to head home and get him settled.

My mom and dad send me pictures periodically of how cute or silly Mackey is being. My dad found him like this in his office. Crazy cat!

On to the next adventure...

West End Play

Before I start this...I am writing this post now, over a month after going to our West End play, so my memory might be a little foggy. A lot has happened in the last few weeks... I took pictures, but forgot the cord in England.  So I had to wait until Jeff headed back to send me a few of them.  So, sorry for the delay! (More updates on life over the last month to come).

Here we go...

We planned our trip home around seeing a West End (the Broadway of London) play. Jeff and I headed down to London on Wednesday night, and the play was Thursday afternoon.  Mackey came along with us, for those of you that were wondering (not the to play...haha).  We headed into the city centre, as we were staying out by the airport a few hours before the play began, as we were seeing a matinee.

We ate at one of our favorite cafe type restaurants before heading to the show.  We ate at a nearby park, and enjoyed the beautiful day.  It was so nice to eat something healthy, people watch, and enjoy some quality time soaking up our last moments in the city centre of London. 

 Our bag filled with goodies

The show began at 2:30 in the afternoon.  We grabbed a couple drinks in the theatre and found our seats.  We saw Elephant Man, which if you do not know much about this true story, please click here.  One of the reasons we picked this show and not a happy-go-lucky sing along type show was that Bradley Cooper had the leading role as the elephant man.  And let me tell you...he was amazing!! First of all, it was so cool to be only feet away from him.  And his acting was incredible.  He had the walk, and the talk as if he really was the elephant man. My favorite part was in the beginning where they went body part by body part talking about the deformations, speech, and other issues.  I would highly recommend going to see this if you ever have the chance.  Bradley Cooper was only going to be in London performing for 3 months, so our timing was perfect.  But he came from Broadway doing this same show.

 Theatre Royal Haymarket

Right before the show started.  We were so close!

What a perfect way to end our time in London.  We headed on the Underground one last time, which was sad for the both of us.  What a great transportation system they have in London. 

Overall, it was a great way to end of English adventure together.  It was so fun to have our English to-do list and looking back I think we did pretty good!  A few more posts over the next month before closing the blog down for good.  Be on the look out for posts about Mackey's flight back soon.

On to the next adventure...