Well, maybe you can call it a comeback. But we've been here the whole time.
Sorry we stopped blogging for nearly 2 years. The whole point of blogging was to share our adventures while residing in the UK, but after awhile, we no longer felt like our time here was this temporary thing. It no longer felt like a weirdly long vacation or 'work abroad' type experience. We just lived in London. It would've needed to become a blog about our everyday lives. And that felt boring and because we have zero natural 'blogger tendencies,' we lost the motivation to tell you about the normal things we did, despite doing those things while living abroad.
Anyhoo. We're back because our time in London again feels special and different. This is because we officially have a countdown. We will only live in London for another 5 months. We don't have an actual departure date yet, but we know it will be early July. We won't change our minds. And this is terrifying.
London has become our home. We speak British. We drink tea. We can differentiate between different British accents (even if we can't always identify exactly where they come from!). We queue. We don't sleep in; we enjoy a lie-in. We go for a roast. We use 's' instead of 'z' and often add a 'u' (my spelling is shot). We travel. Travelling has become a regular and expected part of our lives and we always have a trip to look forward to in the future. We have used every bit of our 5 (this year, 6!) week holiday allowance and the thought of going back to a measly, unforgivable 2 weeks is well, inconceivable (Although Matt will have 6 weeks when we get back. So I guess it's just me that will be stuck at home). And it's not just the vacation time, but many things about returning to America are a bit scary. Those we know who have lived in London for a period of time and then headed back to the states have not had it easy. Yes, eventually you re-adapt to American culture. Yes, eventually you feel at home. But not at first. We wonder how we will fit back into our old lives and how long it will take until Chicago feels like home again.
Don't get us wrong. We are so very, very excited for the opportunity for quick weekend trips to see family, celebrating birthdays of friends and friends' babies, getting together for a drink instead of planning a skype date and going to weddings. But it will be a big adjustment living in the Midwest again after living in the UK for nearly 3 years. We can be in Paris in 2 hours on the Eurostar. It takes 4-5 hours on a train to get to St Louis. We can fly to Germany, Belgium, Switzerland or Italy more quickly than we'll be able to fly Denver. And I have much love for both STL and Denver, but life will be different. We will cherish our time left here as much as we will cherish the opportunities we'll have when we return to Chicago.
So we've come back to blog again. We've decided to document the time we have left living in London and travelling Europe and beyond. And to document (and process) the feelings we have about leaving London and rejoining Chicago. Reading our early blog posts now is quite entertaining and we want the ability to revisit our adventures in the future.
So, to bring you up to speed on travel plans for the spring...
February:
No travel planned for this month. Just some local activities like Feb-giving (belated Thanksgiving), celebrating the Chinese New Year, hitting up the Natural History Museum's wildlife photo exhibit (one of my fav things!), a yoga workshop or two (for me), a beginner's yoga course (Matt), continuing to plan trips for later in the spring and crossing our fingers spring arrives soon!
March:
We will be headed to Prague in mid-March (just Matt and me) then Vilnius with a group of 8 to celebrate a couple friends' birthdays and finally, to Paris at the end of the month when my mom is over for a visit. Prague has been on the bucket list since we first arrived, but somehow we never planned a trip there. Very excited that we are making it happen! The idea of Vilnius came up as we wanted to go somewhere none of the group travelling had been to before and when the group consists of mostly American ex-pats who moved to London to travel, well, it's difficult. So Lithuania it is! It's going to be chilly, but Vilnius is supposed to be very pretty. Paris was an easy decision as a friend of mine currently lives in Paris and her mom will be visiting at the same time. So it's a girls+Matt weekend. My mom hasn't been to Paris since she travelled there when she was 18. I'm looking forward to seeing what she thinks when we go back!
April:
Nothing planned as of yet, but hoping to squeeze in a trip to Krakow. It will be a busy month for both of us as we finish up projects at work and start the process of handing things over.
May:
As of today, we are booked to go to Africa!! We'll be headed out on a safari/camping trip with Intrepid starting in Kenya, heading through Tanzania and ending on the beach in Zanzibar. It's sure to be 14 days of new experiences, culture shock, gorgeous scenery and hopefully lots of animals! And the added bonus that our trip starts on my 30th birthday in Nairobi. Yay!
June:
June starts with a yoga retreat in Turkey, which is something I've desperately wanted to do. I was thrilled when my favorite (favourite!) teacher announced she was teaching a retreat in Side and immediately signed up. Matt is joining me, but not partaking in the yoga part (twice a day, 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours in the evening) - although he's signed up for a beginner course starting in a couple weeks, so I might be able to convince him to join in.
Sometime in mid-June, there will be a trip to belatedly celebrate my friend Mandi's and my 30th birthdays (born 2 days apart!), location to be confirmed.
June ends with a glorious trip to Glastonbury. We managed to get tickets back in October, along with 135,000 other people and are impatiently awaiting headliners to be announced (c'mon Rolling Stones!!).
And then we move home. Weird. Exciting. Sad. Happy.
(If you're going to keep reading these posts, I'm afraid you'll have to put up with lots of confused emotions about this decision.)
That's it for now, folks. We will keep you posted on our upcoming adventures!
Sorry we stopped blogging for nearly 2 years. The whole point of blogging was to share our adventures while residing in the UK, but after awhile, we no longer felt like our time here was this temporary thing. It no longer felt like a weirdly long vacation or 'work abroad' type experience. We just lived in London. It would've needed to become a blog about our everyday lives. And that felt boring and because we have zero natural 'blogger tendencies,' we lost the motivation to tell you about the normal things we did, despite doing those things while living abroad.
Anyhoo. We're back because our time in London again feels special and different. This is because we officially have a countdown. We will only live in London for another 5 months. We don't have an actual departure date yet, but we know it will be early July. We won't change our minds. And this is terrifying.
London has become our home. We speak British. We drink tea. We can differentiate between different British accents (even if we can't always identify exactly where they come from!). We queue. We don't sleep in; we enjoy a lie-in. We go for a roast. We use 's' instead of 'z' and often add a 'u' (my spelling is shot). We travel. Travelling has become a regular and expected part of our lives and we always have a trip to look forward to in the future. We have used every bit of our 5 (this year, 6!) week holiday allowance and the thought of going back to a measly, unforgivable 2 weeks is well, inconceivable (Although Matt will have 6 weeks when we get back. So I guess it's just me that will be stuck at home). And it's not just the vacation time, but many things about returning to America are a bit scary. Those we know who have lived in London for a period of time and then headed back to the states have not had it easy. Yes, eventually you re-adapt to American culture. Yes, eventually you feel at home. But not at first. We wonder how we will fit back into our old lives and how long it will take until Chicago feels like home again.
Don't get us wrong. We are so very, very excited for the opportunity for quick weekend trips to see family, celebrating birthdays of friends and friends' babies, getting together for a drink instead of planning a skype date and going to weddings. But it will be a big adjustment living in the Midwest again after living in the UK for nearly 3 years. We can be in Paris in 2 hours on the Eurostar. It takes 4-5 hours on a train to get to St Louis. We can fly to Germany, Belgium, Switzerland or Italy more quickly than we'll be able to fly Denver. And I have much love for both STL and Denver, but life will be different. We will cherish our time left here as much as we will cherish the opportunities we'll have when we return to Chicago.
So we've come back to blog again. We've decided to document the time we have left living in London and travelling Europe and beyond. And to document (and process) the feelings we have about leaving London and rejoining Chicago. Reading our early blog posts now is quite entertaining and we want the ability to revisit our adventures in the future.
So, to bring you up to speed on travel plans for the spring...
February:
No travel planned for this month. Just some local activities like Feb-giving (belated Thanksgiving), celebrating the Chinese New Year, hitting up the Natural History Museum's wildlife photo exhibit (one of my fav things!), a yoga workshop or two (for me), a beginner's yoga course (Matt), continuing to plan trips for later in the spring and crossing our fingers spring arrives soon!
March:
We will be headed to Prague in mid-March (just Matt and me) then Vilnius with a group of 8 to celebrate a couple friends' birthdays and finally, to Paris at the end of the month when my mom is over for a visit. Prague has been on the bucket list since we first arrived, but somehow we never planned a trip there. Very excited that we are making it happen! The idea of Vilnius came up as we wanted to go somewhere none of the group travelling had been to before and when the group consists of mostly American ex-pats who moved to London to travel, well, it's difficult. So Lithuania it is! It's going to be chilly, but Vilnius is supposed to be very pretty. Paris was an easy decision as a friend of mine currently lives in Paris and her mom will be visiting at the same time. So it's a girls+Matt weekend. My mom hasn't been to Paris since she travelled there when she was 18. I'm looking forward to seeing what she thinks when we go back!
April:
Nothing planned as of yet, but hoping to squeeze in a trip to Krakow. It will be a busy month for both of us as we finish up projects at work and start the process of handing things over.
May:
As of today, we are booked to go to Africa!! We'll be headed out on a safari/camping trip with Intrepid starting in Kenya, heading through Tanzania and ending on the beach in Zanzibar. It's sure to be 14 days of new experiences, culture shock, gorgeous scenery and hopefully lots of animals! And the added bonus that our trip starts on my 30th birthday in Nairobi. Yay!
June:
June starts with a yoga retreat in Turkey, which is something I've desperately wanted to do. I was thrilled when my favorite (favourite!) teacher announced she was teaching a retreat in Side and immediately signed up. Matt is joining me, but not partaking in the yoga part (twice a day, 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours in the evening) - although he's signed up for a beginner course starting in a couple weeks, so I might be able to convince him to join in.
Sometime in mid-June, there will be a trip to belatedly celebrate my friend Mandi's and my 30th birthdays (born 2 days apart!), location to be confirmed.
June ends with a glorious trip to Glastonbury. We managed to get tickets back in October, along with 135,000 other people and are impatiently awaiting headliners to be announced (c'mon Rolling Stones!!).
And then we move home. Weird. Exciting. Sad. Happy.
(If you're going to keep reading these posts, I'm afraid you'll have to put up with lots of confused emotions about this decision.)
That's it for now, folks. We will keep you posted on our upcoming adventures!
Welcome back. We miss you, but we also get that Bettendorf is no Europe. Will enjoy reading about your final months!
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