I'm still adjusting to life in Spalding.

The very first morning I was here, I got up at 7am to get Imge and Inan ready and walk them to school. Inan is 4 years old and entering his first year of full time school called, reception. Imge is turning 7 in a couple of days. They both have a lot of energy and can talk, talk, talk, all day long. Inan is obsessed with Ben 10 and Imge is quite fond of HSM. Fortunately I'm pretty hip on the pop-culture of those under the age of 13. Inan likes to sing and make music by drumming on things. I, of course, appreciate this sort of noise as I am prone to doing the very same things. He also says really cute things such as (and listen closely, I'm even doing the accent for you) "I like jumping in puddles, I do." Imge is a handful and being not only a girl but also a first born... we're already butting heads.



While I'm here I'll get them ready for school each morning then keep myself busy until I pick them up again at 3pm. Then I spend time with them and help to prepare dinner. I'm officially off for the evening at 6pm. I have my weekends free to roam but I'm not sure yet where I want to go or what I want to do. Everyone should coordinate their schedules and start coming over a couple at a time so I always have someone to hang out with on the weekends.

Inan is wearing his "Batman flying suit" just in case the wind blows him away.

After walking the kids to school that first morning, I promptly walked into town and found the library. I got a library card and even a few books. I didn't need them yet as I'm in the middle of one and have another already with me, but I just liked carrying books as I walked around town. The street I live on is only a five minute walk from town where there's pretty much everything I could possibly need at this point in time.

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The library was a fantastic resource for clubs and things going on in Spalding. I've joined a book club that meets at the book store and I have two weeks to read Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and a book called The American Wife. I have never heard of either of the books but I put then "on reserve" at the library, which costs approximately $0.45 per item. I am also going to be starting tap dancing lessons on Tuesday mornings and might be volunteering with a group who goes around to different schools teaching students with disabilities how to ride horses.

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My goal is to keep busy. I'm looking into a Scrabble club, there's a badminton club that meets on Wednesday evenings and lots of different places to go dancing or take lessons. We're going to church (http://www.kingsgateuk.com/) tomorrow so I'm hoping to meet some people there and find some more things to get involved with.

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There are funny little things that are different that I never would have thought about before. The houses are quite small. The washing machines are quite small and ours is actually in the kitchen. People don't have dryers (you know, like, for clothes), they hang everything out on the line. And this particular house doesn't have a shower. They have a bath tub which has one of those spray, hose things so you can stand up and take a shower but then you have to set it down to open the shampoo or something and I really strongly dislike being wet AND cold at the very same time. It's dreadful. The first time I used it I decided to just take a bath but, alas, the bath tub is only about as wide as I am. I know that in some cases that is saying a lot but in this particular instance, it's not saying much and made for a decently uncomfortable scenario.

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I miss normal things like Brita water, Honey Bunches, Tillamook Ice Cream and macaroni and cheese out of a box. The water here is not my favorite, but let's face it, I'm pretty particular about my water, so I pretty much just drink lots of tea.

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I need to get on track with a normal sleep schedule at some point in time and it's just after 10pm now so... I shall sign off.

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So much for keeping these things short, huh?

Goodnight!!
Steph