Jet Lag

Anyone who has traveled knows that jet lag is not fun. My travels have only been a jump with one to two hours. The most I have ever experienced was a five hour difference when I went to Hawaii. This was no big deal since I come from a long line of night owls. This is CRAZY. When we arrived it was 7 am in England. I did not sleep on the plane because I was too excited and they too many movies to watch. Once we made it to the base, L checked in and we met our sponsor. After that, we napped. L got up and got food, but I was too zonked and slept instead. Big mistake. I stayed up all night-poor L. Then after a tour of Mildenhall and Lakenheath, I returned to bed. After L was done, he decided to wake me up and not let me to go to bed. We went to to bx and commissary on base-Lakenheath's is much better. After that, I must have caught a second wind because I stayed up until 3 am. L did not wake me up and I slept in until 5:30 pm. Sick! Yesterday we went to bed at 1:30 am, and now I am ready to face the world at 5 am. Crazy. Hopefully my body will sort through all this and figure out normal operating hours. Learn from me and sleep on the plane.

Other than that, no house or car yet. We are waiting for a cheap rental to become available. Once we get that, cell phones, house, cars, and seeing the countryside will become a possibility. Until then, it's plain old fashioned walking. The blessing is that most things on this base a within a reasonable walking distance.

Also, I know this is SO American, but I LOVE the accents here. I just want to make some of the people sit down and talk so I can listen.

Culture Shock

No pictures yet, the camera is lost amongst our 6 bags of luggage.

Stole the pic from my friend Pam, she took it on the way to Mildenhall. It's so cute and different here. Check out the car.

We made it to RAF Mildenhall, UK. Wow. What a trip. Our first plane was original scheduled to depart at 2:20 Pm from VPS (Fort Walton), then we would have a 50 minute layover in Atlanta, then straight flight to Gatwick Airport, London. The only problem was our first flight was delayed. When our planned finally arrived and landed it was 5:10, our next flight was scheduled to depart at 5:30. Of course we were in the A terminal and had to go to the E terminal. With our carryons in tow, we ran as fast as we could to our gate. We arrived at the check in counter to plane, winded but before the doors were closed. Thank God we made our flight.
I foolishly took full advantage of the complementary in flight movies. I watched 2-3 movies and an episode of House. It would not have been an issue, except I did not sleep and arrived to England at 7 am, 2 am my old time, needing a nap and feeling the effects of jet lag.
We deplaned and made it through the border without any major hassle. Airports don't vary too much from country to country. I was still in my bubble of everything being almost the same and experiencing no culture shock.
When we went outside, I started noticing the small differences. The bus drivers were on the other side-they looked so close. Had to make sure I checked the the correct side of the street where traffic is actually flowing. This, I hear, has been the downfall of many a tourist.
Once we were in our taxi and on our way to Mildenhall, I finally realized I was moving to England. This was real. It is different. I have been in denial. The driver was a delightful older man who was sitting in what I am accustomed to being the passenger's seat. Trying not to ask too many stupid questions or sounding like a complete idiot, I managed to have a nice conversation about the way things work over here and how it does not rain EVERY day, contrary to popular belief.
The cabdriver was driving in the far right lane. Not that I was in a hurry to arrive, I was just surprised that he was able to drive so fast in the slow lane. Then it hit me, we were in the fast lane. I went into culture shock. Not to be over dramatic or anything, but I experienced a little bit of it. Really, I thought I was impervious to culture shock since it is not my first time out of the country or on a plane. It would not have been an issue if I was visiting, but knowing this is home for the next three years seems more permanent than a visit. All that being said, I am still excited about our tour.
Going on and off base does not seem like an everyday occurrence here. It seems as if only card holders are the only ones who are really allowed the privilege. We had to take an on base taxi once we made it to the entrance. Our original taxi driver said they built a parking lot with stands for people to watch planes take off after giving up on trying to keep traffic moving due to gazers.
We checked in to our hotel and were dropped off at our dorm. We were doubtful if there were any elevators placed at convenient places, so we lugged up all six monstrosities up a flight of stairs and into our room. The room is the size of an average family den. This would be no problem; but it houses a kitchen, den, bathroom, and a bedroom that is too small for a standard queen. So L and I have a full-sized bed in our room that sags in the middle. It's like the missionary days of sleeping in a hammock, again. Cuddle time. I love it because we are actually close for once, unlike our king sized.
In my mind the RAF hotel would be larger, like its American counterpart. The live ins in the states are massive. Ours is a far cry from large and the shower is so small one can hit their elbows repeatedly against the walls with little effort while showering. This will be a blessing because we will not be downsizing when we move into our rental. This is a motivator to move out to green pasture, and fast.

Our to do list is find a rental and buy a car. So exciting to be starting over again.

Back to Florida

We drove from Florida to New York. Then From NY to Michigan to visit L's family. It was a lot of fun visiting family. Managed to spin out 180 on the interstate while driving. Always fun. Then on the way to his grandparent's house, I insisted on driving in the snow just in case the roads are bad if he deploys or I am unable to have him chauffeur me in England. Managed to get 2 miles away from the final destination before I hit the brakes ( I KNOW you're not supposed to do that, but muscle memory is so hard to conquer) and we went into the ditch. Thankfully, my CC was able to push us out of the ditch. The snow was beautiful.

We backtracked and went to Maryland to visit my bf and stayed at her sister's house. Jiji's nephew is SO sweet. They also have one rocking american bulldog.

On our first venture into the city, we went to the Spy Museum with Jiji and he fiance, D, and ate at chipotle before he had to leave and return to school.

A random God thought came to me and gave me the idea to call my cousin, who works for a senator from Georgia. He gave us a tour of the capital. It was a wonderful experience going underground through the tunnels and getting an insider's scoop on the capital.

The museums in DC were amazing. We did not nearly cover HALF of the two museums we visited, which were the Natural History and American History.




The gem room was my favorite at the Natural History Museum.


The museum of American history had a cute display on most of the first ladies' inaugural ball dresses.


Sadly, Michelle Obama's ingural dress was not on display. Was looking forward to it.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip and was glad we got to see my bf. Wish we would have had more time to explore museums and see more of the city-including more of the monuments. Fortunately, we were able to see the big ones, like the Lincoln and the Washington. The Washington's surroundings make it spectacular, unlike the cornfield that entraps the Jefferson Davis Monument in Kentucky. It's a city I would return to and tour again. Great place to take kis to learn history and become inspired to better themselves. Almost everything is free, except the Spy Museum.

On the drive down, we spent the night in Charlotte, North Carolina. We stopped at the museum there and toured a stone house built in 1774. An interesting story, Lord Cornwallis created the mascot for Charlotte when he said that it was: "a hornet's nest of rebellion."

We read up on Stonewall Jackson and the Civil War and it inspired us to stop at Stone Mountain
in Georgia. It's east of Atlanta. They even have a little snow mountain set up to toboggan down, but we did not go since it was expensive. Ironic that we saw it only a few days after reading an article on it while in DC on a train.

The carving was started by Gutson Borglum around 1923. Who left the job to start Mount Rushmore. The carving was passed along to several people before it's completion in 1972.

It depicts three figures of the Confederate States of America: Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson on their horses Blackjack, Traveller, and Old Sorrel-respectively.


After all that we went to Dothan to see my parents and grandma who is visiting. What fun. Now we checked out of Hurlburt and are off to Dothan, again, in the morning.

Random Funnies

Found these while pursuing through wedding dress pictures for my best friend.

In this picture, check out the groom's hands and eyes?!?!?! Haha. It's the first time he has seen the bride.

New Years 2010

New Years happens to be one of L and my favorite holidays. Something about looking back at the last year and saying goodbye to the bad and looking forward to the good and advancing towards new goals and continuing good trends from the past year.

This year, we decided to go all the way and experience it in high style-Times Square, New York.

In order to avoid the traffic, we parked outside the city and took a train in. This allowed us to get an even more authentic experience.

Unlike L, I was extremely concerned about avoiding the chill. Double layered on everything. At the end of the night my right arm was sore from being unable to bend it properly. It worked too, even if I was slightly un-motile and not as fashionable as the true new yorkers who wore tights, if that, and cute cocktail dresses.

Due, to inexperience and being told to go here and there by the flocks of cops, we somehow managed to position ourselves behind the entire event. The people who we were blockaded by were pleasant and we had a jolly time, despite only being able to see 2/3 rd's of the ball and not knowing the exact time of the stroke of midnight and numerous countdowns to 2010. It was comical and romantic. It is defiantly worth repeating.

Our Memory Lane

Since our marriage in '08, we have had plenty of noteworthy adventures. This blog is an effort to permanently memorialize our future undertakings and perhaps reminisce about old ones.

Currently L and I are on an extraordinary adventure. We are moving to England (more details about that later). We had our entire house in Florida packed up, took leave and drove to New York City to see family and watch the ball drop for New Year's 2010. After that we stopped by Michigan to see L's family-and freeze in the piles of snow. Then we drove to Maryland to see my best friend who got engaged while we were in Time's Square, New York. Our travel across the eastern seaboard is coming to a close in a couple of days as we prepare to pack up our suitcases and drive to Alabama and see my family-especially my grandma who is visiting, before flying off to England.

Anyways, our lives will be filled with much more travel and adventure in the next few years; so much in fact, that I feel like a slight nomad, since the next three years will be on foreign soil and in a rental. This was right as I was expecting to branch out and upgrade to a larger home. Now it looks as if we will long for 950 sq. ft. triplex again, as housing in the UK is a miniaturized version of our spacious homes in the US. Can't wait to make our little house a home.

Don't get me wrong, I am excited about our new beginnings. Although, totally unexpected it is a testament to how much God is in control of our lives.

Exciting times, more to come later.