Keeping Track of Lauren & Jack

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Wed, Sep 23, 2009

• Wed, Sep 23, 2009 6:49 AM

  Wow, can't believe it's been a month since my last entry, and even then I barely had time for an update.
  
  So where to begin? We made it safely to England and got settled in our temporary accomadations in St. Anne's College, where Mike has an office and will be lecturing, as well as at the Business School. It's a small 2 bedroom flat, with 2 stories so it feels like a little house. It's perfectly comfortable and it's very close to the city center. My only complaint is that the laundry is clear across campus and down in the basement of a building, so it's an arduous process at best!
  
  First thing we did was get cell phones or "mobile" as they call them here. Then we set about househunting for a place to rent. There was not too much on the market and we quicky saw that you don't get very much space for the money in the center of town. The only place that seemed possible for us to squeeze ourselves into was in a town just 5 miles north of Oxford called Kidlington. It's really considered part of the greater Oxford area. The only catch was that despite being advertised as being avaialble from Sept 14, it's in fact only avaialble from Oct 1. So we've been waiting since our first week to move in.
  
  Then we turned our attention to schools, but despite phone calls every day, we did not hear anything until the day before school started. In the meanwhile I was on a frantic search for school uniforms since the stores were getting sold out of the basics. But we managed to get them enough to start with, and we found out they had been assigned to a school called Dr. South's. It's in another village just 2 miles from Kidlington called Islip. I wasn't sure what to expect from a small village school, but the kids seem to like it and they are adjusting fine. I think the smaller class size gives them more individual attention, so I'm happy about that. I think it's been a bit of an adjustment for all of us that they are both going to school 5 days a week, but again, they are taking it in stride. The biggest suprise has been Jack, who seemd very non-plussed about saying good-bye. I'm very impressed with him, in the midst of lots of other kids bidding their teary farewells, he just says "Bye" and that's it. Lauren has started saying "But I'm going to miss you!", but that's been it, she does seem to be enjoying it. She got star of the week for the fist week for settling in so well. There have been a few mean kids and a pushy little girl, but it seems to have settled down now, nothing I'm especially worried about.
  
  We thought there might be some sort of transport arranged from the school council, but since we didn't hear anything I took them to school for the first few days by taxi. Then I would take the train (the staion is right next door to the school) back and forth to Oxford, and then we would take a cab back at the end of the school day. It quickly occured to me that I neede to take matters into my own hands and rent a car. Of course then I needed to wait until an automatic was available. But I finally got that sorted out and it has opened up the city and the surrounding are to us considerably. Driving on the left hand side has taken some adjusting to, but I'm getting used to it!
  
  One of Mike's colleague's Terry and his wife Liz had us over to their house for tea one Sunday and their two children are similar in age to ours, Mary is 6 and Michael is 3. So we've had a few more play dates with them, and it's been nice for them to make their first friends.
  
  So we're counting the days til we move into our house, (8 days-Oct 1!) The kids will be ecstatic to be reunited with all their toys and clothes and be back in their own beds. I think I've decided to amke the largest bedroom (after the master)upstairs into their playroom and the smallest into an office, and the middle two iinto their rooms. Now we just have to see if their beds will fit!
  
  

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