England, I wish thee were home

I wish I could say that the VISA's was the hardest part about getting to England. I was worried that the 10 hours plane flight would wear me and the kids out. I don't like being in a plane for 10 hours, let a lone a 1 year old and a 2 year old, but surprisingly they did fairly well. The problems didn't start until we landed.

We arrived in Newcastle at 9:00 and they didn't have our luggage, it was on a later flight. That wasn't that big of a deal because they would deliver our luggage, and quite honestly it was a blessing because we had 6 big pieces of luggage that we would have had to lug around.

We thought that David's school was going to pick us up... but there was no welcoming committee, we were all alone. We hopped on the metro and headed to the city center.

Remember that we are now gone without a night sleep with the time change and are caring our carry-ons. We didn't know where we were or where to go so we started looking for a hotel. we were pointed in a direction so we started walking. We walked for an hour, tired, hungry, and with our carry ons. We looked pathetic.

We started to find hotels so we would enquire if we could stay. As soon as I said that it would be me and my husband and two kids they would say they couldn't accommodate us. One after another they said that this hotel was more for college students and would be rowdy, or they couldn't accommodate a family. We started to feel a little like Joseph and Mary. Finally we found a place that knew of a Bed and Breakfast that could handle a family, they called ahead for us to make sure it was available and it was. We walked just a little more and we finally had a place to put our heads. All of us took a nap.

We got some food and started looking for a place to live

That night was nightmarish. We all went to bed a 7:00 but the kids got up at 11:00pm and stayed up. We were both exhausted but the kids schedules were really messed up. We didn't have a lot of room in our b and b and we didn't have a lot of milk. We ran out in the middle of the night and the kids were still awake. We had a DVD player and a computer, but we didn't have the adaptors for the outlets and they were our of battery. Both David and I were way past patient with the kids. Finally at 4:30 am and a lot of crying by everyone, we all fell asleep for a few hours.

We went to church and got off at the wrong metro stop and walked about a mile more than was necessary. I had bad shoes on to walk that long so of course I got blisters. The members in the ward were so great! A young couple invited us for dinner and it was such a blessing to have real food, a place that we could rest and the kids could play.

David was asked to give a talk. I was all alone in the front pew with two kids with cheerios flying and kids crawling under the pews.

To rent a place here, it is bit different process than going to the apartment you are interested and asking for a vacancy, you have to go through a real estate agent. That means I had to find an agent that had properties in the areas I wanted and for the price I wanted, which was tough. After calling and emailing to try and get a hold an agent, I went on foot and found an agent with possibilities and would meet me the next day.
I found a place that was close to the metro, near the church, near some shopping, 2 bedrooms and it already had most of the kitchen necessities like pots, pans and dishes. The only problem was that it was the 3 floor with no elevator.
The other great thing was that we could move in the next day. SOLD!!!! We signed the contracts and we moved in by Wednesday. Thank goodness. With a real estate and us staying 9 months, the payment we made upfront was equivalent to 5 months rent, for deposit, agent fee and 3 months rent.... I know crazy but we were in a place.
It is small, the kitchen tiny, but it has a fake fireplace to make it cozy and it has a decent view.