Monday, January 10, 2011

One year in the UK

Today marks one year that we've lived in the UK, and the longest time I've spent out of the US in my life. We've got two more to go, and likely won't visit the US during that time, though Trevor might for job interviews as he nears the end of his course. Needless to say, I miss New Mexico, but we've been very happy over here in East London, with all the other immigrants. In fact, it's sometimes rare to hear a British accent around here, or even English.

As they say, time seems to speed up as you age. When I lived here before, I was a teenager and then an early twenty-something. The months seemed a lot longer. Another key difference is that this time I have my whole family with me. Before, when I lived here, my accent would slide and I'd pick up a lot of Britishisms. With my husband here, we still speak our American dialect, even when it causes people to give us odd looks and ask us what on earth "diapers" are.

Right now, I'm still recovering from childbirth and have at least gotten to the point where I can do the night shift with the baby solo. My mother's been taking our older son out every morning, which is an enormous help. We're keeping the baby at home for six weeks while his immune system matures, and my older son no longer goes to his toddler playgroup. It's flu season, and the UK is not vaccinating anyone under the age of five for swine flu, so we're doing our best to cut our chances. Nothing's fool proof, and most swine flu infections are mild, but all the same, I'd hate for our newborn to catch it this soon after he's entered the world.

I've gotten some more jewelry made and am slowly working towards a redesign of my Etsy shop. I expect I'll get the bulk of that done in the next couple months. My other top priority is to get deep into another writing project as the rejections from everything I've sent out start to roll in.

5 comments:

  1. I can't believe you guys have really been gone a whole year! Time really does speed up as you get older!

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  2. Oh, and I hope your recovery speeds up! My last one seemed to take forever. I think we all deserve a speedy recovery after being beat up from the inside out for 9 months!

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  3. Thanks, Abbie. I finally feel my strength coming back. For me, it was the blood loss that was killer. My baby was tiny compared to some of yours, though. I'm amazed you bounced back at all, woman!

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  4. Oh...I wouldn't call it "bouncing" back...it's more like crawling back, uphill, with many falls along the way...and I'm still not all the way there...but I'm on my way. Gideon broke my girlish insides, and I might have to have a hysterectomy. Zoinks!

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  5. Yowzers! I don't think my last one did any long term damage. Guess Gideon REALLY wants to be the baby of the family.

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