Hello America

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Here we are after a whirlwind (by that I mean tornado) few weeks, having safely arrived on February 17^th. We’ve been made very welcome so far in the land of big fridges, big trucks, big cars, correspondingly big car parking spaces, big portions and big friendly southern Tennessee accents. In fact, everything is supersized apart from the bathtubs, which are all really, really small. The discovery was treated by Tom with almost the same disdain as when he realised that they don't sell Shreddies in America ("Can we go home now??").

No time to be jetlagged when we got here, we spent the first five days on a lengthy apartment hunt. Along the way we fell into some of those lovely interminable administrative loops which crop up every time I move countries. It is, as far as I’m concerned, no longer a question of whether the egg or the chick came first, but whether it was, in fact, the social security number, the bank account or the address.

It transpired we had been misinformed during our pre-trip research about the availability/cost of getting a furnished apartment, so it turns out we have to get everything from scratch. As we speak we are the proud new renters of a gorgeous two bed, two bath (I’m sending some woolly mammoth sized hints to any budding visitors amongst you- we have the space), but currently rather empty apartment.

Tom and I will be extremely pleased when we get job numero deux ticked off the list; cars cars cars...... once our money makes it across the Atlantic and sploshes into our newly opened bank account that is. The car is truly high king of great kingliness here. I’m going to have my work cut out to keep my little Fitbit happy. When we were apartment hunting we were frequently DRIVEN less than 200 metres between prospective apartments in the same complex. I tried so hard not to giggle.

Tom’s had his first week at his new job, which means I have been housebound as we just have the rental car and I don’t have security clearance yet to drop him off at the lab… We’ve also discovered we both have to take the full Tennessee driving test, the whole shebang, including the practical. This should be an interesting experience indeed. It will feel pretty awkward if we fail, given that they hand them out to 15 year olds here. Gulp.

Somewhat sadly, we’ve not yet made it into the city since we got here, so don’t ask me for sightseeing tips yet (although I would class myself an expert on the local furniture shops and car dealerships, if that is your subject of interest). We’ve got our hopes up for next weekend, then I should be able to tell rather more exciting tales.

Anyway it is all very happy days indeed, we love it so far and we can’t wait to get out and about once all the admin is over and we have bought a massive American truck.

Hope you are all well, thanks very much for the kind messages. Sending lots of love xxxx

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Comments

[Ann Gill]

Good morning America from sunny Surrey!
Hurray for your brilliant blog! We love it! Carry on smiling both of you and jumping through the seemingly endless hoops. Good luck with the ones still ahead of you! Love to you both and a huge (to reflect American sizes, of course!) HELLO from Rob and from me to all your friends and family across the world who may be reading this.

[John & Gillian]

Hello!
Nice to catch up when we found your blog. We look forward to seeing pictures of your enormous truck. Love from us both.