Wednesday 14 December 2011

Surviving, but not adjusting yet...

So the last few days have not gone exactly to plan...after the wonderful birthday celebrations and day with Miriam things have been a bit crazy.

Our priority was getting Sarah's essay submitted (which has gone off this morning :-)) but that took significantly longer than we anticipated. Sarah's sister Amy has found herself a new job for the next three years proof-reading essays as she did such a fab job on this one...

...then began the saga about children's schools. Tom already had his place in the village where we will be living, but we found out that Josh can't go to school in our village as the classes are full. They proposed to send Josh to another school by public transport, apparently that is fine for a 5 year old who has never been to school before. Having seen how little road and person danger sense the boys have after living in such a sheltered place we really could not imagine packing him off with someone else. There was not a place for Tom there either to send them together. So we have the option of a second school for Josh now at Oakington C of E Primary School which should be easier for us to drive him to ourselves (only about 10 mins we think) but we are not quite sure how we are going to do both school  runs at the same time. We are waiting to hear if there is a place there for Tom to have them in the same school, but then Tom will not want to move as he has friends at the other school in our own village, so it is going to be complicated and less than ideal either way....

...so with that all taking some time to investigate the different options we finally started unpacking our suitcases yesterday evening. And then we shoved some things back in a suitcase and are off tothe airport headed to Ethiopia. ...

 ...the boys are excited about decorating the Christmas tree and being taken to the movies by Auntie Amy and Nanny. They have been playing football in the garden, snuggled up in multiple layers looking like the Michelin man. They have been checking out nearby playgrounds and enjoying eating toad in the hole (and a ton of other things)...

... when we get back there will be the small matter of Christmas with the Farrell's in Liverpool before moving all of our stuff from Essex to Cambridge in time for the start of school in January. I think we will be busy for a little while yet.

...we're hoping that they stay settled this week while we're away, pray that Nanny, Grandad and Auntie Amy survive and that we have a useful trip to Ethiopia. We haven't really had time to interact with UK culture yet (besides being overwhelmed with the choice of chocolate when trying to buy some to take to our hosts in Ethiopia) so we are postponing adjusting 'til next week :-)

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