Email Update from Monday, March 19, 2007

Just wanted to send everyone an update as we have now been settling into London for about 2 weeks!

Our air shipment arrived on Friday which means Edgar and I can finally add some more clothes into our wardrobe...we were both getting tired of the same 5 shirts we had packed in our suitcases. We do not have a closet...only 2 small wardrobes...so our clothes are folded in about 5 different places right now. I think a trip to IKEA is definately in the near future!

I have tackled the washer/dryer!! It is a Zanussi Xtra Capacity TurboDry 1200. I guess this means it holds 3 pair of pants instead of 2 and takes 2 hours to dry instead of 3! Doing laundry is a different experience and pretty much happens on a daily basis. In case you've never seen one, the washer and dryer is one machine, so you have to wait for the entire load to completely wash and dry before putting another load in. I see alot of clotheslines around here.

We finally have a phoneline! It seems we have two switches in our flat from two different companies. While we were assurred at ordering that BOTH switches would work, only one of them works with our chosen company. After several trips to the big red phone booth down the street and some time on hold, we finally figured this out. This led to an hour and a half discussion with said phone/broadband company about when our broadband would be installed..."But Mr. Castro, we don't have record of you having ordered broadband service." And we thought we would be so clever to check out of our hotel late when we first arrived so as to call and setup these all important services! Long story short, everything here has a waiting period of 5-10 days. They do most everything through mail so quick internet setups don't usually happen. I still don't know when it will arrive, so I'll just set up shop here in the internet cafes and pop in when I can. Our last service is cable, which I can't wait to get! I think I have found a good provider in Sky as they show alot of American shows and I can get my Friends fix. We'll see how that one goes!

Edgar and I have been taking in the city as much as we can. Our first weekend, we took a trip to the West End and watched The Lion King. It was very good and the theater was beautiful. The entire Theater District is such a fun place to wonder around. There are performers around on the streets doing everything from flamenco dancing to riding a 15 foot tall unicycle! There is also a great market in Covent Gardens with all sorts of handmade things like jewelry, hats, paintings, etc. Edgar walked us through that area pretty quickly.
This past weekend we were total London tourists...took a flight on the London Eye which gives your beautiful panoramic views of the city and beyond. We then took the Thames River cruise with a guided tour of all the buildings we passed along the river. It's a good introduction to some of the major landmarks. I think we're ready to venture beyond London...perhaps Paris via the Eurostar, or north on the train to Scotland. The tourist season begins in June, so we'd like to get as much seen before then as possible.

We will be traveling back to Houston for a very quick trip tomorrow! The day has finally come...Edgar is being sworn in as a US Citizen! The ceremony is being held on Wednesday at The Berry Center, ironically only a 1/2 mile from our previous home in Cypress! We will be traveling back to London on Saturday, as long as everything goes as planned with his passport issuance. This has been such a long process...4 years in the making...and we can hardly believe it's finally happening! I'm so proud!

I promise to send more frequent updates...hopefully our Broadband will be ready to go when we return and I can start some sort of daily blog or website. Take care and drop me a line when you can!