Prawn Crisps

Boy.  We've been in England for four days and I still can't seem to get over my jetlag.  I went to bed around midnight, woke up at 6, went back to bed at 9 and slept til 2!  Even my phone ringing and our sponsor knocking at my door didn't wake me up!  But enough about that, let's start from the beginning:

Leaving Idaho was hard, because it was one of our shortest trips home ever.  Even so, at least the time seemed to pass by slowly.  I got to see Andrea and Ashley almost every day which was amazing!  This time around, we also seemed to have a better handle on scheduling and didn't overbook ourselves, even though we had less time to spend.  Food highlights: Hudson's Hamburgers, Wingstop bliss, Java mexican mocha, Moontime southwest salad, spray butter on broccoli, baked potatoes, killing Sam's diet with tiramisu and Rustler's Roost, sitting outside in freezing weather at Sonic and making my cranberry slush last 3 hours, our first time at 5 Guys, Sahale snacks on the airplane, having the Silk Road tapas (tapas from all around the world), Cameron's obsession with Hoagieville cheese fries, frozen yogurt with Amber and Katie, bison chili, Jenna's spaghetti WITHOUT mushrooms, and a barbeque at the Williams'. 

The flight was amazingly long, but I was delighted that each seat back had its own screen which played movies, TV, games and showed a map of the course of the flight.  I LOVE following along with the flight progress.  It's great looking down and knowing what you're seeing.  And since I don't have a watch (I'm holding out for the perfect one), I never know what time it is or how long we've been flying. 

We got in to Heathrow and had to go through customs which was one of the longest lines I've ever been in.  There must have been a few hundred people in line, but luckily it went quickly (for a line that size).  Everything had gone smoothly up until that point, so I was worried we wouldn't find our sponsor or our luggage, but the luggage was there (except for the skateboard which was off on another conveyor belt) and our sponsor was right there!  We drove home and I tried to keep my eyes peeled and watch around me, but I could barely stay awake...I guess that's understandable after traveling for 20 hours.  I was pretty amazed that along the 'freeway' it was almost entirely trees and flowers along the road. :)  As soon as we got home, we crashed and woke up at 9:30, thinking the shoppette would be open, but it closed at 9, so we ended up calling Vic, one of Cameron's longtime colleagues from Hawaii (who is stationed here now) to help us out.  He took us to Tesco (a British chain grocery store) and we picked up a few things to sustain us.  I don't know why I wasn't expecting it, but nearly EVERYTHING there was completely foreign to me.  It's exciting to try all kinds of new stuff like Prawn crisps (chips) and toffee pudding. 

We've been running around like crazy trying to get everything set up, and so far we have some ideas for cars to buy (nice and cheap so we can put at least half down) and we got new phones which were both rated better than the iPhone 4. Booyah!  We are still working on getting a telephone number that works for US calling. 

Housing is still in the works!  We went to the housing office which has a lot of listings and we don't have to pay a deposit, which would be amazing, but if those don't pan out, we have a lot of listings set aside to check out through other agents.  The housing is the one thing I don't want to compromise on.  I need it to be as close to Huntingdon as possible, and I would love a nice yard. 

We are working on taking pictures of all the pretty things we see, so keep your eyes peeled!