Notting hill

Paige takes a visit to the famous Travel Bookstore in Notting Hill.

Cute Alley

This was taken Sunday, Oct 9, near our home on the way back from church. Paige thought it was a cute picture, so here it is!

Classes, Cambridge, and Comida!

These past two weeks have been a lot of fun for me and Paige. Classes started at LSE this past week for me, and Paige started a French class! The economics, finance, and economic history classes have been really great with very good professors, and very smart kids. I think I have it easier than Paige though. In her first class the teacher spoke French for the first hour! Luckily, she speaks English, too, and Paige has excelled. Hopefully I will have the same luck in my classes - sometimes it seems as though my professors are speaking a foreign language, too!

This past weekend we took a day trip to Cambridge and checked out the other beautiful university campuses of England. Of the 31 universities in Cambridge, we got to see a few of the most beautiful. We got a great discount on train tickets by traveling with some friends we have made from Australia, and after doing circles on the buses in the city, found our way to a great little lunch spot that Virginia recommended to us. It was a cute apple orchard in a little town called Grantchester, which a nice old lady on the bus helped us find. Even though the "5 minute" walk turned into a 20 minute trek down a side street somewhere near Cambridge, it was neat to come to an orchard where, apparently, a lot of famous and smart people have been. After reading the list of "notables" who had eaten at this fine establishment, we had only heard of 3 of the 40+ people, so we figured we obviously were not intellectual enough to enjoy the history of the place, and we decided to take a walk down to the river. There also seems to be a translation error in what a river in the US is and what an English river is. At a little more than 3 feet wide, the river was not exactly roaring, and the one man fishing there said he had not had any luck. It was, however, a pretty little creek.

This past week we have also realized that the best way to overcome small storage space in the kitchen, is by going grocery shopping...a lot. So, we have gotten to know quite a few of the small grocery stores around our place and have really enjoyed cooking in our small kitchen. Everything from marshmallow brownies, to tonight's tortilla soup has been delicious thanks to Paige!

So far our time in London has been pretty great and we are really enjoying being in a new town and meeting new people. More to come later!

First of all,

Thanks to everyone who has been so kind to us throughout these past two months. The presents we received have been so great and the thank you notes are on their way! We will soon be writing you from the cheery streets of London.

Okay, now for an update on London! 

We have been here for five days and the weather has been beautiful! Paige and I have been strolling the streets of South Kensington and Chelsea trying to find everything from silverware and plates to dining room tables and printers (which we got from a young little Asian girl in Wimbledon for £15! Isn't the internet great?). The funny thing is, there is no Target or Wal-Mart and so we keep walking until we find a store that just might have what we need. Usually we don't find what we're looking for, but the people are really nice and always point us in the right direction. 

We have discovered that it takes a good while to get anything done here, but after a week we have our phones, electricity, bank accounts, and internet (almost!) set up! Luckily, we have had free cable TV (all 4 channels of it) this week...thank goodness for previous tenants who forgot to cancel :) We love where we live. It's 10 minutes from everything. Last night we had our first London date night and went out for pizza and a movie. We saw Crazy, Stupid, Love and it was nice to hear American accents for  a whole two hours!

This week should be an adventure! It's my last week before class officially starts and Paige's birthday is Tuesday. Her mom came in to help decorate and celebrate! More to come in a few days!

Cheers!