Welcome Home ctd

6. Our bedroom - definitely no as big as our old one - we'll see about the furniture!
7. The tiny second bedroom that we invite you all to come stay in (we'll still have the pull out couch if you need extra room)
8. The bathroom - yes, the floor is bright blue tiles - way better than carpet!
We also have a "roof top terrace." We've never seen it because the hatch is broken but the landlord is suppossed to bring a new handle over soon :o)

I was thinking today that someday I would like to move and actually know where I am moving before I move in. In moving to NYC, our stuff was shipped before we found a place and the same thing happened this time. It would be nice to actually know if your stuff was going to fit - prior to moving! A novel idea, I know.

But that said - we like our new place and think that it will be a lot of fun. We sincerly hope that lots of you come and visit us! Also, our internet will not be set up for another 2 weeks so we'll be available by email on our blackberrys, but not by skype and we won't be able to update the blog.

So, tune in again in 2 weeks for exciting new updates!
Love and miss you all,

Sarah and Shane

Welcome Home!

We have a home! It is currently empty and our sea shipment isn't set to arrive for another 2-4 weeks (which England time could mean 3-5 weeks) but it is still exciting. I'm attaching our pictures in 2 postings since they wouldn't all fit into one. The captions are:
1. Our spiral staircase :o)
2. The Living room - not as big as our old one but we are hoping the furniture will fit!
3. The kitchen - it is actually bigger than it looks and a lot of storage
4.Another view of the kitchen
5. The combi washer/dryer (just for you Sunim)
OK - now check out the next blog to finish...

Settling into London

Hi all,

Hope everyone is doing well. Shane and I are settling into London, getting to know our little area of town (which is kind of a bummer since we'll be moving in 4 days!) Shane has been working for 1 week now and is officially back in the swing of things. I've been playing around London and figuring out how to use skype - which really is one of the top 10 inventions of our generation!

We went out with some new friends on Saturday (other expats we met through my family) who live near the Abbey road studio where the Beatles took their famous Abbey Road picture. You can see Shane and I re-enacting this at 11:30pm.

Also - for all you New Yorkers or anyone who ever visited us in NYC - there is a Le Pain Quotidien around the corner from our place! Shane and tested out their spreads and bread and it is definitely as good as NYC. So exciting!

So, that is about all of our exciting news for now. We should move into our new place this Thursday so I will send out pictures after that. Hope everyone is doing well!

Love, Sarah and Shane

Paris!

Hello all,

So, there have been some exciting new updates since our last post; primarily that we found a place to live! It is a Mews house, meaning it is a little, townhome-like place on a back alley. But, it has 2 floors (our first!) and no carpet in the bathrooms so we consider it a huge success. Plus, it is quite cute with the character that you want when you are living in London :o)

After finding our place we quickly packed our bags and left London - for Paris. We had a full 3 days of touring since we took an early (5am!!) eurorail trip. We began with Versailles - the palace built by Louis XIV and lived in until Louis XVI was dragged out of it to the guillotine. It is enormous with beautiful gardens around the back and 2 man made lakes! Then we took the Rick Steves historical tour of Paris via our ipod and saw Notre Dame, the pont Neuf, the latin quarter and many other areas that are part of the most historical section of Paris. That night we ate at a great French bistro near our hotel, Cafe du Marche and then walked over to see the Eiffel tower, beautifully lit for the evening.

The next day we got up early and headed to Montmarte where we saw the beautiful Sacre Coeur cathedral and wandered around the artist district. Then we headed to the Arc de Triomphe and wandered down the Champs de Elysees (and checked out the Davis Polk and Wardwell office at #121!). We ended in the Tuileries gardens where we had lunch at a small cafe and then headed over to the Museo de Orsay. Here we met up with an old friend of mine, Flore, and her fiancee, Guillaume and toured the museum. It is an amazing collection of Realism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism artwork including all the masters; Monet, Manet, Degas, Van Gogh and tons more. It was incredible! After, the 4 of us grabbed some coffees at a cafe and then headed over to the Eiffel tower. Guillaume and Shane had never been to the top of the tower so the 4 of us hopped in line and rode to the very top. The views were amazing but we didn't have much time to enjoy them since we had dinner reservations. Dinner was at a classic French bistro and Flore and Guillaume had to translate the menu for us. The food was delicious and we tried several French classics including charcuterie sausages, pureed aubergines (eggplant) and boudin (it tastes better than it sounds).

The next morning we headed to the Louve. It was the first sunday of the month so it was free, but therefore quite crowded. Regardless, we were still able to see the amazing pieces of art that it holds; Venus de Milo, parts of the parthenon, artwork by Leondardo da Vinci, sculptures by Michelangelo and much more. After a beautiful morning of art we headed to Marais to wander through French shops and have our last delicious French meal.

We are now back in London. Shane is hard at work and I am keeping myself busy getting our lives in order and learning London. We miss you all and love your comments and emails - please keep them coming! You can see our Paris pictures on my facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2171744&id=1308511&ref=nf Let me know if you want me to send them to you. Pictures of the new place are above.
Love you all,
Sarah and Shane

Welcome to London!

Hello from London! We have been London residents for a mere 4 days but in that time we have managed to check out the London apartment scene, get a car (from a wonderful friend who left it here for us), drive a stick shift in London (yikes!) visit Oxford, tour the major London sites and drink several pints along the way.

To begin, our air shipment which was suppossed to arrive "3-4 days" after us will actually not be available for delivery for 5 business days after it arrives in London. Therefore, we warn you that we will be in the same 3 outfits in pictures for our first 2 weeks in London! Thankfully our apt is fitted with a "combi" washer/dryer. A ridiculous invention that cleans the clothing nicely but only dries it enough for it to not drip when you lay it out on the drying rack. It is also the size of a small microwave so ours has been running constantly (which apparently is a fire hazard since it takes 2 hours to wash a load of 6 items but ...)

So, we started off walking London - literally. The first day we were here we walked from East Marylebone where we are currently residing, to church in West Marleybone (All Souls) then to Notting Hill gate, to Notting Hill to Kensington to South Kensington to Knightsbridge and then through Hyde park and home. I thought I walked a lot in NYC but this was brutal! Not to mention that Notting Hill was having it's carnival - the largest street parade in Europe (according to some European we were talking to) which meant we had to walk with 8 million people along Portabello road in order to eat street food, listen to kids with shrill, ear blasting whistles and finally to the end where MIA was performing. Needless to say, we enjoyed it but didn't stay too long!

The second day we walked again - this time we went East. We checked out St. James's palace, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parliment, SoHo and Chelsea. It is so cool to be walking around your city of residence and suddenly be staring at Buckingham Palace. Crazy!

Next we checked out apartments. We started in Notting Hill and managed to see 15 apartments ranging from awful to just short of great. The best one has beautiful hard wood floors, a great living space, wonderful kitchen with all the amenities, a separate washer/dryer (amazing!)... and then spoiled itself by having carpet in the bedrooms and bathrooms. We asked several brokers why on earth these landlords kept the carpets, especially in the bathrooms?! Most of them looked at us in shock and declared London was way to cold to have anything but carpet on one's feet in the winter. Shane recommended the use of slippers but was ignored. So, sadly enough, those of you who visit will likely experience ugly carpet. Just remember Buckingham Palace...

So, we have one more day of looking at apartments, this time in South Kensington area (close to a whole foods - yes, I have already seen it but I haven't gone in yet). However, today was our in-between day and our greatest adventure yet. We picked up the car.

For those of you who hadn't heard, Shane and I were able to get a car from some friends who were over here. It is great except for the fact that the steering wheel is on the right and it is a stick shift. Shane had a brief lesson with his dad a month ago but other than that, neither of us drive a stick! So, today, Shane drove the left handed stick from London to Oxford. A bit ambitious - one might say- for our first driving outing but we are alive and the car has no new scratches! It is a testiment to the kindness of British drivers though that we were only honked at 1 time and had people offer to help us 2 times :o)

OK, sorry for the long post but I wanted everyone to know what we were up to. We will keep you updated on our housing situation and we head for Paris on Friday (via train, not car!)

Let us know how you are all doing as well.

(Pictures are: Oxford, Big Ben, Buckingham from Left to Right)

Love, Sarah and Shane