Four Years in Japan … and now Three Years in London

After nearly eight years as an expat, travel remains somewhat of an enigma.

On the one hand, it is amazing to be in different places. I have been fortunate to work for an international company, with offices worldwide and interests across the globe. This has enabled me to see places in the world I never imagined I would go. Seeing and experiencing the different cultures, lifestyles, and geography has been fascinating, and the COVID years of travel interruption only accentuated the almost addictive nature of travel.

That said, being in different places is amazing. Getting there, not so much. Getting there often involves long bouts of air travel, punctuated by shorter but just as essential ground transportation. Both can be interesting, challenging, tiring, and sometimes just plain annoying.

Having lived several years in Japan and now in the United Kingdom, air travel often involves long-haul flights. My company defines that as anything over four hours in the air. In practice, I’ve found the four or five hour flights to be, for the most part, easy and none too difficult. It’s the longer flights – eight, 10, 15 hours or more – that become more considerable.

Over the years of travel, my wife and I have become rather adept at managing our movements from place to place. Booking flights has become more routine (aided by my company’s travel agency, and airline frequent-flyer programmes). We’ve learned to pack efficiently and get by quite nicely with relatively little luggage. Increased airport security has made travel more difficult over the years, but we’ve learned the system and generally get by with a minimum of hassle and delay. To a degree, it is like many other things in life. Resist and things become more difficult and annoying. Learn the system and accept it, and travel gets marginally easier.

For the most part, we travel in what the airlines typically call “premium economy” – an oxymoron to be sure, but generally what I find to be the best compromise between the more comfortable first/business class, and the cattle-car-like confines of coach.

Although my company will allow use of business class, most of the time I just can’t justify the cost. Air transportation is expensive and seems to be even more so since the pandemic. A long-haul flight can cost upwards of $10,000 US dollars in business class, compared to around $3,000 for the same flight in premium economy. For the extra $7000 you get a seat that reclines fully flat, making sleep somewhat more possible, along with a bigger TV screen and better food. Personally, I can usually tolerate a bit less comfort for a few hours for a big cost savings for the company. And for personal travel that I pay for from my own pocket, there really isn’t any choice. I’ll tolerate a few hours of discomfort, thank you very much.

I have to give credit to the flight attendants. On most airlines and most flights, the flight attendants work very hard to make the flight as comfortable as possible. They put up with a lot, including rude and self-obsessed passengers. And typically they do it with a smile, from the boarding of passengers through meal services, to landing many hours later. Can’t be an easy task, to be sure.

One rant about the airlines, in two words. Reclining seats. In premium economy and even more so in coach, reclining seats are a bad idea. You have precious little room in your space on the plane to begin with. When the bozo in front of you reclines, you end up with a seat back in your face (and in coach, often in your knees, too). Most passengers are too self-absorbed to care about any discomfort they cause anyone else. Why the airlines continue to pack seats closer and closer together, but still provide reclining seatbacks, is beyond my understanding.

All in all, airline travel is a necessity. It is, particularly for long-distance travel, the fastest way between two points. It is safe, reasonably predictable, and usually dependable. Of course, there are the occasional delays, unexpected cancellations, and the added challenge of connections from one flight to another. But airlines make the world accessible in a way that never used to be possible.

And although the “getting there” is sometimes uncomfortable and annoying, the “being there” makes it all worthwhile.

It is almost six months since we arrived here at our London apartment in Canary Wharf. December here is often gray, damp, and chilly. The days are getting shorter… already the sun sets before 4 pm, and doesn’t rise until nearly 8 am! Even on sunny days, the angle of the sun from the horizon is so low that at noon the light looks more like late afternoon does during Atlanta winters. We have traveled so many times to the UK over the years, but we never before noticed how dim the light is, and how short the days. It takes a bit of getting used to!

I have to admit, in this blogpost, that there are many things about this move to London that we are *still* getting used to. No… we don’t have any serious regrets. We still like London, and we still think this was a good change for us. But… it is taking longer to acclimate than we expected.

When we moved to Tokyo in January 2016, it seemed much easier in integrate into our new surroundings. I know that seems like an odd thing to say since *everything* about moving to Japan was new and different. We couldn’t even speak the language… and we stood out very obviously as “foreigners.” Evenso, we always felt comfortable with the culture, and we enjoyed the adventure of immersing ourselves in such a new and different place.

Here in London, the official language is English, and we have no trouble communicating. (I will say… again, though… that despite English being the official language here, when we are out and about, we hear more foreign languages than English. London is such a cultural melting pot… the most “international” city we have ever experienced!) Of course there are many differences between American culture and British culture… but nothing too hard to adapt to.

When we moved to Japan, we knew we would be there only temporarily, and that we would absolutely be returning to the US. We had a house, cars, possessions… and of course family anchoring us to the United States. After 4 1/2 years, though, I think we would have gladly stayed in Tokyo if we could have. But the visa ran out, and we had to go “home.”

When we decided to accept the job here in UK, we felt we were ready to downsize and get rid of a lot of the *things* that were tying us to the US. We thought we would feel freer and lighter without all the stuff of our US lives.

And… we do. Very much so. But… it can also be a very unsettling feeling.

All those *things* that were tethering us to the United States, also gave us a sense of security… a feeling that we still had a *place* there. Now we don’t have a place, and it sometimes makes us feel a little bit lost.

The thing about anchors… yes… they tie you down, and can keep you from moving forward… but, they also provide stability. We sometimes feel like we have been set adrift. A weird feeling.

Again… we are not at all regretting the decision to come here. We still think that selling our home and most of our possessions was the right thing to do. But six months into this, it still feels… funny.

In a couple of weeks, we will be traveling back “home for the holidays”… except that it isn’t our *home* right now. We will be staying as guests with family. From our home being the family gathering place in past years, we find ourselves as guests at someone else’s home. It will be fine… we will enjoy our time with family (we even have a new grandchild to visit) but it will still seem strange.

As we are approaching retirement, we wanted to make our lives more “portable” and be less tied down to things. But all that “lightness” and “freedom” also takes some getting used to.

Here it is the fourth Thursday in November, and in the UK it is just another normal work day. But… it is ok… we are kind of used to not having a US Thanksgiving by now. We are enjoying seeing Thanksgiving from afar, through our family and friends’ social media posts.

When we moved to Japan in 2016, there was no fourth Thursday Thanksgiving holiday… no big family dinner with too much food… no long day of football games and parades. Japan actually does have their own version of Thanksgiving… the Labor Thanksgiving holiday which is celebrated on November 23rd… which coincidentally (this year) coincides with American Thanksgiving.

In Japan, we did find Thanksgiving turkeys in the supermarket, along with most of the other ingredients for a passable Thanksgiving dinner. However, we had no oven in our Japanese apartment, and had no place to roast a turkey. So, for four Thanksgivings — 2016 through 2019, we made due without the big family gathering and Thanksgiving foods. We would usually try to come together virtually at some point over the long weekend, and then spend “real” together time over the Christmas holidays.

When we moved back to the US in 2020, during the pandemic, we mostly canceled the big family get-togethers and still visited mostly virtually. By the time the pandemic frenzy was over, with our immediate family spread all along the east coast, we were used to not doing the big turkey day holiday, and just waited for Christmas holiday together time.

Now… here in the London, UK… we will have another non-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving… lol. We do have a real oven in this apartment, and I suppose I could actually roast a turkey, but it all seems like too much “to do” for a dinner for two. I never even looked at the supermarket to see if they had turkeys. I did find canned pumpkin, and will… at some future date… make a pumpkin pie.

My husband is at work, and it has been a quiet day for me here at home. I did bake bread for the first time in this apartment oven. A co-worker of my husband gave me a bit of her excellent sourdough bread starter, and I have been feeding it and finally baked a batch today. But… other than the bread, our Thanksgiving dinner will likely be a pretty routine week night dinner… usually something simple and quick.

Traditions are important, but sometimes by necessity traditions have to be modified… at least temporarily. As two-time expats, we have had the opportunity to experience so much, and learn so much about our adopted countries’ cultures. Though we miss being with our family for this traditional “family holiday”, we look forward to our next visit back to the US next month for Christmas.

We wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and a happy family time.

After almost 5 months in London, we are settling in.

So much has happened since we made the decision to move from our home in the US to London. Our apartment in Canary Wharf has become our home (although the apartment owner has changed, which is a bit disconcerting). We are settling into our daily routines. In the last 6 weeks we’ve been gone more than here, with several business trips, and a trip back to the US to see our new grandson.

We are trying to learn first-hand about the neighborhoods in London. Most weekends we strike out on walks that range from 6 to 10 miles or so. It is interesting to see what the real London is like, away from all the tourist attractions.

Today, for example, we took a 10 mile walk along some canal/towpaths in East London. It was a brisk, cool day and we got rained on a couple of times. But it was a fun walk, with many things to see.

All in all, we are enjoying our first few months in London. Now the days are getting shorter (with the end of daylight saving time, it gets dark here around 4:30 pm). It will be interesting to see as the season changes and we move towards Christmas, what it will be like in our new home.

It has been over a month since we posted a new blog, and I have to admit to having enormous trouble getting motivated to write anything. What I think has been the difficulty are all of the “problems” we have had in making this transition to London. It hasn’t been anything major, but instead a long succession of constant, nagging little details. Things that should be easy to get done and settled here, instead take time after time of maneuvering and tweaking to get done… things that just take a ridiculous amount of time and energy.

This blog won’t be long, I still don’t feel like dwelling on these little “annoyances” even yet. I just want to get started writing… to start the flow of words and ideas again. Suffice to say, that we are getting settled in our new home in London, but that it has not been an easy process. When we moved to Japan, we had more support from our employer, we kept our house and cars and belongings and pets in Atlanta (well cared for by our family), and we knew that after a set amount of time we would return to all of it. It turns out that when you get rid of stuff and belongings and *really* move internationally (including the pets) that it is all the more complicated and… at times… extremely frustrating.

Some of the things we have been dealing with:

Banking. It took over three months for us to establish a bank account (we started the process even before we moved). Why? I still have no idea. Yes, it is a different kind of account for expats, but still…? Why? And… even yet, I am confused by a lot of the *process* it takes to get any banking done. I know that UK has a lot of bureaucracy… just as the US does… but here it all moves at a snail’s pace.

Health Care. When we were living in Japan, we were covered by the Japanese national health insurance, but we still had health insurance through our US employer as well. Here in UK we have the NHS — National Health Service. My husband is also covered by a supplemental insurance provided by his employer… I am not. I can get supplemental coverage for an additional cost, but there are many options. We are looking into those options, and for now, I am still covered by a policy from our previous employer… which is very expensive. We are still learning how to maneuver through the NHS system. The healthcare system in the US is complicated, but we have had years of experience with it. This system is a whole new level of complication… a whole new set of hoops to jump through, and again… moves at a snail’s pace. We are learning…

About a month ago our landlord called to see if we could allow a prospective “buyer” to look at our apartment. What? Are they going to sell the apartment and make us move? We have a lease… with a 15-month “break clause”… they can’t make us move for another year (I hope)! I don’t want to move again. We are just getting settled! Just another thing to worry about…

Oh… and we finally got our sea shipment from the US. Yay! Except… our packers/movers made a few mistakes with what they ended up shipping to us. We got most of what we wanted, but there are quite a few things that they didn’t ship to us, that ended up in storage… and about six boxes of things that should have gone to storage, that are now taking up space in our small London apartment. For example… we had a china cabinet that we sent to storage. This china cabinet has an interior glass display shelf that is about 3 feet long. Our movers very carefully removed and packed up that glass shelf… and sent it to us here in London, along with part of the china and many, many fragile mementos from the china cabinet. I have no space for these items here. We are still conferring with the moving company about how to get these things packed and safely shipped back to join the rest of our belongings in storage. 

Not everything has been difficult or bad. We have really enjoyed our first few weeks as Londoners. We have done and seen a lot of interesting things (see future blog posts). We are enjoying our high-rise apartment, and we are enjoying the perks and amenities… a nice gym/pool, and rooftop terrace. We have had one (business) trip to Japan, and have more travel planned in the fall. Our three kitties have settled in nicely, and seem to be happy enough. They no longer have an outdoor deck to go out on and lie in the sunshine, but they enjoy watching out the windows here, and all three are currently asleep in front of the floor to ceiling windows in our living room. And, we have met a very nice couple nearby who are willing to petsit for us when we are away. 

All in all things are going OK. We have had some annoying issues, but we are managing them. Do we regret this move to London? Uh… no… we don’t. I still occasionally wake up in the middle of the night worrying about things… missing things about our home and our life in Georgia… missing my car, or random belongings that we sold or gave away before we left. But this is a wonderful opportunity for us, and it has been an amazing experience. And, that is something we will never regret. At the end of it all, stuff is just stuff, but the life experiences become part of who we are. Yes… we are slowly… slowly settling into our new life in London.

When we moved to Japan… originally for only two years… we kept our house in the United States. Our daughter moved into it, and agreed to take care of our pets while we were gone. My husband was “on loan” to the company in Japan, and we fully intended to return to the US when his job assignment in Japan ended. After 4 1/2 years there, we moved back to Georgia, our daughter and her husband moved into their own home, and we returned to our house and kitties.

With this move to the UK, the situation was a bit different. Although the companies are all related, my husband was no longer “on loan,” and had to actually “retire” from his US company to accept the new position in London. Same job, but different company. Our daughter, having her own home and pets, could no longer take care of ours. We sold almost everything, and this necessitated moving our pets… 3 kitties… with us.

This was a big step, and an enormously complicated process. Once we had the firm job contract in hand… back in January of 2023… we began researching how to move our kitties to the United Kingdom. There is quite a lot of information online… and a few different methods. Some are less “hands on” and more expensive. Some are more “do-it-yourself”. We ended up doing a more middle-of-the-road method… intermediate in terms of cost, and complexity.

Regardless of which method you go with, it all starts with having your pets properly vetted. For the UK (and all countries have their own standards and requirements) this means that the pets must be microchipped. After microchipping, they must be rabies vaccinated. Timing is important. You cannot enter the UK until three weeks after the vaccination, but also within the one year time frame that the vaccine is good for. If you are moving puppies or kittens, age also comes into play.

Also… you need to find a vet who is able to fill out the required paperwork to be submitted to the USDA for approval in order to get the stamped official health certificates needed for the country you are entering. Not all vets will do this paperwork because it is tedious and time consuming. And… expect to pay extra for the vet to fill out the paperwork. Our vet charged $400 to do the paperwork for our three cats. I have read of other vets charging much, much more than that.

Again, timing is critical. The final health check for the animals must be within 30 days of the move date. But, the paperwork has to be submitted to USDA within 10 days of the flight. The paperwork can be submitted electronically by the vet, and you can pay for overnight service to receive the health certificates in time for the flight. Our vet was actually out of town until 7 days before our flight. She submitted the paperwork electronically, there was a correction that had to be made (electronically) and we received our health certificates the day before our flight. I cannot stress enough how important it is to find a competent vet to do the paperwork. Our vet took care of all of this for us. We supplied all the pertinent information (past vet records included), she submitted the paperwork, and took care of corrections, and had the certificates overnighted from the USDA directly to us.

We made our airline reservations over the phone. All airlines have their own requirements when it comes to traveling with pets. Some limit the number of in-cabin pets on a flight. We flew Delta, and knew that they limited the number of animals in-cabin to five. We made our reservations as soon as possible with that in mind. Also, Delta requires that you have one passenger per pet. We arranged for our daughter to accompany us to take the third kitty. There are also important size requirements for both the animal and the carrier. In-cabin pets must have an airline approved soft-sided carrier that will fit under the seat, and it must have sufficient ventilation panels. Pretty much, the in-cabin pet is limited to 15 pounds or less, and must be able to move and turn around in the carrier. Larger pets must be crated and moved either as cargo, or excess baggage, down in the hold of the aircraft. Delta charges $200 for each pet to fly in-cabin. No pets can fly in Delta One, and they will only rarely allow a pet in anything other than the Economy section. We opted to select seats near the back of the aircraft, close to the lavatories… easier cleanup if that became necessary.

Another complication with moving pets to the UK is that they will not allow pets to enter the country in-cabin. So they have to be placed in the hold of the aircraft, or you have to fly to another location… Paris, Dublin, or Amsterdam… and then arrange travel into the UK either by ferry or through the Eurotunnel from France. We opted for Paris… but then this necessitated having a health certificate for the EU as well as the UK. Our vet did both sets of paperwork for us. We landed in Paris, and hired a pet transport company to drive us through the tunnel to London.

Alternatively, you can fly with pets in the hold, but then upon arrival at Heathrow Airport, London, the pets have to have a reservation for Pet Reception… which can be booked out for weeks in advance. It all just seemed much easier to fly to Paris, and get either a pet transport, or a pet-friendly taxi service to take us on into London. No pets are allowed on the EuroStar (chunnel train), so that is not an option.

We opted to hire Happy Saluki Pet Transport to drive us to London. Once we landed at Paris, and took our kitties through EU Customs (they checked our USDA EU health certificates), we connected with our assigned driver through WhatsApp, and she picked up us, our luggage, and our three kitty carriers at the curb. Kim was wonderful, and walked us through the rest of the process into London. She went with us through Pet Reception at the entrance to the Eurotunnel, where they scanned our kitties’ microchips and checked their UK health certificates, helped us through immigration into the UK, and drove us onto the Eurotunnel train. After a 30 minute trip on the train, she drove us on to London… right to our apartment door. In the van, we were able to get the kitties out of their carriers. After 10 hours confined in a small space, and in noisy airports and an airplane, the kitties all were ready to get out. All three curled up together on a blanket on the seat, and slept the rest of the way to London.

We paid about 1300 pounds (~$1600) for Happy Saluki services… but it was money well spent. The drive from Paris to London was the most relaxing and peaceful part of the whole pet-moving process. I cannot thank Kim and Happy Saluki enough for all that they did to help us. I started emailing with Happy Saluki in January, and they were always very responsive and reassuring about our travel plans.

As I said, there are other options. We checked into having our kitties moved by a “pet broker”… who would have taken care of the paperwork, met us at the airport, and taken over the details of putting the kitties into the cargo hold. They would have arranged for pet reception at Heathrow, and even delivery to our flat in London. I called three such companies, and got estimates of $5000+ to move our three kitties. Also… another alternative is a pet charter. UK will allow in-cabin pets (of all sizes) on chartered aircraft arriving at Heathrow. The chartered flights, however, run about $10,000. You arrange to be included with a charter group of passengers all flying their pets into the UK.

I know this all sounds like a chaotic mess. As I started to write this, I had trouble putting it into a logical order… and then realized that it was because this pet moving process has no logical order. There is no step 1, step 2, step 3, because everything ends up being interrelated with weird timing and illogical requirements. But… in the end, it all got done… even as stressful and crazy as it sounds.

All in all… with the choices we made, our overall cost per kitty came to about $1000. It is definitely not cheap to move pets internationally, but we are happy we did. All three have settled in nicely to our 20th floor high-rise flat in London.

A month ago today was our first day as official residents of London. Since arriving, we have started to settle in. Some things still seem very different and difficult. For others, we feel right at home. The following are some random observations we’ve had based on our first month in the UK.

Language is easier here than we experienced during our first weeks in Tokyo. Most everyone here can speak English. But, we’ve found that English has many, many variations. Even British English comes in different dialects, and sometimes our American ears just can’t quite relate. And then, there are so many other variants, all with a good command of English – but with accents from China, Russia, France, and a multitude of other countries. And… we often find that when walking around we hear more foreign languages than English – some we recognize, and others that don’t sound familiar at all. The diversity of the population here is truly astounding. London is absolutely an international city.

The bureaucracy here is imposing – there is a lot of it, and we’ve found it doesn’t always work as intended. Case in point – we applied for a British bank account on 3 April, while still in the US. Followed up several times to no avail. Finally, a week ago we got a message – oops, sorry, your application can’t be found – please submit again. Talking with other expats, all seem to have had a long and frustrating path to finally establishing a bank account. Our second application was submitted 10 days ago…no acknowledgement, no status update, nothing. It’s all done on-line, and it is nearly impossible to talk to a real human (and those who are available are kind – but (sorry) clueless). Similar frustration with the corporate credit card. Got the card, but no user ID, password, or PIN. Called customer service and they assured me they would email a user ID and temporary password. That was 3 days ago – still no word. PIN is supposed to be delivered in 3-8 business days by mail. We will see if that actually happens.

But all is not bleak. We have had some great experiences in the area where we live (one of the highlights was the arrival of a tall ship in the Quay outside our apartment), and we’ve also ventured out a bit further to Greenwich, central London, and Cambridge. Public transportation is easy and cheap (and… with our senior passes, London trains and buses are free!). You have to be aware of occasional strikes that disrupt service, but overall public transport is great. And it is also a very walkable city… for the most part. Certainly not as clean as Tokyo, but easy and safe.

Unlike Japan… which was very much a “cash preferred” or “cash only” society, London is almost exclusively “card.” We have little UK currency in our wallets. We pay for *everything* with a credit card. Most people have their cards stored on their phones, and everything from transportation to shopping to restaurants is paid for with their phones. We still use actual cards, but we haven’t used any cash *at all* in the past month here.

Some things are more familiar to us after living in Tokyo. We are still afoot, with shopping and grocery stores at least 1/4 to 1/2 mile away. There is a Tesco Express down below our apartment, but it is more “convenience store” size. It does have remarkably nice produce, if not the greatest selection. There is an Asian market about 1/2 mile away. Since living in Tokyo, we still cook a lot of Asian foods, so an Asian market is a definite plus for us. We have found what we refer to as “the Walmart of the UK” about 1/2 mile away… ASDA. No offence to those of you who *love* Walmart… but we go there as infrequently as possible. Similar crowds, clutter, and chaos, but they have some things we just *need* to buy. And, since we walk to the grocery store, we only buy as much as we can carry. No more having multiple bags of food that are conveniently placed in the trunk of the car and stored in a huge pantry. We pretty much have to do grocery shopping on a daily basis.

So a month in, we are enjoying our relocation. There have been frustrations, and certainly differences in lifestyle. We’re still awaiting the shipment of some items from the US (probably won’t see those before August). We have great amenities in our apartment, including a 56th floor outdoor terrace/indoor lounge with stunning views of the city, and a nice pool and gym. We’ve met some really nice people, including another Georgia transplant who lives in our building and a couple who live in a nearby building who have agreed to kitty sit when we travel.

After a traumatic close out of our lives in the US, selling belongings, house, cars, etc., we are starting to feel more “at home” in London. Unlike when we lived in Tokyo and still had our house in the US, this is truly now our home. We’ve just started to explore how that will work, and we’re looking forward to the possibilities and opportunities.

Last time we posted to our blog, we were just settling onto the airplane with our 3 kitties for the long flight to Paris. Two weeks have passed. The experience has been so intense, we are only just now at the point of being able to talk about it.

The flight to Paris was tolerable. We were in the back of the airplane, in 3 middle seats. Nothing comfortable about that, and even worse for the kitties. They actually were pretty good – a few woeful meows, and once or twice a near escape from the kitty carrier. Our daughter was amazing, making several trips to the plane restroom to clean up the inevitable smelly kitty accidents.

Upon arrival in Paris, the immigration line was long. But once through that, the process through customs was like an afterthought. I really think we could have just walked out of the airport. As it was, we dutifully presented our papers to the customs agent. She took a cursory look and verified we had three kitties, signed the papers, and we were done.

We met our driver from the Happy Saluki Pet Transport service at the curb. What an amazing company! Our driver was knowledgeable, compassionate and oh so friendly. From the time we got in the van, we felt comfortable, relaxed and in a friendly environment. Even the kitties were able to get free of their carriers and relaxed on the van seats. Happy Saluki says their job is to help people relax and move their pets to a new home. They delivered more than we could have expected for us.

From Paris, Happy Saluki drove us to Calais, France, for a trip through the Euro Tunnel. That in itself was interesting. Our driver expertly moved us through the French customs checkpoint, and on to the “Pet Reception” area. UK has a special building just for accepting animals being brought into the country. Our Happy Saluki driver guided us into the building, and to a nice person who very quickly and efficiently processed our paperwork. A quick scan of our kitties’ microchips, and a signature on the papers, and customs in the UK was done. After so much time and effort in getting the paperwork put together, the actual customs experience in France and UK was an unexpectedly easy process.

Our van then drove on to a huge train car with many other large vehicles. The car was sealed, and almost imperceptibly, we were traveling at 80 mph under the English Channel.

On the UK side, our drive into London was easy and uneventful. The kitties slept happily on the van seats (and after not sleeping all the previous night, I also had some nice nap time). Our Happy Saluki driver was adept at London traffic and delivered us to our apartment building door. I can’t say enough about the kindness, compassion and competence she demonstrated.

So, we arrived two weeks ago and started getting settled. Trying to acclimate our kitties – and ourselves – to a new apartment 20 floors above the city. And honestly, compared to the traumatic last couple of weeks in the US, it has been surprisingly easy to begin our new life here.

More about how we are adapting to London in our next post.