Beginning to be a little cultured...

(Sorry for posting this week out of order, but at least now you have plenty to read, and we're almost caught up to real time!!!)

MONDAY Feb 7
The commute from Weybridge, which is on the Southwest of London, was about 45 minutes. Matt spent the day catching up on a variety of tasks on the Internet. Bree met with her performance manager - good marks at this point. Work is starting to pick up a little, but busy season is still a couple weeks away for her client. I tried shepherd's pie at a small restaurant and loved it. The beans, meat and bread casserole of sorts warms your insides. I read a number of great intelligent magazines and newspapers throughout the day. Now that my formal education is over I have much more time to be an educated person. I think that one of the best donations someone could make to a campus is high level magazines to be out in the open. They have them in the library but they're needed at the bus stops, the cafeterias and the bathrooms. Pizza delivery made a delectable meal as we hadn't eaten any in a month besides out of the oven. A documentary on the national healthcare system was dessert. We agreed with our host, a nurse herself, that the US system, though flawed looks much better.

TUESDAY Feb 8
We didn't know they'd actually contact our character references and landlords before approving us to rent. Thanks Mark & Rachel. And the bank now decides that they want our marriage certificate. I also go to Middlesex to claim any mail we received at our temporary address. More computer tasks and more work preceded pork chops. While researching bus and train timetables I discover that there is actually a bus that runs from in front of our flat to the front door of Bree's office in 46 minutes. We'll have to try it to verify after we move in. A very intense and gory CSI Las Vegas captured our attention - they're so much better than Miami. Our host has promised to show us the best movie on leadership, which I've never heard of, so we have something to look forward to this weekend.

WEDNESDAY Feb 9
Today was not a very fruitful day - I became extremely frustrated with technology and didn't accomplish much. But I did confirm that I will be starting work on Monday, so I'll be moving off of Bree's welfare program. It was fun while it lasted. I watched with anticipation as ticket checkers moved through the train - but the girl who didn't have a ticket just pulled out some pounds and paid up. What fun is that? I wanted to see some excitement. Later, I saw a very unhappy girl yelling at the ticket agents... Honesty pays on ticket-check day. Bree and I ate dinner out for only the second time since we've been here. We walked around the Liecester Square area - pronounced 'Lester' according to people who would apparently know such trivialities. Mel says it's like the ce in peace. Oh well- it's more fun to say Lie-chester. We unknowingly were only a block away from Chinatown when we were lured into an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet called Mr. Wu's. We probably had our first and last meal with Mr. Wu.

THURS FEB 10
Our hosts are COMPLETELY spoiling us. Tonight it was steak. We watched Vertical Limit - they play a lot more recent releases during primetime. We've seen more movies in a month than the last two years. Bree experienced her first day of "busy season."

FRI FEB 11
Matt ventured into another part of the city today after meeting up with Josh, a friend from A&M on his way to do a medical internship in China. Together they met with an American missionary and explored Lebanese food in the form of a swarma, which is kind of like a Lebanese fajita. He proved to be a wonderful tour guide. That night's agenda: get Bree well. So we relaxed to the wonderful film A Beautiful Mind. Could you imagine really having that much flowing through your brain?

SAT FEB 12
Today we had our first visitor, a great friend originally from Oman. We weren't very good hosts, as we didn't even know where to find a good restaurant. Together we decided that people work too hard or at least too much. Afterwards, we went to the theatre to see Les Miserables. Even from the cheap seats, that is such a gripping epic of justice and grace - Bree almost stayed awake. Chinatown, with all of its fresh meat displayed in the windows, is a fun sight to see. We tried a little duck and a little lemon chicken. PF Chang's ranks higher on our list. Quick- name your famous British actor! The British were giving out the Bafta's right around the corner, the equivalent of the Academy Awards. I was out voted, so we did stand in the mob waiting for a glimpse of people I wouldn't have even recognized. We tried to sit and order dessert but aparently it's not kosher here to not order a full meal. That's right, they kicked us out for the crime of not getting an entrée. Whew, what a day.

SUN FEB 13
Another less than ideal church visit, but we're confident that we're one church closer to finding the one we'll attend. A beautiful lazy Sunday afternoon ensued, our apologies to those of you who we still owe thank you notes. Another dark cloud enveloped the country as England once again collapsed, unable to make a kick when it mattered against France. Dinner- excellent chicken of course with baked potatoes and mixed veggies.

MON Feb 14
Somebody got flowers at work, and it wasn't me, even though it was my first day on the job. I work in a very nice office, right off the tube station, making my commute slightly shorter than Bree's. We went to a nice little restaurant with our hosts and had our first pasta cooked by someone else. Happy Valentine's Day!

TUES FEB 15
Another day of work. We met up for lunch with some of the interns and sampled crepe sandwiches, suprisingly good, though the wait made us have a European lunch "hour."

WED FEB 16


THURS FEB 17
Cheers from the Aggie A&M Club! Tonight we met up with about 25 Aggies residing in London for some length of time. Unfortunately Chiquito did not live up to Texas standards for Mexican food, but I guess what can you expect. I was somewhat distracted by my communications with the bank to determine the fastest way to get money transferred - can you believe that it still takes a week to clear funds from the US to the UK? We returned to our mailing address - 92 Middlesex, all the way up in the Northeast corner of Central London - to obtain our sterling debit cards! Bet you don't have one of those. So it was a late night.

FRI FEB 18
Would you believe that we worked today? I sure miss no Friday classes. I made it through my first week and I'm sure I learned more than you did about SEC filings. For lunch my manager treated my team to a Sushi bar. I'd never been to one of these places where they have the food come by on a conveyer belt and you just grab what you want. I'm addicted to a book, Titan about the life of John D Rockefeller. He was one of my favorite people to read about growing up - this book doesn't make him out to be that great of a role model however. But you may not have known that he was a very devout Baptist.


SAT FEB 19
The Full Monty. That was the name of my barbershop. An Albanian cut my hair English style, and glued what remained to my scalp. He philosophized while he clipped, but didn't really know where Texas was, except that it was a state. Bree got hers done at the Toni and Guy, where the hairdressers cut hair to finance their real job of dressing up for work everyday. It was quite the hip place, though I don't think I'd be let onto the client's premises if I adopted their fashion. Hers looks great of course; mine should be better after I sleep on it. We finally got around to watching 12 o'clock high, which was quite enjoyable. We also scouted out Joey and Two and a half Men. Joey made me laugh considerably more than I'd expected.

SUN FEB 20
Churches here are certainly not the same here as back home, but we went to a nice church today that we'll probably return to. A nice old man brought all the American couples he could find over to meet us. Everyone was very friendly - especially over tea afterwards. We went to a nice little Italian restaurant in Richmond for lunch. Chinese take-out for dinner. Laundry was done, perhaps for the last time with a dryer, as our new place is lacking. We had our weekly dose of football. Panic Room and Carena, Carena were the movies of the weekend.

MON FEB 21
First, the guy at the bank tried to say that their system was still down and he couldn't issue a banker's draft, which had been his story on Friday. My icy stare was enough and I didn't even have to gripe before he scurried away. It took him awhile, but he returned with what I needed. Amazing. Then, our real estate agent was 45 minutes late to our contract signing. Nevertheless, it's a done deal and we get the keys on Wednesday. We were interrupted by the screams of an Aussie girl in the office. Everything was fine; she was just a bit thrilled to see snow. What a great day. And shrimp creole to finish it. Most importantly, Bree obtained an appointment for us to get our National Health insurance number after two weeks of relentless phone calls. Yay nationalized health insurance.

TUES FEB 22
Nothing but work today. And Burger King, since Bree worked late. Plus, the trains were an hour behind schedule. More snow today, but it's not really sticking. It just makes me want to get skiing on the Alps sooner. The big accomplishment was getting my own ID card at the client site, which also functions as a lunch ticket everyday I'm there. Currently I'm on a team with six unique nationalities represented. This certainly generates a wealth of fascinating conversations topics. They lokked at me with blank faces when I said cleats, over here they're boots. One coworker was severely disappointed to hear that Texans hunt doves, the symbol for peace, while some of the males didn't know what quail were. But hunting kangaroos sounded like a lot more fun.

WED Moving Day
Well it's finally true - we have our first home. We dropped a couple suitcases off before work, and Bree quickly got her first glimpse of our place. The windows and brightness are what appeal to her most, as I knew they would. That evening we journeyed back to East London to pickup another bag each from the interns' place and walked up to hill to our through an imposing snowstorm. Gleefully we unpacked and stowed away