Thursday, March 27, 2014

A Day in Cambridge: Photo Essay

A highlight of my sister's visit back in January was a day trip to Cambridge. We're so fortunate to live just an hour from this remarkable place. I wrote about a kid-free day in Cambridge here and here, back when I visited while we were in the early stages of planning our move to England. It was fun to return, and this time bring the boys.

Our day started with a double decker bus ride on the Cambridge Park n' Ride system (it's easier to park on the outside of the city centre and just take the bus in). These moments are always a good reminder of why it's so fun to travel with little ones. We could have just taken a spin on the bus and they would have been happy with that.


Wednesday, March 19, 2014

The Highs and Lows of Expat Life

Whenever I undertake a major organizational project (like cleaning out a closet), it always looks messier at first, but by the time I finish, the results are usually pretty great. I think moving abroad is like that, too, at least for us. The first few months were a little ugly, but the more we get adjusted, the better it looks.

As I shared a few months ago in my post about our 6 month anniversary as expats, we are really settling into life here in England. I can't decide whether it is normal to take several months for a place to feel like home, or if that's actually a pretty impressive length of time given the amount of changes our family made when we moved here.

Regardless, I can already tell that the whirlwind of emotions I've had over the past year has stabilized. I was recently asked to submit a tip for current or future expats for the HiFX Expat Tip Page, which got me thinking about some of the highs and lows of this experience. Before I forget what this first year has really felt like (hindsight is always 20/20, right?), I wanted to share a bit about the emotional realities, at least for our family.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

A day at Parques das Nacoes in Lisbon

I think I've been putting off writing about our day at Parques das Nacoes in Lisbon for a few weeks simply because it's probably my last post about our Portugal trip and I just don't want the fun to end. But alas, there are more trips on the horizon this spring that promise to be just as wonderful. So out with the old, in with the new... We had a lovely few hours at this redeveloped part of the city, so I'll mostly let the photos tell you all about it.

OCEANARIO DE LISBOA

We spent our morning at the Oceanario de Lisboa, which claims to be the second largest aquarium in the world. Naturally, the boys loved it. What's not to like about giant tanks of sea life?