A New Life?
When I started this blog, it was intended to be a way to keep in touch with people back home and hopefully a sometimes humorous look at the differences between our two cultures. The title, an idiosyncratic phrase often used by my friends in Epsom, "A new xxxx, same as the old xxxx?" was intended to convey my realisation that despite any differences, ultimately we would lead a similar life here in the US as to home. We would still have to work, pay the bills, service the car, do the housework, etc.
Well, we have been here for almost 4 months now and have settled into what I would loosely term a normal life. I go to work every day and play golf as often as I can. We watch TV in the evenings, go to the cinema, out for the occasional meal, etc. Lorraine does an awesome job keeping house, showing me what a great cook she is, running errands, is learning to play golf and quite often finds out about local events like the Taste Of Lincolnshire for us to attend.
She is starting to look seriously for volunteer opportunities to get her talking to real people during the day, we are looking into mortgages, visa extensions and trying to decide whether to move or stay put for the next 6 month time frame.
Probably the biggest difference that I have noticed, and I have mentioned this before, is the weather. I know that a lot of the things we do, the Taste event, playing golf, tonight we are off to an open air picnic concert in Buffalo Grove, are made so much more enjoyable with the fab and generally very reliable weather we have, although we did get caught in a storm on Saturday afternoon whilst cycling back from the Taste Of Lincolnshire.
Of course the pool, the on site gym, the proximity to the lake, and the forthcoming, although hopefully not too soon, winter are the sorts of things that make it different for us, and we will continue to find unique things in the local and national US culture that are interesting enough to write about. The custom of ice cream with cake, whilst delicious, is undoubtedly NOT one of those!
Tomorrow I go to my first Cubs game, to find out just how badly they suck, although Steve tells me that the views can make up for it. I will tell you all about it later in the week.
Well, we have been here for almost 4 months now and have settled into what I would loosely term a normal life. I go to work every day and play golf as often as I can. We watch TV in the evenings, go to the cinema, out for the occasional meal, etc. Lorraine does an awesome job keeping house, showing me what a great cook she is, running errands, is learning to play golf and quite often finds out about local events like the Taste Of Lincolnshire for us to attend.
She is starting to look seriously for volunteer opportunities to get her talking to real people during the day, we are looking into mortgages, visa extensions and trying to decide whether to move or stay put for the next 6 month time frame.
Probably the biggest difference that I have noticed, and I have mentioned this before, is the weather. I know that a lot of the things we do, the Taste event, playing golf, tonight we are off to an open air picnic concert in Buffalo Grove, are made so much more enjoyable with the fab and generally very reliable weather we have, although we did get caught in a storm on Saturday afternoon whilst cycling back from the Taste Of Lincolnshire.
Of course the pool, the on site gym, the proximity to the lake, and the forthcoming, although hopefully not too soon, winter are the sorts of things that make it different for us, and we will continue to find unique things in the local and national US culture that are interesting enough to write about. The custom of ice cream with cake, whilst delicious, is undoubtedly NOT one of those!
Tomorrow I go to my first Cubs game, to find out just how badly they suck, although Steve tells me that the views can make up for it. I will tell you all about it later in the week.
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