One of life’s little paradoxes is that I can feel like I’ve been out of the States for months, and at the same time feel like I’ve been in England for only a few short days. My plane touched down here a little after 0700 on April the 5th, two days after my birthday (shame on those who didn’t give me anything ;-). Read on for a quick recap of how things went from there:
Friday morning: Hooked up with the Rutledges (a missionary family) in Slough. They took me around to see the various housing options they had identified.
Friday afternoon: Went to Windsor Castle. Very much worth the admission price: it managed to keep me awake even after 36 hours with almost no sleep.
Friday evening: After eating a fantastic dinner cooked up by Mrs. Rutledge, I found my way to the hotel, checked in, and went dead to the world for 12+ hours.
Late Saturday morning: Went to the Tower of London, which is even cooler than Windsor Castle. Saw the crown jewels and a bunch of other things, although there was a lot I didn’t get to see simply due to time constraints. I’d love to go again; perhaps we’ll do that when you come visit me :-).
Saturday evening: Crashed again, but not quite so hard.
Sunday: Headed back out to Slough (my hotel was in central London) for church. Spent basically the whole day with the Rutledges (amazingly, they were able to put up with me for that long). While I’ll admit to being a bit tired throughout the day, my internal clock was almost completely synched up with local time by now.
Monday: Hooked up with Kurt (the manager who got RoleModel the contract I’m working on) once he got in to the country. He flew in for something unrelated, but it was nice to have him around Monday through Thursday of my first week. Once we made it to the office, I spent most of the day meeting people and setting up my equipment.
Tuesday: Worked, and then went in to downtown London to the eXtreme Tuesday Club (XtC), where I spent the evening talking about eXtreme Programming and various topics surrounding it. Very geeky, and a lot of fun.
Wednesday: Checked out of the hotel in the morning, went to work, and after work went to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting. The Rutledges dropped me off at the Teikyo School afterwards, which is where I’m living while in the UK.
So that takes me up to my permanent residence. I’m still ironing out various details about transportation, etc., but in general I would say I’m settled in. Thanks so much to those of you who prayed for me: there is no doubt that the Lord prepared my way before me and directed my steps.
If you plan to travel over here, let me know! Not only can I give you advice, I might also be able to hook you up with cheap accomodations in the London area.