We had intended to write it much much sooner, but alas, as as occurred multiple times so far in the past two weeks, things haven't worked out the way we expected.
We are beginning to travel out "on tour" to see various friends and family across the country. On Friday we packed up the car and headed off to Bristol (1 1/2 hours south of Birmingham):
Bristol is home to good friends/leaders/sponsors of mine, Peter & Helen, from the camps I did as a teenager live and have just had a baby. Reuben, born september 10th, was exposed to an afternoon of cuddles and photos with "aunty sebrina & uncle steve."
we had a very English lunch of sandwiches, crisps [potato chips], quiche [very English Christian!!] and salad and had some good chats about who we were settling in. It was good to have so many people just caring for us, especially those who have a few more years experience than us.
THEN...we headed to the party central that is OXFORD!!!!
We arrived at 7pm, just as Calvin was getting in from work, and had a large dinner of grandma's macaroni cheese, chicken, dumplings, potato, sweet potato and ackee and salt fish. Or as my mum calls it "black food."
We stayed in oxford until Sunday evening and managed to see: mum, calvin, kaream, jamal, grandma, uncle dewayne, charys & jenai [my youngest girl cousins/flower girls at our wedding], uncle louis, uncle pearling, tyson, jordan & jordelle [ my cousins], femi [jordelle's fiance] and baby jemii... who is WALKING!!!!!! Oxford is where ALL my family is. And Saturday and Sunday is when the good stuff gets cooked. So it is very easy to get people together. Made us feel very at home and reminded us of how much fun it is going to be getting to see everyone much more often. Felt very reassuring and so glad that we went up there.
I [Sebrina] woke up on Sunday morning and felt like my time in Texas had been a dream. It was very surreal. It's only been two weeks since we left, but it feels like much longer than that. It feels weird. And we miss the heat. And the people we had so close. That is the biggest adjustment - having to drive over an hour to get to people that we are as close to as people in Texas who were only 5-10 mins drive from in Arlington.
Today we went to look at a couple of potential apartments in the city centre (good access to trains & buses and only 10-15 mins in the car/bus from Steve's parents house). The first was a glorified hotel and not really our thing. The second is a definite potential with only 67 properties on the site, and a nice residential/family feel about it. 2 bedroom not 3 but the rooms were good sizes. The tenants were still living there which always makes things awkward as you are going around. They also had rabbits and their hygiene and definition of the term "tidy enough for potential tenants to visit" was questionable. However, we thing that complex could be a good fit for us. Here is the link to it and to give you an idea of what English property is like.
Steve's dad is still in the hospital. He has had two recent setbacks - he "slipped off the toilet seat" in the restroom at the hospital (quotations are his words - no one is too sure how that happened) and it took 4 nurses to help him back up. I don't think he was playing possum but rather cannot get a signal to his brain properly to take his weight and fully understand what is going on. Steve's mum also got a call this morning to say that he fell trying to go to the toilet alone this morning (something he hasn't done the whole time he's been in the hospital). The restroom is turning out to be the most precarious trip he's ever taken it seems. We will head out to the hospital again this evening (visiting hours are 2-4pm and 6:30-8:30pm and he is on a ward with 3 other people) as we haven't seen him since thursday evening. It is really hard for both of us but especially Steve to see his dad like this and we are not sure what he future holds. When Joy visited last week she got quite tearful upset that he had to suffer so much. I think that is how we all feel. But Father is doing something, teaching us something, maybe bringing earthly healing, so we just wait.
We are doing ok. Oxford definitely helped. Just a lot to get adjusted to.
Workwise I am plodding on with general applications for masters in social work (have to pick five places to apply to between Birmingham, Oxford, Worcester, Nottingham, Wolverhampton, Warwick and Keele and get the application off in the next few weeks). Lots of form filling and a one page personal statement on why I want to do Social Work and my previous experience with it.
I also handed in application forms and CV's (resumes) for retail sales assistant jobs (Dorothy Perkins, Topshop, Monsoon, Oasis and Bravissimo).
Steve has been sending out emails and trying to contact local schools to try and get meetings with principals. He has a look round at a school tomorrow that needs a learning support helper. So he will visit the school, fill out the application form and hopefully get an interview on october 10th!! Wait and see if that is the door Father God wants to open.
We applied online for "jobseekers allowance" aka unemployment benefit. The system is farcical and I am already frustrated with the slowness of it all. Maybe I should get a job there...
UPDATE: Just got a call from Oasis in the Bullring (major shopping mall in Birmingham) and they want to interview me on Wednesday!! Part time hours (12 a week, with the potential of 30 hours) but they really liked my CV and hoped I would still be willing to work with them. She also mentioned me working "dual site" (some hours in the main store, some in a smaller branch 5 mins away) so that I could have full time (40 hours a week). So need to do some work researching the brand a little more (http://www.oasis-stores.com/) and then hopefully I'll be in there!!
OK, I have written lots, And lots. But that makes up for taking ages to do it.
To end, I leave you with a short video including some of your favorite funny people:
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