Getting to the UK

We're finally here!

It took quite a bit of work, but Russell and I finally made it. Many of you were following along on the craziness as it happened, but here's a recap.

3/19: End of the term for Jaci
3/20: Jaci goes to Seattle for a conference
3/21: Russell finds out he needs a work permit and visa (he had been told he didn't previously)
3/24: Jaci returns from the conference
3/25: Jaci and Russell pack for the UK and rent a storage unit for the rest of their stuff. The whole family turns out to help move furniture and boxes to storage.
3/26: Jaci cleans most of the apartment and finishes the last of the packing. Russell gets his work permit - and discovers he and Jaci need to fly to L.A. to get visas. (Keeping in mind the flight to England is for the 28th). Russell, Jaci, and families rush through cleaning the rest of the apartment and loading the rest of the boxes into Alice's van. Russell and Jaci drive up to Portland.
3/27: Jaci and Russell fly to L.A., get their visas, almost miss their plane because they are doing a crossword, but do make it home to Portland.
3/28: Jaci and Russell leave for the UK.

It was a busy week.

Our flight went quite smoothly. The plane out of Portland was carrying a donor organ, so we were put first in the queue to take off (this was good, since flights were a bit backed up). We traded planes in Chicago and were lucky again. Our gate was just a short distance down the hall. We got there just as first class was boarding and actually had time to choke down some dinner before jumping aboard. We weren't able to sleep much on this leg of the trip, which was unfortunate since we arrived in London around 7am. Luckily, we were excited enough about being somewhere new that we managed to find the bus station, hop a bus to Reading, figure out the phone system, meet with the apartment representative to get our keys and make our way home. Once we got there, however, we crashed.

We let ourselves sleep for two hours and then went exploring. We are only about three blocks away from the train station, and our aparment building is located off a little back street behind a huge shopping mall. The giant brick mall blocks most of the traffice noise, but we are right in the center or everything. The location is great.