The Re-entry series: Christmas traditions comparison

This post is a little unfair as, technically, we never spent Christmas in England as we always went home to visit, but I'll do it anyway 'cuz well . . . it's my blog and I get to do what I want. So, what will I miss from UK Christmas?

Number one is mince pies. And not because they're so outrageously delicious but more because they are EVERYWHERE starting just after Halloween. It's the number one sign the season has begun. And while I probably can find a mince pie somewhere in Seattle, in Bristol, they overflow from the supermarket shelves, every bakery and coffee shop and are offered at every holiday gathering (you know, those things we used to have at Christmas time). I remember my first work holiday gathering when I was working at the University of Bristol - we had champagne and mince pies around 2pm a few days before the Christmas break in the office. Yum!

And that would be the next thing - work Christmas lunches. In both jobs, we had a lavish Christmas pub lunch, complete with booze and secret Santa. Not sure there are many companies in the US that could get away with that these days.

Sticking with the food theme, cheese. Yes, there is lovely cheese all year round, but at Christmas time, the cheese makers pull out all the stops. All kinds of flavored cheeses, elaborate balls, spreads and plates. Apparently, a huge cheese course is a traditional part of Christmas dinner in England and it almost seems the cheese is more celebrated and looked forward to than the sweets. Sounds okay to me!

Christmas crackers are another novelty I'll miss - although I did have some leftover from last year so we'll be able to carry on the tradition tomorrow. These are the shiny toilet paper roll looking things you 'crack' open before Christmas dinner. Inside is a silly paper crown, some ridiculously cheap toy and a groan-worthy joke or trivia question. It's a silly tradition that seems so counter to the generally serious demeanor of the British, but it is 'jolly good fun'.

There are a few more (ugly Christmas jumper charity day, brass bands playing in the supermarket and carol services in all those gorgeous old cathedrals) but let me end with probably my favorite, which is that everyone says Happy Christmas (or Merry Christmas). No happy holidays or other attempts at political correctness that just seem to fall short of the intended meaning, just straight up Merry Christmas. Now, maybe this is because the Brits are 'less woke' I'm not sure, but it is nice not to have to overthink or worry about a greeting that is intended to spread joy and just be a nice thing to say. When we lived in UAE, everyone said Eid Mubarak whether you were a practicing Muslim or not. The statement was a happy greeting of well wishes, that's all and everyone seemed to understand that. I get that same feeling from a Happy Christmas in Britain.

And on that note, let me say Merry Christmas to all of you and thanks for reading!

The Re-entry Series: American appliances

We've joked for the last 10 years about our 'easy bake ovens' and the half size fridge & freezer. In Abu Dhabi we had a decent size fridge/freezer combo that had to sit in the 'maid's room' because it was too big for the kitchen. But the stove in AD was when we started using 'easy bake oven' to describe the size. In Bristol, the oven was a little bigger, but only because it had and upper and lower oven - still only the width of an easy bake and in fact, the cookie sheets and roasting pan I finally shipped over from the US didn't fit! The fridge/freezer was even worse. First, they were separate and both under the counter models so shorter and narrower - think of a dorm size fridge and double it. The fridge was on one side of the kitchen and the freezer on the other. And during a pandemic when we limited our grocery shopping trips to once a week, that was a challenge!

So, imagine our delight to find a 'normal' size fridge/freezer and oven in our new apartment in Kent, WA. The space! The room! The noise! (not sure why, but our fridge sounds like a freight train when it cycles) But now that we'll have to go back to refrigerating our eggs, I know I'll have room for them. And once my cookie sheets and roasting pan arrive, I'm sure they'll fit with room to spare! 

Side note: you may have noticed the egg reference and you read that right. In the UK (and many parts of the world) there is no need to refrigerate eggs. And, the common eggs are brown - you pay a premium for white eggs (or duck or blue or quail). It felt a bit strange at first, but being able to store your eggs in the pantry is actually really convenient and, for me, preferred. Apparently, it has something to do with how eggs are washed here in the states that removes a protective covering on the shells that then requires them to be refrigerated. So, back in the fridge they'll go - but at least now I have room for them.

The Re-entry series: So many electrical outlets!

One of my ongoing frustrations with living abroad was the fact that neither UAE nor UK allow electrical outlets to be installed in a bathroom. This has meant that I need to do my hair in a different room away from the sink and with some kind of make shift mirror (I know, first world problems).

So, one of my joys at coming back to the US are those lovely outlets in bathrooms! I can blow dry my hair, charge my electric toothbrush and Brian's can use his beard trimmer without leaving the bathroom! It's the little things people, it really is.

Now I was anticipating that joy, but what I've also come to notice and appreciate is that in general there are just a lot more outlets. When wanting plug in the laptop or the vacuum or my phone charger, I just need to lean over and there's an outlet near by. In our kitchen in Bristol, we had one of those multi plugs and still had to unplug the coffee maker to plug in the kettle. I'm not sure I'll even need a multi plug here.

hahaha Heaven! 

The Re-entry series: Flying internationally during a pandemic

A lot of folks have asked us how the flights and airports were so I thought I'd share a bit about our journey now that you know how Petra got on.

We were originally scheduled on a direct London-Seattle flight on Delta, but about 10 days before we were set to leave, Delta cancelled all their direct flights so we ended up getting routed through Amsterdam. A KLM flight from London to Amsterdam and then Delta from Amsterdam to Seattle. I suppose that's the first thing to prepare for - your flights and plans will most likely change. Our very comfortable noon departure time and a direct flight became a 6:30am departure and a layover in Amsterdam.

As we had such an early check in and 8 bags between us, we stayed the night in a hotel outside Heathrow. We got to the terminal around 4:30 expecting things to be pretty quiet, but soon saw things were hopping at the check in counters. There were two flights to Amsterdam on KLM within 10 minutes of each other so clearly we weren't the only ones being re-routed.

Check in and security as you would expect - just everyone in masks and hand sanitizer everywhere. Once through security, things looked quite different than normal. Only a few restaurants open and most of the shops were shut. Duty free was still alive and well, but most things were closed - whether that was the result of the pandemic or the early hour, I'm not sure. Seating was blocked off to encourage social distancing.

The flight to Amsterdam was surprising completely full so we were all packed in there as usual and had a good chuckle as the flight attendants announced we should observe social distancing of at least one and a half meters. Everyone wearing masks so that was something.

Schipol airport in Amsterdam felt pretty normal except for the masks and some blocked off seating. A lot of the shops and restaurants were open and there were quite a few travelers. It was, however, easy to keep your distance so we felt relatively safe.

The Delta flight was much better - they had the seating arranged so you could only sit next to folks you were traveling with so lots of space. We had to keep our masks on for the entire flight, except when eating or drinking. They served standard meals and snacks and you had to keep your masks on until the flight attendants finished serving your seats. And it certainly looked like everyone was following the rules, which was good.

Arrival in Seattle and immigration was about the same - just masks and social distancing and the lines were definitely much shorter than normal. Baggage was the same as well and the social distancing fell apart a bit as people crowded to get their bags.

So overall, a positive experience that felt relatively safe and organized. 

The Re-entry Series: Petra the Expat Cat

It's hard to know where to start with this series as a lot hits you all at once when you arrive in a new place. Add a global pandemic to the mix and it's an even bigger adventure! So, after some consideration, it makes sense to start with Petra, who probably had an adventure much greater than ours - if only we could have installed a kitty go pro camera to capture it all!

First, the basics. We decided to move back to the US from Bristol, England for a variety of reasons and combined this with Brian's 'retirement' from Epic. I have to put that in quotes as neither of us can really believe it's traditional retirement so suffice to say, he's currently unemployed and we'll leave it at that. We settled on the Seattle area as we've always wanted to live out here and determined a few years ago that after Abu Dhabi and England, Wisconsin would just be too cold for us. So, here we are getting our bearings.

And of course, where we go, our cats go. We lost our lovely Rogue in April so were arranging just for Petra this time around. Petra joined the family in Abu Dhabi so she's been through this once before. We both have, but that doesn't make it much easier - pet shipping is not for the faint of heart. 

The biggest challenge was getting a date secured. When we first started planning - this needs to start about 6 months out to ensure you have accommodated any vaccination protocols - the airlines weren't booking any animal flights more than 2 weeks in advance and with the pandemic rules changing so frequently in England, we couldn't nail down anything definite. In early October, we started to agree dates. We were flying Dec 12 so wanted Petra to fly Dec 13 which looked possible. British Airways was the only carrier flying pets out of the UK so we were completely at their mercy.

A quick side note about why we didn't fly together. Pets out of the UK must fly as cargo. We could have found some way to get to France where she could fly with us in the cabin, but if you own cats, and especially a vocal one (like Petra!) you quickly realize this is a really bad idea. In addition, we were flying Delta due to some perks of being frequent flyer members so we also used different airlines.

In early November, England went back into lockdown and as a result, BA limited their animal flights to once per week on Wednesdays. However, since the lockdown was scheduled to end on Dec 2, we thought we might still be able to make the Dec 13 plan. Then, there were some airport strikes at Heathrow to consider . . . Suffice to say, we didn't really know when she would fly until we received notice she was on the plane, but we planned for Wednesday Dec 16th and in the end, that's the date that worked.

Drop off was easy - our pet shipper (highly recommend using a pet shipper) picked her up in Bristol and drove her to the cattery in Windsor (yes, that Windsor - we joke that she probably had tea with the Queen and her corgis!) where she stayed until her flight. She was checked out by their vet who provided her 'fit to fly' certificate and then she was off.

This shipper builds a custom crate for each animal which is a really sturdy wooden box with heavy mesh on either end for air circulation and visibility. It has a really thick and comfy carpet-like mat inside which will also absorb any urine during the journey and has a water cup that can be refilled from the outside. Not bad accommodation - economy class for sure, but I'm guessing the in flight entertainment was pretty good.

We collected her at the SeaTac cargo office. Lots of paperwork, a collection fee and an anxious wait in the cargo warehouse imaging how scared she must be with all the movement and noise. And then she arrived on a forklift with 3 other pet carriers. 

We took her home and when we opened the crate, she came out confidently (cussing us the whole time) and immediately started to explore. After about an hour of ensuring she had sniffed and explored every inch of the one bedroom apartment, she had a little food and used the litter box. She seems to have adapted extremely well and was back to her sassy self in about a day. The only residual effect is that her internal clock is still on UK time so we're treated to pretty incessant meowing each morning around 3am. But I'll take it.

Introducing the Re-entry Series

We've just moved back to the United States after 10 years abroad and I'm finding a need to capture my reactions to coming 'home' and the realizations that 'home' isn't quite the same as we left it. So, the next few posts will be part of a re-entry series exploring the reverse culture shock of coming back to the US. Enjoy!