House Hunters International

Things are going jolly well over here in London town as our tenure in our temporary housing unit at the Point West apartments comes to an end.  It is not fair to completely bash the dreary high rise condo (pictured at right) as its hulking ugliness actually serves as an effective point of reference when navigating our new city as it is by far the most unsightly building for miles around. 

Upon arrival in London, we went on a multi-day adventure to secure new accommodations  during which we were frequently reminded of the show House Hunters International.  More than once, we felt as though our house hunt was more than a bit surreal, if not exactly TV-worthy. We looked, for example, at a building that Princess Diana used to live in (pre-princess, when she was "just a Lady"), considered a neighborhood in which Simon Cowell and Sir Richard Branson reside, and viewed a unit from which you can see Wills and Kate's backyard.  Before you begin wondering whether Jared has been promoted about 50 times over to afford to live in such locations, I should note that while here, we will be receiving a housing allowance that will offset the we slight difference in the real estate market between Houston and London.

 

After viewing almost 20 different properties, we finally settled on a lovely unit at 56 Kensington Court, just blocks from Kensington Gardens/ Hyde Park, which will be perfect for when our furry roommate arrives in a few weeks.  The flat is centrally located, convenient for Jared's commute, and offers an authentically claustrophobic Euro-style "lift" to assist you in your arrival to the 4th floor unit. 

 

Our furniture is schedule to arrive on Tuesday and, much to my delight, we have a crane booked to lift the furniture up to the 4th floor and through the window.

 

With our new accommodations secured and the moving date set, the only thing keeping me up at night is how our furniture is going to fit...

Cultural Appropriation

As the Dos Texpatriates continue to zip code hop, we have picked up a few habits that linger along with us.   Here are a few things that haven't quite worn off:

1. Turning the tires toward the curb- despite finding ourselves once again in flat-as-a-board Texas, we still can't resist cranking the wheels inward toward the curb to prevent major catastrophe in the event of the car sliding away downhill.

2. Izzit? I am definitely more guilty of this one than my counterpart, but the South Africanism of replying with "izzit?" in place of "really?" when answering in semi-disbelief, simply hasn't worn off.   Example:

       TEXPATRIATE 1:  "So there is actually a huge South African wine section at the Specs downtown"

       TEXPATRIATE 2: "Izzit? That is exciting."

Note that when replying with "Izzit?" you are allowed to completely disregard normal grammar rules regulating tense and number.  Just give it a try, you will see.... its catchy.

3. Requiring that food be tear-inducing levels of spiciness in order to be considered tasty.  This one certainly hasn't worn off despite our exposure to less-enlightened food cultures.

 4. California Eco-mindedness  This one really came to fruition today as I pretended to take a casual stroll around the neighborhood while actually looking for a good place to bury the week's compost collection.  Aware that should my actions be discovered, it could result in some type of reprimand or citation, I prepared a spiel on the "urban fertilization program" I was spearheading in the neighborhood.  Luckily, I did not have to test the believe-ability of this plan...yet.

As time elapses, I am sure that we will discover additional cultural elements that continue along with us on our journey, but for now, I think this is a hella-good list. (kidding... the sufer-lingo never really took).