Since I last wrote I have been mostly:

- Skiing in New Hampshire

- Getting a job

- Turning 30

- Passing my driving test here in the US

- Starting my new job

- Starting to house hunt for our next home here

- Catching up with old friends who I didn’t even realise were here in Boston!

So skiing was fun, if a bit cold.  I definitely missed the warm European end of ski season sun!  I had a revelation when someone took my poles from outside the lodge on our last day – it turns out skiing with no poles is much easier!  Still waiting for a similar breakthrough with ski boots, they are soooo uncomfortable. We had a great time with Dan’s folks though and I think they enjoyed themselves too, although they were here for the coldest weather we’ve had this winter, so we were a bit frozen! My favourite bit, as always, was the lovely alcoholic hot chocolates (Amaretto + hot chocolate = heaven)!

While Dan’s folks were here I had an interview with a recruitment consultant, followed by another couple over the next week or so.  All together it took 2 and a half weeks to find a job (once I put my mind to it!) which I’m quite proud of given the “current economic situation”! So I’m now a Senior Finance Analyst at Stride Rite (the US equivalent of Start Rite- selling kiddie shoes!).  It’s fun as I’m now surrounded by shoes, they do own some adult brands too, so I’ve already investing in a couple of new pairs of trainers.  I’ve been working for nearly 4 weeks now, and so far so good.  Been a bit of a shock to the system to go back to work, after my nice lady of leisure time, but I’m slowly getting the hang of it again.

I had a great time at home celebrating turning 30 with my family and friends.  So lovely to see everyone that came! Had excessive cake consumption (my Mum had made me two cakes!), lots of presents and generally an all round nice time. I managed to fit in lots of things, trips to the hairdresser, doctors, I even went back to work at Thomson to see everyone, and go for a yummy duck pizza at the Wyvern, just like old times! Got a bit home sick when I was leaving, just missing everyone, so I’m hoping everyone comes to visit soon!

The day after I got back to the US (from the birthday trip home) I sat (and passed, thank heavens!) my US driving test.  To be honest I think a medium intelligence monkey could probably pass the test, so I’m not that proud, just glad I didn’t fail!  The whole thing lasted about 5 minutes and involved me driving to a side street, doing a parallel park, then a turn in the road and then driving back to the start. I couldn’t quite believe it was over so fast!

Then the next day after the driving test I started at work! Jet lag was helping me out with the early starts, but I was wiped out in the evenings! The work is interesting, although I’ve gone back in time to Tesco, with retail jargon and looking at the same types of costs.  It’s pretty good though as it’s not really like starting a new job were you haven’t got a clue about anything, at least I know something about the industry which is really helping.  Team is nice, small, only 4 of us in retail finance (which when you compare to Tesco does make me giggle!). They have fun laughing at my accent, well really more the words I use, there have been some funny moments when I’ve used the phrase “going to the loo”, and called sneakers, trainers and other random things that I didn’t even think were particularly strange.  Mike who I work with is starting work on an English to English dictionary, to help us speak to each other!  Generally I think it’s going OK, the big bonus is being paid again (and every 2 weeks), so Dan and I can have fun spending money again, me on clothes and shoes, Dan on computer things!

We need to save some of the money though to pay for our next move in May, when our short term lease on our current place comes to an end. We’ve started to have a look, (3 places so far), and I’m hoping we can find something as nice as where we are now. My list of requirements is pretty long, but I think it should be possible to find something! I think the main challenge is going to be balancing my list of requirements with how much money Dan is prepared to pay!  I’ll keep you updated on how the hunt is going, and hopefully put some pictures of the new place online, once we’ve chosen it!

Once the move is over I do think I’ll start to feel more settled in.  I’m making progress, got a job, passed my driving test, and that’s really the last thing to get organised.  Once we have our new place we can get furniture for it, and start to surround ourselves with our own things, which always makes somewhere feel more like home.  I’m settling in and making new friends though, well more like catching up with old ones!  I lived with a girl called Caroline in my first year of university, and it turns out that she’s here in Boston too, and friends with Kat (Dan’s sister’s best friend – who has been here in Boston for 18 months or so now). Through the amazing medium of Facebook, I see a picture of Kat on a night out in Boston, with a girl that looks very familiar . . . Caroline!  We all met up for drinks last weekend, which was fun, if a bit of a frightening trip down memory lane!

So I think that’s us caught up again now, sorry for the gap!  I’m going to try for once a month from now on, slightly more realistic now I’ve got a job!  I’ve skipped over a lot of the dull stuff, housework, trying to complete our US tax return etc as it’s not massively exciting, but if you feel you need more gory details please do let me know!

Cheerio for now!

H xxx