For those of you that don’t know, Joseph has been offered to transfer with his current company to the London office for 2 years, and we are thrilled for the upcoming adventure!
We left DFW airport at 6:40 pm on January 5, and after a flight that Joseph ranked Eli a 5/10, we made it to London at 9:00 am on January 6! Our first day we tried to combat the jet lag as much as possible, so we stayed up all day (And by we I mean Joe and I. Eli did not and we regretted it later).
We breezed through passport control, luggage, and customs and made our way to our black car driver who was standing with a sign waiting for us immediately after customs. This was the best decision we made! We were struggling with all of the bags (and by we, I mean Joe), so to have some help as soon as we exited customs was a relief!
We decided to stay in an AirBNB for a month while we look for our permanent housing the next 2 years, and it was only a 30 minute drive from the airport! We were told that this is not normal and we super lucked out with traffic! We got our luggage in, and within a few minutes we hear our doorbell pager with our shipped luggage!!! This was another crazy luck thing this day! We weren’t expecting our bags until January 9, so when 3 out of 4 of them showed up within a few minutes of our arrival, we were shocked! The first thing Eli discovered in our kitchen was the combo washer/dryer. (There will be more on that later. Possibly a whole blog post on the problems with these things).
We then decided to gear up for the rain and cold and head out for lunch. We went to an Italian place right next to our house that was recommended by our landlord and it was great. (PS. This is the part of the story where Eli fell asleep and his parents let him sleep through lunch whoops.)
We then decided to take a stroll down High Street Kensington. We stopped in a few stores then headed for Equinox. After a quick tour, we determined that this gym was the perfect for us, so we joined! They have a fantastic kids club, great work-out equipment, great classes, and we were already familiar with the Equinox in Dallas, so this was perfect! Eli continued to sleep through our Equinox tour, and at the end of it when we tried to wake him up, this is what happened… so we let him go back to sleep. 
We then made our way a few doors down to the Whole Foods for a few snacks/drinks for around the house. Then we browsed around a while more, picked up dinner food, and headed back to the casa. We spent the night unpacking, settling in, and just making things feel a little more homey around here! Also, our 4th shipped luggage showed up, so we suprisngly already have all of our luggage! Sendmybag ROCKS! We are currently trying to get a wound up toddler to sleep, so wish us luck!
Overall first day thoughts:
- Things aren’t that different from Texas except people walk everywhere (which I kinda enjoy)
- Stay tuned for the London diet progress because if I don’t lose weight here, I never will.
- The washer/dryer combo is craziness. I have had clothes on for 5 hours and they are still going… not exaggerating
- Overall, people here just seem a little more chill. Not in a rush to go places. Babies sleeping in strollers EVERYWHERE!
- The raining all the time is a real thing… I’m glad I got a great heavy rain jacket (Thanks Mom!)
I will leave y’all with some snapshots of our new flat after the first day. Give us a break, it’s definitely not done! PS. So there are 2 bedrooms. The master and a tiny guest bedroom. The guest bedroom is perfect for Eli, except that his crib doesn’t fit in there. So he is staying in the master. Then the guest closet is too small for both Joe and I’s stuff, so Joe’s stuff is in the guest. And we couldn’t put Joe’s stuff in the room Eli sleeps in because he needs to be able to get his stuff to get ready in the morning without waking up Eli! Not that you needed the full rant, but I am sharing a closet with Eli. Not ideal, but hey it works. 
