Living here in East Anglia has been somewhat of a throwback in time...for me anyway. It's not just that everything here is on a small scale relative to the US. Life here is slower and more relaxed. Now, I'm sure a lot of that has to do with not playing chauffeur to my children. They are not involved in after school activities here the way they are at home. Furthermore, I don't have a job. I actually have time to relax. One thing I've noticed is that walking is really big around here. And I don't mean walking for exercise. Just purposeful walking. If you need to go to town, you walk. Need to pick the kids up from school...you walk. Of course, bikes are popular too. I always see people (mostly older folks) on bicycles. Even the mailmen ride bikes. Afterall, they only deliver mail. They don't pick it up. You have to walk to the post office to mail anything. For me, walking is the only way to go during the week when John is in London. We have a car (stick shift) but I refuse to take my chances. Getting my brain to work "backwards" by driving on the left with steering wheel on the right is difficult enough. But to add to that having to shift gears with my left hand...well nevermind.

In the small village of Saxmundham, where I currently reside, the schools are quite small. The primary (elementary) school has only 200 students and the middle school has 300. I've noticed that the schools here and in NC compare academically. Class size is about the same as well.

We've had interesting weather here. Nothing out of the ordinary really. It is England after all. Most days are cloudy, cool and down-right blustery. Many are wet (in some form or another). I've experienced a lot of rain, mist, sleet (which looked surprisingly like pea-sized hail) and snow. I've managed to slip on ice and bruise my butt, fall off a curb and severely sprain my ankle and catch some sort of virus that leaves me nauseated nearly everyday. But I really do like it here. In fact, I'm finding that there are times wishing we had more time here. The girls hope to start in a theatre-training group in Ipswich (about 30 minutes south of us). What an experience. This group performes at the London Royal Palladium, Sir Albert Hall and other "famous" venues.

As for me, I never tire of sight-seeing...even locally. One day, on a walk, I stumbled upon an old 12th century church. I've visited and walked around Dunwich Heath near the sea, Aldeburgh (an old seaside village that has become an Artist's oases). I've visited Orford Castle built for Henry II in 1165 and strolled around its quaint riverside village of Orford. I took a river-walk (in Snape) to see a church that I thought was built in the 600's. I can't even wrap my head around that kind of lasting relic. As it turns out, it had originally been built on an Anglo-Saxon pagan site as a monastery. That was eventually destroyed and a church was put in it's place. There's another Church in Wenhaston that boasts a rare medieval painting that was discovered by accident.