I spent a week settling in to my new life abroad. It’s really the little nuances of life that take getting used to. Remembering to flip switches, to not stub my toes on the awkward fool transitions, locking the door with a key from the inside, and turning the faucet as far left as it will go so it wont leak. I’ve been doing pretty ok with it. My body is also trying to adjust. My stomach hasn’t been the most receptive to the food or water, nor have my sleep cycles been the most forgiving. But I do feel that I am getting there.

The house is becoming more of my own space as well. I’ve spent less than $10 for a slipcover for the couch and a canvas to paint in an attempt to degrandmafi the living room. The other option I considered instead was making it an over the top grandma room with mini tea sets, doilies on every surface, pictures of my grandkids, and strange animal figurines. And although that would be way more original/funny, I opted for something I’d actually feel more comfortable in.

I’m also proud to announce that I’ve made some cool/young English friends. Initially I had to recite their names in my head to keep them all straight but I think I can now with conviction identify who Nathan, Chris, Marcella, Mark, Paula, Lee, Sam, Rick, Zoe, Anna, Charlie, Becky, and Laura are. Nathan I know the best. He lives just down the road and apparently I’m renting the same house his sister and brother-in-law had just been renting before going off to China. Nathan is a great chap, he 30, is extremely skinny but hides it well, cheeky, has great music taste, funny, a MS, and an unpretentiously knowledgeable person. He is a walking dictionary of information about cars, coffee, curries, and many other words that don’t happen to begin with C. He took me to a big grocery store the second day I was here and educated me about great European beers. Later that day we listened to Sparklehorse and enjoyed a few of the ones I had bought.

Nathan’s best friend is Chris, who is of course married to the lovely Marcella. I don’t know her well at all because she seems pretty quiet, but I do appreciate that she lets Chris hang out with the guys. I think a good wife is one that lets her man still feel like a man. And Chris celebrates this freedom by listening to his rock loud and driving very fast. His car really makes me want to drive myself. The supped-up Subaru gives off this little hiss of turbo that I find to be extremely delightful. It’s like a gratifying hiss of confidence-building-reassurance. With each Pissssst I imagine an English woman narrating: “Good shift. Nice turn. I wouldn’t have breaked either.” To quote a phrase, it is brilliant.

Additionally brilliant are two features of English theaters. One is that they have unlimited passes. For about $20 a month you can see as many movies as you like whenever you like! Ingenious! The second great feature is that English Cinema’s typically have a bar in them. Before you watch your movie you can have a drink. I had Jack Daniels and felt pretty darn cool.

Hanging out with Chris and Nathan is great because they are proper guys. They are into cars and building things but not annoyingly so. At the same time they seem to be able to handle and enjoy arty things in small doses. After watching The Science of Sleep Nathan said he’d be ready for the next Frenchy thing in a week or so. It will be a good dose of masculinity for me and I feel like I will assimilate really well. Heck, I’ve already got a nickname. They like Scrubs and had divvied out the Turk-esk nicknames such as chocolate bear, whitey bear, and of course huggy bear. And now I am Yankee bear. It’s got a good ring to it, no? But perhaps I should retract that previous masculinity comment.