Carolina to Crumpets

We’ve now been here for over 6 months, which seems incredible. Some days it still feels like we just got here, but others contain full recognition of this being home and all the things that come with it. Last week helped solidify the latter feeling for me when I had to navigate the unexpected while away on business travel.

I now have the luxury of being able to “pop over” to Paris after work on a Wednesday for a Thursday business meeting, which I did to cover for a colleague in a group I’m part of through work. I had arrived around 6:30 that evening and decided to go get a bite of dinner instead of sitting in my hotel room all evening. I went to Le Relais de L’entrecote, which had been on my Paris food bucket list, mainly because 1) I love, love, love steak frites and 2) I was interested in the experience. Upon arrival, you’re offered beverages and then asked how you would like your steak cooked. That’s it. You’re not given a menu, because that’s all they serve. Once you make a decision about drinks and cooking temperature, you’re brought out a salad and then afterwards steak and fries swimming in a mind-blowing sauce. The meal was fantastic, and after that, I made my way back to my hotel to settle in and prepare for the next day’s work. I’d show you pictures, but I deleted them all in anger at what happened next…

When in large cities, I always err towards taking the metro to get around, mainly because most of the time it’s faster and easier to get 2 miles than to deal with a 50-minute, 30-Euro cab ride, and that night was no exception. So I hopped on the metro to make my way back and wind down for the day. I was about halfway to my destination when I realized my backpack felt funny, flipped it around, and realized it was open and my wallet had been stolen.

Super… I’m alone. In a foreign country. I have the French language skills of roughly a 3-year old. And now: no cash, no driver’s license, no residence permit, and most of my credit cards gone. Thankfully, I had 2 credit cards in my pocket and my passport back at the hotel, so it wasn’t a full-blown crisis. I got back to my hotel, started cancelling cards and most importantly trying to figure out how I was going to get back home with no residence permit.

I’ve avoided dragging folks through the details of how our visas work, because it’s more fun to share pictures of traveling and talk about the dogs. But for today, bear with me. We are in the UK on what’s called a Tier 2 Visa, which is a general work visa, and to demonstrate that we have the right to work and access healthcare we carry what’s known as a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP). The BRP is what allows us the ability to enter the UK without getting our passport stamped like we were coming in on a tourist visa (this is what you get when you come on vacation from the US). If your BRP is stolen while outside of the UK, you’re supposed to wait wherever you are, find the Embassy, and reapply for a single-entry visa. This can take 7-10 days. If you don’t do this, Border Control can either not allow you back in the country (forcing you to return and apply for the single entry visa) or stamp your passport as a tourist. This complicates things even more, because if you’re in the country on a tourist visa, your work privileges have now become invalid. For us, that’s now not just me, but Brad as well, because his visa is a dependent visa… which is dependent on me as the primary visa holder being eligible to work in the UK.

I admittedly shed a few tears at the frustration of it all and anger at myself for breaking several of my own solo travel rules. To begin with, I never carry a full wallet. And secondly, I always flip my bag around so that it’s on my front when in public transportation. That night though, I had already had a terrible day prior to arriving in Paris, was tired, and just pulled enough work items out of my backpack to make it manageable to carry to dinner. When I got on the train, all I could think about was going to bed and was distracted… which is exactly what thieves are looking for. There are many lessons I’ve been reminded of here, and I’m grateful that while this happened, it wasn’t more serious. It’s important that no matter how many parts of the world you’ve seen, you don’t forget to be vigilant about your surroundings.

The next morning, after getting in touch with my HR department, they connected me with the folks who manage my immigration details, and I had to spend my lunch in the 9th Arrondissement police station filing a stolen items report. My immigration team was able to put together a legal representation for me to enter the UK and worked with Border Control to identify the best way for me to be able to enter under my work visa. And when I arrived back to Southampton on Friday, I was able to show my documents and make it back home without much issue.

It’s a little unsettling when you suddenly recognize how precarious your right to be in a country that’s not your own actually is. I’ve always taken for granted that I have the right to move and work freely in a place, and I’m not sure that I would have ever really thought about it if we hadn’t come here. We have the good fortune of being immigrants supported by the infrastructure provided by my company, but gaining insight into just how complex it is to navigate these systems puts me in awe of people who do this on their own.

We recently arrived at the point of being settled enough that we could think about something other than unpacking boxes, and when that occurred, I immediately started peppering Brad with questions about where he wanted to go next.

Being in the UK allows us to be both on Europe’s doorstep, and also take advantage of all of the area budget airline carriers. With that in mind, I pulled out my handy copy of 36 Hours in Europe (many thanks for the perfect sendoff gift, Laura!), and got to comparing destinations with cheap Google Flight options. This eventually led us to Bilbao and San Sebastian. We had previously watched a series, “Munchies Guide to the Basque Country,” and knew that this mecca of gastronomy had to be on our short list.

We connected with a lovely couple who does in-home boarding for the puppers, dropped them off, and headed to the airport. We arrived first in Bilbao and took a direct bus over to San Sebastian, thanks to excellent European mass transit. We stayed in a wonderful, centrally-located guest house. Our host, Txus, was amazing. He helped us get quickly settled and pointed us in the direction of lots of things to see and do, first of which was stop by Plaza de la Constitución before our dinner that evening. Once we arrived at dinner, we were reminded just how small the world truly is when we sat next to a couple from Raleigh and a business dinner from a company from Charleston, SC.

San Sebastian was incredible for the amount of food and focus on fresh, amazing ingredients, but what we really loved was the pintxos culture. The streets are lined with lots of little bars and cafes with beautiful displays of small bite snacks. The idea being that you can hop in and out of places, have a bite to eat, drink, and then go over to another place with your friends over the night, or if you’re just in the mood for something small.

I knew a little about Basque just from reading and watching a bit about European history, but I did not appreciate just how much those who are Basque have fought to keep their culture alive. I had never seen or heard the language, so I (naively) assumed it would be Spanish-like. This is not the case. The Basque language is actually thought to be the one of, if not the, oldest languages in Europe, and linguists cannot connect it to any other existing language. For example, “good morning” would be “buenos dias” in Spanish but “egun on” in Basque or “thank you” is “gracias” in Spanish but “eskerik asko” in Basque. It was a nice reminder to me that I should strive to not make cultural assumptions before going places and that I desperately need to expand my foreign language skills.

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We also wanted to be sure that we also did something besides just eat while we were there, so we spent some time walking up Monte Urgull, which is one of the original fortifications of the city from the 12th century. Once you get to the top, you’re met by Mota Castle and incredible views of the ocean and the city’s 3 bays.

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Additionally, we chose to go outside of the cities and get in some local culture. Julen of Aupa hi! took us deeper into Basque Country, where we spent the day in Aretxabaleta. We were able to spend the morning with the Murgiondo family and not only learn about their artisan cheese production but also have a beautiful lunch in their home. We then met a couple who keeps a small organic farm nearby, and wrapped up the day at a gastronomic society where we were able to get in a game of pelota.

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We also had a lovely day with Irene of Northern Spain Gastronomy, in which we were able to spend a morning in Castro Urdiales, taking in the seaside views and later going to her beautiful home at the foot of the Cantabrian Mountains to learn to make our own pintxos. We got to learn a ton about food and wine culture in Northern Spain, as Irene is a trained chef, and it was a wonderful way to spend our day as we got to make new friends along the way!

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On our last day, we were able to enjoy the Gehry-designed Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. It’s an incredible piece of architecture designed to look like one of the ships found in Bilbao’s industrial port. It’s also home to some amazing modern art. We were able to tour that at length and then squeeze in a few more pintxos before it was time to go home.

We’re so excited to finally be in a position to travel and take advantage of being so close to so many places, and thankful that Vikki and Eddie at Muddy Foote provided a fun, happy place for Watson and Deacon in their at-home dog boarding to stay while we’re away. Even things just like having found a place to board the dogs that’s not a cinder-block kennel provides us just a little more peace as we continue this journey. We absolutely loved Spain and can’t wait to figure out where to go next!

We spent a lot of time in hotels this year. A lot. We sold our house in the States before we left, which meant that we lived in a hotel in Winston for a little shy of three weeks. When we arrived in Southampton, we moved into a new hotel for 30 days while we found somewhere to live, learned a new country, and I started a new job.

To say that it was stressful would be an understatement. And when it was finally time to move into our new house, we couldn’t have been more ready.

Only in the past week have we unpacked the last of the boxes and gotten things set up in a way that feels like ours. With the exception of our dining and bedroom furniture, neither of which would fit in a UK-sized house, we brought most of our stuff. That’s really helped the house feel like our home, and I’m really thankful that we chose to do that.

This house is smaller than what we left, but not by much. If we had lived in a large, typical American-sized home, I think it would have been a real culture shock. But since we lived in a townhouse before we left, it’s not that different. It’s a little less than 1000 square feet, with two bedrooms and two and a half baths, lots of windows, and a study off the main entry way. We’ve got a small sleeper chair in the study, which turns into a twin-sized bed, so we can accommodate an extra guest if we need.

The kitchen is great and allows us to still easily cook together like we did back home. Brad had an excellent idea to buy a kitchen island that doubles as our dining table. It gives us extra storage, a work station, and dining area without making the space cramped by trying to fit a proper dining table in the room.

I’m also really enjoying the induction cook-top. I like that it’s immediately hot when you want it to be and immediately cool when you remove your pot or pan. The only downside is that we didn’t realize it was induction when we packed our pots and pans, so now we have to mail back several of them, as you need certain kinds that will allow the magnetic field to generate for the heat. I also like that the fridge and freezer are hidden as cabinetry.

One thing that’s a bit of an adjustment is that my washing machine is now in the kitchen, and it takes nearly 3 hours to wash and dry a load of clothes. And a load of clothes in the UK is roughly equivalent to one bath towel and a pair of socks. You can’t let it pile up here, that’s for sure.

We really, really like our yard (or “garden,” as it’s referred to here). It’s spacious, has a great patio, and the landlord installed a little garden shed for us to store things in. The dogs love being able to sit outside and watch the birds, and we really like being able to join them taking in nature. Winchester is really peaceful, and we’re free of a most of the “city” noise that we experienced in Southampton.

I’ve planted a little herb garden so we have the same access to fresh herbs like we used before and put out some flowers. We got a grill (“barbecue”) today and used that for the first time. I’d like to get something that I can lounge on and read a book for the other side of the patio, but mostly I’m thankful that I now have a place I can return to at the end of the day and think “I’m glad to be home.”

There has been a lot that’s gone on over the last two weeks! We FINALLY moved out of hotels and into our new home. I’ll tell you all about that once we get all the IKEA boxes out of the house and I can take some pictures. Suffice it to say that I’m thrilled to be writing these words from the comfort of my own sofa with my feet propped up on my own table for the first time in two months.

But I digress…

Monday was my birthday, which overlapped with both Easter and two of the many bank holidays that occur this time of the year in the UK. I turned 34 in a new country, far away from family and friends. This might not be a huge deal to a lot of people, but I love birthdays. I love celebrating other people’s birthdays, and I love celebrating my own. Given that, Brad went to great lengths to make this one fun and special.

Friday, he kicked things off by with a trip to Isle of Wight. We had been talking about going over the month we were living in Southampton, given we could see the docks from our hotel. The island is pretty big, and to see the whole thing you really need a car. However, the ferries to the island are privately owned, and in turn, really expensive, so we decided to instead take the high-speed foot ferry and rent bicycles to get around. We’ll save taking a car back over for when we can spend a few days and make the £90 car ferry there worth it. Also, as a birthday event, Brad knows that I love biking around new places so I can leisurely take in sights and sounds without the stress of navigating highways or roads.

We arrived in East Cowes to pick up our bikes and start our day. As you can see below, the roads in many areas were never really expanded beyond a size to comfortably fit a wagon, so there are many one-way streets. However, there are also a lot of roads we’ve encountered that are this size for two-way traffic. This means if you encounter another car travelling in the opposite direction, you either have to pull off the side of the road or back up to make way for one of you to get around.

Once we got our bikes, Brad informed me our first stop was Carisbrooke Castle. On the way there we made a wrong turn and doubled the length of our trip there (oops!), but it wasn’t a big deal, because the weather was beautiful and the island has an excellent bike road system which keeps you relatively separated from car traffic for most of your time on bikes.

We finally arrived at Carisbrooke after our slight detour and a very steep incline to the castle walls. The castle is significant for many reasons, including it being the place where Charles I was held prior to his execution and Princess Beatrice living here. It was really neat to see how it’s all a little self-sufficient community, right down to using donkeys to supply the power to move water from a 37-meter well. We also found it interesting that there are still parishioners at the Church of St. Nicholas in Castro, which is the chapel of the castle. You can also see how the castle was built in phases, beginning all the way back to pre-Roman times, with historians indicating that people have been occupying this site as a fortified area back to around 500 AD.

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After this, we set back off to East Cowes to see Osbourne. I’ve been watching Victoria on PBS since they started running it on Masterpiece, so I was very excited to see Queen Vicotoria and Albert’s estate. And I’ve got to say, for a beach house, it’s not too shabby.

I knew a little about the house from watching the tv show, but it was really cool to not only see the house but also get some perspective on what would constitute an “intimate family house” to get away for Victoria. She and I definitely would have had differing opinions on what constitutes getting off the grid and relaxing.

After Osbourne, we made our way back across the chain-drawn ferry to the other side of Cowes and headed back to Southampton. Given our multiple detours due to mediocre navigation skills on both our parts, we think we probably biked around 20 miles. Saturday, we picked up the keys to our new house and checked out of the hotel. We stayed in our new place in Winchester with two cups, two towels, two forks, and a mattress on the floor. After hotel living for so long, we were ready to get into a space with more than two doors in it.

Sunday, Brad had another day of fun planned with lunch at The Black Rat, which is a Michelin Star restaurant in Winchester. The weather was beautiful that day, and upon our arrival we were offered a seat in their garden, which had beautiful little tiki huts, which made us feel much like we were back on our honeymoon in Bora Bora. Lunch was amazing. I’m too lazy to go upstairs to get Brad’s pictures of his dishes, but these will give you a quick idea of what we enjoyed. Their menu was really interesting, right down to the ox heart and veal brain gnocchi Brad had or the pork blood hollandaise that was served with my sea bream. I had never eaten heart before, but it was really tasty and tender. I wasn’t brave enough to eat the veal brain, mostly because I can’t separate it from the idea of BSE in the UK. Brad said it was pretty bland though.

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After this, we wrapped up the day with a gin safari at a cocktail bar in Winchester. We got to sample gins from around the world, including one infused with saffron!

It was really meaningful that Brad went to such great lengths to make my birthday in a new country so special As we continue to work through all of the challenges, unknowns, and sometimes chaos of learning to navigate a new country, having the support of your spouse to stop and celebrate with has been critical. I can’t imagine having done all of this without him.

I’m off now to go unpack a few more boxes and will report back soon on our new place!

In an attempt to do things outside the confines of our hotel room, I’ve been on a search for unique, outdoor things we can do on the weekends. And while it is definitely not as warm as back home, nor are we as deep into the season here in the UK, it is most certainly spring. Given that, I’ve been wanting to learn about the surrounding plant life, flowers, and what exactly one can expect from this island in mid-April. This search led me to discovering that there is a huge opportunity to learn about foraging, and the chance to take part in a day long spring greens foraging course with James at Hedgerow Harvest.

We were to meet the group in Dorset, which is roughly an hour and a half from Southampton. So, we had to wake the pups up a little earlier than to what they have become accustomed.

But our early departure meant that we were able to enjoy a full English breakfast at the village hall in Toller Porcorum. Never heard of it? Me either until today. To give you an idea of the area overall, later in the day we were at another nearby hall which described their village as having 175 residents and 3722 sheep. On this morning, the village of Toller was having a church fundraiser breakfast because someone had stolen the lead from the roof of the medieval church, and they are now trying to cover the nearly £60,000 it will cost to repair it. So we spent the first part of the morning with the village locals enjoying good food and with good people.

Then about 9:30 we set off with our group and guide. James has been foraging nearly his entire life, and a few years ago decided to make a business of it. In addition to events like this, he also has a truffle hunting company, which based on today, we definitely want to do as well.

We started the day in an area allotment. For those not familiar with this idea, think of a community garden where you can rent your own patch of land for growing fruits and vegetables. It made the point early on that there are lots of edible plants right in the middle of your town or city. For us, that meant Hairy Bittercress, Crow Garlic, Flowering Currant, Wild Fennel, Pennywort, Three-cornered Leek, and Dandelions before we had even left from between the homes of the village.

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We also learned about the versatility of dandelions, and that during the War, people would harvest the roots, then dry, toast, and ground them to make coffee. Additionally, the greens work well in salads, and you can also extract the flowers to make things like cordials, which we were able to enjoy later. James did a great job at helping us understand that edible plants are all around us– including less desirable things like Stinging Nettles.

I had read about nettles, but I had never actually seen one until last weekend when we were walking to the pub for dinner, and suddenly my ankles felt like I had stepped in a pile of fire ants. My rational brain knew that they don’t have fire ants here, but I couldn’t for the life of me understand why my skin was burning. As I was jumping around, looking for the creature that has attacked me, Brad replied, “Oh yeah… nettles.” This was when I learned he had retained his instinct from a childhood in Belgium to avoid them, while South Carolina did not prepare me in the same way.

Turns out this plant is super common around here, and also super unpleasant. It has little hairs all along its leaves, which are made of hollow silica. As you brush against them, these hollow tubes inject histamine and other irritants into your skin, resulting in an immediate stinging sensation and later a rash. However, when you soak them in water or cook them, they become an incredibly protein-rich, nutritious leafy green. They’re up to 25% dry weight protein and have more iron than spinach, in addition to incredible amounts of vitamin A, C, manganese, and calcium. Given this makeup, they were a natural addition to our haul, but we absolutely made sure to wear gloves!!

We then found ourselves in a sea of wild garlic. At home, we know these as ramps or wild leeks, and they have a relatively limited geography and are very expensive. Here though, they grow like weeds! We could have collected a wagon of them, but we instead restrained ourselves to a single grocery bag for our meal later on. James also taught us about the importance of being well-informed when foraging, as without the proper resources, you run the risk of misidentifying ramps for poisonous varieties like Lilly of the Valley. We also learned about other dangerous varieties of plants such as the Hemlock Water Dropwort which, while being extremely common, can cause massive organ failure if consumed.

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Along the way, we also spotted a few fungi, such as Scarlet Elf Cups (below left) and what are known to the locals as Monkey’s Ears (below right). I’m really excited about learning how to collect my own Monkey’s Ears (commonly called ear fungus or Chinese fungus), as I use them a lot in Asian cooking, especially Japchae. We hope this fall to be able to learn more about foraging for wild mushrooms!

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As our journey continued, we picked several salad greens and learned about many other edible plants, including the Japanese Knotweed (JK). JK is considered an invasive species here in the UK, and the government goes to great lengths to eradicate it. For example, every taxpayer sends £3 annually to fight it, and if it’s found on a property you’re buying, you may not be able to secure a mortgage. However, one effort people aren’t normally aware of to battle JK is not a glyphosate herbicide, but to eat it! The JK we saw on our walk had been sprayed, so it was very much dead, but James had brought some that was free of herbicide for us to eat for dessert.

In addition to a foraging adventure, James planned a three-course feast using the bounty of our harvest. We broke into three groups– soup, main, dessert or sometimes “pudding” as it’s called here, and set out cooking. We started with a selection of nettle, dandelion, or pine needle cordials along with nettle beer, and then hit the kitchen.

I was in the soup group, and we made a nettle soup with onions and potatoes in a vegetable stock. It was incredible to watch this mess of greens I would have like to thrown in the compost bin turn into a pot of delicious soup. We cooked it all down and added a little cream and Crow’s Garlic for garnish. I was nearly halfway through my soup before I remembered to take pictures of it for you, but you can see the mid-way process of preparing the soup instead.

Our main was a pasta bake including a ramp (wild garlic) pesto and tomatoes topped with Parmesan cheese. It was served with a salad of foraged greens including: Hairy Bittercress, Crow Garlic, Pennywort, Three-cornered Leek, Hawthorne buds, Wild Garlic blossoms, Primrose, Goose Grass, and Common Sorrel dressed with a vinaigrette.

We then moved on to the dessert course. I’m not totally sure how puddings can be either savory or sweet, but when in Rome… This was a Japanese Knotweed (JK) and Apple Crumble. But when you put it in a crumble, it becomes a delicious, rhubarb-like treat. Brad was in the pudding group, and is to thank for this sweet ending to a great adventure.

Once our meal was complete, we all washed up, got the village hall squared away, and departed. The full day had us getting back to Southampton around 7 pm. I’m so glad that we’ve decided to kick off our time here doing things that take us out of the Southampton shopping center and instead have taken us into different towns and areas, giving us the opportunity to meet lots of people and learn a little more about things around us. I’m hoping that our time here continues to provide us more opportunities like this!

Or, as I also like to call it, Summer’s multiple near-crashes as she learns how to properly operate a car on narrow country roads.

We rented an Airbnb in the New Forest this past weekend as an opportunity to get away from it all. Living in our hotel here in Southampton has been really nice and everyone is very accommodating, but we thought it would be fun to do something different, so we booked a Shepherd’s Hut near Lymington, Hampshire in the historic New Forest National Park.

The New Forest is a pretty unique parcel of undeveloped forest in the south of England. As I understand it, William the Conqueror declared it part of his royal hunting ground, and it’s been relatively unchanged since then. What’s really cool is that many of the historic laws still apply in the forest, so that the people who live there, referred to as “Commoners” still maintain the right to allow their animals to free-graze. Given that, there are TONS of ponies, donkeys, and (I think) goats that are always roaming around. This includes, but is not limited to, people’s yards, the road, or out in the pasture-like areas of the forest.

So, after work on Friday we set out to discover where people in the South go to get away from it all. We rented a lovely Shepherd’s Hut/Tiny House positioned in the village of Tiptoe, Hampshire. This is right outside of Lymington, a relatively popular seaside village with a weekly market that has been occurring for hundreds of years.

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Once we got settled in our hut, we decided to go check out the local fare, and at the suggestion of our Airbnb host, decided to go to the Plough Inn. This pub was built sometime in the 1600s and is still in use. It’s considered a cob pub, which simply means the walls were built from a mixture of straw, mud, animal poo, and other… stuff. Obviously, whatever they were using has withstood the test of time, because the pub was full of people and served a delicious plough pie.

The next day, we set off to adventure around the Forest. We checked out several breweries, because just like back home, the South of England is a hotbed of craft breweries. We also had lunch in Ringwood, which is considered one of the gateway villages into the Forest. It’s really neat here because most pubs are dog friendly. While in Winston-Salem you can’t take a dog in a brewery, in England, your (well-behaved) dog is welcomed into the pub for a spot of lunch and given their own bowl of water.

Overall, we had a great time. Driving was (and continues to be) pretty stressful. But after the VERY narrow country roads, back in Southampton city traffic I’m feeling almost competent at operating our car. We’re really excited for spring and summer to show up in full force so that we can get out and enjoy more of the local natural area. This weekend we’re going on a spring greens foraging and cooking course, so we’ll learn even more about what this beautiful part of the country has to offer!

The pups arrived in Southampton yesterday evening, and they had quite the adventure!

I have to say their travel was by far the most anxiety-inducing part of this whole experience. When you and your spouse are going through all of the things you need to sort out, while it’s stressful, you still know that you’re capable of advocating for yourself and navigating whatever situation you may find yourself in. However, when it’s your two, geriatric shih tzus who are rife with health issues (chronic allergic dermatitis in Watson and a grade IV heart murmur for Deacon) and are incapable of understanding why we have left home to live in hotels or what an air plane is, it’s a totally different kind of stress. However, the team of veterinary and pet professionals who helped navigate the complexity of their medical requirements and ensured their safety and comfort made the whole thing nothing short of amazing. I’ll give you a quick introduction into how the whole thing worked and then a summary of D and W’s cross-Atlantic adventure.

Weeks 12-1 Prior to our Departure

To start, The Queen has very strict requirements associated with bringing animals into the UK from countries which have rabies. This is due to the Channel Islands and other parts of the Commonwealth still being rabies-free, and results in the UK having some of the strictest animal import policies in the world. However, we were connected with Evelyn from Global Pet Relocation, who made the initial part of the process very straightforward and easy to execute. Crystal and Dr. Taylor, at Reynolda Veterinary Hospital in Winston, kicked things off by ensuring that W and D had the appropriate, ISO-compliant microchips, which was then followed by a new rabies vaccine. All of this had to be documented in a very specific order. We sent over all this to Evelyn, who worked diligently in the background to make sure all the other pet relocation experts had what they needed once it was time to take flight.

While that was going on, Watson– whose medical chronicles could be a whole separate book on highly allergic pets and the swamp that is trying to treat food allergies– had an allergic flare. For those who are familiar with his story, you can skip this part, but for those to which this is new, I’ll try to be brief. In summary, we adopted him about 2 years ago. We spent the first year bringing him to a basic standard of care due to chronic neglect and the second year with the Dermatology Clinic at NC State University Veterinary Hospital trying to address his severe food allergies. (Also note, neither Brad or I have a dermatologist, but our dog does.) About 8 months ago, his hair started to fall out on his back, resulting in a bald spot, but it had mostly resolved until this flare, resulting in a similar level of hair loss as previously experienced.

So now we find ourselves both attempting to stop whatever is going on and also figure out how we’re going to get a dog who looks like he probably has mange into a new country without quarantine. In swoops Dr. Levy at NC State, who writes a letter for W which is best described as the canine dermatology riot act, stating that he should travel, “free from any discriminatory policies or measures based on his appearance/ medical condition.” We all agree that packing this letter in Watt’s travel documents is the way to go in ensuring incident-free travel, and her treatment plan stops W’s issues dead in their tracks.

This is all also happening at the same time that we have sold our house, moved into the Residence Inn, and I sold my car. As you might imagine, our stress levels are slightly above baseline.

Saturday (day of our flight) and Sunday

We then drop the pups with Brad’s parents the Saturday morning we leave for the UK. Sunday afternoon, Heather, at Continental Pet Relocation, picks the boys up and they stay with her in her home as they prepare for their vet checks Monday.

Monday

Deacon and Watson are required to do a USDA vet check for general health status. This ensures they’re safe to leave the country and are of a health standard by which they’re safe to fly. They then stay with Heather again on Monday as they wait for their USDA health certificate. The whole time, she sent us photos and videos so we could see how they were doing. As you can see, they were having a great time with Heather and getting lots of love and attention. You can also see why we were concerned about Watson’s appearance.

Tuesday

On the day of their flight, Tuesday, Heather drove them from Charlotte to Atlanta for their 10:05 pm, direct British Airways flight to Heathrow. Evelyn sent us a detailed step-by-step process of what would happen for their whole flight, right down to how they are listed on the Captain’s manifest when they travel, making the Captain personally responsible for their welfare. Heather let us know when they arrived in Atlanta, got to their airline kennel, and even when they were checked in on their flight. Evelyn let us know that they were the last passengers to board the plane on their pet cabin, and that they would be the first to be taken off the plane. She even sent us a flight tracker so that we could follow their progress!

Wednesday

Once the pups landed at roughly 9:45 am, they were taken to the Heathrow Animal Reception Center (think Animal Airport on BBC), where they were given the chance to get some water, food, bio breaks, and decompress from their flight across the pond. During this time, the team at JCS Livestock at Heathrow made sure they were comfortable while they waited for their paperwork to clear customs. They even called to make sure we knew Watson had his medication with him and to check whether we wanted them to given him today’s dosage.

Once they cleared customs, Nicky at Starwood Animal Transportation called to let us know they were on their way by car from Heathrow to our hotel in Southampton, and about an hour and a half later, a lovely gentleman came in to let us know that he was there with the pups! He told us all about how their afternoon had gone, and opened up the car for our reunion! I was surprised to see that their drive from Heathrow on the M25 and A27 had been so smooth, they still had full bowls of water in their sky kennels!

I really expected the dogs to be full of anxiety and totally stressed out from everything that had happened, but I’ve seen them more anxious at a pickup from the groomer! It was obvious that not only had their trip been relatively stress-free, but that they had been doted upon at every opportunity. Since then, they’ve had the opportunity to make some new dog friends at the park across the street, have some snacks and belly rubs, and resume their usual routine of intense napping and lounging.

We have been so very fortunate in this experience to have the support of a team of absolutely AMAZING vendors. They’ve made the whole move so much easier than I expected it to be, and we are so very appreciative of all of them. A special thanks definitely goes out to the pet relocation team, though. Our local veterinary teams at Reynolda and NC State made sure that the pups had everything they needed to kick off this adventure. Evelyn and Louise at Global Pet Relocation ensured a seamless experience and responded to all of our anxiety-filled questions with patience and kindness, no matter how silly they might have been. Heather at Continental Pet Relocation set the tone for the boys’ journey and created a safe, happy experience for D and W, while simultaneously helping us not feel afraid through her updates. All of the staff we never met at British Airways and HARC got our pets across the ocean safely, and with an 11-year old, brachycephalic dog with a grade IV heart murmur, I feel like that can’t be understated. And lastly Nicky and team at Starwood Animal Transportation provided a happy reunion here in the UK.

Like many people, our pets are part of our family, and to have the support of a team who values them as much as we do has set the tone for a fantastic experience ahead.

The past few days have been nuts! I’m going to give you all a summary of everything we’ve been up to since we left Saturday, so bear with me as this will be a bit long. I’ll do a better job in the future of keeping these shorter.

We landed Sunday at Heathrow, where we then travelled down to Southampton. This is the city in which I’ll be working and our temporary housing at room2 Southampton is located.

The first order of business was to get new SIM cards. It’s incredible how much cheaper cell phone plans are outside of the US. Since we still don’t have a UK bank account finalized, we currently are on a “pay as you go plan,” but it’s still only 20 GBP for 30 days of unlimited calls and texts and 30 GB of data.

Next was picking up our Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) in London on Monday. We need these to prove our right to live and work and use public services in the UK. It takes a little less than an hour and a half by train to be at Waterloo Station from Southampton Central, and since we were there, we decided to celebrate arriving in our new country with a day of tourism. We got lunch by the Thames, took a trip up on the London Eye, walked through the National Gallery, and had afternoon tea.

But where will we live?

After our pre-assignment visit, we were fairly certain that we didn’t want to live in Southampton for the duration of our time here. It’s one of the largest cities in the South (about 250,000 people), but its also an industrial port city and home to approximately 30,000 undergraduates between the University of Southampton and Solent University. Given that, most of the rental housing is geared towards students, and we’d prefer that our neighbors’ lifestyle be a little more… similar to ours. With that, we focused instead on a city called Winchester. It’s the ancient capital of England and best known for its cathedral, which is one of the largest in Europe. More importantly, the town is adorable and has a lot more of the kinds of things we like to do and are interested in. It’s also closer to London, free of 30,000 undergrads, and has lots of things to do for when friends and family come to visit.

With that, yesterday, we went house-hunting with our local agent, Sam. It’s been super helpful to have someone with local knowledge to guide us around to set expectations and help us understand the nuances of the UK rental market. There are many things about it here that are different than home, particularly when it comes to things that are standard practices at home but have to specifically requested here. Who knew that you had to contractually agree to carpet cleaning before you move in a new house?!

We viewed 9 different properties in what can only be described as a housing blitz. Our priority was to be within walking distance of the train station, so that both Brad and I can easily access the station to get to and from work. The UK rental market moves REALLY fast, especially compared to home, so we knew that if we saw something we liked we needed to make a move, and given that we’re living in a hotel, we had to make a decision that day.

As the day wore on, I was getting a little discouraged based on what was available, the conditions of some of the houses, and the respective prices. I don’t feel like I’m super picky, but I feel like it’s not unreasonable to expect that the door frame of a potential house isn’t coming away from the house itself. However, at the end of the day, one of the letting agents had a house for us to view that wasn’t yet on the market, and she seemed pretty optimistic, as she said the other properties of this landlord she’s seen are pretty great.

When we got to the neighborhood, we thought there had been a mistake, or that the property was actually located in the garage of the houses around us. However, it turns out that adding 5 minutes to your walk from the city center can secure you a BEAUTIFUL house at the same price point as a house with mauve carpet, broken bathroom tiling, and questionable structural integrity closer to the station. This house has everything on our wish list, which we were near certain would not happen. After viewing it, we were both in agreement that it was where we wanted to be living.

Last night, we put an offer in with the landlord on the unit on the right of the picture above. A few minutes ago, we got a message from our agent that the landlord accepted the terms of our offer, and we’re waiting on the contract to be sent over to sign!!! We are beyond thrilled to have managed to find such a fantastic house, and we can’t wait to share it with you all as you come to visit us in the UK.