Madrid & Toledo, Part 1

We decided that instead of the usual gifts for gift day, we would gift ourselves a trip to Spain! Initially we planned to fly in to Madrid, and also take a train or bus to Barcelona so we could see both cities on the same trip. It did not work out that way, but that did not make the trip any less amazing!

Day 1:

The trip could have easily started off in a very unpleasant way. We bought tickets to take a coach(bus) from the Colchester bus station to Stansted Airport in London at 4:55am and it takes 55 minutes to get there. The station is less than half a mile away from the house, so we walked there. But once we were less than a block away, i realized I didn't have the tickets for the bus, but I had them when we left the house. So I knew I must have dropped them. We only had a few minutes until the bus would leave, so I ran back, retracing my steps, and sure enough, about halfway home, the tickets were there on the floor. So I ran to to the bus station, and barely made it on time. The bus took off early actually, which I find not cool. because if you arrive just on time, the bus would have left already. But anyway, we averted that disaster, and were on our way to the airport. Once at the airport, we went through security, which I must say is much less intense than in US airports, and then we needed to get our boarding passes stamped since we did not have a European passport. Once we did that, we found a place to sit down, and we ate the hummus pitas that Geli prepared for us. We were a bit early, so the gate for our flight was not even displayed yet. We got on the flight without any problems and were in Madrid in a couple of hours. From the Madrid airport, we took the metro to the center of town, for just €2 Euros!

Once in the center of Madrid, our first stop was to find the hotel. We wanted to leave our bags there, and walk around to see what we could find. We did not have any difficulty finding the hotel. Once we did, we checked in, paid, and we were on our way. We had no destination, just wanted to explore the town. The hotel was on Gran Via street, right in the center of town. Plaza Callao was right in front of the hotel. So we walked through it, and down  Calle del Carmen, which took us straight to the Plaza Puerta del Sol. As we were getting close, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me because I could hear a Mariachi, playing mexican music. But it couldn't be, we were in Spain! once we got to the Plaza, there really was a Mariachi there, playing "Cielito Lindo", and Dora was also there, selling balloons. Sophie liked Dora, not so much the Mariachi. We had barely covered any ground and we were already impressed. A truly vibrant city, people everywhere, impressive buildings, music in the streets, statues, plazas, it was great. After listening to the mariachis for a bit, and getting Sophie a balloon, we decided to walk down Calle de Alcala, in a hunt for some coffee. We had not slept well at all(I worked until 3am the previous night, and we were up at 4am to get to the bus station by 4:55am), and needed some caffeine! This turned out to be more challenging then we expected. Coffee shops were abundant, but it was difficult to find one that served soy milk(or as they call it there, "soja") or a vegan creamer. We must have stopped and asked at like 6 of them. We finally found one that did. We got Sophie a smoothie, and Geli and I got our much needed caffeine!

After that, we kept on walking. We saw plenty of government buildings(ministerios) and at the intersection with Gran Via, the impressive Metropolis building. A couple of blocks further down was the Fuente de Cibeles and Plaza de Comunicaciones, both very cool. We kept walking around, with no real direction, just wandering the city. After all that walking, we decided to find a place to eat. We had looked up a vegetarian Chinese buffet, and wanted to go there. But when we got there, it was closed, it was around 7:30pm or so. We thought they were closed for the night, there was no business hours visible. We later found out that the restaurants operate on a strange schedule. They open for lunch from around 1-4pm, then close and reopen for dinner at 8pm. On our way home, we were looking for a grocery store, which was more difficult than we expected, since January 6th is a holiday in Spain(Dia de Reyes). We finally found a small one open and we got some cereal, soy milk(soja! as they call it there), contact lens solution(since you can't get yours through airport security),  a cereal bowl, a spoon, toothpaste, potato chips, and a power adapter so we could charge the camera's battery and the laptop. Yes, they use a different plug type and voltage than in England and the US. We should really standardize...After that, we called it a day and went to the hotel. 

Day 2: 

The next day we went out and got some more food for the hotel room. We got some apples, clementines, potato chips, dark chocolate with almonds, a Spanish hot sauce called "salsa brava", but it wasn't very spicy at all, and some Canary Island bananas!!! The bananas was an amazing find! We don't buy bananas(amongst other things) usually for several reasons(mainly human exploitation and the enormous distance the food has to travel to get to you). The bananas in the UK seem to come exclusively from the Caribbean, and  in the US they were from South America. But these were from some Spanish Islands, just off the north west coast of Africa. They were smaller, and sweeter than normal bananas, they were fantastic!  After that we went to have lunch at the vegetarian Chinese restaurant(Shi-Shang). It was a buffet, and it was delicious! Everything was vegan, except some of the desserts had dairy. But they didn't even use eggs, so the fried rice, spring rolls, and tempura were all vegan! We also found out that juice is called "zumo" in Spain, and not "jugo" like in Mexico, while ordering an orange juice for Sophie. 

After the lunch, we went walking again. We just wanted to explore the city. This time we did know that we wanted to see the Templo de Debod and the Palacio Real, but beyond that, just more walking and more exploring Madrid. We found a small playground and Sophie had to play there for a bit. It was was next to a small market on a plaza that had some churros and garrampiñados. We didn't get any because we didn't know if they would be vegan, and didn't feel like asking(in retrospect, we should have!). On our way to the temple, we found the Plaza España, and the Edificio España across from it, both impressive. We also saw some other buildings that were nice, and there is a park around the temple. The temple itself is very impressive! It is an Egyptian temple from the 4th Century BC! It was moved to Spain in 1971 by boat, then train to Madrid. We would have stayed there a bit longer and looked around the inside of it more, but Sophie was being difficult, so we had to leave. The view from outside the temple is stunning, it is on a hill, so you can see the surroundings. We took her to the playground at the park surrounding the temple so she would run around a bit after that. Then we headed through the park to find the Palacio Real. There were some statues on the way there and some gardens that were landscaped to look  like a labyrinth. It started raining around this time, but we still wanted to see the palace, so kept going. Once we got to the palace, it was really impressive! There was a plaza in front of it, with the Teatro Real(Opera), and a lot of statues. Just beyond the Palace was the cathedral, also a very impressive building. 

On our way from there Sophie fell asleep, so we headed for the hotel. Once there, Sophie took her nap, and when she woke up, we decided to go get some dinner. It was already dark, so we got to see Madrid at night, and it is quite beautiful! We went to Maoz, which is a chain of vegetarian restaurants with a very simple menu. Sophie and I had falafel pita sandwiches with other fillings that you can choose from the salad bar, and Geli got a bowl full of salad bar stuff and some falafel, and we also got some fries. It started raining again, so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night. 

Day 3:

This day it was our goal to go to the Parque del Retiro and see as much of it as we could, then eat a vegetarian restaurant. As soon as we left, in the Plaza Callao across the street from the hotel, there was an orchestra performing there, which was a pleasant surprise. We watched them for a bit, then were on our way to the park. Plenty of impressive buildings on the way. We saw the congress building, a Cervantes statue, some great views of Madrid, an impressive church building, the Museo del Prado, and then we got to the park. 

It started raining again, but we were determined to see as much as we could of the park. The entrance was a huge area of very landscaped gardens. Very nice, but also made to look very...artificial? I am not saying it was bad, it is merely a matter of taste. But the shrubs and bushes were trimmed in unnatural shapes, the flowers planted in an orderly way, etc. So after walking through there, there was some trees that looked like brains, and a strange statue of Jacinto Benavente. Sophie had to climb a tree, and after that we went up a hill to another are of the park. There, we ran into the Palacio de Crystal, which was impressive, and made mostly of glass. There was also a very nice waterfall next to it, and some ducks there. We went inside mainly as shelter from the rain, and also to see if they had a bathroom, since Sophie wanted to go. They didn't, but they told us to go to the nearby Palacio de Velazquez. We got lost in the park, but we found it, in time, Sophie was wet, but it was from the non-stop rain, we all were. The Palace there was not as impressive on the outside as others ones we had seen, but inside it was completely white, which was interesting. It was a photography museum, with only huge photography on display there. So after Sophie went to the bathroom, we looked around, as much as we could, but she started being difficult again. 

We headed out of the park through another exit, so we could see other parts of the park on the way out. We saw a couple more statues and fountains on the way out. Then we headed to Viva la Vida, a vegetarian restaurant there. Sophie was understandably grumpy, it was raining and she was wet, and cold. So the restaurant was a nice break from the rain. It was a buffet, sold by weight. So you serve yourself, then they weigh your plate, and charge you that way. It was very good food, we enjoyed it. It is mostly for carryout, there was only one small improvised table and a few chairs there. It was rather small, but then again that is nothing new to us. Vegetarian restaurants aren't known for being very big. So we had our meal and then headed back to the hotel, while it was still raining. We stopped at the grocery store again, to get some more food, we got some bread, a soy yogurt, a cereal Sophie picked(Hello Kittie Fruit Loops!), and a spanish spread called Almendrina, which is a sweet almond spread. The spread was amazing! I wish they sold it here, it was nutty, and sweet, and went perfectly with bread! It was a bit early to call it quits that day, but the rain would not stop, and Sophie was in a bad mood. It is not nearly as pleasant to explore a city when it doesn't stop raining. But we had plenty of time the other days, so we decided to go to the hotel, watch some TV, eat, and rest. 

So this is a summary of our first 3 days in Madrid, and I do not finish it on this post out of consideration for you, as this is lengthy enough already. The next post will wrap up the awesome time we had in Madrid...

London pt 1

We had the great idea of going to London over the weekend, of course we picked a weekend in which they were working on the train routes, so a 1 hr trip turned into a 2 hr trip. We felt rather disoriented the whole time, we didn't know where to wait for the train, where to get off, where to go after that, which bus to get on, which subway to get on, where to get off or why...... We managed though, since everybody was going to London, so really, we just had to follow the crowd. We had very vague plans once we got there, we just walked around at first, with a certain level of disappointment, I must admit... it just didn't feel like London... it was all empty streets, forgettable architecture.... But there was still those phonebooths and taxis from 'the movies' so we were motivated to explore. A nice couple from a vegan meeting recommended that we go to the Museum of Childhood for Sophie to explore and they mentioned there was a vegetarian cafe across the street from it. So that was our first stop.

We made our way there, by the time we got there, we were too hungry, so we decided to go to the cafe first. It was friendly and very vegan friendly (believe us....there is vegetarian cafes that are NOT vegan-friendly). Sophie devoured her pasta, while Chuy and I shared an british breakfast and a roast. It was good. We have noticed that restaurants here use less salt that we are used to, I feel like Brenda (she puts salt on salted chips!!) putting salt on everything. Maybe I should get used to less salt, it would probably do me well. We finished off our meal by sharing a chocolate chip blondie, which was amazing. Yum. We walked over to the Children's Museum and Sophie had lots of fun. So much fun that it was a crying fest when we left. She wanted to keep playing with the horses and the lights.... We promised her a lollipop and after some negotiation, she agreed, haha.

Then we made our looong way to the hotel. It was such a long way, well it was about 5 miles, but with a small child, that takes forever when you are walking there. On the way, we saw a main street filled with street vendors selling anything, clothes, trinkets, jewelry, DVDs and so on... We found a gorgeous park, Victoria Park, with a lake and all, it was quite nice. We stayed for a while and enjoyed the scenery, while Sophie was throwing rocks in the water or so she said. We also found a Korean store that had sriracha...this was a major accomplishment or so it felt. We have had difficulty finding hot sauces here, and sriracha has been a favorite of ours. Unfortunately, we must have bought the mild kind...and well, I'm not a mild hot sauce kind of person. Our way to the hotel also featured us getting lost for a few miles thanks to google maps. Advice: always, always check google maps so it takes you through main streets in an unknown area. This is kind of what google maps told us: go right on x street, go left to stay of x street, go right to stay on x street, slight right to stay on x street....and so on.........well that x street was going in all directions, it crossed itself and it did ridiculous things. It didn't help that they don't really believe in clear visible street signs around there. We even asked some locals and they didn't even know which street they were on, and the directions they gave us to get back on track, where along the lines of: well go straight, then turn slight left, then on the next main road turn right, then on the next road turn left......and so on.....we were like, right....so we had to backtrack and follow only main roads. By the time we got to the hotel, we were pretty exhausted and hungry. Unfortunately, we were stuck in an area that didn't seem vegan friendly at all. We had stopped along the way to see menus of Chinese restaurants and so forth, and the menus were not inviting at all. So Chuy went on an adventure to find some food, while Sophie and I devoured some cookies we had. Chuy came back with not so promising looking food, but it was food and it was vegan, so it was eaten.

The main reason we went to London for that particular weekend is because an alternative vegan festival was occurring. But they kept changing the venue and were being super secretive about it. For example, we had to text them to get the address...weird. But anyway, we finally had the address and we looked it up and it was a bar. We really didn't feel like dragging Sophie to a bar that was far away from the area we had to leave from. So instead we decided to go to downtown London and explore a bit. We had two new loose goals, go to the art museum and find a vegan restaurant. This time instead of walking, we decided to take the tube (subway). We got to an area that had many restaurants that we could eat at, unfortunately we did not know where any of them were and we were pretty hungry. So we went around walking, looking at millions of menus, we even split our search party to find something faster. And we finally did, we found an all-vegan buffet of chinese/thai food. We were pretty ecstatic, but we had to wait half an hour for them to open.... Sophie was not pleased, she could see the food and couldn't understand why she couldn't have it. We tried to distract her by walking around and came upon the Chinatown of London. It was cool, so we poked around the stores a bit, looked around, wondered what the weird fruits they were selling tasted like, and then it was time to eat. Finally. Needless to say, we all stuffed our faces. We pretty much tried everything on the buffet, all kinds of assorted seitan, noodles, curries, stir fries, and so on.

After quieting our hunger, we started to noticed our surroundings better. Now, this was we were expecting of London. A vibrant city, with amazing looking buildings. People buzzing every way. Literally, everywhere we went, with no directions of any kind, we were in some kind of landmark. We walked into a carnival, with all sorts of rides. Sophie and Chuy got on the carousel. Sophie loved it and wanted to stay there all day, but at 2 pounds a ride per person, it wasn't happening. We walked more, walking in and out of interesting shops, enjoying the city. And we found ourselves in Trafalgar's Square, which had a pretty impressive fountain and it was surrounded by awesome buildings. Then Chuy saw a pointy building that was golden and we decided to track it down. It turns out that it was the clock tower/Big Ben, which is next to the Houses of Parliament, which is a really impressive sight. The detail that these buildings have is quite amazing. There was also all kinds of protesters there, but it was kind of cold and slightly rainy so they were all camping there. They were protesting the war amongst other things. It's nice to see people doing their civic duty. On our way to the museum, we saw the Wheel of London/London Eye.

And then we finally got to the museum, our legs were starting to complain quite a bit, so it was a relief to find our destination. At the museum, we started by observing an sculpture that took the whole room, it was clay formed into sunflower seeds and there was thousands of them. The dedication it must of taken, wow. I am not a super fan of these kinds of sculptures, but I can appreciate the hard work that went into it. Then we started walking into the galleries, we knew there was paintings by Dali and Picasso around. The originals. And they were right there, somewhere among the galleries we were walking in. And these were the 'free of admission' galleries. We couldn't believe it. But right there in front of us, was a Dali painting, Metamorphosis of Narcissus, an original. It was smaller than I imagined. I had stared at a poster of this painting for quite some time, since I had it in my room when I was back in El Paso. But seeing the original was mind blowing. The detail, the colors, the strokes, just wow. I never even considered that I could end up seeing originals by artists that I admire. And without even trying, I had found myself there in front of them. It was a great experience. We saw three paintings by Dali, two by Picasso and some of his sketches too. By the time we had finished touring the galleries, we were really exhausted, found a bench and recollected our thoughts. We had limited amount of time until we had to take the tube again to take our train on time. So we decided to give another vegan restaurant a try and called it a day.

By the time we got out of the museum, it was dark out. And London is quite beautiful by night. So we really enjoyed our walk to the restaurant, Saf. Sophie wanted her favorite, which is a tofu and avocado sandwich. They obviously didn't have that on the menu, but they made it for her. Chuy and I shared a raw pad thai and a thai green curry. The raw pad thai felt more like a salad than anything, and it was good, really good, but in a cold night, it didn't seem as satisfying as it should have. The thai green curry was spectacular, it had deep complex flavors, that came together in a perfect way. MMmm. By the time we had finished eating, we were a bit worried about the time, so we ran back to the station. We got there with plenty of time, and headed home. Sophie made a friend on the tube. She fell asleep on the train. And then on the bus again. And then we were home. This concludes part one of London, we expect to visit it again, there is so much to see still!

Going to the doctor in the UK, and a few other things...

So at this point we feel like we are getting situated. We are getting into a routine, and there are less surprises every day. That is until Sophie got sick....


I'll back up a bit first though. There was a couple unusual events before that. The first and more unlikely of the two events was making an acquaintance with a mormon. It gets stranger than that, mormons are from America, and it is a new religion(in the time scales of religions). I was stopped by two of them on the way to the castle, where I was taking Sophie to play on the playground. And they wanted to discuss religion with me, but I went easy on them since Sophie was anxious to get to the park. But I was curious, mormons in the UK?! In Colchester? And one of them did not have a British accent. So I asked him where he was from. He said he was from Texas. So I asked him where in Texas he was from, and he is from El Paso!!! And went to Franklin High school...what an unlikely event! So we started talking, not about religion, but about El Paso and how he was in the swim team and what not. He ended up giving me his number, in what seemed more like a friendly gesture, since we had both lived in El Paso and were now in Colchester than as something they do as part of their preaching routine. I haven't called him yet, but I've been tempted. Partly because I enjoy discussing religious matters, which I am sure would come up if we were to meet and talk. But also because it would be interesting to have a friend in England that was from El Paso!


The other interesting meeting was with a homeless man. The first time we went to the university with Geli, we were not even sure what bus to take out there, or what bust stop to go to. When we had made it to the bus station, there was like a dozen different buses we could take, and we weren't sure which. We must have looked really lost, because this homeless man asked me where I was trying to go. I told him we were headed to the University, and he pointed us to the right bus. I thanked him and we went to the right stop. Then, a couple of days later, I was heading to Castle Park again to take Sophie to the playground. And when we were entering Caste Park, he was sitting on a bench we were passing by, and he asked:


"Did I put you on the right bus?"
I was puzzled, I didn't recognize him, and I hadn't been "put" on the bus that I could remember...
I must have looked confused.
He then said "The other day, did I put you on the right bus?"
I know it sounds mean, but it wasn't on purpose. I didn't recognize him, so I was confused that this person I did not think I knew was asking me about a bus that they "put" me on.
He then elaborated "The other day at the bus station, I told you what bus to take to get to the university"
Then it dawned on me!
He was the same guy that told us what bus to take! I just didn't recognize him.
So I told him he did, and said thanks.
He then asked me if I was a student, and I told him that Geli was.
And we talked a little but more. 
And then on the way out, Sophie dropped a little toy she had with her and he called us to tell us, because I didn't notice.
He is there rather often. I see him there every now and then and say hi to him.


The sad part is that these are the closest encounters I have had to making friends here. Working at home hasn't helped me to meet any people here. We said hi to one of our neighbors once(that's the only time we have seen them). We just haven't really been in any social situations yet. Interesting turn of events that leads me to meet a homeless person and a mormon from El Paso when we move to England.


And now to the doctor situation. Sophie got sick...she started by throwing up right after we laid her down to bed one night. Nothing like one of us cleaning vomit off of blankets while the other one of us showers her to clean the vomit off of her. But then, the next morning, she acts fine, has no fever, she isn't acting sick or anything. So we didn't take her to the doctor, but that night she did the same thing! Not on purpose, we know, but how are we supposed to know that she is sick when she doesn't show it? So after another round of vomiting in bed and washing blankets and sheets, she is okay for the next couple of days. So we figured something had just upset her stomach. Then she threw up again at night and had a bit of a fever...this time it was time to take her to the doctor. So we did. We took her to a doctor close by, but we are terrible at getting out of the house early. By the time we got ready and ate breakfast, it was around noon. The nearby doctor closed at 1pm. When we got there they told us they were booked for the day, and suggested we take her to the walk-in clinic that was by the general hospital. Geli had to go to school, so I took her. We took the bus, which she enjoyed. Sophie really likes riding on the bus.

I'm still not used to the shift I work, and Sophie wasn't feeling very well.

We had not registered for the NHS(National Heath Service) so I expected to have to do some paperwork, answer a lot of questions, and show plenty of documents. I went prepared with a utility bill, lease agreement(proof of address), passports, school offer letter, shot records, you name it. When we arrived, they just asked for her name and mine, our address, and how long we were in the country for. That is it!!! I was so surprised at the ease of the transaction that I felt like something was wrong. So they said to wait for them to call her. And like 10 minutes later, they did. The doctor checker her, took her temperature, and said she had an infection. Gave her a prescription, and we were off. No bill, no co-pay, no endless forms, no insurance questions. Then we took the bus back to the town center, and after getting lost for like half an hour(I still get lost sometimes!), I found the pharmacy and got her prescription filled. And since she is under 16, it was free. No questions asked. It really felt strange, but in a great way. I was not used to this, but I really like it. I hope not too need it again, but it is great to know that if we get sick, medical bills and insurance is not something we need to worry about while we are here. Peace of mind...knowing that you will be taken care of when you need it most.

The great and the not so great...

After we finally moved in to the house on the 1st of October, we had tons to do, and fast. We were happy to finally have the place, but it was empty! We had nowhere to sleep, nothing to eat, nothing to cook on. We moved in on a Friday. The agency told us to be in their office at 11am, to get the keys and sign the contract. When we showed up, we were greeted with "Sorry, but the house is being cleaned at the moment. It should be ready in the next hour or so." That was a bit aggravating, since we we anxious to move in, and we had made the deal five days earlier. But we went out to lunch, then went to the house around 1pm, it was still not clean. Our showing up must have made them rush it, even though we left again, because it was not cleaned properly. But we were glad to just be there.

We then went out looking for the basic furniture. There are tons of second hand furniture, clothing, and household items stores throughout Colchester. Most of them, run by a charity of some sort(British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, etc.), kind of like Goodwill in the US, except they are all over the place. So we found a bed for Sophie, a mattress for us, a desk for work, a sofa bed couch, a center table from the same store, and they delivered them to the house, but not until Monday! So we slept on the floor, for 3 long nights. It was very uncomfortable. There are wood floors in every room, and we had only 1 blanket and towels the first night, plus Sophie's blanket that we all had to share, we used some clothes for pillows. The following day we went looking for some sheets and pillows, which we found. It helped, but we still woke up in pain and sore, instead of rested. Even Sophie had rough nights the nights we had no beds. We also got some basic kitchen stuff and groceries. 


The fridge is weird, it is half freezer, half fridge. We hadn't seen that, it is usually mostly fridge, and a small freezer at the top. Here it is half and half, and the freezer is at the bottom. Food shopping has been interesting. The labels are different. They call things by different names than we are used to many times. Overall, we are able to find what we need as vegans. But some things we can't find, others are very expensive, others way cheaper than we are used to. The food itself is way better labeled here, for us. Most items come labeled as "Suitable for vegans/vegetarians". It hasn't taken long for us to get lazy and look for that label rather than reading the ingredients like we were used to. When it comes to grocery shopping, these are the main differences:

- Organic food has been more difficult to find. 

- Tofu is very expensive here, about £2.50 for 8oz($3.75). We used to get 1lb block of local organic tofu about $2.15 in Milwaukee.

- Bread is waaaay cheaper here. Most of the "basics" are really cheap. Potatoes, carrots, cabbage, condiments, flours, pastas, rice, beans. Food in general, is way cheaper. 

- There is a massive shortage of hot sauce here! And what they do have, is usually expensive(or American, they have had Tabasco's and Frank's hot sauce, but it isn't really something we want to do, buy products from so far away). 

- The avocados here are from Mexico, or Chile, so we don't buy them. Bananas are from the Caribbean, so we also don't get them. 

- They take a bit more pride than the US in making their own food, and clearly label the food that is produced in the UK, and plenty of it is. 

After stocking up on some food, and getting some basic furniture, we tried to find some calls to get some internet setup and utilities switched over to our name. We setup BT to come out and install internet on the 11th. Which at the time, I thought was a long time to install. But after we set that up, we looked around for other Internet Service Providers. We found plenty, some cheaper and faster, but they all took at least two weeks to be able to install. So we had to stay with the BT install date, since they were the quickest to install. And 20Mb is more than enough speed. There was some providers with 50Mb connections!! Internet is fast here. We switched the water to our name. 


On Wednesday the 6th, we all went to the University for Geli's registration. We took the bus there. The bus system is privatized unfortunately. It does not seem to be run by the county. But they are fast, we have not had to wait more than ten minutes for a bus. It costs £3.20 for a day pass(about $5.10 USD). So it is a bit more expensive than in the US, but more efficient. At the university, Geli got registered, we cruised the union, checked out the restaurants, and ate at one of the restaurants there, that actually had tofu! The meal itself wasn't all that great, but it is good to know Geli can have a proper vegan lunch there. At one of the information stands at the university, there was information about bicycling around Colchester, so we had to go. They told us there that there was going to be a bike sale at the university on Saturday, and they were going to sell good bikes cheap. So we came back out on Saturday, hoping to find bicycles for the 3 of us. But there was a lot of people there, and most of the ones we liked were gone, or really expensive. So they told us to come out to their warehouse, and they would have more there. The people selling them were a charity, that takes donated bikes, fixes them, and sends them to poor people in Africa. But they have to sell some, in order to cover the shipping. We did eventually go to their warehouse. We bought bikes for the 3 of us! Geli's and Sophie's still need some fixing, but mine was ready so I rode it home. They are similar to what we had in Milwaukee, but we paid way less for them. We now need to get a trailer for Sophia so we can go out biking together! On Saturday, the university was really packed! There was all sorts of student groups to join and get information from. We even managed to get some plates, a pot and a pan from a charity group collecting donations in exchange for household items. 

Gas here is about £1.20 a liter, so that is about  $7.30 USD per gallon. I wish it was that expensive in the US. Then maybe people wouldn't drive their big trucks and SUV's, and drive less altogether. 

We also bought a TV! A nice one, I might add. But we bought it used, at a pawn shop, so we got it for a pretty good price. We managed to find a 26" Sony Bravia Full HD LCD TV, for £200(about $320USD). Which is way cheaper than anything comparable we could have bought new. I also got a decent Dell 17" monitor for work for £30(about $47USD). We are liking this whole second hand stuff. You can buy a lot more while spending way less. 

A sad part of all this, at least for me, is that we have seen zero football(soccer) so far! It is very expensive to get the package that includes sky sports in order to watch it. Also, there is a TV license to pay here. Just for having a TV and watching any programs. It is not cheap, it is £145 a year($228 USD). We did the math, and adding TV to our account and paying a license will be about £300($472 USD) a year to watch the English Premier League. It is sad that they make it so expensive, we really wanted to watch it. 

We brought our Wii and our PS3 in order to play some games on the Wii and watch the DVDs and blu-rays we brought on the PS3. We also have the camera charger, the hard drive, and 3 laptops that use american outlets. At first, we bought a step-down converter, and used that, 1 at a time, to charge and run our  electronics. Then we found out the laptops don't need a stepdown converter, just a plug adapter. They can handle 240V. So we bought some "visitor" adapters. Then we looked into the PS3 and the Wii. The PS3 is labeled only for 120V, but we found out they can also handle 240V. The hard drive and the camera also can. The only one we needed a step-down converter for, was the Wii. But we just ordered a UK Wii power supply for it instead(much cheaper). We ordered a couple more of the plug adapters(£4, about $6.40USD), and we are set. Didn't even need a step-down converter after all, which is good, because they are expensive(£30, so about $47USD). So as far as using our American electronics here, we are all set. 

I started working on the 11th, and Geli started classes that same week. So we have finished our 1st week of work and school respectively. I love working at home. It is awesome to take 'lunch' and have Geli and Sophie there! And to just be at work at home, and my commute after work, is from the office downstairs to the bedroom upstairs. It is awesome. I have had some difficulties getting the phone application to pull up my extension at the beginning of the day, but once I get it running, it works the rest of the day without issue. We are still getting used to the strange work schedule since I work 6pm to 3am here(noon to 9pm in Milwaukee). Geli has enjoyed school so far. She prefers it to working by a long shot, so that is good. 

Sophie, was probably been the least pleased with all the change, since she loved the daycare she was in. She made some friends there that she would tell us about when she got home. But we found out that the government here pays for 15 hours of nursery school each week(which is like pre-k for 3 year olds). We signed her up for one here close to our house, and she started this week. She will only be going 9am to noon, Monday through Thursday so she can make some friends and socialize. She likes it so far.

The weather has just started to cool down. But the last 2 weeks were mostly sunny and very pleasant. There has been a clear sky many nights and Colchester is not as light polluted as Milwaukee, so the sky looks very nice at night. I have been able to catch a glimpse of Jupiter and the Galilean moons most of the nights! Geli thinks I am crazy for looking at the same 5 dots in the sky(Jupiter plus the 4 visible moons) with binoculars almost every night, but I really enjoy that. 

We also found some wilderness! That was exciting! We found it on the way to a barn, that is a landmark of Colchester. But we got side tracked when we found this valley. We explored it, and Sophie got stuck in some mud, so we had to go back home and change her. We also found some ruins of a building built in the year 1103! 

Now, we will try to get into a routine and see how we feel the rhythm of things. We still need to make it out to London!!! Hopefully soon...

The Beginning...

After unsuccessfully cleaning/emptying of the apartment, we were off with our possessions which were contained in 2 big luggage bags, 1 small luggage bag, 2 backpacks, 1 gym bag, 2 bags, that's it..nice and simple....or that's what we thought....

Carrying around that amount of bags is no fun, quite simply getting to the bus station in Milwaukee was almost a nightmare.  First of all, carrying those bags down from the third floor is no picnic, then trying to drag them around the city, along with a very active child was almost impossible...  We thought it would be no big deal to take the local bus to the bus station but, it was pretty uncomfortable, we made everyone there uncomfortable too, probably, we were obstructing the way and taking forever to do anything..... it was ridiculous.  The bus left us a few blocks from the bus station, which would be like nothing in normal circumstances, but the way things were going, with us dragging along many super heavy bags and trying to get control of Sophia, there was no way we were gonna make it.  But some lady stopped and gave us a ride and we barely made it.  Thanks lady that was going to pick up her friend that was coming from Minneapolis!  Of course, since we barely made it to the bus that was going to take us to Chicago, we all had to sit separately, yes, that includes Sophia.  Thankfully, I was only one row away from her and I could keep tabs on her.  We had planned to take the subway to the airport, but the thought of dealing with the bags again made us change our mind and take a taxi.  Once we got to the airport, we had like 4 hours to kill, but at least we had made it.  Even checking in our bags was a pain, we had to switch things around to accommodate for the weight restrictions.  After that we just ate some sandwiches and lounged around until it was time to get on the plane.  The plane that would take us directly to London!!  In the airplane we were amused by watching tv or eating (they gave us both dinner and breakfast).  Sophie watched kid shows.  I watched a really bad comedy movie and listened to Chopin.  Chuy tested out his new earphones with good music, read and watched some football (soccer) highlights.  A few hours of sleep, and the ride was over rather quickly.

Apparently all immigration people are rude, have an attitude problem, and are mean, even in England.. 'how can it be possible that you come to live in England for a year without a place to live?!' in a very condescending voice....that's how we were received in London haha.  We were pretty tired, and still not wanting to deal with the bags, we decided that instead of taking the tube to London centre and from there the train to Colchester, we would instead take a bus directly to the Colchester with a layover at the other London airport.  We had to sacrifice some London experiences for some peace of mind, London will have to wait for us, but it will be revisited and explored soon.  Before getting in the bus, we noticed we were missing Sophie's luggage, and it was quite a struggle to get it back.  Security had to be called, but the phone number they had was wrong, it was a mess, I almost didn't make it back on time to take the bus.  At first, I thought I was too excited to fall asleep, but within five minutes we were all passing out, we were riding through the outskirts of London, so there was just a lot of green, a lot of trees and a lot of road and that's it, so I am pretty sure we didn't miss anything.  After the second bus, we were too excited about being close to our destination to even think about falling asleep.  We passed through a few towns and got a glimpse of England finally (besides airports).  Very narrow roads, like scarily narrow, and I didn't think the riding on the wrong side of the street would be a big deal, but it really does make a huge difference.  I felt disoriented with cars going all over and me not knowing which way was right anymore.  The houses are all very old but well kept.  We finally got to Colchester and even though everything in Colchester is close by... we still decided to take a taxi to the bed & breakfast we were staying at, we were tired, sore, sleepy and there's no way we wanted to drag the bags around in a city we didn't know.  We got to the Corner House, got our stuff in our double room (one full bed and one twin bed), and felt a sense of relief to have survived the long, eventful trip.

After pulling ourselves together with a shower and calling our respective parents, we took ventured out to find a place to eat. (And yes, it was raining.)  We were pretty spoiled in Milwaukee, I am not gonna deny that, we could go to countless restaurants near our house that were vegan friendly, so going out and having a hard time finding a restaurant in which we could eat anything was almost heart breaking haha.  After some browsing around, reading many menus, and feeling rejected, we found an Indian place to eat at.  It was pretty good.  We went back to our room and passed out for at least 12 hours.  The next day we woke up sore but adventurous and we went to find an electric converter for the electric plugs.  We had to ask around, and take a few wrong turns, but we finally found it.  This is definitely one of the things we would redo, buy the converters/adapters in the USA and bring a power strip.  We have to circulate all of our electricity hogging electronics through one adapter.  No fun.  After having accomplished our mission for the day, we went to have some breakfast, this time we didn't have too much trouble finding a place to eat, we did have to do the whole stepping in, looking at the menu on the wall while the employees are staring at us, and saying sorry but we are vegans and stepping out.  It's the whole stepping in, stepping out routine that vegans learn to master haha.  We had a grilled veggie sandwich, a samosa and a hummus/sun dried tomato/olive baguette.  We took a break in our room to get some info on apartments and make some calls.  After a few unsuccessful calls, we were starting to freak out about not being able to find an apartment.  So we went out to some letting offices we had seen in our search for food, and one the first one we went to we found a nice little house to rent.  We were outraged to find that there is such a thing as agency fees, which were extremely high, but we paid them almost happily for a peace of mind of not having to worry about where to live.  After that we set out to find a cellphone, and we found that they practically give smart phones away here.  For example, a Sony Ericsson Xperia was free when you had a monthly contract of 10 pounds.  That's crazy!!!  Anyway, we got out pay as you go phone, and we were set to go.  We found a place to eat, after looking around for quite a bit... we had some British breakfast meal consisting of fried mushrooms, veggie sausage, fried tomato, baked beans, hashbrowns, and bubble (potato pancake thingy).  We also got a veggie burger and chips (fries). After asking around we also found a grocery store, and a health store on the way.  We bought a few essentials and were sadden to see there was no tofu or hot sauce of any kind to be seen.  We were spoiled in the food department too in Milwaukee hahah.  After that we decided that we had had a very successful day and went to rest to our room.  (And yes, it was cloudy all day)

The next day, we discovered the Colchester Castle Park while walking about with no set place to go.  This park is beautiful.  It has several areas including a playground, it has a tiny lake and the river runs along it.  It's very green and very colorful with all the different garden areas.  And it has a castle, a real one, that was made like a thousand years ago, and I am not even exaggerating.  It is now a museum, and it's missing its upper levels, but still an impressive sight.  We spent most of our time in the playground because Sophie was really enjoying it.  After that very nice sight, we headed back to our room for some cheap lunch of instant noodles and bread hahah  We plan not to spend ALL of our savings on eating out haha.  After lounging around and watching a movie in our room, we went to buy more essentials at the grocery store.  We worked up some hunger after that, so we went out looking for Chuy's ever lasting craving of Chinese food.  It was difficult.  Chinese food restaurants here have odd hours and close in odd days.  At the end, we found one but they had no tofu dishes.  We were disappointed but we were willing to give them a try.  Out of desperation I asked if they had tofu, they said yeah, and charged us for tofu like if it was a delicacy, but at least we got our tofu!

We haven't seen the sun in three days.  It's really perfect weather here.  We are enjoying our adventure greatly until now.  Let's see where it takes us.

Five days left: preparing...

After getting acceptance from the university, we started looking into the visas.  The visa process is not an easy one, and we could not start it until it was 3 months prior to commencement of classes.  Thus we waited with calm anxiety to get the process started.  We didn't want to get our hopes up without the visas.  The time finally came in which we could start working on our visas, after a huge amount of paperwork, probing and answers.  I mean what kind of person keeps tabs of how many times they have spent outside the country in the past 10 years?  I had to guess hundreds.  We were getting nervous about getting all the documents together that they wanted, they wanted original documents only and sometimes that proved to be impossible.  For example, Chuy's pay stubs are made electronically, there is no such thing as a original copy of that...  We live in the electronic age, it is quite unreasonable to ask for original documents!  We also were asked for proof of funds, and the banks were confused when we asked for an original bank statement in letterhead paper...  That's how much business/people are moving away from hard copies.  We were quite worried about being denied because we lacked some original documents.  But we figured, we had to give it a try even if we thought we were doomed for failure.

Then came the appointments to get our fingerprints.  Well that was odd...  Entering government buildings always feels odd, they are usually cold, unfriendly places, with security barking orders at you.  Thankfully Lisa was there to accompany me and pass time, while I waited for quite a long while to get the fingerprints done.  The fingerprinting process was strange, they roll each finger multiple times along this pad...  But when the appointment was over, our wait to submit the applications was pretty much over.  We sent the applications and hoped for the best.  I got an email saying they received the applications, and they usually take 5-10 business days.  Each day that passed, we saw our visas getting farther and farther away.  By the ninth day, we were pretty much sure that we were not getting the visas.  But suddenly a check of inbox and we got an answer, and the answer was positive!!  That happened in the middle of the day while I was still at work, and I was pretty useless the rest of the day.  All I could think about was England!!  And that we were gonna be living there!!

After a celebratory eating out, feelings started to settle, and then we realized, oh man we are moving to England, in less than a month!  We need to get things rolling!  No time to lose.  We bought airplane tickets, canceled services, and started posting our possessions on craigslist.  That was hard.  Trying to price the objects that you have accumulated.  We felt ripped off the whole time,  but we saw our apartment getting emptier with a feeling of relief.  Freedom never felt stronger.  We felt so much relief from getting rid of our stuff, that we will try to be minimalists.  At least, less materialistic.  It is true, what 'they' say:  Things you own end up owning you.

At first we thought we were going to have to live by our savings since Chuy's job had refused to allow him to work remotely.  We looked ahead to a life of rice and beans, but we were still positive about the move and adventure that lay before us.  Then Chuy whipped out his negotiating skills and earned himself a contracting job, doing exactly what he does now, but remotely.  A huge relief.  I mean, going to place with no place to live, no one you know, and being from another culture is pretty hard already, so to not have to worry about the income is a welcomed with open arms.  We still have to get the apartment ready to leave, all clean and empty.  Our bags are half packed, and waiting to be processed.  Things are waiting around to see if they make it in the luggage.  There is very limited space.  We have weight restrictions to worry.  Our 800 discs will have to be separated and distributed among all the luggage...because apparently 800 discs weight a whole lot.

There is only 5 days to go, and the pressure is on.  The countdown has gone from days to hours.

England?! Why?

This could easily turn into a very long post. But we will try to keep it short and to the point. 


Neither one of us has ever been very enchanted with this country. We really can't put our finger on exactly how it started. Part of it may have been getting a whole different "history" in history class than what we learned in elementary school in Mexico. On the overlapping parts, it is like they were not even talking about the same events, but they were. That creates a sort of skeptic approach to any claims the US makes from that point on. And unfortunately, the more you look into US history, the more disillusioned you become. But the worst part, is its current state. Electing Bush, twice, kind of. Endless war, which is glorified. Healthcare depends on how much money you have. Its blind faith in capitalism and corporations. Its almost complete disregard for the environment. And a broken political system that is not responsive to what people want. We could go on and on. But this is not even the main point....


We had talked about where we would want to live. And we knew we wanted to move away from the US. We don't even feel right paying taxes that we know go to fund the very wars we hate. Geli has wanted to get her masters, and didn't feel right having left school without finishing it. So when she was laid off, and having such a difficult time finding another job, we looked into the option of going back to school. It was while doing this that we realized that this could be the ticket out of here. So she applied to schools in Canada(Vancouver), and England. We also looked at schools in New Zealand, Australia, and Spain. France, Switzerland, or Norway would have been awesome, but there is the language barrier. She got accepted to one school in Canada, and one in England. Canada would have been "safer," more familiar. But we ideally wanted to be in Europe. So England seemed to be the direction we wanted to go. It is not perfect, by any means. In fact, it is almost like the US's little sidekick when it comes to foreign policy. But at least it cares more about its people than the US. It provides them with healthcare, regardless of how much money they have.That, scores massive points in our book. We could retire, with 1 less thing to worry about. 


Believe it or not, this is the short version. We have so much to say. We have put so much thought into this. It is not easy to go even further from family and friends. It is not easy to leave everything you own behind. Leaving everything you've known. Embarking on a journey into the unknown. As a unit, as a tiny family...


On September 26th we set foot in a strange land...England. Leaving North America for the first time...