Huntingdon

Today was Christopher's first day at work. He didnt do much other than check in and see the place he'll be working, so he was home by 9:30 this morning.

This afternoon we went to the housing office and found out that with the amount of Overseas Housing Allowance that we're alloted that we'll be able to get a 3 or 4 bedroom HOUSE!!!! No more apartments!!!! Which is AWESOME!!!!!!!!! So, among our favorites are 2 houses located in St. Ives (yes like the lotion) on the river Ouse and a 350 year old house. The old house is probably a no go, it looks like an amazing house, but the housing guy told us it wasnt in the greatest area, so, eh, not so much.

Tonight we hailed a cab and made our way to Huntingdon. Its the closest town to the Alconbury base where we're at. It was really nice. Most of the stores and things were closed for the night, but we ate at a wonderful restaurant called "Pop Bellies". I had a wild mushroom risotto and Christopher had bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes). Okay, so I hate sausage, unless its in sausage balls, of course, but these bangers were srumptious! And in the course of walking a mile to the base gate to get picked up by the cab, we realized why the Brits drink so much tea...because its FREEZING cold outside! So, we both had pots of tea with dinner to thaw out a bit.

After dinner we walked around the town centre and found an old church, St. Mary's. It was breathtaking. I missed it at first and turned around to find it looming behind me. That moment combined with driving past old, ivy covered buildings made me realize that we're here...we're really in England! Its amazing the history you can feel from just an old church or building...how much character seeps out from just a moment's glance. Now, I love America, but she aint got nothing on the history and old world feel of this place.

A sign we saw in the town Centre

St. Mary's Church

After walking around, we did some very not old world stuff...we went to the British equivilent of Wal-Mart---Tesco's. I have to say, we had a good time walking around the store looking at all the different things they had to offer. Its neat to see the similarities in the different foods (like the potato chips HAVE to be made by Lays...they have the same bags and everything, but they're called something different.) but also the differences... like lots of Indian foods, tons of different pastry's, cheap beer, and such. It was really interesting...but then again, I'm a foodie, so I loved it. :)

Dad, this picture's for you...its Christopher with all the British beer!

Well, I'm off for now! We're probably headed to Cambridge tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll post more pictures and stories!

Oh, if you've got Skype, look us up...our name is JCKoenig827