"When you arrive overseas, the first person you meet is yourself"

THE COUNTDOWN IS ON!!! 3 WEEKS AND COUNTING!!!!

Well Ladies and Gents, the countdown is officially on! Three weeks and counting! This last week has been absolutely insane.

I had my last day at work on Thursday. It was to put it lightly bittersweet. As excited as I am for this adventure it all got real knowing that I won't be returning to Windsor anytime soon! The girls who worked for me there are hands down one of the best teams I could have imagined building.

My girls and I went to dinner tonight as a farewell at Buca Di Bepo (YUM!!) We decided it would be fitting, family style dining for our little Windsor family.

This week Nick had a two hour cultural training phone call that I sat in on. We learned A LOT of information, an absolutely overwhelming amount. We spoke with the guy a lot about slang and what to expect as far as social activities. We're both looking forward and nervous at the same time to get there and really dive in to the new culture and language. While they do still speak English of course, there's lots of little differences between the two countries.

We learned about the cockney rhyming slang, one of the things I'm honestly looking forward to experiencing in person, but feeling slightly overwhelmed by at the same time. The slang started with criminals in South London selling items on the street. To hide what they were selling from the police they would use a rhyme and it has adapted since then. Our trainer was telling us about his first experience with the rhyming slang and told us that he went to the market and heard a gentleman selling "Teddies" for a pence, meaning pears. The way the rhyming slang works is they take the word they want to say "pear" and use a rhyming phrase "Teddy bear" and they usually just drop the rhyming word so "teddies" mean pears. Crazy right?!

The trainer left us with a thought that really stuck with both of us. "When you arrive overseas, the first person you'll meet is yourself."  

This trip has already started to help me realize how much I've missed out over the last two years, and I'm so excited to spend the next six months really just focusing on myself, and finally getting the chance to define myself by something other than my job.

I think at this point Nick and I are both ready to just get over there and get this whole adventure started. I'm going to start packing tomorrow and try to get everything ready so that we can just relax and enjoy seeing our friends and families that last week we will be in town!

How crazy is it that in literally just 3 weeks we will be in a different country?! ahhh!!!!

First Post, Preparing to Leave

As we prepare to leave, Nick and I have had a lot of hard work (and money) spent on getting the house, and ourselves ready (and wardrobes too, of course).

Even with Nick's common travels, luggage for our six months is going to be necessary. I found some 30" bags that will hopefully have enough room for all of my clothes and shoes (and purses, and earrings......) My biggest struggle will be meeting the 50lb weight restriction!!!!

Hopefully I can manage to pack 6 months of our life into these bags!!

For those who don't know the background on how this adventure came to be for the two of us, Nick works for Perceptive Software, which is owned by Lexmark. They have expanded his division into the UK and asked Nick to help train the workers in the UK. His first reaction was essentially "hell no I'm not doing that" but we've realized that this is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for the two of us to get to see the world and really experience a different culture.

I have quit my job, and will be having my last day of work this week! Having this amazing opportunity has really made me realize what else there is to life aside from my job. I'm looking forward to having six months to really focus and reflect on myself, who I am now, and who I want to be.

We will be living in Maidenhead which is about 20 minutes west of London, in Berkshire, England in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

We are both full of nerves and excitement to experience this adventure together. We can't wait to share it with all of our friends and family at home via this blog!

Please share with friends and family, and leave a comment below to let us know your thoughts on our departure.

xoxo
Ash