The Town of Gorleston

Well I've survived one week in my new hometown. We're slowly feeling like this is something we could get use to. We're still alone in the house but will finally meet the other young people with my teaching agency at a pub tomorrow.

You're probably dying to know what Gorleston is like so I thought I would share some information about this tiny town.

1. The population is 5548. That's not a typo. We now know the kind woman who cooked us curry when her kitchen was still closed, the nice phone guy who takes pity on us and Jordon met the cranky old print shop lady. Only 5545 to go.

2. It is the number one attraction on trip advisor for Great Yarmouth. Great Yarmouth is a bigger town about 15 minutes away that is filled with casinos and weird arcades. Our town/beach is the beautiful thing to see if you're there.

3. There is a beautiful old church that makes me wish I was the least bit religious... Wait, no. It's pretty enough from the outside.

4. There is more than one bus company which makes busing to schools very trying and confusing. Haven't gotten lost yet. Knock on wood.

5. Hannah Spearritt, renowned singer and member of S-Club 7 was born here.

6. You can in fact go swimming in the sea on hot days. I walked in the water a couple nights ago and it was lovely.

7. If you have recently got a FitBit and want to reach your 10,000 steps a day, move to Gorleston without a car and walk to get everything. I PROMISE YOU you'll reach 11,000 steps a day.

8. You know the classic romantic comedy with two older actors who have drifted apart but then move to a new town by the sea and have some ridiculous moments, like the man catches a fish and the boat tips over and then they laugh and fall back in love? I use to think "Man, I want to live in a town by the sea with cute houses and one main street." I now do.

Hopefully this paints you a better picture of the town I live in... if not, look at my pictures.

- Vanessa xo

So I Moved to England

What? Crazy I know. There have been many moments where I've thought "What was I thinking", but we've made it here and now the fun begins:

How the hell do I deal with living in a new country?

Moving to a new city or province is a pretty small step compared to moving to a new country. There are so many things you have to do to get yourself set up. Here's a bit of a break down with what we've had to do in our two days here:

1. Move into a house.
This one was fairly easy as we had a room arranged in a house with the agency I came over with. Luckily we were the first of five people to move in so we got to pick our room, successfully avoiding the blinding pink room. I don't think this place was cleaned before we came in as we've sent over thirty spiders and counting to their graves.

2. Get use to a new house.
It's not home, or at least it doesn't feel like that yet. Every power socket and appliance has to be turned on with a switch... which we discovered after our frozen corn thawed out while in the freezer. Who knew that a switch on the wall would turn on a fridge!? Also the shower gave me two options at first: freezing or depths of hell and then took me an additional 15 minutes to figure out how to get the perfect temperature. They also don't have dryers here so please enjoy the image of me hanging my clothes to dry.

3. Get use to a new town
We had to buy bedding and groceries and phone cards and internet and clothespins... but successfully found a pub before anything else. We knew what we had to get, we just didn't know where to go and without working phones, this seemed nearly impossible. Luckily we stumbled across a phone store where the nice guy pointed us in the direction of the post office to get internet (duh?) for the house.

4. Successfully buy all those things.
The phone plans were at least half the price they were in Edmonton so we're saving there. Internet will be cheaper as well. Having to restock your fridge and pantry with the essentials is NOT, though we got the biggest jar of Nutella possible as that was important. We still have a couple of things we need to get but we'll get there.

5. Discover your new surroundings.
Did I mention I live by the sea? It takes ten minutes to walk to the beach from our place. We keep going back and I am going to appreciate every moment there.

Moving was not an easy decision, potentially not a sane one either, but Jordon and I have each other and we're going to take this adventure one step at a time.

"No matter what happens, traveling always gives you a story to tell."

- Vanessa xo