Safe harbor

At the request of some of my most diligent readers, I hereby announce that we have, in fact, arrived in the U.S. and are not lingering in limbo over the Atlantic Ocean as the long, awkward pause since my last post suggests.

We arrived in early August, just in time to celebrate my parents' and brothers' birthdays, as well as our fourth anniversary and Bryan's bday (August and September are not for the faint-walleted in this family), and to see my youngest brother off to college in Newport News. My parents are very generously allowing us to regress into a childlike state of dependence, living in a spare bedroom and eating my mom's yummy cooking (vegetables at every meal? crazy!) while we stake out our next place of residence. I'm even working part-time as a receptionist at the medical practice where my mom is the office manager while they look for a permanent employee, which offers me the winning combination of income with flexible hours and is hopefully proving to be equally beneficial to them.

Bryan has just started working as a substitute teacher's aide for the local school district and so far has enjoyed most of his placements with elementary schoolers, especially the special needs kids with whom he's been working most days this week. Last month he flew to Nebraska to spend three weeks with his side of the family, which as I understand it involved plenty of bowhunting and knife-throwing with his brother, followed by cuddles and bedtime stories with the nieces. They're redefining the image of manly men. Our long-term prospects are just as vague as ever - we'd be happy to settle down here in the States if the right opportunity presents itself, but we'd be equally (or maybe more) excited about another venture overseas. Just don't mention that overseas bit to our bank accounts; they might have a heart attack.

Living in the D.C. area as an adult is proving to be lots of fun. In the almost three months that we've been here, we've frequented a cool indie theater downtown, attended a screenwriting competition where the finalists' short films were read aloud and then voted on, backpacked at Great Falls and in the Shenandoahs (but that's a very wet, miserable story for another time), checked out an exhibit on the Etruscans at the headquarters of National Geographic, and have developed familiarity with this city's inferior subway system. The only major downside is the terrible traffic, aggravated by the constant construction that is, I'm sure, designed to alleviate this very problem.

Having not yet completely resolved the psychological issues related to our uprooting from the country that we felt at home in, we do pine for all things New Zealand, eagerly using "us" and "we" when referring to the All Blacks and their dominance of the recent Rugby World Cup, "forgetting" that uncultured Americans don't understand cool phrases like "sweet as", and ferreting out local distributors for Cadbury chocolate and Bundaberg Ginger Beer (thanks, World Market!). I'm sure my coworkers inwardly roll their eyes every time I casually make reference to my recent arrival from the Southern Hemisphere. But they'll get over it...because I surely won't. :)

Thanks for following us over the past two years - if we go somewhere else that's worth writing about, we'll let you know.

-Rachel (and, in spirit, Bryan)