Oooops! What I left out of the Christmas Letter.

I left a few items out of the Christmas letter that might be helpful to those of you who don't know all the details about our move to England.

1. Why are we here? Nephi works as a mathematician for the US Dept of Defense and is on assignment as an integree with the British government. We are here for 3 years.

2. Tabitha, Hannah, and Abish are attending a private Catholic school. They wear uniforms everyday and follow the traditional British school program.

3. Abish is 10 and in Year 6 at the junior school. In England kindergarten is considered Year 1, so Year 6 is actually 5th grade in the US. Next year in Year 7 Abish will start attending the senior school.

4. Hannah is 14 and is in Year 10 (9th grade) at the senior school. She is at the beginning of a program here called GCSE - General Certificate of Secondary Education. It is a 2 year program (Years 10 and 11)of academic qualification awarded in specific subjects. Students study for 2 years in subjects and are qualified based on assessments and course work. It is a rigorous program at the end of which based on grades on GCSEs students decide whether to go on for more schooling or finish (at age 16!) and go into a trade.

5. Tabitha is 15 and in Year 11 (10th grade) at the senior school. She is also in GCSE and her challenge is to catch up with the other students her age who have been studying for the GCSEs for a full year beyond her. She is doing very well, though. At the end of this year she will not go on to trade school and instead go into a program called Sixth Form or A-Levels which is basically 11th and 12th grades (Years 12 and 13). In this program she will study a fewer number of subjects in a more intense manner. This will be preparation for college and will be in a lecture format. Her speciality is art.

6. We will have to do some major adjusting in order for Tabitha and Hannah's schooling to fit in right with the US system, especially when it comes to applying for college. But we are confident everything will work out.

7. While in England we are allowed priviledges on the US/British military base that is about 1.5 hours away. Otherwise we are 100% living on the economy - in a British house, in a British neighborhood, going to a British church, and experiencing all things England.

Hope that help clarifies our XMas letter!

Christmas Letter 2010

Cheerio from Jolly Old England! The Nobles have finally arrived in the United Kingdom. We are living in a town named Cheltenham in Gloucestershire (shire means county). Nearby is Stonehenge, Stratford Upon Avon (birthplace of Shakespeare), & Oxford.
So far the adjustment is going well. There are different foods, different phrases (sometimes it’s like we speak another language), different customs, & different technologies to adjust to. We struggle with some things, but overall the experience has been wonderful.

Nephi & Krista ~ We think we have successfully learned to drive on the opposite side of the road. Krista has only hit 2 cars so far & really it was just their side-view mirrors. We are getting along well with the locals & Nephi has only shut down one royal air force base & diverted air traffic over Cheltenham for just a few hours. We had a package delivered that ticked like a bomb (the game Catch Phrase does sound like a ticking time bomb!).

Tabitha ~ School is radically different over here. Instead of 6 hours, British school is 8! It’s really fun though because everyone gets a half an hour break & a whole hour for lunch! Plus there are a lot of fun activities at school like reflection daytrips to local religious sites, & mufti day where we can come to school in whatever we want.

Hannah ~The castles & other places to go in England are amazing. So many places to explore & see. We have visited Sudeley castle & Warwick castle. We also went to Puzzlewood which was fun to explore around.

Abish ~ I really like school & the sports we do. I am doing swimming & field hockey. I’m also in chess club, Irish dancing, & drama. I’m learning Spanish & the schedule here is different. We do different things every day in school. There are school discos(dances) as well, which have themes like “Spots & Yellow” & also “Big Hair.” We have a break that is basically recess & we also have lunch & a break when you are done eating & during that break you can go to the library. We have no homework on Wednesdays but we do have homework on Fridays. School here in England is really different from school in America & there are things I miss from America. We also have to wear a school uniform.
We have been woefully behind in updating our blog (which many, many of you continue to remind us!). We promise to repent in the new year & keep you better informed of our adventures. In the meantime we wish you a very Merry Christmas full of love & blessings as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Post by Tabitha

I'm supposed to write something but it's 11 pm and I'm tired.
I'm eating crewtons.
See you tomorrow.

*Munch munch munch munch munch*
*swallowing noise*
*Chew chew chew chew chew chew*

FOOD by Hannah

Seeing as how I am the best food critic in this family I'm going to write a post on the good food and the lack thereof and the bad food in England. One of the major differences between american and english food is the english are lacking corn syrup. In basiclly everything, the ketchup, the soda, the candy all things that having corn syrup should be a nessesity.

Now lets talk about candy, first mistake I made was in thinking that milky ways were really milky ways so here's the confusing part, what americans call milky ways, the british call mars bars(which of course just happen to be lacking the good kind of chocolate) and what americans call 3 musketeers, the british call milky ways. Also very close in name are milky bars, one of the few things that england has food wise that america is lacking. Basiclly it's a bar of white chocolate like a hersheys bar but better. Now that is some good stuff, another candy that England has that we are unfamiliar to is minstrals which are basiclly like huge m&ms. Unfortunatley they do not have laffy taffy or starburst jellybeans in England. 8( :( There is also a major difference between their starburst, skittles, doritoes and other things similar, the taste is off here, it's not as good, probably again from the lack of corn syrup. Another huge difference between american and british food is their so called grape flavoring they use currant instead which is some time of a berry and is pretty nasty if you ask me. So basiclly they dont have any grape flavoring and so I don't get any grape soda here, which of course happens to be one of my favorite things in the whole world!!!! Though they do have an intresting drink here called appletizer which is basiclly like sparkling cider but they serve it everywhere like you would have your regular coke or pepsi drinks and then you would have your appletizer which is actually quite good.

Oh yeah and of course how could I possibly forget the difference between our ketchup's? While american ketchup is a sugar filled delicacy in England it is quite bitter and lacking in comparison. And yeah I could probably write a lot more about their food and stuff but writing this out has started to feel a bit to much like homework so just know this, if you expexted me to come here and fall in love with their food, you were dead wrong in this contest America wins. :P

The Car Situation - Krista

When we left the US, we left an important family member behind. We affectionately called her SuperVan. Ok, I called her SuperVan! She was a 2001 Ford Windstar van that I was very attached to. She could honestly beat any vehicle off the line and I would sometimes hear her speak to me, whispering what a great driver I was and how lucky she was that I drove her. :-)

We originally planned to bring SuperVan to England, but about 2 months before we left she began to have very serious mechanical problems. Problems that would cost more than her current value to fix. So very good friends of ours, the Petersons, adopted her and I can only hope she is in a better place now.

Fast forward to England and we need a car - preferably a van. The problem is streets in England are much smaller than the US and consequently the vehicles are smaller. There are some American style large vans, but they are hard to find and very expensive when you do. So in purchasing a vehicle for our 3 years here we decided upon a "van" called a Vauxhall Zafira. It is a 7-seater and the back 2 seats fold into the floor for more cargo room. We wanted buy a used petrol (unleaded gas) Zafira and figured an automatic would be best since we would also be driving on the opposite side of the road. Unfortunately automatic petrol Zafiras are difficult to find. To get one we would have to place an order to bring one to Cheltenham from an outside dealership. And we would have to put down a hefty deposit to do this.

So one helpful Zafira dealer decided that I probably could drive a manual (stick shift), I just needed to have a go at it. The experience went a little like this- Dealer to Me: Oh, you'll be fine. If you can drive a manual in the US you can do it. Let's take a test drive. Me: Sure, I am a pretty good driver after all, let's go. Nephi to Me: Are you really, really sure you want to this? Me: What could go wrong? Dealer: You'll be fine.

During the test drive. Dealer: Um, ew, ah. Oh! Nephi to Me: Watch out for that curb, that tree, that car! Me to Nephi: Quit yelling at me I'm trying to shift gears. Which side of the road am I supposed to be on? Which side is left - I'll just put my hand over my heart.

End of drive. Me to Dealer: Can I just stop here and let you drive the rest of the way? Dealer to Me: Yes, Please! Then let's go order you an automatic - I think you're going to need one!

So Friday we picked up (and paid a lot for!) our new van - a petrol, automatic, Vauxhall Zafira. And in case anyone is worried, I am driving just fine with no accidents. As long as I don't have to shift gears. Here are some pictures of the new car. Beautiful, but not SuperVan.

the 1st pic fom abish

this is a pic of my benie boo i got 2 my bday here it has purple eyes

all the other pics rnt working lol :) :)

2 the base by abish (the awesome 1)

so yesterday we went to the american base nd my mum nd dad had 2 go 2 the bank and there was a park (wif swings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) so we went 2 the park while my mum nd dad went 2 to bank (we had finaly gotten a car the day b4 so we drove there it was prety far away from our temporary housing) then we went 2 the FOOD STORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we needed a ton of food and we got root beer(the beer 4 mormons)(they dont hav root beer here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
and this friday we r moving into our house!!!!!!!!!!! hannahs room has a tiny balcony and mum and dad hav a big balcony it is an awesome house i will post pics later
I MISS ALL MI BUDDIES
and i will post pics of me in my uniform

Food - by Krista

I promise we will soon post pics! In the meantime I thought I'd mention the food situation over here. Many of you already know that we are probably the world's pickiest family. The list of foods we won't eat is far longer than the list of foods we will eat. So coming to a new country has been an adventure.

In the near future we will have a car and access to a US military commissary where we can buy American food, in the meantime we've had to adjust. We eat out for at least one meal a day. We do go to British grocery stores, but in our temporary housing here we have a teeny, tiny refrigerator and freezer. Imagine the cabinet under your kitchen sink: one side of that (one door) would be the size of our fridge and the other side would be the size of our freezer. So it is difficult to keep a lot of perishable food. In addition, we walk everywhere so we can only purchase what we can physically carry home (we average 15 to 20 minutes each way to the grocery store).

Here in Cheltenham we do have a Pizza Hut (and Pizza Hut delivery), McDonald's, Subway, and Burger King. For the most part these restaurants taste the same as back in the US. We also found a pub that we really like and an Italian restaurant built inside a church.

The pub is interesting. It is a bar and a family restaurant all wrapped into one. You walk in the door to find a large old oak bar and lots of nooks and crannies filled with heavily upholstered booths, large leather chairs with tables, and regular tables and chairs. You pick a table/booth and look at the menu. The table has a number on it and when you're done looking at the menu you go up to the bar with that number. You order all your food at the bar and they bring it to your table when ready. It's really cool. For the most part the pub is very family friendly although I might not take the kids late Friday or Saturday night.

The Italian restaurant is called Zizzis and is not such a hit with the girls. But it is so interesting that it is worth going at least once. The entire restaurant is literally inside an old church. It is beautiful, but a little eerie. Even though I'm not a Catholic anymore, I do feel a little bit sacrilegious eating pizza cooked in a large stone oven that is currently standing where the alter once was. I keep looking up at the stained glass windows to be sure we're not going to get struck down by lightening!

Drinks - There is no real Mt. Dew on the British economy, but I can find it on base. The Sprite here is really called fizzy (anything carbonated is called fizzy) lemonade and if it is the Sprite name brand it is about the same just a little bit sweeter. Generic fizzy lemonade tastes very different I think but Nephi loves it. By the way our lemonade is called American lemonade. When ordering regular water you must say STILL water or you'll end up with fizzy, which is basically club soda. Tabitha, Hannah, and I have found a drink we absolutely love called Appletiser. It is basically Sparkling Apple juice like you find on holidays. We love it and it comes in glass bottles or even cans.

I'm now getting hungry! More to come later . . .

ENGLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! by abish

hey we r finily here and its awesome! so anyway my bday was 9 days after we got here(aug 9th)
and it was pretty cool i got a beanie baby giraffe with huge purple eyes and we went the the military base so we could do sum things (very hush hush) sence the ameican food store was closed on mondays we got sum stuff from a tiny shop and i got AMERICAN CANDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the candy in england tastes BAD!) but then we got back 2 our flat and then wated at the bus stop so we could get to the cinima (thats wat they call theaters here)(they hav busses wif 2 floors!!!!!!!!!!)(we still need 2 buy a car)but it would b 4ever b4 the nxt bus so we called som1 2 drive us then we saw cats and dogs in 3D! it was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i had a great bday here in england btw it is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cold here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're here! From Krista

We left from the Dulles Airport on Thursday July 29th. Dulles was pretty much a nightmare. We barely made the plane because we were stopped on our way to the gate by security. Abish was exhausted and not feeling good so Nephi was carrying her carry-on bags. Security stopped Nephi saying he couldn't carry her bags. We were delayed for 15 minutes while we reorganized all of our bags. It was ridiculous! I called a supervisor and he finally put a stop to the madness and escorted through security. However, we just made our flight and were very frazzled.

We arrived in London on Friday (July 30th). And the rest of the day went wonderful. We were picked up at the London Airport by a Brit working for the government who brought us to Cheltenham. England is beautiful and the temperature is very cool. It was about 68 degrees and breezy. Very refreshing after the heat of Maryland.

So we continue on with this blog. It will probably have posts from all of us. We'll try to identify who is posting, although you might be able to guess. Thus far Tabitha has been posting.

UK Here We Come . . .

At least that's what we hope will happen. Lately a lot of things have been blowing up in our faces as we try to prepare for the big move. Don't get me wrong, a lot of things have been working out, like we were finally able to close on our house, but a lot of other things have been going very wrong. Thus far we have had to transfer hotels due to aweful service, rent a car from the BWI airport because our old van broke down, and now we are scrambling to get all our luggage in order - so least to say, it's a tad bit stressful.
Anyway, once we all survive this utter chaos and mayham we'll finally be across the pond in jolly old England; home of fish 'n' chips and the Royal Gaurd.

Going Away Party

Going away party pictures. We held a going away party for the girls in June at our friends the Albright's swimming pool. It was pretty wild!