It's been a busy couple of weeks here. L's got a new language exchange partner, we celebrated our wedding anniversary a couple of weeks back and a couple of days later it was my birthday. I finished my lower intermediate language course with an exam on my birthday (good job I passed otherwise that might have ruined the day). Then later that week we went on our first proper out-of-the-city trip since we arrived.
The other fun thing that happened is that my sister came and visited over my birthday weekend. People like my sister are the unsung heroes of people like L and me. Well, we have lots of unsung heroes, who support us in many different ways, and we are thankful for each and every one of them. Most of these lovely people I knew we needed before we embarked on this adventure.
But before we arrived, I had never really considered the need for this type of person. They perform a really valuable and mostly mundane role that I had never previously even really considered the need for. When they visit, they bring items out for us. When they return home, they take things back for us. And when they are at home, they help us sort out lots of things that are just a bit harder to do from a distance.
A fair few times in the month before my sister's visit, I messaged her telling her that another parcel would be turning up at her house soon and asking what instructions I should give about leaving it if no one was in. Consequently, the rather large suitcase that my sister brought with her was mostly filled with things for us, with some of her belongings squeezed in as well.
Some of these are things that are either not available here or can be found if you look hard enough, but are prohibitively expensive. For example, English books for J - you can buy English books here but they are much more expensive than the UK and with less choice. So it made a lot of sense to order cheap children's books online and get them delivered to my sister for her to bring out.
Some things are things we can get here but are expensive enough that it makes sense to get them brought out from the UK if someone has some spare space in their suitcase. When my lovely in-laws visited they brought us, among other things, coconut milk, dried red kidney beans and lasagne sheets. All of these I can get here - but it saves us quite a lot of money to get them in the UK instead. And some things are just nice-to-haves. Dairy Milk chocolate, extra mature cheddar cheese, Yorkshire tea bags.
This is not mentioning the various belongings that we purposely left in the UK for my parents, L's parents and my sister to bring out for us. Thanks to them, we have some of our English books (and L's complete Calvin and Hobbes collection), board games and our winter coats.
And then, when our visitors go, sometimes they take things back for us. Usually mail to post in the UK, which gives us the peace of mind that our letters are likely to arrive at their destination and won't cost a fortune to send either.
When they are at home, these people help us with some of the UK bureaucracy that comes with moving abroad. When I needed to get J's birth certificate apostilled (i.e. embossed with a special stamp to show it is a genuine UK document), one of the methods I used was to order a new birth certificate to my sister's address, she filled in some forms and sent it off the next morning to get apostilled and then when she got it back, immediately posted it out to us. Not a huge task - if you're living in England. But for us, it was incredibly helpful because getting documents sent out here to send them straight back to England entails a significant time delay, greater complexity, increased probability of things going wrong and a higher cost.
In a similar vein, my parents' home (when they have one!) is our official address in the UK. They faithfully open our mail for us and send us pictures of letters. Again, not a big task - but a critical one as it meant I could get my student loan status and NI voluntary contributions sorted somewhat easily.
When our families do come out and visit, we don't just dive into the suitcases they bring. We love to be able to spend time with them and are very grateful that they make the effort to come and see us. But I for one had never really thought much before about the time, money and stress that people like us are saved by people like them going a little out of their way - so a big thank you to everyone who has helped us in this way already!
