We arrived in London on a Wednesday afternoon. Thursday morning we had appointments lined up to look at several rental options. My gut thought was that while I really wanted to know where we were going to live, I hoped that it would take a little bit of time so we could enjoy a bit of hotel pampering before diving into real life. Fast forward 16 days and we are still in our hotel. The real estate process is a touch slower here than what we are used to in the United States. It seems as though contract negotiations don’t have real deadlines and “yes” is the answer for everything even if the true answer is “no”.

I’ve enjoyed not having to cook or clean, but I’m ready to unpack my suitcase and have a fridge with food in it. I love eating out, but sometimes you just want to stay in your pajamas and eat at home. We are becoming pretty creative with what we can buy at the grocery store and craft into a meal without cooking, and it all has to fit in the mini-bar fridge.

We have found a place that we really like and thought that we were going to be able to move in on Wednesday the 27th. But, that didn’t work out for a number of frustrating reasons. The new plan is that we can move in August 7. So here we sit in the hotel crossing our fingers and toes that on the evening of August 7 we will be sitting around a kitchen table eating a warm home cooked meal.