Growing Pains

Everyone faces growing pains when moving. You have to find a new grocery store, mall, post office, bank, etc. In moving abroad we not only have to figure out where the stores are located but also what they are called. Since England does not have my three favorite stores (Target, Trader Joe's, or Nordstrom) I find myself walking into shops just to figure out what's inside. 

In an attempt to prepare myself for winter in England I've found myself going inside a lot of clothing stores. As I previously confessed, being a Southern California native I have no winter clothing. Yes I know it is still summer but I am already worried about winter. Whenever I think about winter in England I picture never ending grey skies, sideways rain, turn your umbrella inside out wind, and the monster from the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland. I can't explain the last one so don't ask. Since I don't know a Monsoon from a Fat Face (English stores) I am forced to go inside to figure what type of store it is. On a few occasions I've encountered strange looks from other customers. I panic, thinking they can tell I have no idea how idea how to interpret the UK size chart.  Turns out I was "shopping" in a plus-size store and one that catered to the elderly population. Whoops.   

After weeks of being surrounded by foreign stores I was comforted to learn that England has Costco. Costco!! Home of the mega toilet paper packs, rotisserie chicken and $1.50 pizza! Even better, I learned my US Costco membership was good worldwide. Oh happy day indeed.  Two weeks ago I drove 45 minutes to a Costco located in Reading (pronounced Red-ding). You read that correctly, I drove. 

I must confess that I didn't start driving until we purchased our Polo. Don't tell Mr. Stewart but I was really enjoying being Ms. Daisy. What I was not enjoying was playing navigator.  With increasing frequency our google directions would completely fail us.  For some reason the directions would guide us to the back side of our intended destination. By "back side" I mean there was typically a wall, street, or fence (or all three) between our vehicle and the intended destination. It just so happens that our excursion to Costco was no different. We ended up in a stadium parking lot. No joke.  After driving around in circles Rory spotted the Costco sign between some trees. Needless to say our first purchase at Costco was a Tom-Tom satellite navigation. Our second purchase was a rotisserie chicken! 

Okay, I know this post contained too many words and no pictures. Do not fear. I promise the next post will be full of pictures of our trip to Madrid last weekend.