Time flies!

Well, the old saying must be true; time flies when you're having fun! My last (and first) post in October 2009 was supposed to be the beginning of a journal detailing the ups & downs of my new life in the USA; an emotional crutch to see me through hard times.

As it turned out, there really weren't any hard times and now here I am in June 2010, writing my second post with nearly 9 months of experiences to recount. Well, I won't go into fine detail (I will save that for the book!) but a condensed version of events goes something like this:

Arrived in Greenville, SC, moved into bijou downtown apartment, sun shining, bought a new puppy (more on him later), had parents visit for Christmas & New Year and beyond, bit of snow, more sunshine, hours & hours of dog walking, new friends, book clubs, great restaurants & bars, never looked back, sunshine, sunshine, sunshine, baby due in 5 weeks, sunshine, sunshine....wait! Baby in 5 weeks??

People call the USA the land of opportunities and where dreams come true. Well in 5 weeks or so, our dreams of a family will hopefully be realised when we meet our first baby, a girl. Although we wanted to start a family, we weren't expecting her to come along as soon as we emigrated 4000 miles away from home! So my plans of lazy days & cocktails in the sun were soon scuppered and replaced with trips to Babies R Us and middle of the night bathroom visits.

However, we are excited & proud that our baby will be born here in America as a US citizen and it will strengthen our bond with this great city & country. The support & friendliness we have encountered since our arrival has been astounding & it is difficult to avoid the question of whether we would have had the same experience if it had been the other way round ie, if we were Americans moving to the UK.

American people really are as friendly & helpful as the stereotypes describe, but not in a false, patronising way. Their desire to please is genuine & caring and has been a major part of our easy settlement here in Greenville. Although the endless sunshine helps too!

I will promise to update more regularly, and I will next talk about our Goldendoodle puppy Bob Dog, who we think should be Greenville's mascot dog (not biased at all, you wait & see!)