- American neighbor: I just hung up the phone with the American woman in my neighborhood who I'm joining for a walk this afternoon in the hills near our house. This is a brand new development--so we'll see how it goes. Her husband is Scottish, and Andy really enjoyed talking with him at a recent gathering, so I'm hoping maybe they'll get together for a "pint" soon.
- AWA: Monday Kort and I went into Aberdeen for the American Women of Aberdeen's newcomers' coffee. I met lots of nice women who mostly have grown kids, though a couple had young ones too. Many had done other overseas assignments and most were nice to talk with about living in the Aberdeen area. It's weird, though. When I go to these kinds of things, it sort of feels like I'm back in the first year of Pi Phi, or even TFA. The veteran folks are full of ideas and suggestions for the newbies--and they almost relish in knowing more about Aberdeen than they think we know. Overall, it's a little weird. Also, I realized the entire group of women talk about their life as it is based around their husband's job. You often hear people say, "oh, you're with Exxon, right?" But, they mean, her husband works for Exxon. The wife's role is to organize the family, find schools and handle the move. Then, once here, the wives meet people and get involved in activities. It felt strange to me, but I realized I'm used to having and talking about my own crazy busy work--not just my husband's. I'm loving the opportunity to be with Kort all the time, but realized I have less to say to folks who aren't at home with their babies. At the meeting, though, I realized I have very few interests/hobbies besides Kort (yes, Meredyth, one day Kort will grow up and not want to be your hobby--it might be time to get excited about more than experimenting with making different baby foods). These ladies get together for any one of the following activities: mah jong, bunko, bridge, golf, tennis, scrapbooking, knitting/sewing/needlepoint, hiking, travel, and eating out. I'm sure I can find something in there that I like to do, but for now, I seem to like getting together with the other moms with young tots.
- Scottish neighbor: My neighbor, Kirsti, and I have hung out a few times. She invited me over for coffee a few weeks ago and we spent a couple of hours chatting about the usual. Last week she came over here. Of course, I don't know all the norms and mores of socializing here, but she doesn't seem to mind. Instead, she takes advantage of the opportunity to give me all the neighborhood gossip. One family on the cul de sac is snooty. Another family she calls the Clampitts (I wondered to Andy if she really knows who the Clampitts are). I now know who's been divorced, where people work, and a little more about our landlord, who moved to the States. All very fascinating stuff.
- July 4th barbecue: Another American who lives in Aberdeen and has a little one had a dozen of us over for a bbq last Friday. I'm so glad we went. It was fun to eat hotdogs and drink beer and let Kort hang with the kiddos. A few of the couples seem like they could become fun people to hang out with--and it seems like they get together a bunch.
Oh, and did I mention that I drove to almost all of these events on my own?! I had been avoiding driving in Aberdeen but conquered my fears last weekend. I had one meltdown in a roundabout where I succeeded in stopping the traffic in all three lanes. But, no accidents and no one honked at me. Now that I've had one major screw up, I'm doing much better. The next time I was in that same roundabout, it was smooth sailing. As long as I know where I'm going and which spoke to exit at the circle, I'm pretty good... This opens up a whole new world of things to do and places to go: Andy and I went to Costco on Saturday, I did the big Asda (Wal-Mart) on Monday. Soon, we'll be hitting TGI Friday's in Aberdeen when we need some American style food. Maybe, maybe not.
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