Let's Do A Week Roundup
- Katelyn Shepardson
- Sep 6, 2017
- 3 min read
First off, I am so sorry for the delay in this post! It has been one of the weirdest weeks of my life which has included; flying from Minnesota to Germany and then Germany to the United Kingdom, meeting my host counselor Jon, attempting to take the tube from Heathrow to Stratford with 3x50lb suitcases and two smaller items (very stupid), searching for housing, finding a home, and now tonight moving in.
So in order to try to make some sense of this incredibly crazy week I'm going to break it all down.
Wednesday August 30th
Wednesday afternoon we landed at London Heathrow Airport after 10 hours of flying from the US. We were really lucky to be met by my host counselor Jon upon arrival who treated us to coffee and advice as to how best to settle into the city.
We parted ways when Shane and I decided to get to our hotel in Stratford by train/tube. I will be the first to say that this was a fairly terrible decision. However, we were lucky and managed to make it there in one piece with the help of some really great Londoners who not only gave us directions to our hotel but literally helped us carry our bags out of the station and then proceeded to walk with us all the way to our hotel and helping transport our bags.
Thursday August 31st
After a decent night's sleep we got up for breakfast at the hotel and started planning out all of the viewings we had for the next few days.
In total we had lined up several and on Thursday we lined up 5 different appointments. The first was a bit of a bust with both Shane and I being fairly disappointed in the area and the lack of community feel. We were then further let down by one of our viewings not showing up and another arriving so late to the site that we had to leave to see another viewing before we could even take a look.
All in all, Thursday was a tough day with a few disappointments, lots of challenges, and some pretty sore feet.
We got back late to the hotel and decided to get some more sleep.
Friday September 1st
After the intensity of Thursday we decided to take the day a little bit slower. We only inquired into two flats, drank quite a bit of coffee, treated ourselves to some good food, and did a little exploring. However, by about 5pm it was apparent that we didn't have a housing solution.
We went back to Spareroom and did some more browsing of options we hadn't looked at or options we hadn't followed up with.
That was when I saw that a flat I had really liked two weeks before leaving was still on the market. We immediately got in contact with one of the flatmates and set up a viewing for 7:30pm that evening.
It was small, tidy, in a great part of town, and had all the amenities that we were looking for and although it was at the very top of our price range, we jumped at the opportunity to live in a really neat part of London tucked between Finsbury Park and Crouch End.
I have a picture of the home here below:
Saturday September 2nd-5th
Shane and I got in contact with the landlord who was also a flatmate in the home and put together a plan for when we would sign paperwork, place our deposit and move in.
This meant that we got to spend Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, exploring London. So that's exactly what we did.
I have some pictures included here of the adventures from those few days.
Today
Tonight at 7pm Shane and I get to move into our first flat in the city. So today has been fairly lazy with both of us job searching and spending the day catching up on news.
We are both so excited and so grateful for all the incredible help that we have been given these past few days and look forward to getting to return the favor soon.
Cheers to everyone back home and more stories to come!
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