angel-87

the place is just horrible. all of the previous occupants stuff was still in the house and it was a complete mess and the landlord said that he was going to clean it out. we all stayed there for the first night on mattresses on the floor and i think the house made me sick, so at the moment all five of us a staying at my uncles house until we can get sorted lol.

waterlilybarb

That totally sucks!  Sorry you're having such a hassle.  I hope it gets sorted out for you soon and you can settle in and also get some rest.  It's great that you have family there to stay with, but I know it's not the same as being in your own home.  Get well soon, and try not to let the situation stress you out too much.

meljones_83

Ah, sorry to hear that you had a bad time moving in - as Barb said, it's supposed to be enjoyable moving your things in and seeing it become yours. I hope it all gets sorted for you very soon and I'm sure it'll be great.

We got the keys to our flat on Friday, we are gradually starting to move stuff in and sort it all out. My fiance hopes to move in in a couple of weeks and I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to do the same or wait until after the wedding. I think I'll probably move in with him - I don't want him to be there first! If we move in together it'll be ours from the start. Plus it'll be easier to move all my stuff in before the wedding and just come home for the night before.

themegababe

We didn't want to live together before the wedding, so he was here for 3 weeks, and then i was in the apartment for  the 1 week before the wedding. So we got all of our stuff moved in and mostly organized before we actually tied the knot. But we are old fashioned, so... whatever that means, haha

i have my first big test of grad school tomorrow!  ugh!  I have actually been studying all week (first for me), so hopefully it will go well!

waterlilybarb

I'll be thinking of you tomorrow Meg and sending good thoughts your way.  I'm sure all the studying will have been worth it.   BTW, there's nothing wrong with being old-fashioned.  Everyone has to make the choices that they are comfortable with.

meljones_83

Yeah, I didn't want to move in before the wedding and originally I wasn't going to, but a lot of the stuff in the flat is his because he had a place before and I'm worried it'll feel like I'm moving into his flat rather than ours. If I do move in earlier it'll be the spare room for a week or two I guess.
I still haven't fully decided yet. We haven't lived together before (unless you count a student house before we got together or us living with my parents at the moment!) so it'd be nice to do it properly and wait until the wedding night. Oh I don't know!

Am sure the test will be fine, Meg, it sounds like you are prepared, but good luck anyway!

[ Last edited by meljones_83 at 9-29-2008 07:58 ]

themegababe

thanks!  The test went pretty well. I knew almost everything pretty solidly. But a couple of questions just threw me and I had to leave them blank. However, a couple of my classmates said the same thing about the same questions.  Maybe the teacher will notice? hah

Mel, I'm sure whatever choice you make will be right. Mine was based on my faith.  so I'm sure however you are choosing, will be perfect!

Barb, random question, but you don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada, do you?  I think it's only a US thing, but I was just curious. I'm starting to make plans, its our first big holiday as a married couple!

shinny

Meg that's great. I'd say you are relieved to have it over and done with !! I'd imagine if a few of you thought that there must be something up. I remember last year when I was doing my Project Management exams, some of the questions were just not right. We found out later they were wrong & we instantly got a free 4%, nice!!

waterlilybarb

Actually, there is a Canadian Thanksgiving - the 2nd Monday in October, but it's not the big deal that American Thanksgiving is.  Most just enjoy the long weekend (many do their last camping trip or trip to the cottage for the year), but some, probably quite a few, do the big family dinner - turkey and all.  I don't really know the history of it - I should look it up - but it was never a big deal for my family, probably because we were ones that did the last trip of the season.

shinny

You know, I once had an American work colleague ask me if we celebrated the 4th of July in Ireland. Before I could say anything, my other work colleague (also American) jumped in explaining it's a celebration for "American" independence. I think he was really embarrassed !!

waterlilybarb

No wonder!  You'd think an American would know that the 4th of July is Independence Day.   I don't claim to know a great deal about American history, but I'm frequently appalled at how many Americans know even less than I do.  I think too many people kind of switch their brain off as re: learning once they're out of school unless it has something to do with their job.  It's too bad - I find that learning new, and old, things keeps life far more interesting.  Unfortunately school doesn't really teach people how to learn anymore, just how memorize, so many of the younger people don't enjoy learning things for the pure joy of it.  OK, that's my little rant about the state of education.   Can you tell I'm tired?

imarielle626

sometimes it's not that american's don't know a lot (though that can often be the case) it's just sometimes easy to forget.  I remember a couple of my american friends wishing our british friends a happy july 4th without even realizing it then appologizing afterwards.  When you grow up somewhere where certain holidays are just there and you don't really think about the meaning behind it you forget.  After celebrating Israel's Independence Day in Israel and being able to contrast two different countries celebration of independence I can now see how overlooked the 4th of July is as an American holiday.  It's just an excuse to get together with you family have a BBQ and watch fireworks.  People don't really celebrate it as a time of independence, where as in Israel the entire country is spirited and patriotic and is in a time of joy and celebration.  The 4th of July does not make me feel proud to be an American, but celebrating Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) in Israel make me proud to be able to call Israel my home (even if i had only lived there for 7 months at the time).

Today in my Judaism class we were studying rituals.  In America, many rituals of certain holidays are lost to fact that many holidays are more about the party and the celebration than the actual meaning of the holiday and I guess July 4th is a perfect example of that.

meljones_83

I think that's true in the UK too. A lot of people celebrate Christmas who have no religious beliefs at all, just because it's become such a huge holiday. I've never known if this was true but a friend of mine said she once overheard people in a card shop saying how "they've even managed to shove religion down our throats at Christmas!"  I'm not saying that I object to people celebrating a festival/holiday of a religious belief that they do not hold, but many people don't respect the reason for the holiday. Mind you, Christians stole the holiday anyway so I guess we can't really complain!

waterlilybarb

Very true Mel.

Arielle, I imagine the fact that Israel is a much younger nation (in modern history) that independence means so much more to them.

shinny

Arielle, I find that hilarious. The irony of the American friends wishing the British friends a happy independence day, lol. "Happy Independence, oh isn't that the day we dumped your ass?"

I agree that marked days just take on a holiday feel and people forget their significance. Take St Patrick's Day; It's a huge holiday that celebrated in so many countries now, yet I doubt most people are celebrating the fact that Patrick came to Ireland and turned us all into Christians from believing in Pagan Gods !!

Although, we have to thank those Irish Pagans, otherwise we'd never have had Halloween and all our silly superstitions !!

themegababe

Wow, what a discussion I started.  Sorry I've been gone, But now I'm back... procrastinating on a paper.  haha

Yeah sometimes I just forget that holidays are distinctly American. Like I was thinking we would celebrate Thanksgiving while in Europe, then I realized that was just dumb. haha

I'm really tired too, so I'm gonna go finish my paper before I get loopy!

silver1978

When we celebrate American holidays here, I usually do something up for my son to bring to school so they can learn about American holidays too and why we celebrate them. He, of course, learns about British holidays at school so I thought it would be interesting for them to learn about American ones as well Fourth of July is an interesting one to discuss! (The one thing I do worry about with my son going to British school is the learning curve in regards to American history when he goes back to the US- that and the spelling differences )

imarielle626

the spelling differences When I was doing my training for volunteering on the ambulances in Israel, my class was a mix of americans, brits, and australians.  I don't remember what word it was but there was a big heated debate on the spelling.  Someone ended up looking it up online and it turned out we were all right because of the american vs. british way to spell the word.  Of course the Brits and Australians claimed that their way was more correct because the Americans stole and changed their language

I think it is really interesting to learn about other cultures and religions holidays.  For a couple years back when I was younger we used to invite one of our non-Jewish family friends over for Chanukkah and teach them to play dreidel and about the holiday and feed them latkes (potato pancakes) such and they would invite us over for Christmas and we would get to help decorate the tree and learn about some of their traditions.  It was always fun!

shinny

Lol, that's funny Arielle.

I used to work for an American Company. We basically looked after all of the Financial Accounts etc. The invoices used to be sent from the States, but when we took it over, they went from Ireland. We had changed our payment terms and I updated the remittance details to say "Make Cheques payable to XXXXX" - We got so many calls asking what a "Cheque" was. I was like, what do you mean what is it !! I then learned that you guys spell it check!! Not to mention the uproar of printing the invoices in A4 instead of Letter !! lol

themegababe

Oh my gosh I love latkes!  I had a Jewish resident in my dorm one year, and she made them for  Chanukah. soo yummy!  I think we might make them this year, I mean Christians were originally Jews, right? haha

that's funny about spelling of words too, I didn't think about that.