I'm starting out by jumping right in with a random and unpolished post. I'll get better, I promise. For this one, just take it slow and easy. Take a break when you need to, and don't forget to drink plenty of water and eat enough calories to sustain you through the thing.

After a week or two of apartment hunting and two weeks of jaunting around Wales seeing who's cool (everyone outside Cardiff, apparently), we got back to Cardiff and managed to open a bank account and sign a lease. Then we settled back into the dorms for a few days of waiting for money to transfer to pay our deposit and rent. That was a sad day. Our flat was ready and waiting, but we were back in separate rooms in an echoey concrete building with noisy cleaning ladies and workmen drilling for new internet cable first thing in the morning. I don't know why, but I somehow thought a wire transfer could be nearly immediate. I guess I'm a spoiled child of the computer age.

On top of my general disappointment about not getting into the flat, we failed to get back to our storage unit before they locked it for the night and had to buy a throw blanket and pillowcases and sleep on bare mattresses in our dirty clothes that night. For the next four days, I twiddled my thumbs, roamed around town, organized pictures from our trip and thought about writing to you all, but couldn't because I was in a funk and it just didn't seem right to inflict that on you. Jason played video games and watched movies and listened to me whine. I had set myself up for homemaking mode, so I was compelled to tear pictures out of magazines and hang them on the bulletin board with tacks and make my bed of sheet and throw blanket every morning and arrange my body products neatly on the windowsill so the light shone through attractively. Kinda sad, that.

We moved into our new flat on Tuesday. It's spacious and beautiful (except the living room or "lounge" as they call it here, which needs some serious help) and has a little backyard and a skylit kitchen. I'll post a photo or two soon. I wish you could all go on a little tour of all the holes we looked at so you could realize what a find this is. You wouldn't believe how much they charge for some smelly little crooked floor places with 80 year old carpet. So, we're in a palace by comparison. We found a set of dishes for £3.75, or about $7, at a charity shop, spent the money we saved on dishes to get a couple of pans, and started settling in. And finally, now, I'm ready to write, which means I'm happy and convinced that this is all going to work out just fine. I'm also ready for you to start visiting. Bring it on, homies.