we made it across the pond!

Well, our travels have officially begun! We arrived in London early this morning -- 1 full hour early in fact! I had the pleasure of standing in the long non-UK/EU passport line with Simon as he went on and on about the inconvenience of marrying an American who forced him to stand in the wrong line! LOL. Oh the years to come will be such a pleasure...!!! We were also not at all prepped for the 'simple' questions asked by the border control agents...

Question: "where are you two living?"

Answer: "umm, err, we're homeless. is that a problem!?"

Question: "Are you related?"

Answer: "umm, err, we're actually engaged and plan to illegally marry in the US next year, before anyone kicks this lovely Brit out of my country."

Question: "How long are you staying?"

Answer: long silence, stare at agent as though she asked the question in Chinese. "2 weeks." and she says, "so you plan on returning to the US directly after?" I pretend it was a statement instead of a question, and when she looks at me dumbly, "ummm, err, im going to africa...is that ok!?" EEK!

Needless to say, it certainly seemed like i was lying!!!

Anyways, so after 3 more hours of commuting with 6 bags, we are finally at Simon's parents house in Birmingham and are taking the day to relax before vacationing with the in-laws all week!

Oh, and surprise surprise, its raining!!! ;)

It's 2 days before take off!!! Woohoo!!!

Simon and I are relaxing (sort of) at my grandparents' after a long weekend of packing and moving. We are really excited about the volunteering we will be doing in Kenya. We have arranged this through a New Zealand based organization - IVHQ (volunteerhq.org). We will be placed in an orphanage for the first month and a half and will be teaching in a Maasai village for the final month and a half. Throughout our stay, we will be living with host families. After a break over the holidays in Europe, we be heading to SE Asia where we will do a lot of traveling and some additional volunteering with IVHQ in Vietnam.

In short, these are our plans for the upcoming year...
27aug-13sept - UK
14sept-15dec - Kenya
16dec-01feb - UK, Eastern Europe, and Switzerland
02feb-04may - Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand
05may-15jun - UK
16jun - US
27aug2010 - WEDDING!!!

We cannot wait to begin our travels and plan to use this blog to share all of our experiences with you!!!