Tuesday- Welcome to Mildenhall

Today we spent almost the entire day at a briefing acquainting us with Mildenhall and its various amenities. We met the base commander, the chief master sergeant, and several of the other leaders around the base. The meeting itself was a little dry, but I loved listening to the various British speakers talk. I could sit and listen to them for hours. I love the changes in the lingo, how the make almost all of their vowels long, and how they swallow their t’s and g’s (such as “flagh” instead of flight, and “houzin” instead of housing.) I find myself imitating them without even really realizing it. Mostly, I repeat what they’ve said over and over again in my head. And then, it just slips out when I’m talking and, even though they don’t bat an eye, I feel kind of silly, fake and stupid. But, they seem to understand you a lot better when you use their lingo. My favorite words right now are “keen” (meaning you like something a lot), to “nip out” (meaning you just left the building or stepped out to run an errand) as in “Oh, Katherine just nipped out with a customer, but she should return soon”, and “Cheers!” (meaning anything from thanks, to you’re welcome, to goodbye). Cheers is really a word that can stand in for just about any acknowledgement to another human being.

We had to bring Weslee with us to the briefing. He was really well behaved…again. Thank goodness! But, because he needed a nap, Weslee and I only stayed for the first half of the day. Kevin had to go back after lunch for another 3 hours of talk. While he was there, he found out more about the very lengthy procedure to get a house (which is good because we are looking at houses tomorrow), signed us all up for health care, and basically learned more about how to get reimbursed for the myriad of moving expenses we’ve incurred.

This has been one expensive move! But, after we’ve been reimbursed, it won’t have been too bad. I have been really baffled though, wondering how many military families pay for it all. A lot of our moving expenses have required cash…and some of them have required UK currency and UK cashier’s checks, which means that suddenly your dollar loses half of its purchasing power because of the 1.68 to 1 (dollars to pounds) exchange ratio here. If you’re not careful, it can really take a toll on your pocketbook. But, when it’s all said and done, it will even out and we’ll be back to living life as normal.