Welcome

So we have a blog. Are we ‘that’ couple? Can I justify it with having family and friends on two continents? For now, yes.  This is ging to be Jono and I both telling you about what it’s like to live together, where we live, how our lives are changing, how we’re carefully putting our lives together and to keep everyone updated on what’s next! only after we figure it out, of course 🙂

Jono tried to start his own blog to contemplate all of the differences he’s finding as a foreigner in America. It got a little out of control, too much like a rambling rant. If you know him, that’s not hard to imagine. It was really cute though, he called it ‘the HMS Yankee Doodle’ to get the idea of mixing cultures. We hope to get that still going here, because the things we clash on and don’t understand are really quite hilarious. ie: the TV commercial that said there was a salad dressing flavor of Herb and Garlic (here in America we pronounce is Erb not H-erb) so Jono heard the commercial and earnestly asked me “why would there be Urban Garlic?” try saying ‘herb and garlic’ quickly so ‘herb’ and ‘and’ run together — you get ‘urban’…you can’t blame him.

London has met DC, let me tell you. When Jono first moved here we were stunned at really how different our cultures are. for some reason, since we speak the same language and the US is technically a colony of the UK we assumed we would be more similar. But we couldn’t be more different. There were honestly points in conversation where one of us would say to the other after speaking “I have no idea what you just said”. Really, that has been happening since we met, and it still happens, but a little less. We’ve created our own language it seems and I have to say that I’m really quite proud of how we have combined our lives and still kept our individuality and connections to where we are from. Jono has now lived in America for a year (yikes!!) and we’ve both learned so much. He learned to drive here, and while it was a relationship challenge for me as I like to be in control, I can say that we grew in that moment. Sorry, that was really cheesy, but its true. I learned how to be more relational, more accepting, (hopefully more helpful and better teacher) but really, we learned how to work together. There are a million and one stories like this from the past year. It’s been quite the adventure and I’ve loved it. I hope you enjoy hanging out with us here, ask questions and get into the pictures that we post!

Ben's Chili Bowl, Washington DC, Jan 23

Laura at 'The Awakening', National Harbor, Jan 7

Jono at 'The Awakening', National Harbor, Jan 7