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Have Fun Storming the Castle!!!

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 June, 5, 2021 This post will be short on disucssion and long on photos. In the last week we had the immense pleasure of traveling to Warwick Castle with some dear friends. It is one of the only, fully intact castles still in England. The original castle was built in the 11th century by England's first king, William the Conqueror. While most of the original castle is gone, as the property exchanged hands in the 12th century - the 14th century and beyond, it was rebuilt. Currently, an entertainment comment called Merlin owns the castle, and Madame Tussauds Group has outiftted the interior with lifelike models. We explored every inch of it! The castle towers have roughly 500 stairs and we climbed them all! They were especially dark and scary. The boys had a great time playing with their new swords and shields, and our youngest is becoming quite the bowman with his new bow and arrow set. It's such a wonderful experience to have so much history within a short train ride. If you eve...
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New Updates: Landmark Edition!!!

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It's been awhile since we've provided an update on the blog and a lot has happened!   Sammy is Home! For those that don't know, when we moved to England we had planned to take our daughter's Chiwheenie, named Sammy. Unfortunately, those plans fell through at the very last minute and we had to leave him in the United States. It was a heartbreaking time for the family, but we were blessed to have a friend volunteer to take care of him until we could bring him across the pond. About two months ago, we were notified that this friend couldn't keep him anymore, and the scramble to find Sammy a home began. For a short time, we were faced with the prospect of having to give him away. Thankfully, we were once again blessed by a young couple wanting to practice boarding a dog to see if it would work as a source of income. They were the most wonderful blessing to us! Sammy was loved so much that it brings us to tears to think about how wonderful it was. But, knowing that this...
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Uk Food Reviews: A Compilation!

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Posted by Clark Bates February 24, 2021 For those that follow us on social media, they know that on occasion we post a Food Review of something unique that we find in the UK. We've had a lot of positive feedback from those, so we decided to make a compilation video of all the reviews we've done so far. There will be more to come, and please comment if there is any food that you'd like us to try while we are living here in teh United Kingdom!  
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Academic Update: Notes from the Research Desk

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    By Clark Bates January 18, 2021 As it's our goal to keep everyone who reads the blog updated on our life in England, I thought it would be a good idea to occasionally share how things are progressing with my research work at the University. Clearly, it has been a strange and challenging few months to be attending University in the UK. Since arriving in October, we've experienced 2 lockdowns and various levels of restrictions. I have been fortunate however, in that being a Post Graduate Researcher, many of the restrictions placed on University students haven't applied to me. Although I am currently working from home until mid-February, I normally work in a very nice office on campus. It's currently staffed with myself and three other researchers (Andy from Texas, Emanuelle from Sicily, and Jacopo from mainland Italy), as well as our supervisor Dr. Hugh Houghton. Professor Houghton is an amazing scholar and wonderful supervisor. He has a clear understanding of our res...
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First trip to the City Centre and on a Double Decker Bus.

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by Jessie How is it almost Christmas? So much has happened (and not happened) this year, that it feels very strange that Christmas is less than two weeks away.  Last weekend we had our first trip to the City Centre on a Double Decker Bus. The driver was so kind to help us learn how to get our tickets with cash (since the app wouldn't accept our card, a whole nother story) and how to make sure the buses know to stop for you at the bus stops. Apparently, you have to stick out your hand so the buses know that you are wanting their bus, otherwise they will not stop. There were many beautiful buildings and sights to see. One of the most interesting things to see were all of the Old buildings right next to super Modern buildings. Here's an example: There were lots of Holiday decorations and people out shopping for their Christmas gifts. One store was even spraying fake snow (bubbles) around so it felt even more festive. We saw a few elves wandering around taking pictures with shopper...
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I Can't Believe it's been Three Weeks!!

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  I Can't Believe it's been Three Weeks!  We arrived in the UK on October 29, 2020 and what a whirlwind it has been. In some ways, it feels like we've been here forever, given that our first two weeks in the country we had to quarantine in our home, but now that we've started to get out into our Birmingham community and begin a normal, daily routine, time seems to whip by. We've started making our house a home now and learned our neighborhood fairly well. Clark walks to the University every week day and really enjoys his time spent there. We've really been blessed with the house and area that we found to live in. Considering that we chose our rental without knowing much about the area, God really came through. We were told by a local resident that we ended up in the "posh" part of town, and if the homes around us are any indication, he was right. For those that follow us on Facebook and/or Instagram, you've seen some of our photos of the area, and ...
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Bates (are in) Birmingham!!

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  We thank you for supporting us on this journey! We have finally made the trip across the pond and this short video is for you to see a bit of what the adventure was like. It was a long trip, but it has honestly gone much more smoothly than we ever imagined it would. Praise God!
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