Posted by Ruth/Mum

Finally, I've found some time to sit down and write. Predictably, it's been a busy few days since our arrival. Here is a brief diary of our first few days in the USA:

Saturday: Finally arrived at Terminal 3 at Heathrow after an eventful approach which included driving through the tunnel via the cycle lane and pulling into a building site instead of the entrance to the short stay car park. Somehow, remarkably in the circumstances, we managed to check in. The flight was fine, despite Isabel's TV screen being on strike for the first hour or so which she found immensely frustrating and Rachel and I found rather amusing. After what seemed like an interminable queue at the US passport and border control (why do we always get the urge to make jokes about toy guns?) we eventually found our way to the arrivals area and to Barry, who was almost flattened by Isabel and Rachel in their excitement at seeing him after a month's absence. We arrived at our apartment to be greeted by Dougal who seemed delighted to have the whole pack together again. After a short walk up the road to the girls' soon-to-be school, which looked very impressive, we retired to bed, exhausted by the day's travels!

Sunday: We had an arrangement to meet Barry's friend Dave and family in Boston centre for coffee. They were coming to the end of a grand tour of east coast USA and were finishing with a few days in Boston, now staying in a hotel after spending a couple of days keeping Barry company in the apartment. We took Dougal on his first subway train trip into Boston (the subway is known as the "T" in Boston, short for the Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority or MBTA) which he seemed to enjoy and met Dave and co in front of Government House. It was yet another baking hot, sticky, sweaty day but being Brits we all insisted on sitting outdoors in the full sunshine to enjoy our coffee. The girls spotted an Abercrombie + Fitch store nearby so after saying our goodbyes I took the girls shopping whilst the boys (ie Barry and Dougal) watched an outdoor concert. The clearance floor was a big hit!! In the evening we went out for dinner at a restaurant just around the corner called the Village Smokehouse. It's a Texan Barbecue-style restaurant which has a good reputation and we had a very tasty meal but with enormous portions. If you've ever seen Man versus Food it's that sort of place! Suffice to say, Dougal has been benefitting from the doggie bag ever since.

Monday: Barry was back in work and there were lots of dull admin jobs which needed doing. The girls and I walked Dougal and found a fully enclosed playing field which is part of Brookline's "Green Dog" scheme which means that it allows registered dogs to be let off the lead at certain times of the day (it's a scheme which makes Porthcawl's summer beach ban appear positively liberal). We had arranged to meet Barry at lunchtime near the Harvard School of Public Health where he is studying currently to visit the nearby branch of the Bank of America to put my name on the bank account so I can access money (yay!!!) but the bank was too busy so we had to make an appointment to back on Tuesday. The girls and I went to the Stop and Shop supermarket next door (think Somerfield) and topped up with some food and drink essentials before heading home on the bus. After lunch the girls and I headed for Brookline Town Hall where we handed over $70 to license Dougal and enrol him in the Green Dog scheme (I dread to think how much the decision to bring him with us is going to cost us) so he now has a huge blue metal tag to add to the other tags on his collar. No longer can he creep up on us - he really does jingle all the way. Then we went to the public library next door with the intention of registering but thanks to draconian measures requiring a stack of ID and proof of residence (our passports, lease agreement and electricity bill with Barry's name on it were not deemed to be sufficient!) we didn't manage to register on this occasion. However, the library looks amazing with a huge children's library, a large teen room and a small, rather rustic café as well as the cavernous main library. We've had to address a library postcard to ourselves with the instruction to bring it back to the library with us when it arrives in our mailbox as proof that we are who we say we are and we live where we say we live. It's easier to get a bank account than to register at the library!

Tuesday: We met up with Barry again at lunchtime and this time managed to get the bank account sorted. Whilst Barry and I were closeted away in a cubicle with a bank worker we could hear the girls giggling in the foyer. When we managed to peer around the edge of the cubicle we could see what was causing such amusement - it was raining the likes of which Barry and I had not seen since we were in Mexico in 1998 in the middle of Hurricane Mitch. The road outside the bank was already flooding and huddles of dripping pedestrians were sheltering in the entrance to the bank. Everyone's mobile phones were bleeping with texts coming through warning of flash flooding. When we emerged eventually from the cubicle and looked outside we could see the roads were inches deep in flood water and a couple of T line trains were stranded mid-junction. The girls and I left Barry to wade back to work whilst we dashed into Stop and Shop to buy three umbrellas as we had big plans for the afternoon which we didn't want to miss - shopping in Hollister (I'll amend that - the girls had big plans and I went along with them because I couldn't be bothered to argue). By the time we made our way to the T stop via the bits of road and pavement in between the flooding and puddles the trains were working again so we headed for the shopping mall in East Cambridge which housed Boston's only Hollister store. It took us a while to find the central area of the shopping mall after negotiating our way through Best Buy (an electrical store) and TJ Maxx (yes, the US version of TK Maxx) but we got there in the end and the rewards were worth the effort. Two very happy girls emerged bearing full carrier bags and one happy mum as it was their pocket money they were spending, not mine.

Wednesday: The rain had stopped and it was back to hot and muggy. Rachel and I walked Dougal around the pond at the edge of Olmstead Park. Olmstead Park is part of what is known as the Emerald Necklace of parks encircling much of Boston - you can supposedly walk for several miles through parkland, moving from one park to the next. We met two lovely middle-aged ladies with dogs who were no more energetic than Dougal. All they wanted to talk about was the new Royal baby and how disappointed we must have been not to be in the UK for the birth. They knew more about it than Rachel and I, which was mildly embarrassing! Later in the morning the girls and I went on yet another shopping spree, this time to the Converse shop which is said to be one of the best in the US. The girls were certainly impressed and were very pleased to come out with a new pair each (maroon for Izzy and neon yellow for Rachel!) along with socks and extra laces. Like all the other shops mentioned, the prices were substantially less than in the UK so that somehow makes it ok to buy lots of things. (I'm not sure Barry shares that view!) In the afternoon we took a bus to Coolidge Corner, the commercial centre of Brookline, and explored the streets. The girls were excited to find several frozen yoghurt stores which makes a change from Dunkin Donuts - they are EVERYWHERE!

Thursday: Much cooler (a blessed relief) and rain in the afternoon (less of a relief). I finally completed the 11-page form for each of the girls necessary for school registration and we walked in the rain to the school registration office, which was not at the girls' school but a school much further away. We passed yet another Dunkin Donuts en route. Thankfully, I seemed to have all the correct documentation so the girls are now registered for Pierce School. All we have to do now is contact the school after August 20th to make an appointment to meet the principal or whoever is dealing with the new registrations. Hopefully that won't be the point that they discover the girls haven't had a particular vaccination or need to be tested for lead poisoning before they can start school. The Brookline Music School was opposite the school registration office so we went in to find out what they could offer in terms of instrumental lessons. Plenty seemed to be the answer. The school's director seemed to be particularly excited about Rachel playing the oboe - obviously oboe players are as rare a breed in the US as they are in the UK.

So here we are. It's now Thursday evening and I'm pleased to have brought this blog up to date after encouraging everyone to look at it! We're hoping to see Despicable Me 2 in the local multiplex tomorrow night and to catch up with Nigel, Shelley, Skylar and Roddy Evans on Saturday (there's something surreal about the thought of meeting up with neighbours from home in an entirely different continent). Barry has booked for us all to go to see the Broadway production of Wicked next month during its run in Boston and we're hoping to book for Potted Potter in September. The girls and I are hoping to start visiting some of Boston's tourist attractions next week now that most of the dull, setting up jobs are done and they've done so much shopping that they've run out of pocket money. We'll keep you up to date and try to post some photos soon.