The new apartment!

Hello, Emily here, writing from our new apartment!

It was a bit of a struggle getting here (as you may have seen in the previous post) but we finally made it! We moved in Monday morning and couldn't be happier 😁 

Juts look at these happy people

It's one bedroom, but a lot bigger than our flat in Nottingham with so much in-built storage, I don't think we'll ever use it all! The kitchen is a good size with a ginormous oven and microwave and a breakfast bar looking out into the main living area. 

The bathroom is very nice, it has a bath and an extra sink just outside so we can still brush our teeth while it's occupied. 

Actual bathroom to the left

We don't have much furniture yet, but the bed frame and mattress have arrived and I'm expecting the sofa any minute now. 

Just a Mitchell so far

Other than that we have a couple of bar stools (which turned out to be a little too short for the breakfast bar) and some garden chairs for our balcony. Oh yes we have a balcony too, which is where I'm writing from this afternoon. It looks out over half trees and half car park. Unfortunately, the city is doing some water maintenence so the car park is filled with diggers most of the morning, but they seem to leave about 3pm each day making it very peaceful out here. You can just see the road and hear when a car goes past, but it's not too busy and they can't see us up on the second floor because we're sheltered by some shady trees. 

Balcony! Ft. dappled light and diggers

The complex also has a pool, a gym and a tennis court, so I am looking forward to some summer evening tennis matches!

The surrounding area is very lovely, we are a 5 minute walk away from a town centre which has a lot of cafes and restaurants ready for us to try as well as a big pharmacy and grocery store. So we have everything we need right there and it's so pretty with trees and fountains.

So very pretty

Celebratory lunch after move in with some amazing parmasan fries 😋

Fufilling my never ending quest for FroYo

We have also been looking at getting a car this week! On Monday evening we rented a car for an hour and I practiced driving around campus to get a feel for American roads and an automatic gear box. It went well, so on Tuesday evening we rented another for a few hours and I drove us to Target! Target was great, it's like a big Wilko and had all the essentials we needed like sheets, towels and plates. 

I finally have a mug for tea!

For the first time we actually have matching towels

We also went back to the Airbnb and collected all the big bags to take back with us. They had given me the big car that day (Honda CR-V) which was great, I could see everything and all the roads and parking spaces are nice and big too, so I had a great time driving around the near deserted roads of Riverside that evening. Mitchell's license has expired which is why I had to do all the driving, but he made a very good co-pilot/navigator and we had a very nice, stress-free evening. 

Out of the way America, Emily's on the loose

This has just made me more excited to buy a car of our own and take it on adventures and on Wednesday, Mitchell got a message in one of the international students group chat that someone was moving and looking to sell their car! It was perfect timing so Thursday evening we went to go and have a look and it seems perfect 🚗 It's a little light blue Honda Fit Sport and small enough to be easy to drive, but big enough to fit a lot in the boot and high up enough that I can see over the steering wheel. 

New car!

We don't have it yet, we need to sort out all the paperwork and insurance etc, but hopefully in the next few weeks we will be able to drive to the beach! This delay also removes temptation from me suggesting adventures as Mitchell has to finish his edits on his thesis and I'm very annoying. Mitchell note: This is true

Super exciting wildlife update today! I went back to volunteer at the botanic gardens again this Thursday morning, and on the walk up I saw a hawk of some kind sat on one of the dusty roads to the side, holding a rabbit! Unfortunately I did briefly scare him away from his breakfast, but I did manage to get some photos.

I just caught him at the very top of this photo

I started off the volunteering by trying to catch some fish and turtles from the pond so we could move them, but the water level was still too high and we couldn't get any. We did catch some crayfish though! After this attempt, I moved to the conservatory where we moved some big plants from the front section to the back so that they can begin work and open it up to visitors one day. While walking around, we saw what I thought at first was a small deer, but when I looked again was a coyote! It was the same dusty brown colour and very dainty as it hopped over the rocks. I saw it as I was leaving the gardens too, I almost followed it onto campus, but it went round a corner and lost me. 

We had a fun day on Saturday. We set out early to go for a proper walk in Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park before it got too hot.

Let's go Mitchell!

We didn't see much out there other than some more lizards, but we did see an enormous snake skin! We guess it came from a rattlesnake as they are known to live in that area, but we were just glad not to have seen the actual thing!

Holy moly! I know I have small feet, but still!

We came back for lunch and in the afternoon as the temperature rose to 33c we decided to try out the pool in our apartment. It was a little chilly to get into, but a great temperature to swim around in and was surrounded by chairs and loungers to sit in while we dried off. It's 9ft at the deep end and long enough to be able to swim properly in it (maybe 15m?) Safe to say we will be back soon!

Our afternoon was better than yours

That's it for this week folks. I've not been allowed to make exciting plans for next week while Mitchell works on his thesis edits, but we'll see what happens... 😈

Love to you all

Emily and Mitchell

xxxxx

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