My mom's mail

My mom sent this as an e-mail to some friends and family yesterday. If you didn't get it or want to read it, check out below.

--Shaun

Hi Everyone

Sorry that I’ve taken sooo… long to let you know that we’re alive & well. When we’ve been at ‘home’ there’s been great competition for the use of Murray’s laptop. With
Murray trying to keep up with what’s happening at work, researching various things on the internet e.g. cars, cell phones etc, Shaun & Kelly contacting friends on Face Book & emailing,
I haven’t had a chance to use the laptop. We’re been told that our air freighted goods should arrive tomorrow, so we’ll have our other computers & the stuff we need to Skype.

I have to admit that the last few days in Johannesburg were very tiring & emotional with all the farewells. This was followed by a very emotional farewell at the airport. Even though I’d said it would be easier not to have to do more farewells at the airport, a number of Shaun & Kelly’s close friends came. In retrospect this was great, even though it was hard. Thanks too to all the McLeans for coming, despite what I said. Colin & Lleane thanks also for all the amazing help you gave us during the last few weeks – we really appreciate it. We will always treasure your friendship. Murray, Kelly & I fell asleep before supper was served & only woke just before landing – so much for enjoying the luxury of flying business class. However we did appreciate the flat beds.

On arriving at Heathrow, we went to the Virgin Lounge which is wonderful. We showered & had a great breakfast. I even had my hair blow dried in their salon at no extra charge. We then had a day time flight to Washington. We had to go through immigration there – even though everything went well, it still took a fair length of time as it was our first entrance into the country as temporary residents. They really are very thorough. We arrived in Dallas at about 7.00p.m. on Tuesday evening – we’re 7 hours behind SA at the moment. Some of you know that Shaun took our 6 hard drives in his cabin bag as he was worried about them being damaged. No one even queried them at any of the security checks.

We’re staying in a really nice furnished apartment. It has 3 bedrooms, a study, 3 bathrooms, a large lounge / dining room, kitchen, laundry & verandah. It’s part of a huge complex of over 400 apartments. There’s a communal area with a games room, mini theatre, fully equipped gym, business centre, numerous pools, hot tubs, miniature golf, golf course etc. Everything is air conditioned. & people don’t seem to ever open windows. I have to open our door onto the verandah to get fresh air. I don’t like this closed in feeling. It hasn’t been very hot but it has been quite humid. This apparently is due to the rain we’ve been having. May is Dallas’ rainy month and then they don’t get much for the rest on the year.

We’ve seem to have spent the last four days traveling around in the car. We only have 1 hire car a present and Murray is the only one signed up to drive it. Hopefully we’ll get another car early next week. We’ve spent a lot of time getting lost, especially when Shaun’s not with us. He has an amazing sense of direction & seems to understand the useless navigation system in the car. Yesterday Murray bought 2 Garmins, which even I must say are far superior navigation systems. Dallas isn’t an easy city to drive around – it seems to consist of a mass of freeways. We’ve been out to SMU (Southern Methodist University) 3 times for various reasons. Shaun had to prove he was in the country by the 24th, he‘s had meetings with various staff members & lecturers on subject selection etc and Kelly needed to find out about courses. Shaun will only do 2 subjects this summer as it is shorter than a normal semester. He starts next week Wed & his lectures will all be on Wed & Thurs evenings. We bought this big fat book for Kelly to study from for her SAT exams. It also has advice on the exams & some trial exams at the back which she says don’t look too difficult. This should keep her busy for a while. She’s the most unsettled at the moment. She’s really missing her friends & especially Bruce. Both Shaun & Kelly were chuffed when they found out that the last day of exams for the fall semester is the 15th Dec and the first day of the spring semester is the 15th Jan. At this stage they want to go back to SA for the whole month however this could change as they settle down.

We’ve been to look at cars for all of us at various dealerships. This has been quite a time consuming & frustrating exercise. The sales people aren’t exactly the most enthusiastic bunch. Murray gets a hire car for 45 days so we’ll probably sort out Shaun & Kelly first. Kelly & I will share her car until she starts varsity on the 27th Aug. Most of the cars here are very old fashioned looking. We’ve also looked at cell phones & need to make some final decisions about them. Probably the most fascinating thing for me has been going to the various supermarkets. Target is probably the most similar to our Pick n Pay but you seem to have to buy most things in huge packs or sizes. The variety of brands (for most things) is amazing. Today we did some shopping at Tom Thumb. What a lovely supermarket. I’d love to always shop there but it is more pricy, probably equivalent to Woolworths or Buxton’s Spar but bigger & with more variety. Trying to find equivalents of what I would normally buy takes quite a while. I’ve had the whole family searching the aisles for things. I got really frustrated when I couldn’t buy an Omo equivalent. I do a fair bit of hand washing but obviously nobody here does. Murray was really pleased when he found some chutney ay Tom Thumb – they even had Nando’s sauces Another frustration, which I knew about, is the fact that everything is tumble dried. Nobody hangs washing out to dry. We eventually managed to buy some rather mini clothes horses.

Dallas is looking so much nicer than in December. Everything is green & it even looks pretty. Well that’s our news for now. Tomorrow we’re going to go to Hunter’s Glen Baptist church which is fairly close by. Will keep you posted on how it goes. Missing you all.

With lots of love
Heather.