Hi all. I've been out of town for a while and so I've barely participated on this board, but I had a sudden desire to today and have posted a bunch of stuff, so I thought I should re-introduce myself!
I came to the UK in 2004 as a PhD student (archaeology). I happened to meet the love of my life the same day I arrived, and we've been together ever since. We got engaged in 2005 and we are finally getting married this summer, in England (June 23rd! Holy cow, that's close!). I'm not done with my degree yet but I am making painfully slow progress. We plan to stay in the UK for at least the forseeable future, although we are both anxious to move out of our current house. I like the Northeast, where we live now, but we may end up moving to the Midlands, as my fiancé recently got "head-hunted".
My family is driving me nuts with the wedding planning, and I think I've only got half of the things planned that I need to. Fortunately the big items are taken care of (clothes, church, reception caterer, flowers), but we still need to pick wedding rings, music for the ceremony, and decorations. The biggest problem has been making travel arrangements for my family--several of them have never left North America before, and we are all going on a little jaunt to Paris after the wedding. Not the most romantic of honeymoons, perhaps, but we're staying in a different part of town from the rest of the family, and it's too easy on the Eurostar to pass up! I'm especially excited to take my grandparents, because they went to Paris on a group day-trip tour they did several years ago but the guides wouldn't stop the bus so that they could get out and see things they really wanted to see, like the Eiffel Tower--they just drove by and pointed! My fiancé proposed to me at the Tower (well, in the Champs de Mars park next to it) so I'd really like everyone to see it in person.
Anyway, I'm glad this board exists, and I hope that I can make a reasonable contribution to it in the future instead of just asking questions!
