Update from Helen
Hi! I thought I'd throw in a bit of an update of what I've been up to since I moved out at the beginning of August. The first couple of weeks of August I took as pure holiday (apart from a lunchtime seminar at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center). It was fab, two days after I arrived we went to the Virgin Festival in Baltimore and spent a couple of days in the hot sun, eating icecream, having free massages and watching various bands (some of whom I'd even heard of!) - saw Amy Winehouse, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beastie Boys, the Police and lots more that I can't remember now.

Kitty was here for about 10 days, we chilled out in the garden, swam in the pool, had a pool party with friends from Dave's work and the neighbours, and went to the Shenandoah mountains for walking, canoeing and, of course, the age-old American pasttime of eating. Also went down to Colonial Williamsberg and learnt a bit of American history.

After Kitty went home I thought I ought to start doing some work - obviously the thinking was too taxing as I came down with a bad cold for a week. Perked up by the weekend and went out cycling with Dave (I've bought myself a road bike but haven't got a chance of keeping up with Dave, fortunately he's happy to pootle when out riding with me. I'm getting on with it quite well and have only fallen off twice when I couldn't get my feet out of the cleats). Am really enjoying working from home though I miss the chats and camaraderie in the office.

I've found myself a women's rugby team: NOVA (check out http://www.novawrfc.org/). They're a really nice bunch of girls but there's loads of them! We get at least 40 at each training session (Tuesday and Thursday nights) which is a bit of a change for me. Our coaches are awesome and I've got about 15 different moves to learn, so I'm a bit apprehensive about my first game which is coming up this weekend. I've managed to perpetuate the myth that Britain is really small and we all know each other: there's another Brit in NOVA, Vicki, who I used to play rugby with at Trojans in Southampton.

I'm still hoping to do some volunteer work at Mason Neck State Park but have yet to hear back from them but I'm managing to keep myself pretty busy anyway with work, running, cycling, swimming and rugby etc.. Dave and I are still getting on really well - this living together thing seems to be working OK - we're a pretty good team and have worked out an appropriate division of labour (e.g. he mows the lawn and I go to the hairdresser). I'm settling in pretty well and have accessed all the amenities I need (excellent chiropracter, fab hairdresser, shop that sells Green & Blacks chocolate). I haven't yet succumbed to obesity or developed an American accent but I've only been here for 5 weeks :o)

Oooh we've also bought a Wii which is brilliant fun. If anyone else has one we can share Miis and (possibly?) play games together. We've got Residential Evil 4 (which Dave is now playing for the second time) and Rayman rabid rabbits. But I'm not playing much at the moment cos the rugby world cup is on so I'm watching that most of the time (thank goodness for Setanta Sports). I'm not missing UK tv too much, though we are watching a lot of DVDs due to the pants nature of American tv. I am forever grateful for my internet radio I got as a present from the Subject Centre managers, I can listen to 'Today' on Radio 4 and Zane Lowe on Radio 1 which satisfies my desires for British media. (and I get the Guardian Weekly and the THES so am still vaguely in touch with world news).

Anyway, thats plenty for now. Dave and I will return with more exciting updates when we've done something else worth writing about (we're off to an Aerosmith concert this weekend). If you want to see more photos of our American adventure check out Dave's Flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/11463478@N00/ If you'd like to see a bit more of our house (including my new baby-grand piano - totally awesome) then have a look at the Adventures of Knitted Rabbit at http://www.flickr.com/photos/8237393@N03/