Oh Spring! How I have waited for you!

It has been a long winter for us. We have been told by numerous Cypriots and Ex-Pats alike that it is the coldest winter in a long time. To complicate things, when we originally packed to leave the US, we were told we were going to need to go back for a quick trip for our visas. We thought this "quick trip" would be before winter. It became unclear at the last minute if we would have go back after all! We threw in and exchanged out some items out of our 8 precious bags of luggage - all that would go with us from our lives. To top it all off, we came to a place that wasn't suppose to be "that cold" to what some have said is the coldest winter in a hundred years. If it weren't for Dad and Mom Fleming's packages with some extra warm jackets and clothing, it might have felt like an even longer winter. One more thing to give perspective...in the US, when we talk about cold weather or hot weather we are referring to the weather outside. The weather we experience as we walk from the door to the car. Also in the US, we have the idea that all of Europe must be like US, I mean it is the motherland. Well, it isn't in regards to central heating and air. So in the hot summer or the cold winter when people in Cyprus and Spain talk about being cold or hot most are talking about being that in their homes. The best thing we have been able to come up with to explain to people in the US about this reality that somehow we missed in any briefings from others living in Europe, is that it is like camping. There are fireplaces in some homes or some people might choose to heat a room where everyone piles in (in Cyprus this can be costly due to high electricity and gas costs - to give perspective to this our electric bill was over $600 without running a heater). So as we have a steady increasing warmth, migrating spring birds and flowers bursting forth, it is like we trying to un-thaw. We have eaten outside for lunch every day this week and have taken more walks this week than last month combined. I can hardly coax the children inside during the day or for naps. If Spring could be hugged, our family would be first in line.