The fun begins

It's getting to be very real now. We received the paperwork which commits both sides and the details (never as many details as you could use) of the relocation arrangements. And this morning we got a call to contact the British Consulate and begin the process of obtaining our work permits. The British government's website on all things between the US and Great Britain seems very extensive. I'm adding it to my favorites and will slowly work my way through the pertinent parts that do not apply specifically to the work permits.

it's:

www.britainusa.com

The dislocation is also setting in. I hate the in-between times when you are commited to being somewhere else soon but not so soon that you don't still have to go about the daily business of living and working where you are. My SO says that it gives special intensity to his enjoyment of and appreciation of the things that matter to him about our current life. I wish I could be that way, but instead, for me, I'm already wondering if I'll be able to find a thing there or a substitute that will satisfy. For instance, I never get tired of a regular slice of NY-style pizza and a 20-oz Coke for lunch (so much so that the folks at work tease me every day about it). I like fish and chips, too. But I doubt I'd want to have them every day.

Pret-a-Manger used to have something I think I could eat every day for lunch. They had this wonderful crispy-on-the-outside soft-on-the-inside hot croissant filled with melted cheese and mushrooms. Lord, I loved those things! But then, McDonalds bought a big piece of Pret stock and these wonderful croissants disappeared from the menu. I'm not sure the two things are connected. I don't care why. I want my croissant back!!!

By the way, did you know that Pret-a-Manger, even though it's a London (at least) ubiquitous (you find them everywhere) fast food place, pays its employees pretty well. About half again more than the usual US place. They also provide a lot more benefits. And I mean actually provide. Not like the health insurance option that Walmart makes such a big thing of. Turns out that the average Walmart employee would have to pay two months worth of his wages to take them up on that option. Guess how many do? Not to mention that half of Walmart's employees are elgibel for food stamps. Guess who pays for those and the public healthcare they have to use. Us. What you buy there really isn't so inexpensive after all.

Anyhow, I was talking about Pret. In addition, they give all their left-overs, every single day, to the homeless. And Pret sandwiches are substantial and nutritious.

Notice how much I love the soap box. I'll fit right in at Hyde Park, won't I?

Bye for now.

Some of those useful sites I promised, and more

Here are some very useful sites and resources for those who might be thinking about emigration:

If it's the UK you're pining for, the very best is:
www.uk-yankee.com
It's where I found discussions on shipping companies and the qualities and prices of their services, discussions about the UK's National Health Service, which turns out to be pretty good. The folks there said that they had heard horror stories and had a few bad experiences, but mostly good ones. And what's more is, they said that given their choice of the US or the UK system, they'd take the UK system. Mind you, these are folks who have experieced both, so they are not talking out of their hats. The services for childbirth and children's care (all prescriptions for children are FREE) were expecially praised.

If you're more intereted in going for a few years, or volunteering, or working for a while, or teaching then:
www.transitionsabroad.com
is a good resource. They publish a magazine you can get at your local B&N or Borders. Their info is also good for emigrating folks; there's just a lot of it that won't be specifically for that purpose.

If you're thinking of stretching your Social Security (assuming it's still there when you retire) or maybe buying a vacation place abroad or investing in property:
www.escapeartist.com
may suit you. Seems to me that a lot of their stuff takes money that I don't have, but maybe you do.

Retiring abroad was my plan before I figured out a way to head out before retirement. During my time in Poland, I noticed that a lot of folks who had emigrated to the US were coming back to retire. Made sense to me since the dollar went about three times as far there as it did at home. Wonder what that ratio is now. What does it say when the dollar loses value versus the Polish zloty? I mean, it was only while I was there that they started producing coins again. Coins are a sign of stability, because when a country's money is rapidly fluxuating and the what the country has to pay for the materials it makes the coins of isn't, printing paper money is more practical. Did I tell you I earned my first million in Poland? That was when 1,000,000 zlotow were about $40. Finally they changed 10,000 to 1 to make things simpler, but I still have a 50 sloty note, actually made more valueable by being folded into a frog.

Got to get me some readers for this blog! bye for now.

Done this before

I said. And it was true. I lived in Denmark for three months, but I'll save that for when I get around to politics.

In '93, my ex, who was finishing a doctorate in German Studies, decided he didn't have to appear anyplace as a set time so he'd go traveling. He called me up from Krakow, Poland a few weeks later and said "I can teach here! What do you think of the idea of moving to Poland?" I said I liked it, and after a year of straightening out our affairs here, we went.

I shouldn't say it was a grand time. Somewhere in my brain, I know it wasn't, a lot of the time. For one thing, what three separate Polish women had told me to watch out for turned out to be perfectly true. It seemed a lot of young Polish women were on the lookout for a Western guy to hook up with so as to gain rights to live and work in the West, and my ex proved woefully vulnerable to them. At which point my home institution, with which I'd worked out an agreement allowing me to go to Poland while maintaining my ties there, declared I had no further reason for being there and I must come back. I was NOT going to lose out on my international experience, so I told them no and walked out on a significant grant and academia.

So there I was in Poland, knowing no one except my ex, with no income, no career, and that's when things began to get better. For one thing, I had a great place to live, a large loft inside the city walls at a price that would make a New Yorker offer to sell his or her soul. For another, I had a "hobby" that had always been more than a hobby to me, that I'd always hoped to make a living out of eventually. So I turned it into one. I'd work madly in Krakow for two months, then take a 27-hour hell-bus to London, do a show in Britain, buy a cheap round-trip ticket to the US, do a show or two there, fly back to Britain and do another show, and take the hell-bus back to Krakow. By the time I was halway through the second year, I knew a few folks, I had my routine worked out, and I was pretty much breaking even. I was staying.

I'll say it. It was a grand time.

But then a house I owe/own in the US lost its renter and needed more repairs than I could fund on what I was making at that point. My choice was to give up the house or come back, and I came back.

What I learned from all this, and what I'll put to good use this time was to put the majority of my immediate efforts on arrival (aside from finding a roof and food, of course) into getting to know people. It's a people network that will sustain you through the bad times, and the bad times will come. Usually folks hit them around the six-month point, when, to give a Polish example, it's no longer an amusing novelty that they organize what's in particular stores differently. In Poland, they were organized by materials. So, toilet paper? The stationary store, of course! Now how was I supposed to guess that until I figured out the system. A people net will clue you in to things like that.

Whoops, lunch is almost over. Time to stop blogging.

More of the same: NOT

First let me apologize for not adding the links I mentioned in my first posting, yet. It's a matter of computers. The one I have at home is so old it won't really go to the blogger site. I tried to look in on my first posting and it gave me a word per line. So I'll use my work computer (not available until after the holiday) or my sweetie's until I get a new one.

Planning to emigrate has pushed me into finally making two major (for me) purchases that I''ve been planning for a long time. I tend to be a pack-rat. I have a pretty good eye for throw-aways that might be valuable, like the poster for a 1967 Beatles concert in Poland that turned up in the trash. I also have that aspect of an artist's heart, in particular, a fiber artist's heart, that won't let me leave fine handwork homeless. Then you add my inability to just throw anything away that still has use in it, and it's a good thing I've moved so often in my life because otherwise I would have long since vanished into what my sweetie calls "Isay's black hole". He uses my real name rather than Isay ( as in the British "I say, old man..." and as in "This is what I have to say."). He says this when I have trouble finding something I'm looking for, which is probably because I tried to get "organized". The very best way for me to lose something is for me to put it away in some logical place. Sometime's that's one of the things I'd most like to change about myself, but most times it doesn't bother me in the least.

Anyhow, I have a lot of "stuff" that may or may not be valuable or be useful to someone else., and I'd like to travel more lightly to Britain. My solution is to buy that digital camera I've been yearning for, since their prices finally came down to the point that I can afford one of the proper quality for me to make slides of the jewelry I make. I can also use pictures of all the other extras I'm planning to dispense with and sell or dispense them. Expect E-bay links eventually if you're thinking "Wonder what else she has besides a 1967 Beatles poster in Polish."

However, as I said, at present I am operating with a very old computer. It operates perfectly. It's just not up to the new technology for websites. It's a Mac, by the way, one of the early iMac's. Let me take this opportunity to plug Apple computers, which is paying me nothing. I've always had them at home. I've never had any trouble with them at all, unless you count figuring out how to get all your data off a still-functioning computer you're about to dispose of. Talk about the EverReady Rabbit! The typical Apple computer could beat his socks off!!! They keep right on going when you'd rather they'd not! And you never have a single worry concerning viruses and such.

In order to get rid of those things via the web, I'm going to need that new computer I've been wanting. Since a new computer, bought by before-tax UK wages in such a way that somehow your take-home is not affected, is one of the benfits we will be very grateful for when we get there, the one I buy before we go will be a laptop of some sort. I welcome any comments from folks who use graphics programs professionally about how much laptop I need, because that's how much I need to practice textile design using Photoshop and Illustrator and other textile-specific programs.

With these new things, I can freelance in the UK and I can begin to sell the things I make on the web, thus establishing some source of income even before we leave. (Wonder if you can add pictures to these blogs?)

AND IT WILL BE A LOT EASIER TO BLOG!

Message 1 12 23 04

Hello,

This is my first posting to my first blog, so bear with me. I decided to begin this blog because I'm doing something that a lot of Americans are considering right now, emigrating, and every time I mention it, I get lots of questions, mostly where, why, and how questions. So...

Where?
Great Britain, Suffolk or vicinity to be more specific.

Why?
The same reason that anybody goes to another country permanently. I think life will be better for me there. I don't like the direction the US is headed. I've done all I can to change things, to no avail, and now I think my best strategy for changing things is to literally (which means actually, as opposed to figuratively, which means not actually) vote with my feet.

How?
MY fiancee and I got lucky. He's in one of the professions that Great Britain is short of. They have this list (I'll provide a link soon) and they make it easier for folks who have certain types of expertise to get visas and working rights. As for me, I'm an artist, and artists are free to roam in the UK, as I understand it. There's actually a book on managing this thing, and I'll be linking it soon, too.

Those are the basics. My simple plan is to add to my answers to each of these questions each time I post. Then maybe I'll find some new questions to answer. You'll help me, right? I'm bound to end up talking politics. I'll talk about some of my history, which is relevant, and some of my plans, too, and I'll report on how it's turning out after we get there. Which brings me to one more question:

When?
Our plan is presently the, as they say, "back end" of March.