Q&A

 

Q&A

Thank you all for your questions submitted on Facebook/Instagram as well as by text message or email. I will do my best to answer them all here.

What is your favorite thing about the UK?

This is a very general question submitted, but that gives me a lot of space to write?! I can't pick A THING, as I am not good at that anyhow. If ever someone asks me my favorite food, drink, movie, restaurant, etc, I always give multiple answers. Kind of like when my mom would take me dress shopping for dances it always came down to two options, which one? Thats a long way of saying, I'll pick a few things that are my favorite about the UK.

-I love the walkability/transportation throughout the country. I would say this to be true of some major cities of the USA that I have visited as well, but hands down London will always be my favorite city in ways of getting around. You never have to go too far to catch a bus, train, boat, or plane! Since I am not driving quite yet, my main mode of getting around is walking and usually that is with Emme. So the fact that I can walk out my front door and know there's going to be a safe walking path to get me anywhere, is nice. They literally create walking paths that go under roundabouts to make safe way for walkers. I know a lot of my readers are from USA and from my home town, and as you know, you have to drive everywhere. It's not even known if there will be a path/sidewalk to get you to where you want to go and safely at that. Bus commute, I find, in the USA is kind of stigmatized. As everyone has the leisure to take driver's ED in High School, it's a pretty guaranteed thing that you most likely are driving once you are 16. Here, the driver's test is not only brutally awful/hard, but you take your own private lessons to learn to drive, therefore, it costs money and time to do so. Not many people here pass the driving test their first try. This is why, I do think, Bus transport is widely used and accepted in this country. Train transport is very nice to use in this country as well. I don't mind my times on the train to go places or do things as its got free wifi, toilets, and ability to eat and drink whatever you bring aboard. A nice night out in London can start with a cocktail on the way! 

-I love the freshness of the groceries here, and the prices too!! Groceries are so cheap here compared to the USA and you don't find all the "fake stuff" as well.

-I like, not LOVE, the weather. I usually dislike the weather back home. Hear me out England-Fam & Friends. The weather here is generally mild. Usually 50 F on any given day. As long as its not pouring down with torrential rain and brutal wind, you can go out every single day of the year. You will have the odd days of 35-40F or the odd summer days of 70F-80F, but as long as you dress and plan for it, it's do-able. Back home, where I lived in the midwest, you have about 20 days a year (this is probably incorrect) that are good mild days, all the other ones are brutally hot or brutally cold, both keeping you inside. I think everyone's favorite seasons in the US are fall and spring as they are the most mild, but can we all agree that fall and spring are getting shorter every year? And having snow on Halloween isn't acceptable? Haha. Now, come Summer, I'll be dying for a week in this house begging for some air conditioning (no we don't have it, no one does), so I'll get back to you then if I've changed my mind on this.

Are you settling in ok? What are you finding difficult?

Thank you for this question.

-We are doing ok, the first month being here was full of quarantine and then hitting the ground running on the rental property search, job hunt for my husband, and moving in to said rental property. We have been in this property almost a month now, and I would say it feels like home just as we've made so many other places in our journey together. Emme has especially adapted well to this home. She usually takes a couple weeks to kind of settle and sleep well, but she started doing well on night one here. I just think she feels the same way as we do about this place, that it feels homey and inviting, we're happy about that. 

-As far as my husband and his job, it is ok as well, we do miss the schedule he had back home, especially going into winter and the holidays as he usually had a couple months off when the pool business slowed. His hours are good, 6am-2pm, but the days of the week he works and the holidays he's going to have to work are a bit of a bummer, hopefully just a temporary job until he finds something he more enjoys.

-We are finding the COVID rules here to be very strict compared to back in the US. We could also argue this is a good thing if we start to see numbers quickly decrease. When we arrived, the rules were "rule of 6" which allowed 6 people from any households to get together in a group of 6 and no more. We found this difficult as the kids counted towards the numbers, but we got creative in taking turns to see people. The rules changed almost as soon as we were out of quarantine and we were placed under national lockdown. This meant you could not mix with other households indoors, and you could meet one person outdoors and under school aged children did not count to the numbers. You could not go anywhere indoors except for super markets or essential businesses. In this time, I would meet up with one friend or family member at a park and let Emme play for an hour or so. Ever since December 2, we have gone into a tiered system. We are in Tier 2 which means we can not mix households indoors, but we can meet in a group of 6 outdoors. Shopping has resumed and restaurants have as well, but you can only go out to eat with whoever lives inside your house. As far as Xmas goes, they have set out guidelines to state that you can "bubble up"/see 2 other house holds from Dec 23-27. The 2 households you choose have to be the same throughout these dates. This can be indoors. It's all a bit touchy as how do you pick and what do you do? 

-I'm finding it difficult to not be able to drive, but hopefully after the new year and purchasing a used automatic car that will change!!

Where are you working now? How's it going?

Thank you for this question!

-Work is unusual at the moment. I had been offered a job here on the Peds ward prior to coming over and I had the plan to work there two shifts a week just as I had done back in USA. However, the shift patterns they work here are unusual and scattered and I was finding it difficult not only trying to arrange child care because of Covid restrictions and inability to see daycares but also because they want you to do the same days every week at these daycares. As you nurses know, this is a problem in the USA as well. So I decided to put that offer on hold, the manager was lovely in saying no problem, sort your lives out here a bit first. I have instead decided to get on the Test and Trace team for the hospitals in this area. It is a job I can do from home and I will be calling and notifying staff members of their results of a positive Covid test, advise them on isolation, notify their managers, and also notify any contacts they have had at work and also ask them to isolate or monitor symptoms depending on the situation. This is just a temporary position while Covid numbers are high and we as a family are settling here. I just did the training on it yesterday over the phone and hopefully can get into Hospital orientation that starts this upcoming Monday.  I can't answer how it's going yet, but hopefully I'll have more of an update in my next blog post. 

What's the food like over there?

Haha, Thank you for this question.

-So, the first time I lived over here I did not care for the food much, but each time coming back to visit I have found things I love and then miss when I go back to USA. I would say the food options and the grocery store items have gotten better than they were back in 2013. I am finding that we are having plenty of dinner options to cook that we all like and of course plenty of take out things that we wish we could have all the time! Not to mention the options of biscuits (kinda like cookies) and chocolate here, wowza! I haven't been able to go out to eat much with lockdown, but the times I have (in Manchester and once here) have been really really good. I would say the food that is the least like back home is the Mexican food options. We usually like to make our own at home rather than have that out to eat. I do miss that. Also, they can't beat Annies Mac & Cheese from USA. We're down to our last box if anyone would like to send us a care package haha! Emme's favorite of course.

Is it more expensive to live there?

Thanks for this question.

-This is a tricky one to answer. So the housing market here is out of control. It's entirely too expensive for what you get in my American opinion. But then, they have such small space and the land that you buy is valuable. We live on the fast train route to London (takes about 45 minutes), so the prices are going up due to that as well. 

-Our rent is about the same as we would pay for a nice sized house in the USA where I'm from. But, in San Francisco where we lived for a short time, we paid almost $4,000/month for a studio apartment. SO in that respect, we're doing ok on rent. 

-Food is cheaper here. I would say you can also buy clothes for cheaper here depending what you like to wear. They obviously have the Name brands here as well just as in USA. IF you want to buy USA clothing here, specifically Under Armour as we like, it's way expensive here.

-Car prices are about the same.

-Gas prices are higher here.

-You have to purchase a TV license here, which I find amusing. If you have a TV and want live TV, you pay a license fee, I think is was like 70 pounds? Not sure, Daniel took care of it as I was afraid we would go to jail if we didn't, haha. We got a letter in the mail stating our house was under investigation as no one had purchased a TV license. I was like whoa, chill out, we just moved in!! But, I think they sent out a notice while the house was unoccupied that we never received. If any car drove by, they would see our TV hanging above the fireplace, we quickly got the TV license! Ha!

-My phone bill is cheaper here!!! I pay 10/month for 10GB of data. No contract. And I kept my American iPhone that I paid off prior to leaving Verizon, that has been solid.

-Internet bill is about the same.

-Utilites... ehh don't know yet. We are on a fixed plan, so we should pay the same monthly, but I'll give it a few months to see.

What is the work/life balance like over there?

Thank you for your question, excellent one!

-So the amount of "holiday"/vacation time you get here is far superior to USA. At least with the NHS (hospitals). If I were to sign up full time I think it said I get something like 29 days holiday and like 8 bank holidays (Xmas, New Years etc) paid per year? Don't quote me but its close to that. Since Ill be part time, its prorated  but I think when I looked, for 16 hours per week I am entitled to 86 hours of holiday and 26 hours of bank holiday per year. It's not accrued, you just get it with your contract of employment. 

-Maternity pay, you guys already know, its better here. You get something like 8 weeks full pay, 6 months 1/2 pay and then you get the rest of the time unpaid, up to a year off. Again, don't quote me, I briefly scanned it. They also give my husband 2 weeks paid off that he can split and use up until baby is 8 weeks old. (Don't get any ideas of telling me I need to go through all that again right now, I'm simply stating facts, haha)

-I would say in general I hear people talking about "using up their holiday" rather than "I don't have enough time off for that" so thats good.

-I'm told the pension is good with the hospital, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

How is Emme doing with the move?

Good question, thank you.

-I would say she hasn't noticed much. She's very adaptable. The first couple weeks she struggled with her sleeping due to the 6 hour time change, but what kid wouldn't? 

-As soon as she was allowed free out of quarantine she was like a new kid. I love seeing the adventure and wonder through her eyes here. I loved seeing it in the USA too, but I think I'm noticing more things here because some of it is new to me too.

-She loves seeing her family here, but I know she is missing people too. She asked about friends and family back home from time to time just randomly, and I can't help to tear up every time. Today, we watched her old teacher from Communication Junction online, and her eyes LIT UP. She was saying Miss Molly! Miss Molly! And instantly picked up where she left off with sign language. I am thinking we will probably join a virtual class after the new year. Another reason this is hard for me right now is that all these mum and child groups and activities are closed. They will open again and I am sure we will find our little niche here.

-We try to do FaceTiming to help her continue her relationships with family back home. 

When are you coming back!!!

Haha, love this!

-My visa is good for 2.5 years, we will re-evaluate at that time to either renew or return. Daniel and I aren't putting a time stamp or time line on this move/adventure. We are enjoying things as they are in the moment. With Covid, we couldn't instantly hop over to Italy as we would have loved to do. While we are here theres so much we want to do and see, so we will take it in stride and see where we are at that time.

-If you mean, to visit. I was asked to be in a wedding in October 2021. :)

What do you miss most about USA?

Ugh you guys, these questions are hard!

-I don't know that I am in the stage of homesick yet. I will always love things back in the USA (obviously family and friends being number 1), but I am trying to look forward and not really back right now, if that makes sense?

-We both loved our jobs in the US. This is my second MISS. I so dearly miss CHOI and my work friends and how much I enjoyed my job with CRT. I also am missing some of the patients and the patient populations I consistently worked with. :(

-We loved our home in the US, but I think we were ready for an upgrade in that department anyhow.

-I've already said family and friends, but I'll say that again.

-Driving.

-Target (haha)

-Soon to be Mac and Cheese 

-Communication Junction classes for Emme and their events.

-Florida. We missed our family vacation to FL that we usually take in November, we had hoped to replace that with maybe Portugal or Spain? Not this year.

-Football. It's on here too, but its at like 2am. We do catch the 12pm games sometimes.

Ok, seriously you guys, thanks so much for the questions!! I hope I answered them all, some I rolled into one question as they were similar. Please keep asking them, it helps me get my thoughts out and helps you guys who are curious. I wouldn't mind doing some Q&A's every once in a while!

Love and miss everyone back home, but also love and miss everyone here we've not even got to see yet!

Praying and thinking about every single country and person being affected by this Pandemic. 

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