The Pluses and Minuses

We've been here in England six months now, so it's time to be reflective.

Here's some things we miss about America, in no particular order.

1. Large capacity washer and dryer
I swore to myself I would not be one of those people like on International House Hunters who are so excited to experience another culture, but then proceed to complain about everything that's not the same  as back home. In general, I don't think I am. It does not stop me though from missing some of the conveniences I used to have, like a large capacity washer and dryer.  In reality, I feel pretty lucky our rental even has a washer and dryer. A lot of the places we looked at only had a washer. So I'm grateful to not be hanging wet laundry all over the house. I still miss being able to wash about everything in my house in less than a day. I miss the feeling of being caught up on laundry, which is pretty much impossible with the size we have now.

2. Consistently being served salad with salad dressing
I found it bizarre to be served a dry bunch of lettuce with no dressing once. But then it happened more than once, and at more than one restaurant. It completely baffles me. Is eating vegetables considered a punishment, not to be enjoyed, or do some people actually like lettuce that way? To be fair, I should clarify that I have also been served perfectly good salads here also.

3. Relatively smoke-free existence
Smoking rates are higher in Europe. I came from the state with the second lowest smoking rate in the country (behind Utah of course), so the difference especially stands out to me. Besides that more people smoke, the whole culture of smoking is different. It seems to be perfectly acceptable to quite a few people to light up in a line, in a crowd, holding a baby, right outside the doorway of a building or restaurant, and of course at all outside seating areas. People in America have pretty much been shamed into indulging their smoking habit away from most of society. It can be an annoyance here, but it also makes me sad seeing all these young people starting this possibly life-long addiction.

4. Pandora, Playlist, Redbox, etc.
We have so many more conveniences now than when we lived in Europe before, 15 years or so ago. I remember huddling around our little radio, so happy to be listening to the BBC. Now, if we want to, we can watch US television, listen to US radio, connect with people online. It's much easier to live abroad. We still find various media we can't get though, and as much media as we have, we still miss what we can't get.

5. American-size closets
I spent weeks before I moved here going through my house, throwing things away, giving things away, and storing about two-thirds of what was left. I feel like we brought a very modest amount of stuff, yet without closets to put it in, my house always seems a bit cluttered.  We have a wardrobe in our room, a very small closet in our spare room, and an even smaller closet in Camille's room. That's it. No hall closets, no master room closet. I had a walk-in closet in America that was so small it barely qualified as a walk-in. But I feel like everything we have here would be stored away so nicely in there. I wonder if designers of newly-built homes here have discovered the wonder of closets? [Mike says the newer places he looked at did have closets, so it's my own fault that I'm living without closets for wanting a traditional home.]

When I ask my kids what they miss, it's mostly things that are available here, we (and by "we," I mean Mike and I) just chose to do without. Cars, television, Wii. And Anya, my most Californian of California girls, misses the weather back home. She is NOT a fan of clouds, wind storms, rain, short amounts of daylight or cold. Mike really isn't either.

Now, just to be fair, there are a number of things we'll miss when we go back to America.

1. Scones and clotted cream

2. Beautiful countryside full of public walking paths
It is a country designed for walking.

3. Towel warmers
Now I'm sure some people in America have these, but I can't think of anyone I know that did. They're such a wonderful invention. Not only are the towels always dry, they are just the perfect amount of toasty.

4. Train travel
The country is so connected. It seems so much more convenient and economical to use trains here.

5. No yard noise
In California we had the most perfect weather for sitting out in the yard. The trouble is, just about any time of the day someone in the neighborhood is running a leaf blower or a lawn mower. So here we have the inconvenience of a push mower, but with the huge payout of backyard QUIET.

6. Sense of humor
I think it is really true that you find a high proportion of funny people here. And it's just what Mike and I most like too: dry, understated (except when they're in drag doing children's pantos, but that's another story),  with just a touch of sarcasm.

Of course what we miss most of all is our friends and family. But our time is flying by, and we'll be home again before we know it.

[Mike reminds me that I left off old buildings and towns with character and being a short flight or train ride from so many European vacation destinations. But this is by no means a comprehensive list on either side - just a few things from the top of my head.]

Yay Property Managers

Any guesses what this is a picture of? 

If you guessed water damage at our California house, you are correct!

When we found out we would be spending a year in England, we thought of four options of how to deal with our California house.

1. Sell it

Mike could have got on board with this option, but as the girls and I are attached to our home and neighborhood, this was never seriously considered.

2. Leave it

This option had the benefit of being the least amount of work. By leaving all our stuff as it was, we'd avoid the hassle of movers, packing, storage, finding renters, etc. We ended up giving up this option, mainly because we decided we couldn't afford it.

3. Leave It with Cheap Renters

The idea of this one was to leave all our stuff in the house and garage, and then rent the house at a greatly reduced rate because of the inconvenience. We did pursue this for a while, but weren't able to find just the right person. People would say they were interested, because the rent we were offering was really low, but then they'd want us to move this, store that, clear out these spaces, etc. If we had to do all that work, we decided we'd just as well get market rate rent.

4. Property Manager

We went with option number four, clear out the house and rent it at market rate using a property manager. As anyone who has ever moved or prepared a house for sale/rent knows, it was a tremendous amount of work and bother. I'm glad we never seriously considered renting it out on our own and trying to manage the house from overseas. Two reasons. One, after we arrived in England, the first renter lined up backed out, so the whole process of finding a new renter had to start all over again. How we would have managed that from England, I'm not sure.

Two, now apparently our roof is leaking. That is a tremendous bother. Someone has to arrange a handyman to come over to take care of the immediate problem, get roofers to do bids on the repair work, get the inside damage tested and removed, hire someone to drywall, hire someone to paint, and possibly more. The silver lining of this is that that person is not me. I'm not terribly happy to be paying these bills, but I'm sure happy that it's not me doing the work! 

School in the UK

 Anya on her way to school, back when she could be out without a coat.

I've been thinking for some time that I'd like to do a post comparing school in the UK with school in the US. To be accurate though, all I can really do is a post comparing the specific schools my girls have attended. I'm not sure that I have enough experience to give a comprehensive comparison. For example, one thing that struck me about the primary school is how few people drive their kids to school, like maybe less than 10. I think it is so quaint, and really a much more relaxing way to arrive to school than fighting traffic, long lines and car exhaust. But then I talked to a mom who has a child in a slightly more suburban school outside of Cambridge, and she says at her school there are long lines of cars and traffic. So the difference might be more suburban versus urban, than US versus UK.

It's taken me a while to collect enough information to do this post. I'd love to be able to follow my kids around school for a week, so I could really tell what's going on. All I get are little crumbs of information, gathered here and there, with the exception of a couple of areas of interest that I hear all about. But here's what I've managed to figure out so far.

* Elementary school = Primary school. Secondary school runs from age 11 to age 16. School is optional after age 16 (although this is will soon be changed to age 18). 16+ go to Sixth Form or trade school type programs, which are separate schools from the Secondary.

* School placement is done strictly by birthday. There's no deciding your child isn't ready and holding them back a year like in the U.S.

* Children in England start "Reception Year" at age 4, so if they're 4 by September 1st, that's when they start. I hear conflicting stories about whether this is the equivalent to Kindergarten in the US, just started younger, or if it is more like a government-paid year of preschool. Depending on the answer to that question, my children have either skipped a grade, or just have their grade labeled differently (Year 5, instead of Grade 4; Year 8, instead of Grade 7).

* Most public schools (called state schools here) require uniforms. Anya's school does not, but they still change into a uniform for p.e.

* It is very cheap outfitting your child for school when they require a uniform. Camille's school doen't allow scarves, jewelry, or anything but school shirt, school sweatshirt (optional). black pants, black socks and shoes.  You could spend money on brand-name black pants and shoes, but there really isn't any room for any further personalization.

* I didn't have to buy any school supplies for Anya, except her p.e. uniform. The secondary school had a few required supplies, but less than what was required in the US.

* Both my girls report that the science here is harder, and also more interesting. Apparently, they spend more time on experiments and labs, and less on book work.

* Both my girls also find the math here easier (and I didn't find their programs in the U.S. particularly challenging).

* The primary school has much less testing. In fact, besides weekly spelling tests, Anya hasn't had a single test so far. In the US, it seemed like there was an assessment of some sort almost every week. On one hand, she enjoys school so much more with less tests. On the other hand, I don't really know how she's doing in school, or know how her teacher knows if she's learning the material or not.

* They only do a big standardized, year-end testing once every two years. Anya's so excited that her year isn't required to do testing this year. Unless she wants to! Which she doesn't. I don't think any testing is scheduled for Camille's year either.

* On a similar note, Anya rarely brings home any sort of school work. They do their work in notebooks at school, so I don't see anything that she's doing.

* There is much less of a reliance on textbooks and workbooks in the UK. At Anya's school they've studied language arts by working on a longer project, like writing a story or script. Anya says the teacher will talk about grammar as part of the project. Science is based on labs and experiments. Math is done from problems the teacher gives them. History/Social Studies has been done with plays, music, and projects. Anya enjoys all these lessons much more than in the US. At Camille's secondary school she has a textbook in her science class, and that's all.

* The primary school has much less homework. Anya has spelling homework, which is a more challenging list than in the US, but that's all. No worksheets.

* Neither of my girls' primary or secondary schools have any fundraisers scheduled that involve selling anything. Hallelujah!

* Both of my girls have less p.e. time here than their schools in the US. Anya only has p.e. once a week. Camille has a double period of p.e. once a week, and also a dance class once a week. They both had p.e. every day in the US.

* Both girls are required to take French here (much to their chagrin). (Interesting side note: Camille has been struggling with her French class, which I didn't find remarkable considering she's in 2nd year French but has never studied a foreign language before. When my husband started helping her with her homework he thought the work was ridiculously hard and decided to go talk to the teacher. I thought he was maybe overreacting. Well, it turns out Camille had been placed in ADVANCED 2nd year French. She's now been switched to just regular 2nd year French and is already much happier!).

* Class sizes are about the same at Camille's secondary school here as in the US. At Anya's primary school she has a split class of 30 students - half Year 5, and half Year 6. But they also have two full-time teacher's assistants in their class. Right now they also have two full-time student teachers until the mid-term. So at least temporarily, a ratio of 6 students to 1 teacher! In the US she would be in a class of 34 with one teacher.

* I may just not know the system here yet, but home-school communication was much easier for me in California. There's a Back-to-School night early in the year, teachers give out their email addresses, and so many graded assignments and tests are brought home that I've never been surprised by any of their grades on their report cards. Here, mid-term is in a week and I'm in such suspense of what their report cards will look like. I have no idea how they're doing. Nothing comes home and Anya's school explained to me that their policy is to not share teacher email addresses. Camille's school uses a computer system for giving out and turning in assignments. As a parent, I have my own log-in, but it only tells me what her upcoming assignments are. I don't have any access to how she was graded. Either the schools think that students are coming home and sharing everything with their parents (wrong!), or they feel it's between the students and the school. It's not what I'm used to.

* Anya misses her school playground in the US, which had playground equipment, wall ball, volleyball, basketball, kickball, tetherball and soccer. Here they have a cement courtyard and a grass field, along with some balls. They are allowed to run at recess and play tag here (one of their stranger rules back home forbids running at recess).

* And to end on a frivolous note, Anya reports that when you bring a lunch it's referred to as "lunch". When you buy a hot lunch from school it's referred to as "dinner".

My title here in the UK

At a welcome-new-parents-tea, we got a chance to sneak into Anya's class and get some photographic proof that she's doing some work in class. For part of their history unit on the Tudors they wrote these letters in early modern English/Tudor English.

American Loot

Mike returned home from a business trip Sunday, which is a happy thing. Partly, we're fond of his company and like having him home. Also, he brings us back American supplies.

Here's a picture of some of the things we've picked up in America:

Shoes (and clothes) - They have many nice stores here, but the prices are at least a third more expensive than in the states. So far when we've needed something I've had Mike pick it up.

Unsweetened chocolate - It maybe seems a little crazy to go to Europe and need to pick up chocolate in America. The thing is, they don't sell unsweetened chocolate here. I need (well, want) it for brownies, as well as other recipes. They must have their own version of recipes without it, but I haven't yet gone to the bother of finding new recipes.

Jalapenos - I miss Tex-Mex food! Oh what I would give for some El Napolito chips and salsa. We did try buying some salsa here. That experience has frightened me off English salsa for some time, so I decided to make my own. However I went all over the city - two farmer's markets, 5 international grocers, 4 grocery stores - and no luck. But happy day, Mike was able to bring me home some jalapenos and now I have a freezer full of salsa for whenever I'm having a craving.

Power converters and plug adapters - It's just about impossible to overestimate the number of converters and adapters you're going to need. I'm always thinking if I had just one or two more we'd be all set.

Instant Breakfast - Anya has had the hardest time adjusting to the food here. She really misses all her American breakfast food. The Instant Breakfast is just the easiest to fit in a suitcase.

I think all our other American purchases have been things like video games (video games and movies are region-locked, meaning we can't buy them here and have them work on our American machines) and toys that the girls have wanted that are also much cheaper in the U.S.

So for now, we're feeling content. We need to be, because Mike won't be back in the States until October.

Taking Your Cat To England

You'd be forgiven if, when observing my daughter with our cat, you assumed that we'd brought the cat home sometime in the last week. Several times a day I hear exclamations like, "I LOVE you Kitty!," or "You're the best kitty EVER!". Also, "Mom! Come and look at Kitty! She's being soooo CUTE!" Usually then she's doing something amazing like taking a nap on the couch. My daughter even has a blog devoted to our cat.

So anyway, when we first made plans to come to England, we knew it was essential for my daughter's happiness to bring our cat along too. I really stressed about this. I couldn't imagine taking our cat on a 12 hour flight, with additional hours for getting to and from the airport, all cooped up in her cat carrier was going to be good for her. It seemed much less traumatic for our cat to find some nice person to leave her with for a year. But my daughter's happiness trumped my cat's, so I started researching how to get her here.

At first it seemed easy. The UK no longer requires any quarantine period for cats when entering the country from the US. I looked into United Airlines and saw that, while they don't allow cats in carriers under your seat for international flights, they did allow you to check them as baggage in an approved carrier where they then kept the carriers in climate-controlled baggage areas. Their policies also required a microchip, which she already had, a rabies shot and a health certificate from her vet. Easy enough. I stopped worrying.

Then a few months before we were to leave, I started looking into the matter again, and it seemed like everything had changed. United no longer allowed pets as checked baggage. They only allowed them as cargo, which was much more expensive and much more complicated. I spent a lot of time calling various airlines and government agencies trying to get definitive answers on what the process was. It seemed like I got different answers from every person, with many people seeming to wonder why I expected them to know this information. Then I called our vet back to set up our cat's health certificate appointment, only to have the receptionist there tell me that our cat didn't have the right microchip. She'd need to have a new one put in, wait months, get a new rabies shot, etc. This about 6 weeks before we were supposed to leave. Augh!

That is when I broke down and called Pet Express. They are a pet transport company who, for a fee I first thought outrageous and finally decided was worth every penny for the ease and peace of mind of talking to people who knew what they were doing, will help arrange all necessary paperwork, tell you what appointments are needed, pick up your cat from your house, board her, bring her to the airport and check her into her flight, pick her up from customs and take her to your new home.

They took most of the stress out of the process. I still reserved a little stress thinking about how sad for our cat to not have food for so long on her flight, customs processing and transport time. It just seemed horribly traumatic for her. The day of her pickup, she was none too happy to be getting in her carrier. But it was really nice to not have her there for final packing and getting my family to the airport with our mountains of luggage. Then when she was delivered to our house, mewing to get out of her carrier, she was initially very thirsty, but not even interested in her food for a good hour. She spent time looking around our new house, then plopped down in our laps for petting, and seemed her usual, delightful self.  She seems perfectly happy in our new home in England.

In case anyone is thinking of taking their cat from the US to the UK, here is what I learned:

Air New Zealand doesn't take pets from the US to the UK
British Airways will take your pet, but only if you use a pet transport company
United Airlines is the only airline I looked into that allows you to arrange transport yourself

Pets need to be microchipped. It might officially say somewhere that it needs to be an international microchip, but as long as the microchip is a name brand recognized by your vet, you don't need to install a new one.

At least 21 days before you leave the US, but after the microchip implantation, your cat needs a rabies shot.

Within a week of transport, you need a health certificate from your vet. Make sure you vet has this paperwork - it's about 5 pages. Your vet also needs to be USDA accredited. Also, you need the original vet-signed copy of the Certificate of Vaccination. Pet Express wanted me to make sure that everything was signed in blue ink. I'm not sure if that's important or not, but they thought it was.

After you get your health certificate, you need to express mail it or drive it to a USDA Veterinary Services office for a Federal Endorsement stamp. This website has the relevant information:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/regulations/vs/iregs/animals/animal_faq.shtml#six

You also need to fill out a C5 customs form for the UK. It is found here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/c5.pdf

In addition to an Airway Bill and other paperwork from the airline, you also need to arrange clearance in the UK. There are separate charges for their services. It's about $100 more expensive to clear your pet on a weekend than a weekday. Their contact info is:
www.pbs-int.co.uk or www.shipyourpet.com

Your pet also needs to be transported in a IATA approved carrier. I bought mine from www.dryfur.com. They had extensive information about all the rules, including size, labeling, and food containers, in addition to guaranteeing that their carriers are IATA approved.

As you can see, there is a lot of rules, appointments and paperwork involved when transporting your cat to England. If possible, limit the stress and use a pet transport company. We did, and are enjoying having our happy and healthy cat here with us.

House Camping

One month ago our international movers arrived to pack up our house and send our things off to England. Thus began our house camping adventure. The initial couple of weeks in the U. S. were not that bad, as we were leaving about half our furniture and things in storage - which we didn't pack up until the last day. Now, I can report, it's officially getting old. And it's really not as bad as it could be. We could be sleeping, eating, and sitting on the floor, patiently waiting for our furniture to arrive. Luckily, the owners of the house we're renting left some furniture for us to use. Our place has a basement (grimy, dark, and basement-smelling) where we can store some of it once our own stuff arrives. Still.

Here is the comfortable lounge spot for whoever doesn't get our one comfortable chair.

Mike, enjoying our one comfortable chair, and single computer.

Without dressers, we are living out of suitcases.

We have a kitchen table with one chair. Everyone else either sits on the floor, on this desk...

Or snags our comfortable living room spot.

Our kitchen supplies are also very spotty. I've bought some things, but I hate to repurchase a whole kitchen worth's of stuff, when our own things are coming soon. So here is the inventory:
4 knives
4 forks
4 spoons
4 bowls
4 plates
1 frying pan
1 pot
1 wooden spoon
1 spatula
1 toaster

Perhaps that seems like a big list, but I'm constantly annoyed by what I don't have. We've been going through Bonne Maman jam like crazy (Anya barely likes any of the food here, except for fruit and PB&J sandwiches, but that's another post). We use the leftover glasses for many purposes: drinking glasses, rolling pin, grinder, ladle, scoop, approximate measuring cup, etc.

In retrospect, I would have brought a few more items along in our suitcases and packed less clothing. Here's what would have been smart to have brought for immediate use:

measuring cups (I'm not interested in buying UK versions and recalculating all my recipes)
power converter (why I didn't think I'd need that immediately I'm not sure)
rain coats (of course I could buy here, but we just bought some in the US)
comfortable walking shoes (and put the flip-flops on the slow boat)
cat snacks (They don't sell any of the brands of food or snacks here that we purchased before; she's having a hard time adjusting to the food too. It would be nice to have something she's familiar with)

Counting down the days until July 12th, when our belongings will finally arrive!

Transition

 I think they make moving so awful to make it easier to leave. I could have got all emotional about leaving my nice life in California behind, but I was instead counting down the minutes until all this mess was over. By the way, I'm completely converted to the wonder of Space Bags. It is amazing the amount of stuff we were able to get in those suitcases - at least twice as much.

 I took this picture of our storage space with our belongings and car, just because I was so amazed and grateful it all fit. When I reserved it I thought the space seemed about perfect. Then as the movers started packing and the boxes started piling up, I became quite worried. When the movers saw my space though, they said no problem, and for them, it wasn't. It was like a live version of the best game of Tetris ever played. Cube Moving is the best!

 As  you can see, we abandoned all pretenses of packing light. I felt like a 19th century woman with my overflowing cart of trunks with all the luggage we had.

And, the fighting's begun. (Kurt and Shannon, recognize this spot? Or is it still too soon?) Actually traveling with older kids with electronics is a dream. If only I could figure out how to sleep sitting upright on a plane, I'd have been all set. With a total of 10 minutes of sleep, I was pretty much in a daze my first day in England.