October 2008
15 posts
4 tags
death and taxes
My little sister likes to say that if you don’t pay taxes, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
I like to turn around and point out that in the UK, despite being married to a UK citizen, allowed to work and expected to pay taxes both in the UK and at home in the US, I do not have the right to vote. I can earn it after living there for some time and taking a test and oath to become a...
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“The next UK person who tells me, “but you’ll have so many better...”
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Sometimes, I forget my audience.
I forget sometimes that when I started this blog, I wanted it to be a way to extoll the life and times of an expat american to people who never even considered that lifestyle as an option. But over time, as I have met more and more people in my shoes, I think I’ve forgotten to do that, and assume that everyone reading must know what it’s like. But this is hardly true, is it?
So let...
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Things you will need to move to the UK
* A ream of paper
* extra ink cartridges
* patience
* a lot of money
* box of tissue
* other box of tissue (or your sleeve, in a pinch)
* maybe some valium
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Survey Says
I’m about to start my actual spousal visa application tonight, which probably means I have lots of blog entries ahead, and I have to admit feeling really unprepared and underinformed, despite reading all the time about how it’s done. Thank god for the expat forum or I’d lose it for sure.
When you apply for a visa, there is a step where you have to go get your biometric...
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eating crow
Oh, but I just got the mail and what was in it?
My old, invalidated passport that I was told I’d never see again. I take back every nasty thing I’ve said about the US Gov this month.
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It's already snowed here once.
It never ceases to amaze me how the weather in October in Chicago can be completely fickle, with snow one day and t-shirt weather the next. Three days ago, it snowed here a bit. Two days ago, my boss informed me that due to the bad economy, he could no longer afford to employ me. Yesterday, I turned thirty. Never a dull moment, I suppose.
I’m taking the job thing in stride. I...
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For the dogs
Sorry about the lack of posting lately. Oddly, moving to another country keeps one very busy. Also, as it gets closer and closer to my move date, I’m getting a bit in the way of cold feet, second guessing things and kind of sluggishly plodding through my days. It’s ugly and I don’t always feel like writing about it, because I’d rather just focus on getting past it.
...
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OK. New new rule.
I woke up having a hard time breathing, thanks to my cold, so I decided to take some medicine and hang out… watch a movie. I’m a textbook insomniac anyway, so this isn’t out of the ordinary for me, and I frequently torrent whatever happens to be torrentable, just so I have things on hand to distract me when I can’t sleep. I never know what they’re going to be about,...
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Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
I’ve been so busy the last couple of weeks. Busy and under the shadow of this cold that just never seems to go away.
I finally got our marriage certificate last week, which was the key factor holding up pretty much everything else that needs doing. I immediately went to the DMV and changed my name. I’m officially the Mrs., at least as far as the state of Illinois is concerned. ...
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“The lurgy” (pronounced with a hard G) is british slang for that kind of...”
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Selling Books
I seem to have contracted some horrible plague, with fever and chills and other assorted maladies. But just before I fell into a 16-hour coma last night, I managed to get a lot of my books listed for sale on Half.com.
(If you want cheap smart people books, this is the place, yo. Particularly if you have an interest in Ophthalmology, as I once did.)
I tried doing it on eBay but what a pain in...
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Moving
The more I look around about moving my things to England, the more I am inclined to give everything I own the old heave-ho and start fresh when I get there. (Obvious exemptions being very sentimental things like my great aunt’s silver tea set, etc.)
I just have been doing the math a bit. Quotes are coming in at no less than $1300, but up to $2500. I keep thinking that if I’d just...
