One of the best/first things you should do is come visit. Have you been here before? I'd recommend going off the beaten path. Everyone goes to London or Bath or Stonehenge or Stratford-on-Avon. They see a very slanted UK. Hit a smaller village and go in a pub, elbow with the locals. Take a walk along a footpath. See some of the more "hidden" historical things like Avebury. Even though you'd be a tourist, try to live like a native. Imagine yourself here. It's not to everyone's tastes, and some do decide (after leaving a whole life 'back home') to return to try to get that back.
I have to say though, that...it seems to me, anyway...if you come with a sparkle in your eye for the UK, then nothing is going to make you want to leave. I love it here. But I grew up with a feeling that I always would love it here. Can't explain it. You might even catch me in deep mesmerization, running my hand over a stone wall that's about a thousand years old, trying to imagine the daily scene back then. Who touched this same wall? How were they dressed?
I come from Florida, a place where the oldest house was made a museum and it was only built in the 1950s. I now live in a house that's almost 200 years old, a place that used to be a hotel for high society people who vacationed here. Well, actually, that's a very VERY simplified version. This house has a very interesting history, and it's awesome to try to imagine a cream of society in your own bedroom back when George III went mad and Napolean was being defeated at Waterloo.
Chad, come visit first. Then decide if you want to take next steps to make this your home.
