Hello from Denver!

Hi all,

My name is Leza and I currently live in the Denver, Colorado area.  My partner Erin and I live just outside Denver with our 4.5 year old twin girls and after much discussion and weighing our options, we've decided we want to make the move to the UK when I've finished my Bachelor's Degree (soon to be RN here). 

Erin has been to London twice as well as many other EU countries and Russia (Russian Lit was her minor in college).  She fell in love with London (and hated Paris, lol) and said it would be an awesome place to bring up the offspring (both present and future).  At this time, she works in management at a local Kroger grocery store and runs TWO businesses outside of her scheduled job.  She owns a consulting business and is a photographer.  Brilliant, brilliant woman!!!  She wants to start a computer consulting business in London (or in the outlaying area).

I worked as a family daycare provider for 6 years in California (known as a childminder there?), and 8 years as a Certified Medical Assistant (with a half year as the equivalent  of a Nurses' Aide in Ortho/Neuro Rehab and Geri-Psych) between California and Texas.  My twins were born in Austin, TX during my previous domestic partnership and they will be 5 and starting Kinder in September.  I am finishing my core general education and pre-requisites for the RN program.  I am still trying to decide if I want University of Colorado or Denver School of Nursing (which is a slightly shorter program, but private and expensive!!).  I have Spring and Summer semester and am hoping to qualify for admission into the Fall 2011 Nursing Program!  I am so excited!!!

We plan to move to the UK after I finish my RN.  We are still trying to figure out the whole visa and tier system.  I would LOVE to work for the NHS, so that's my first option.  The hospital I worked for in Austin was operated under HCA, which also runs a number of private hospitals and clinics in London, so if I can get hired at HCA here, I may be able to do a direct transfer after 6 months. 

I'm really looking forward to meeting new people and getting to know some of you!

Cheers!

Hello and welcome!!!

Welcome to UKY! Lots of things to plan out and research ;-)

Welcome to UKY 

Thank you for the warm welcomes!!!

Can anyone tell me about some of the London suburbs?  I'm noticing how expensive it is to rent in London "proper", just by looking on Craigslist.  And the rent is weekly...?

Is it unreasonable to ship my vehicle to the UK?  It's my understanding the local vehicles are substantially smaller than the US (and gas is way more expensive).  Honestly, seeing that my minivan is 12 years old now, I don't know if it would be worth the cost to send it over, but at the same time...if we chose to live in the London 'burbs, would we have decent access to public transport into the city?  The subway system is only inside the city, correct? 

How did many of you plan for such a move?  How many of you already had children when immigrating?  Sorry for all the banter, but I have so many questions and although I have a bit of time before we can actually move, I like to plan ahead

It is really expensive to ship a vehicle, plus it would be extra costs to get things adjusted, plus your steering wheel would be on the wrong side.  Also, the roads and parking spots here are very narrow. 

Used cars here are much cheaper. 

See, that's what I kinda thought.  It's a 7 seater minivan with extended storage space in the back.  The steering wheel thing is gonna be hard to get used to once over there.  DP tells me that the streets were arranged before cars came to be (hello....mid-evil times, lol).  I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

But given that my minivan has a 26 gallon gas tank and gas is what....roughly $7 a gallon over there....yikes.  And I'm cringing as our prices here come dangerously close to $3/gallon.

What about those of us who can't drive stick shifts?

Is it unreasonable to ship my vehicle to the UK?  It's my understanding the local vehicles are substantially smaller than the US (and gas is way more expensive).  Honestly, seeing that my minivan is 12 years old now, I don't know if it would be worth the cost to send it over, but at the same time...if we chose to live in the London 'burbs, would we have decent access to public transport into the city?  The subway system is only inside the city, correct? 

I personally wouldn't bother to ship a car because of all the costs... not just shipping, but all the adjustments that have to be made to make the car 'road worthy' to be driven in the UK. The process (with shipping) is likely to cost you a couple of thousand dollars... and you could probably buy a decent UK car for a similar amount (you can get used cars here for as little as a few hundred pounds... most of the used cars I saw when I lived in the US were about $4,000 upwards and were much older than the cheap used cars I've bought in the UK!).

In terms of public transport, the underground services go right to the outskirts of London (the suburbs) -this map shows how far it reaches... zones 1 and 2 are basically central London and zones 3-6 are the suburbs, and there are lots of overground trains in and out of the city, as well as buses too - I can get into London easily on either the train or the bus (I think they go every 30 minutes) and I live on the other side of the country . If I lived in London I probably wouldn't bother to get a car - you have to pay a charge to drive into the city and the public transport is so good that it probably wouldn't be worth the hassle of having the car (i.e. I would probably only use it if I was driving to another city elsewhere in the country and it would just sit on my driveway for the majority of the time). As you're a family with kids though, a car might be useful, even if you're in London .

But given that my minivan has a 26 gallon gas tank and gas is what....roughly $7 a gallon over there....yikes.  And I'm cringing as our prices here come dangerously close to $3/gallon.

I heard on the news last night that prices are expected to go up to £1.36 per litre... that's £6.19 ($9.87) per UK gallon, or £5.15 ($8.22) per US gallon (UK gallons are 4.55 litres, US gallons are 3.79 litres)!

What about those of us who can't drive stick shifts?

You can buy automatic cars in the UK, but they are less common than in the US. You will only be able to drive on your US licence for the first 12 months that you live in the UK... and you will have to pass the UK driving tests to drive beyond those 12 months - if you take the test in an automatic, you will only be legally allowed to drive automatic cars, but if you take it in a manual (stick shift), you can drive manual or automatic cars.

Oh, don't worry about that. Automatics are becoming more popular here. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a car big enough for your brood in an automatic.

And welcome to UKY. I'm also a mom of twins. Mine are 9 months. I'm always glad to meet mothers of older multiples because it gives me hope that it's possible to survive!

You can buy automatic cars in the UK, but they are less common than in the US. You will only be able to drive on your US licence for the first 12 months that you live in the UK... and you will have to pass the UK driving tests to drive beyond those 12 months - if you take the test in an automatic, you will only be legally allowed to drive automatic cars, but if you take it in a manual (stick shift), you can drive manual or automatic cars.

If you planned on being here in the long term you'd be better off taking driving lessons (you're going to have to anyways, the driving test here is HARD) and learn how to drive a manual. I did and love it.

Thanks for the welcome!  9 month twins, huh?  I remember those times, like they were yesterday and I miss it!!  Enjoy them while they're babies   I am still certain that mine came out of the womb conspiring against me, lol!!!  I am what my OB called a "double shooter" so she told me my next pregnancy will probably be another set of multiples (mine WERE three, the last one wasn't viable and didn't make it out of the first trimester!).  We are planning another pregnancy after I'm out of school, I may hold off til we get out there....granted my body allows (I'm 34 now).

Several people have tried teaching me how to drive a manual and I have never caught on.  It's really frustrating! I think what's really going to get me is the driving on the opposite side of the road and the opposite side of the CAR!  How did you adjust to that??  Does your US driving record follow you to the UK or is it a clean slate?  (DP has a commercial license here in the US, used to drive for mass transit here)

Funny you should mention the driving lessons, I had actually mentioned that to Erin tonight.  She also says that our vehicles may be too old to export to Europe by the time we go so no sense in paying all that money to export!

Hi and welcome to UKY!

Good luck with nursing and hope the visa process works out for you and your family!