Are you insane moving to the UK?

I hear you Loveaturtle.  If an accountant reviewed my decision, he/she would say "Are you crazy?"  I am in a good field in the States (healthcare I.T.) but I am not happy.  I feel that the only reward available is the ability to accumulate stuff.  That is what my coworkers do..."look at my new house", look at my "BMW", etc.  I want something more.

I grew up overseas but have never had the opportunity to be posted abroad.  I also do not ever see that happening.  Therefore I am hitting stop on this DVD and putting in a new one.  I can't guarantee it will be better...but it will be different.

I posted earlier that my family probably won't like it.  Ironically, my father was posted all over the world.  However, it was always in an organized fashion...like a three year assignment to Country X with absolutely everything sorted beforehand (move, access to embassy commissary, healthcare).  It's the "uproot and go" part that they wont understand.

Ironically, my father was posted all over the world.  However, it was always in an organized fashion...like a three year assignment to Country X with absolutely everything sorted beforehand (move, access to embassy commissary, healthcare).  It's the "uproot and go" part that they wont understand.

I know! That makes me more than a little nervous myself. I won't have a husband or fiance who will be waiting for me, I won't have a job lined up, I won't have a flat ready for me, but I have to remember the freedom that not having those things can entail.

My husbands family treated him like he was moving to Mogadishu.  Best question was when someone asked him if we have fish in Scotland.   

My Wife had a great question, it is better then your Husbands, we are here in the US and in the process of planning the move back.  We have not told many people just because of the reactions.  My DW was asked -----are you ready for this---- I don't know if you are ready for this---are you sure that you are ready.

WHAT LANGUAGE DO THEY SPEAK THERE!
this was asked by and Adult, not a 2nd grader. Out loud they said this, in front of me, I still can't believe it.

My Wife had a great question, it is better then your Husbands, we are here in the US and in the process of planning the move back.  We have not told many people just because of the reactions.  My DW was asked -----are you ready for this---- I don't know if you are ready for this---are you sure that you are ready.

WHAT LANGUAGE DO THEY SPEAK THERE!
this was asked by and Adult, not a 2nd grader. Out loud they said this, in front of me, I still can't believe it.

Oh, this could start a trend of "can you believe they said that?" statements....

Mine is when I went back to visit my relatives in Hicksville, Texas.  We were having "dinner" (if you can call it that) at Brother-In-Law's-BBQ (yes that was the name of the "restaurant").  It was one of those places where everyone who came in knew everyone else there.  Except me.  So someone came in and gave me the evil eye and asked my aunt who I was.  My aunt replied, "Oh, that's my niece.  She lives in the Ukraine."

my friends and father have been very supportive of my upcoming move, but my mother has not taken it well AT ALL.  she still can't discuss it without bursting into tears.  i think it has something to do with the fact that i am an only child and my parents are divorced, so my mom really will be all alone once i move.  she is convinced my boyfriend and i will stay permanently and raise our children near his family and that she will only see us once every few years.  she's been absolutely unreasonable at times, saying things like she doesn't want to get to know my boyfriend anymore because it would just be one more person to miss, or that i might as well be dead because i'll be so far away and it will feel like losing a child, etc.  my friend who married a german man and moved abroad had a similar reaction from her mother, and maybe it's due to the fact that southern families tend to be very close-knit and hardly anyone ever moves outside of the state you grew up in down there.  she also is very critical about the fact that i will be sacrificing my career for love and marriage and is convinced i'll end up jobless without any money and will never be able to find a job equivalent to what i have now...it's to the point where i try not to discuss it with her.  she knows my visa has been approved and that i will be looking for jobs soon but i think she secretly hopes she can keep talking about how awful the economy is right now and convince me to stay put and not give up my current job until i find one there, which she assumes won't happen anytime soon.  i dread the day when i have to tell her my one-way ticket is booked. 

hahah ok the ukraine thing is hilarious!

MWHAT LANGUAGE DO THEY SPEAK THERE!

If you were moving to Newcastle, Glasgow, or Belfast, that might actually be a very good question, even if asked "accidentally."   

Paul,
she has more, one time we were walking through a store and the check out person asked me where she was from.  I told him the UK.  He replied "she sure does talk English good."  Now beside the obvious grammatical errors I said Well she should they invented the language.

I was asked by one of my friends in the US "When do you have Christmas?"

I was trying to figure out what she meant to ask (like maybe celebrating 12th night, or like some Orthodox churches go by a different calendar) and she said "in summer or winter?"

I said I thought she must be confusing England with Australia, and that we were in the Northern hemisphere.  Then she said "I just wanted to send your Christmas card at the right time."

I was asked by one of my friends in the US "When do you have Christmas?"

I was trying to figure out what she meant to ask (like maybe celebrating 12th night, or like some Orthodox churches go by a different calendar) and she said "in summer or winter?"

I said I thought she must be confusing England with Australia, and that we were in the Northern hemisphere.  Then she said "I just wanted to send your Christmas card at the right time."

I was asked that once too!!!!  "On what day do you have Christmas Day?"

Err..on Christmas Day?

Heheh, these are great stories....

Speaking of holidays not being celebrated on the day (!), that reminded me of a question a former colleague from the States asked me.  When I was whingeing about having to work on Thanksgiving day (as it was my first year living in the UK), she asked me whether "they" celebrate the 4th of July over here.

one time we were walking through a store and the check out person asked me where she was from.  I told him the UK.  He replied "she sure does talk English good." 

 

When I was whingeing about having to work on Thanksgiving day (as it was my first year living in the UK), she asked me whether "they" celebrate the 4th of July over here.

I have a friend in Virginia who jokingly says that we celebrate Thanksgiving on the 4th of July.

"The day we got shot of those pesky, trouble-making colonists," as he puts it.   

When I was living in the US (I'm English) I was asked:  Are you German?  Are you South African?  Are you Australian and Do you have computers in England?

To answer the topics main question....Yeah I got alot of flack for wanting to come here. I even got into a fist fight with my older brother about it.
Something about already causing my family enough pain for joining the military and going to war...and then the topic of me coming here during the worst economic down turn in years.....blah blah blah....
I get alot of the people from the UK asking me "why the hell would I want to move here?"

And to put it into context...my friends mother did say something about the police not carrying guns here..and rolled her eyes. But my saftey wasn't part of the conversation...and said mother is from a family of police...so I think she might have a bias.

sorry to go off topic but on the police and guns thing has anyone been watching In the line of Fire - its a documentary about the London police Trojan firearms teams SO19 - last year they only fired their weapons twice yet attended 8000 incidents which i thought was pretty amazing. So yes, the British police do carry guns, they just don't use them much