A little scary

As I have been planning this for a while, I have some ideas about how things will go.

The first thing I am going to have to do is tell my supervisors that I am planning to leave. I will probably do this close to the end of this year. That won’t be my official notification; I just want to give them a heads up in plenty of time (a few months) because I know it will probably take them a while to hire a replacement. It could take them up to 4 months to get someone. I feel a little bad about it because by the time I leave I will have been there only a tiny bit more than a year. I don’t feel very bad though. I would not have changed jobs at the point I did if it had been up to me, but the project I was previously working on lost funding before expected and I had to get a new job even though I knew I was going to be leaving the country in about a year and a half.

In December or January we’ll buy our tickets for a trip over in early Feb to look for a flat and for the move. For the move, we’ll have to have a ticket and plans for Cricket to come with us. I think that we most likely will have to leave Beemish in the US temporarily then send for her or come get her.

In January I will start to apply for jobs in the London. I’ll state that I will be living there as of March 1. I don’t expect to get a job, though, or even be called in for an interview. Last summer (when my previous job ended) I applied for jobs in the UK and I didn’t hear back from a single one. I assume (and hope!) that the fact that I was applying from the US hurt me. So I will apply just in case, but don’t expect much from it.

Around this time I will also start trying to find someone to keep Beemish for us for a little while. We are going to be going from Baltimore to NY and staying with my parents for a few days before flying out. I can’t see doing this with Beemish. This is one situation in which dogs are a little easier than cats because they don’t have to have a litter box set up. Once we are settled, I can either come back to get her or pay for whoever is watching her to come for a visit and bring her along.

By the end of January, we’ll have to have a very detailed timelines for the rest of the process. We’ll have to have our cars inspected and start advertising them for sale. We might get a friend to help out with this (advertising and showing the cars) in return for a percentage of what we get for them. I think we’ll ask for a low, non-negotiable price because I can’t be bothered dealing with haggling.

In early February we’ll make the flat-hunting trip. Before we go, we’ll search for flats online and make appointments to see some. We’ll also send e-mails to a few estate agents describing what we are looking for and when we will be there so that they can show us places. It will be challenging to secure a place without UK jobs or bank accounts or references. We will try to have Matt act as a guarantor for us. We’ll have to give him the money for the security deposit and first couple of months’ rent so that he can write a check for us. If that’s not good enough, we might have to end up paying the entire 6 mo lease worth of rent up front so that a bank account and references aren’t an issue. I really hope we will be able to find and secure a place within a week, but it’s possible that we won’t. If we don’t, then we will have to arrange for something temporary (hotel or holiday flat) for when we first move over while we look again. We will get a furnished flat (most are over there) so we won’t have to worry about furniture.

When we get back, we’ll work for one more week, then that will be it for our jobs. Fri, Feb 16 will be our last day. As soon as we return from the trip, we will submit K’s visa application online and make the appointment for our in-person application in NY. We will have to start going through our stuff and choosing the stuff we will take with us. That will be limited to clothes, DVDs, CDs, some books, important records, some sentimental stuff, our bicycles, and guitars. Everything else will have to be thrown away, donated, or sold. We will have to sell all our furniture, electronics (all but laptops), dishes, and so on. I think we’ll use Craig’s List. That usually gets great response.

We will have to try to set up telephone and utilities service in our London flat (if we have one).

We’ll have to have our mail forwarded to a friend who will then mail it to us, as the post office won’t forward overseas.

We will have to turn our cars over to the new owners around Fri, Feb 23. We will need to use them as long as we can. Once they are gone we’ll have to rent a car to finish up our errands in Baltimore and to drive to NY.

By the weekend of February 24, we’ll have to have everything pretty much wrapped up. We will have to have our suitcases packed (I intend to take 2 huge ones each) and our boxes packed. We will take our boxes of belongings to the post office to ship. We will have to have detailed packing lists and customs forms for all of these—boxes and suitcases.

Our apt should be empty except for our suitcases and an air mattress by Saturday, Feb 24. Then we’ll clean. If we run out of time, we could pay a friend to clean it for us after we leave and turn the keys in for us. (Actually, that sounds really attractive; perhaps we will just plan to do that. We have a friend who does cleaning.)

On Sunday, Feb 25 we will leave Baltimore and head to NY in the rental car. On Monday morning we will go to the NY consulate for the visa application. (I hope we’ll be able to get this day/time. Appointments can be made online no more than 2 weeks ahead of time, so if we make the appointment as soon as it is possible, we might be able to get it.) We’ll have our folders full of stuff and if all goes well we will walk out an hour or two later with a stamp in K’s passport that allows her to live and work in the UK for 2 years. If we are really lucky, she’ll have one that allows her to live and work there indefinitely, but the chances of that are probably slim.

Once that is done we could relax (if that’s possible) and hang out in NY with my parents until Wed evening, then we’d be off!

I just now realized that we are going to have to somehow take Cricket to a vet in NY to get his final de-worming and de-ticking as that has to be done 48-24 hours before the flight. I guess we’ll have to try to find a vet near my parents and make an appointment for him.

When we arrive in London, we’ll probably be totally pooped, but we’d still have to go buy some basics, like groceries and some household stuff.

We’ll order internet. While we wait for that to be activated and for our modem to come, we’ll get settled in, relax a bit, and start to get to know our area. Once we have the internet, we’ll start searching and applying for jobs. I don’t know how long it will take to find something, but I’m prepared for it to take many months. We will have enough money to keep us going for about 5 months if we are both completely unemployed for that period. But what we will probably do is try to get basic minimum wage jobs to bring in some money while we search for “proper” jobs so that our savings will last longer. There, minimum wage is nearly twice what it is here, so if we were both working it would help a lot and make our savings last for around a year.

Now that I have written this all down it seems very complicated and a little overwhelming. I guess we’ll just have to try to do one thing at a time.

Eight months sounds like a long time from now, but once January is here, we’re going to be really busy and I am sure those two months will fly by. And that is only 6 months away. We should probably try to relax while we can, and just enjoy Baltimore and all of our friends here.