Living in America 2011

[MmeBucket]

We were a few messages away from being closed on the other one. Hope everyone finds me here.

Hello all! Anyone in the Boston/MA area? We're thinking of relocating there from Ireland. Would you recommend it? Do your children go to public school? How are winters?? Are people friendly?? wonders should I start a new thread!!

My nephew lives there and loves it! He doesn't have children though.

Does anyone remember the poster's name who was a student and nanny in Boston? It had nanny in the name I'm almost positive. She used to be a regular on this thread but is now in Switzerland I think.

Mananny, I think.

I believe you are correct! I fixed her up with said nephew and they went out for a drink. I guess no fireworks, though...

Hello, hope everyone is well. You just dropped off my list as I have been feeding ds2 like a demon for the last week. 12 times a day - it's been crazy! Hope everyone who has floods and tornadoes to deal with are ok. We have booked to go to San Diego in a couple of weeks' time. Can't wait! Any tips on where to go when we're there? We have passes to the zoo, sea world and the wild animal park. What about beaches - is there any you would recommend for pre-schoolers? Thanks!

We've never gone to the beaches when we were there. I think La Jolla had some of the best looking ones. California beaches don't inspire us to go on them for some reason. Do you have plans to go to Legoland? It's a great place to go for the younger ones.

Welcome - MissMary. Just know that you will be fine and you will get plenty of support here when needed. It takes time to settle, but you il find you way

I am in Washington DC, and have been here for 18 months. Moved from Hampshire.

Do not hesitate to ask anything - we can definitely help! Between all on this thread, we have learnt a lot.

Our green card biometric appointment is on Thursday, so I hope that means things are moving swiftly. Hope everybody is well.

Hey MissMary, we love philly in this house! Don't get there nearly often enough.
As for medical insurance which plan are you on? It is confusing but depending on your policy you pay your monthly then if you need to see a gp equiv you pay a standard co-pay (ours is twenty bucks). For routine visits (vaccinations etc) there should be no other charge. But if you end up needing bloodwork or some other diagnostic then you will have to pay a co-pay on that (a percentage based on the policy you have, on ours once you have paid a certain amount each year you don't have any more co-pays on diagnostics for that year). Then if you need to see a specialist you pay a higher co-pay (ours is forty dollars). Some policies require you to have a primary care practioner (gp equiv) and that if you want a specialist you need to get a referral, the one we are on (aetna ppo) does not.
MY dd ended up in hospital for three days last October which ended up costing us $1200 roundabouts. We also got billed separatly by the surgeon/hospital/consultant which is pretty standard. So as a rule we are trying to avoid getting sick.
As for travel insurance do peeps really recommend it for flying to the uk? I can see why it would be a good idea, bit late now though. Fingers crossed nothing goes wrong.
I am flying back on Thurs for my mothers wedding.By myself with two kids. I am dreading it.
I've already had the "you don't mind catching one more train after a seven hour flight and a four hour plane journey" conversation. [hmn]
Wish me luck guys and gals!

That should read "seven hour flight and four hour train journey" .
Time for bed methinks.

Welcome to the thread MissMary! (Did your Mum have the Marshall Ward catalogue when you were young?) We were in Tadcaster before we came here, whereabouts were you? Frida pretty much covered the health insurance thing, though ours insists that every health care provider is in network or they won't pay all of it.

Good luck with the flight Frida. I've done it a couple of times from the West Coast and I just tell myself that it is one day out of my life!

Thanks for the info MmeBucket. How is life in Portland?

Good luck with the biometrics Spamm.

Waves at Penguin!

You have to pay quite a lot for a European style duvet with removeable covers unless you go to IKEA. Otherwise they have comforters which are basically duvet but already patterned, iyswim. Queen and King sizes are pretty much equivalent, I think. What else do you want to know?

Hi miss Mary,
A sham can be a pillowcase or it can be a fancy pillow to decorate your bed, which you don't actually lay your head on..... I bought some nice bedlinen from pottery barn, but felt it was a bit pricey. I have since discovered that marks and Spencer deliver here for $15, I think.
Feel free to ask about kiddy healthcare - I am not near you but have dd with cp, so do a lot of therapy, consultant visits etc I have posted on special needs board here and there does seem to be a difference in care in neurology etc here.... I mean to say you're in a good place here.

Fridak - I usually buy travel insurance called travel guard and it's for expats living in the us. I usually forget until the last minute, but you can buy it online on the day of travel and just download the policy.
I have done the 10hr flight etc every year since 2002, and I'm a firm believer in a portable DVD player. In spring break this year, just took iPad with dd's favorite episodes downloaded and that worked out fine. And nintendo ds is also a great travel toy, as soon as they can read. All the best for your trip.

MissMary we recently ordered new bedlinen online form Marks & Spencer! We wanted to make sure it fitted our UK bed (which is Super King and measures slightly different to US size I think). I also find it hard to get plain, simple designs here. International Delivery is fairly reasonable if you have a big order.

We were also confused by the paracetamol issue and I still get irritated by the A4/Letter paper size conflict... And my brain still goes into melt down every time I need to write the date!

Good luck with your flight frida. I'm going back this summer too and also dreading the flights.....

Tad The Children's Museum in San Diego is very good for Pre School age and makes a refreshing change after a few days of theme park type places!
www.thinkplaycreate.org

MissMary you are not being stalkerish at all! Nice to have people in a similar situation - can get a bit lonely at times.

DC is a nice place to visit, as long as the weather is not too hot. The monuments and museums are fantastic, as well as Arlington Cemetary, the Spy Museum, the river, so many things. We live about 25 miles out, which is considered a very long way, due to the crazy traffic, but we make an effort to go in regularly.

Happy to help with info, advice and directions when you get round to visiting.

Bloody A4 and Letter. Also the dates, come the first week of every month I'm a mess again.

I think I've told people on here that we will be leaving in the summer :( but we'll consider coming back in the future.

Our road trip all is planned now, motels and campsites booked, tent brought, activities roughly planned.

We plan to buy DD a few clothes before we leave as we find them slimmer over here and the UK clothes are always massive on her. I think our belonging going back to the UK will be quite trim.

I went shopping for maternity clothes last weekend and was very impressed. Nearly everything I brought in the UK I got because it was better than nothing. Couldn't believe how much choice there was.

We're off to LA for two days next weekend (Sunday and Monday) Figured do some touristy stuff for Sunday and then Universal studios on Monday. Any ideas welcome. Figured we couldn't leave not having been into LA considering it's only 90 miles away.

Hi again Miss Mary, sorry to hear about your dd, expensive it may be but at least you can shop around on medical treatment to some degree. Are you looking at the Philadelphia Childrens Hospital?
As for the kiddies the dd is five and the ds is two.
Thank you everyone for the good luck wishes, I will keep the "one day out of my life" thing in mind!
Wish I had some tips for you Penguin but the only bit of LA I have seen is the airport.

That's about us too (we did go to Disneyland) and we've driven past it/through it on nearly all our trips. tbh I'm not fussed but it's something to do and therefore should be a pleasant surprise.

Sorry miss mary I have no clue really about the health care .

still have an over an hour to kill at work so feel free to keep me company :)