Living in America 2012--Because It Is No Longer 2011

[MmeBucket]

This is what happens when I start threads--they get stupid titles. Someone else needs to start the next one. Hopefully we can get this one filled by 2013.

Link to old thread for reference

Not much happening here. The kids have been off school for 25 days. I am soooo looking forward to them starting school tomorrow. Except it is my day to help, so instead of getting a break from my two, I'll have 22 of them to deal with.

hi crooked, I'm a new New Yorker now for all of nearly 3 weeks! What part of NYC do you live in? We've decided on Queens

Welcome Crooked - lucky you, I adore NYC and wish we'd gone there. I lived in the east village for 6 weeks when I was 21 and went back to stay for a few weeks just before DS was born.

Would do the postcard thingy but I'm in California too.

Finally moved into our house. It is massive, with a garden, I feel very spoilt, and made friends with some Brit mums who are up fr spending sunny afternoons drinking wine in the sunshine, thank god

Mme bucket - I'd probably say yes If I knew what CAT meant.
Hello Elaine, welcome to NYC! I live in Queens too. How are you settling in?
Mousey, California is actually one of the states we're considering moving to. Grass is always greener I suppose :)

Thanks. CAT is just actually when you click on the message poster thing in the blue bar where your username is it will send you a private message via e-mail so no personal details are on this thread for the whole world to see. Like I said, I think a better idea is if I can just get the gist of the letter and then send it and the address of DS' school to reply to via a private message and just cut out the snail mail step. His teacher is the oldest teacher there, and is past retirement age as far as teachers go, and I know that she's not quite totally made the jump into social media ideas yet.

I could get a friend to send you one from Illinois if you need one, MmeBucket?

I can send you one from Texas MmeB.

And possibly Alaska but only if you let me know soon!

Thanks so much, ladies. I will be taking you up on that. I was going to find out exactly what they needed today, but DS' teacher was sick, so I'll find out most likely Tuesday of next week. Grockle, I've got a message to a friend in Illinois, but by the looks of their Facebook, they are on what appears to be a several week vacation, so I'll let you know.

Possibly Ohio as well depending on the timing

Mmebucket - not sure if you have any New Yorkers, but feel free to PM me if needed.

Hello Elaine and Crooked - I'm on the island, but can see Queens from my window.

Hi All - Hope you are well and having better weather than we are!

I will be joining you across the pond in a couple of months. I have posted a new thread asking for much needed advice. I would really appreciate if anyone could help with something they only realised once they go there!

At the moment all i can think of is packing marmite and brown sauce!

We will be looking at rentals in DC. Anyone know any good agents/areas? We like Arlington but are open to suggestions.

Thanks :)

Ok, FB me. Not sure how long my friend is in Alaska so let me know if you need that one too. Hope the Bucket family are ok I feel like a forriner on these threads now. They've changed a lot since they started!

Thanks, all. I'll get back to you in a few days when I hear something. For now, I think I'll go track down Jabber on FB, too.

Hello Spuddybean. Hope the move goes smoothly.

Haven't heard from Jabber in ages! Hope she is ok. I could send you a postcard from Bend, but that's at all helpful, sorry! Good luck MmeB!

Going by Facebook, she looks like she is very busy and having fun.

I think it might take a bit longer to get back to you all, sorry. It turns out that DS' teacher wasn't sick, she had a death in the immediate family and won't be back until later in the week. :(

So it looks like all DS needs for his project is a short letter or postcard with a little blurb about the state it is coming from. I'll be PMing the address to those who wanted to help. Thank you all.

Look forward to hearing from you Mme! If you are quick with the address I can send two - we are travelling coast to coast on the California Zephyr next week.

Thanks, I think I sent them all out now, hopefully.

Hi all - sorry, posted upthread about moving to the US and then disappeared for a bit! Elaine, we're also new to NYC (arrived 1 March from London, living in Manhattan). Crooked, just wondering how long it took you to get settled and feel at home here?

Actually, that's a question for everyone, because I've been feeling really homesick for the last couple of weeks and keep secretly hoping that DH (who's American) will eventually look for a job back in the UK! I joined a new moms group (DD is 6 months old), but most of the discussion so far has been about finding nannies or daycare. We're going out and exploring the city, but I'm not sure how else to go about meeting new people, and being homesick is making me unreasonably irritated with lots of things about NYC/the US, which isn't really the right attitude to have!

I found joining a class really helped BabC, as then you are at least with like-minded people. At least NYC is relatively close to the UK in terms of the amount of flights/flight time. I'm sure you'll settle down soon, it just takes a while!

Spuddy, I can get marmite and brown sauce here. Thornton's and pickled onion monster munch are a different matter though.

Babc, have you looked for a SAHM group? Try meetup.com.

Hi Bab and welcome to NYC.

I think it can be really hard to settle here because it's soooo different to home. Although I work with other ex-pats, we all tend to go our own way at the end of the working day, unlike other (3rd world) postings where there's usually somewhere where people congregate. It took me a long time, mainly because DS2 was deeply unhappy here and didn't settle. What does make me feel settled is recognising people (and them recognising me - so when I go to the dry cleaners they know my name, when we go for noodles at the weekend they say hello and ask where the DS's are if they aren't with us, when I go to the Pret on the corner for a sandwich/coffee they ask where DH is because 9 times out of 10 we go together and it makes me feel like I belong here ).

Give yourself time - I was talking to someone last week who hated it this time last year, and loves it now that she has a network of friends (all made via her toddler, who as tadjenny suggests, attended a number of different classes.

Hi Bab, I concur. Making a couple of friends via activities makes all the difference. I felt really lonely and home sick for the first six months. Then we moved to a different neighbourhood, I made a couple of friends, and started feeling much more settled after a year. I remember being so upset after I got a ticket for parking facing the wrong direction. My husband thought it was funny, but it made me feel so frustrated and out of place. Now I feel a bit out of place when I visit London, which is the strangest feeling. I still miss the chocolate though. Moving to America did wonders for my waistline.

Actually, I've put on about half a stone since moving here because it's such a great place to be vegan! We've been getting through a tub of So Delicious ice cream every few days.

There are a couple of classes and activities I want to try - just need to express enough milk so that DH can look after DD for a while. I'm also feeling a bit guilty about spending DH's money on 'frivolous' stuff, rather than earning my own money for that, but I guess that's not really an NYC issue, more a SAHM issue. (Hopandaskip, searching for SAHM is a good idea - I'd just been looking for mothers' groups generally.)

Yuk, American chocolate is the pits. But I have eaten SO well in Queens, far far better and cheaper than Manhattan.

Any new New Yorkers who fancy a coffee and natter, PM me. I'm in Manhattan every day for work. I need cheering up because my husband and kids are still in the UK and only coming next month :(