Where the Deer and the Antelope Play - Living in the USA (visitors welcome)

[SuperBunny]

East Coast
MaNanny - Boston
Twinmommytobe - Boston
MuminCT - CT
Greatgooglymoogly - NY State
Yesthereare4ofthem - NY State
Brooklynmom - NYC
alarkaspree - NYC
MKG - New Jersey
Mummimamma - PA
Poetmum - PA
Twirl - MD

South
Earlybird - TN
jabberwocky - AR
Sunchowder - Florida
Marls001 - Bentonville, AR
Tinpot - NC
MadameDeathStare- AL

Midwest
SuperBunny- Chicago
Dodgykeeper - Dayton, OH
Chocchipcookie - Ohio
MonkeyLover
KickAssAngel - Ann Arbor, MI

Rockies
Alipiggie - Boulder, CO
Ribena

Northwest
AnnieLaurie - Seattle, WA
Dooneygirl - Oregon City, OR

California
SittingBull - nr San Francisco
Califrau - Milpitas
loopsngeorge - Brentwood, LA
Syd - Manhattan Beach, LA
SofiaAmes - LA
LATyke - Redondo Beach

Texas
Texan - Dallas
Tiggyhop - Houston
Vixie78 - Houston
BananaPudding - Austin
Cosmicdust - East Texas

Canada
Hellish - Ottawa
Shouldlistenedtomymum - Hamilton
Nooka - BC
Jacksmama - Langley

Exotic Islands
Anorak - Bermuda
cp - Trinidad
Barefeete - BVI

Brazil
Albert

Hello all,
Think I'm moving to DC in Jul so thankful I've found this thread so that I can quiz you all on everything I need to know about moving house/continent with a 2.5DS and 6mon LO.

Any and all advice welcome.

hi, chilled. not sure if i'm any good for advice. just landed myself & still asking inane questions like, how does one get rid of one's rubbish? we moved due to dh's work, and i pretty much just packed the bags & did as i was told. i think i'm living in a bit of an insular bubble atm, no tv so always behind on the news. just get dd to school & work on sorting out the house. i am starting to get out & about, but the legal, business side of things, hmm, not sure about.

Semolina. Not sure if you've heard of Bob's Red Mill products, but they're lovely, and their corporate headquarters and store are right by DH's work, so I get lots of lovely flours and grains from there.

From what I've found, there's a company called King Arthur Flour, and they have an Italian-Style Flour that is about as close as it comes to 00. I have that and use it for pizza crusts, and it is lovely.

Of course I could be wrong about that. That is just what I seem to remember.

Boulder tempts me all the time, even now.

And especially after an actually good conversation with my Mom, including topics like gay marriage.

Hello again - I'm moving to NYC in March. I've been saying that since last Aril, but it's all becoming horribly real now: packers and flights are booked, and the decorators are coming in to make our house lettable. I'm coming for another quick trip over half term before coming for real when DCs break up over here for Easter.

alarkaspree, if you are reading, thank you for your welcome on the last thread. I could really do with some advice about childcare in Manhattan - have you any advice about where to start looking? I have been given a long list of agencies/websites to look at by my work, but could do with a bit of a steer about how to go about it.

Chilledmama - dh has been in DC since July (a long and complicated story). He's enjoying it so far, but will be moving up to NYC when I arrive and weekly commuting by train. Where are you moving from?

dooney, i have come across king arthur flour (here? he did get around) but can't find a wholemeal bread version. will be taking dd on a tour of local supermarkets, so far am aiming for trader joe's whole foods & hillers. however, due to hit 0 F next week so may just stay in & keep warm.

Have you been to their website? It has a ton of stuff not found in stores. They have free shipping days every now and again, and that is when I stock up. The stores carry only a fraction of a percent of all the stuff they carry.

come on Expat you know you want to . I had to go into work today . Boys had a blast running around everywhere an chilling with some colleagues. We're in order season and was a bit busy with copying files. Ds1 is still off at party number two, DS2 is playing on the PS2, and I'm chilling with second large glass of chardonnay. Life's not too bad here. Boulder is an awesome chilled city. Expat guess what got my boys into rock climbing yeah .

Hi Tangerine. Glad you are finally really joining us over here.

I am a SAHM so I probably can't be all that helpful on childcare I'm afraid. It is generally less formal here than in the UK - nannies are thin on the ground, instead you have babysitters who are paid by the hour and self-employed. It must be difficult to organise from abroad because obviously you need to meet people but I don't think people tend to have long-term contracts so you probably wouldn't have any problem getting someone for, say, a month while you looked for something more permanent. Could the agencies set you up with some interviews while you are here at half term?

Good luck!

dooney, thanks, i will try that out. now i just need a credit card so i can order stuff, or persaude dh to order it for me!!

btw, anyone else suffer from the 'no credit rating' crap when they first arrived. i don't have a SSno, so can NEVER apply for anything.

kickassangel still suffering from the no credit - but didn't finally manage to persuade my bank to give me one with a miniscule limit. In this current economic climate I'm glad that I'm not trying to buy a house as I wouldn't get a line of credit for that for sure. My big peeve is that ExH only got the house here because of my credit rating in the UK aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. So guess who's living in that house now and it ain't me. Am I bitter - yes siree.

I'm sure your H will be able to get a card once you're all sorted. Good luck.

what a nightmare ref. the credit stuff.

We'll be moving from Hampshire to DC but only for 2 years for a job with DHs work.

I've got no idea about anything to do with moving, least of all legal complications...I'm hoping a lot of it will be smoothed out by DHs employer seeing as its them who wants us to go.

I don't know anything about carseats...apart from knowing that ours will not comply with state regs etc. I don't know how we go about buying a car and how we find out the equivalent of their crash test info (for carseats as well as cars).

Hi alarkaspree,

I'm hoping to be able to meet some babysitters when I'm over at half term, once I sift my way through the mind bogglingly long list of agencies I've been given. I'll ask colleagues which agencies they use.

I originally thought it was a good idea to move in the school hols so that DS1 (who is at boarding school in UK) could come with us, but I hadn't factored in the difficulty of finding childcare for him while he's out with us - he's 12, so doesn't actually think he needs any . I need a sporty teenager who can take him out and about for a couple of weeks. Let me know if you come across one .

DS2 will go to the afterschool program at school during term time so it's only really the hols I have to think about.

I had zero credit when I got here 3 years ago nearly, and after a year of having a bank account (which I only got because I had a SSN through my Visa) I got offered a credit card with a teeny amount on it, which I used "responsibly" and am now inundated with credit offers! I am going to Grad school and will be needing a hefty student loan, and because I have a relatively good credit rating now, and a very kind US co-signer, I will be able to borrow enough to pay for school. Am hoping by the time I am done with school I will get a good job and pay off my loans v quickly and then get a mortgage. The system here is nutso, but I do get a worrying thrill from checking my credit rating every month!

dh got a secured credit card. Basically you give the bank $500, and they give you a credit card for $500. You then pay the bank $500 over a few months, they then give you back your original $500, and then give you a proper credit card and you have a positive credit rating. Not particularly cheap, but it does the job. Pity we had to leave the country before the card came through!

Happy New Year!!! only 11 days late. Festive season has been soooo busy I don't if Im coming or going. Lots of fun things though; 1) a meet-up with other expats from the British Expats site at an Irish pub in Cinci where we spent the afternoon discussing what food we missed and how odd Americans are. Had a lovely Irish breakfast with black pudding and proper bacon and eveything mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.2) Had our lovely expat friends from Montreal with their twins to stay for 8 days over Christmas. Raided our combined British food supplies and hit the post Christmas sales. 3) Left for Scotland on the Sunday after CHristmas (the same day our friends left us). Nightmare flight from New York which featured a change of plane, 6 hr delay, no food or drink available excep water and two exhausted kids. A crazy week at home trying to split our time equally between Edinburgh and Newcastle and get round everyone who had written "see you at New Year!" in their CHristmas cards. Flew back on Monday and straight back to the usual routine of school and work etc. House like a bombsite and laudry that took 5 hours to iron! Feeling frazzled! But being positive, I have lots of supplies to keep me going until the next visitors come and dcs have some lovely new m&S undies!

Re the credit card thing. We opened an American Express card in the uk before we left. We gave our address as my mums where we were staying at the time and we told them that we were spending a little time in the US (so that our card didn't get stopped over here). We used the card here like you would use your uk card when on holiday and payed the balance off using our UK bank account. After you have had an American Express card for 6 months and have not abused it, they will let you swap it for an US Amex when you tell them that you are moving there (surprisingly few questions about having an exisiting US address etc). Not entirely above board but it worked out fine and it meant that we could buy things. Some issues if you want to buy things online due to billing address but not too much of a problem. We were also very lucky with our bank manager here who is German and is also a very good friend of our Realtor and dhs boss. Good luck! I still have no SS number and it can make you feel like a total non-person. I needed a letter from my husband saying he was responsible for me before they would give me my driving licence!

Hello Ladies

Been away all weekend doing Singing stuff. Was good but VERY snowy.

Just got back to a message saying my friend's 3 yr old is in hopsital with pneumonia. Have left a voicemail but am not sure what I can do.

Not having a SSN is shit. Really shit - it makes life very hard. Zero credit rating is quite unfair, I think. Good idea re AmEx..

Tangerine, it sounds like you need a student for childcare - have you tried contacting the universities? Or maybe one of your multitude of agencies does students?

Also look at teaching colleges for summer/ holiday babysitters - I know Bank Street is highly respected but there must be others.

I have no social security number and it is crap - I couldn't even top up my prepay on my cell phone without one. So I have to get dh to do everything.

We got a bank account and credit card easily though, with HSBC. They had a 'relationship' with dh work but I think they are one of the better banks for people who move abroad - if you are planning a move it might be a good idea to talk to them before you go. Citibank will also give you a US$ account with a cheque book.

alarkaspree and superbunny,

Thanks for the tips! A student would be a good idea. I started registering on websites last night, but the zip code I have been given is not recognised, and they won't accept a UK credit card number grrr. I can use dh's DC zip code if necessary, but his US credit card has been stopped because he didn't pay his bill while he was home over Christimas double grrr! So much for his credit rating .