This blog describes my process of moving to England. It is an “un-sugar coated” version including the lows and woes of moving to a foreign country as well as the pros of this marvelous adventure. In it I discuss my aspirations and excitement about moving here as well as describe some of the financial and planning mistakes made along the way – some of which could have been resolved with better knowledge and research. But as luck would have it the tide brought treasures that were received with great appreciation during this incredible journey.
It began as an ambition to see Europe. I visited Vienna a year ago to speak to scientists at the European Geophysical Union (EGU). While I probably should have spent more of my time at this conference I was captivated by the “old world.” I stepped off the underground train in the city center. I walked up to street above and looked around this impressive city center. I was in complete awe of my surroundings. The massive spiraling gothic cathedral was breath taking and in front of me was the main thoroughfare that was once marched by the knights of the crusade over 1000 years ago. My mind was blown, and I wanted more!
As Alaina shared a similar aspiration to travel the world and live in Europe I began applying for jobs in the summer of 2014. Initially, I was going to use my CSU position to work overseas. In hindsight this may have actually been the best option financially since CSU was paying me quite well. However, they were not willing to help me move overseas and I was not interested in having the same employer on my CV for too long.. So, I started applying for jobs overseas. I quickly realized that England would be the best option for work since I could actually read the application forms, IN ENGLISH. Furthermore, there were numerous opportunities in England with institutions leading the field of Atmospheric Science. After a second job interview I was offered a research scientist position at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) with a joint appointment at University of Oxford. This exciting news made it possible to fulfill this dream!
The first “eye opening” fact to consider was the much smaller salary I would receive in a country with a considerable cost of living. This comparison holds up even compared to expensive LA! However, I was fortunate that RAL assisted us in our move and helped considerably with setting up my immigration process.
At this time, we were living in a tiny house in LA. The house was so small that it could almost fit inside our storage locker that contained all of our stuff. With an abundance of “stuff” the ambition arose to sell as much of it as we could before moving overseas.
The overseas move would involve three major movements with Christmas at the epicenter. Sell our stuff in LA, move to Oregon where I would work remotely to JPL and stay with family over Christmas and the month of January, move to the UK!
Phase 1: Getting out of LA!
The first phase involved selling our belongings. Craigslist and yard sales seemed to work well. Los Angeles is certainly a Mecca of yard sales and selling used crap! I am so very pleased with how well we did. I could put the list of sold items on here but it would be several pages long. Here is a taste (our cars, Wii, elliptical, couch, hot tub, PA system, dog trailer, air conditioner, sound bar, desk, reclining ergonomic chair, reel lawn mower, dresser, café lights, microwave, hobby airplane, etc.…). If you subtract the sale of our cars we made $2,540 from household items. If you include total sales, a whopping $10,040! (I kept a very accurate spreadsheet..).
One aspect that just kills me is that we paid our U-Haul storage locker $2,500 to store our crap during the two years we lived in LA. There is a lesson to be learned here, do not use storage lockers. Sell your crap instead before you store it somewhere to never been seen! Storage lockers are a rip-off and I will avoid using them again in the future. While we sold a lot of our belongings we still had an inordinate abundance of things, like, our king bed, book shelves, kitchen island, musical instruments, barbecue, tools, and boxes and boxes of miscellaneous items involving the kitchen, desk, books, and the like that we were either too attached to or unwilling to sell.
In preparing the move to Oregon, we thought the load was manageable. I called a moving company first and they quoted me $1,400 to transport our goods. This was far better than the standard U-Haul ($1,750 + $500 for gas). The optimist in me felt like it was advantageous to go with the movers and save a bunch of money. WRONG! The space they were quoting me was for 450 cubic feet. When they arrived at our house and looked at our stuff they told us we had more like 900 cubic feet. Part of this underestimation was the moving companies fault. They did not properly enquire with me over the phone. And part of it was my fault as I clearly underestimated the amount of boxes we had (20 vs. 80). When they requested $3000 for their services our jaws hit the floor. We had no time at this point to send them away and figure out the U-Haul business so we went with their services, which ended up being poor anyway as they broke some of our art pieces as well as lost parts of our furniture. This was a regrettable disappointment (and yet another lesson learned..) but we were in Oregon before Christmas and Phase 1 was complete.
Phase 2: Enjoying Family Time and Surviving Dog Bites
We arrived in Oregon and had a little more than a month to make the big move. This time would be envisaged with great joy. Being with family and friends, working leisurely with no supervision, and preparing for the adventure of a lifetime! Well, some of these elements were joyous but I had no idea how stressful it would be. This part of the adventure would be more realistically played-out with constant worrying about dog attacks, immigration deadlines, and transportation arrangements for the dogs, and us.
The dog attack was awful. Ruffy got loose and sunk his teeth into (Donita’s Chihuahua) Coco’s neck. The wounds were not immediately obvious. Coco spent days hiding under a chair upstairs and only came out when he was forced – his scared response compounded the emotional distress occurring in the home. Upon washing the area, it became clear it was infected and he needed medical attention. This experience was horrific and I felt awful about what had happened. A part of me really wished we did not have to raise the awful aggressive little dog anymore. I don’t understand how Ruffy can be such a sweet loveable little dog one minute and an aggressive maniac the next.
The Visa application process was also a bit of a disaster. I made a mistake when filing. It turns out that you need to apply for each person separately and not assume that you are applying for a family. This mistake involved additional trips to Portland for fingerprints. As a consequence, we nearly failed to file them in time!
We also learned that Visas are expensive ($1950 per person for a 5 year term visa). While waiting for the Visa, we were getting antsy to buy airfare since we didn’t want to wait till the last second when prices were sky-high, no pun intended. Initially, the idea was for the two of us to fly over with the dogs caged underneath the same plane, stay in dog friendly hotels while we found a house in the UK to live in. This dream was not feasible so instead we decided the best method would be for me to fly over solo, and then Alaina shipped the dogs to me two weeks later after I had sufficient time to find a place to live, and then she flew over. Luckily, this plan worked and it was exactly how it went down.
Before leaving, I learned that you could not lease a place in the UK without seeing it first-hand. Also, you cannot open a bank account without being present. So, all of these things would have to wait until I arrived. With the dogs arriving two weeks after I would arrive the UK, I was presented with a scary deadline to find shelter!
But before we finished Phase 2, we also had a wonderful bon voyage party with our closest friends and family at my home up the Wilson River. My mom organized the whole thing and put up British decorations everywhere. A perfect way to go!
Phase 3: Arrived in England!
My first week here was spent in at a shared private residence (AirBnB) in a small village called Radley. My week stay was comfortable and the woman whom I stayed with was quite helpful in a country that was completely foreign to me. I chose this location because it was right off the main railway heading into Oxford from London and had good bus links to the outside world, which was needed to go house hunting.
One of the first things I did was obtain a bank account. This was critical. Without the account you cannot secure a lease. The only branch that would actually take me was Lloyd’s bank. Other branches like NatWest, Barclays, and HSBC required a week to schedule an appointment and employment verification details. These were not valid options.
I started viewing houses although none were sufficient to house two dogs. I was getting desperate. Most landlords in the UK were not keen on having dogs in their properties. So, I did as anyone would do in times of sheer desperation; call landlords anyway and offer more money! Through a stroke of good fortune a nice lady agreed to allow us to rent her terrace house in a village called Wantage. She liked that I had a permanent position at RAL and requested only a slightly larger amount of quid for the move-in deposit.
The day I visited Wantage, I knew with every fiber in my body that I wanted to live here. I still feel this way after living here for several months. It is the most adorable English style town/village I have ever seen. The tutor style architecture buildings with numerous shops, open-air markets, and pubs make this place a lot of fun. Furthermore, our house is in close proximity to stores so we do not require a vehicle to obtain bare essentials and sustenance. We bought a trolley cart and take it to go grocery shopping twice a week at our local Sainsbury’s and that’s it!
Regarding the financials, the first thing you should know about moving to the UK is that it takes a lot of money. The move here was expensive and we needed every dime, or should I say “pence.” Even with agreed recompense from my employer (which took forever by the way) it required a significant amount of cash in hand to purchase Visas ($3900), plane tickets ($2000, with baggage), rent deposits ($3500), and general expenditures. The general expenditures bit turned out to cost a lot more than I ever expected. Transportation in England is pricey. I was shocked to learn that short bus rides tend to cost about £8 per trip and cross-country rail tickets are on the order of £30-£50 (e.g., a trip into London). This of course is put into perspective by comparing transportation to the cheap rates in LA, which are $3.50 for bus and $16.50 for super shuttle to the airport. God, I can’t believe I’m calling LA cheap! Bottom line is that this is an expensive country, far more than even when LA standards are concerned.
To pay for rent and the deposit we had to transfer money from our US bank account to the UK. Alaina came across a great service called Xoom. This service is better than the poor rates offered by bank wire transfers and other services like Western union. The commission they take on transfers is less than 0.5%. We had the money, as Alaina had just sold the car in the US when I arrived. We had the funds and were set to move in!
Phase 4: Living in the UK
After living here for several months I find that I am quite happy. While settling in was painful at times, it was totally worth it. My work environment is great. People are laid back and sociable. I’m connecting and collaborating on international projects. I’m learning more efficient ways to write programs and analyze the abundance of European satellite observation datasets. I have just started at Oxford and will be facilitating student projects and working with the climate modeling community to mesh our satellite observations with global climate models. I will also have numerous opportunities to visit Europe by attending conferences as they arise, like in Sweden (last month), Rome, and Berlin. I cannot express how exciting this is!
In Wantage, Alaina and I have recently discovered English folk music. Every Friday night local artists meet at the “Shoulder of Mutton” a local pub here to play traditional music. The combination of accordion, banjo, harmonica, recorder and Bodhran sounds awesome. I think I want to join in and play the recorder sometime! The people are quite friendly and interested in social engagement. Alaina and I sit in the “snook” as they call it. It is a room with a large table that some people sit in to engage in conversation. As we are the only Americans people are generally interested to strike a conversation with us. We find very few Americans in our area in general. In fact, I think I have only encountered two so far, and that includes Alaina! I can’t wait to see more Americans soon; these of course would be our family and friends. So come visit England and see us!