Friday, February 20, 2009
USD to GBP!
Today, we made our first wire transfer of a substantial sum of money to the UK! Our account isn't officially set up yet, but we've filled out the application and Jonathan, who lives in Britain, has allowed us to deposit the money into his account, and once ours is set up, he will transfer it into ours (he has promised not to "do a runner" - yet another one of those charming English phrases I am blissfully ignorant of -which I assume means he won't be taking off to the Caribbean on our tab). So! We are now the proud owner of pounds. Certainly a step in the right direction. Hurrah!
Friday, February 13, 2009
An update
We've been making small strides toward our move to England. A few things we have in the works:
1. We're in the process of figuring out how to open a bank account in the UK so we can have a cache of pounds ready and waiting when we arrive (and so we will be protecting some of our money if the dollar suddenly tanks). We've been experiencing a distinct lack of expediency on the part of the bank (i.e. it takes 11 days to get a response to an e-mail). Luckily, my boss has a contact in England who is making the whole process much easier (for example, letting us use his address in the UK and vouching for us at the bank, as well as scanning and emailing us an application for an account--what would we do without him?).
2. Chad has booked a trip to Bath to attend a seminar at the Centre for Death and Society. I'm very excited about this step because Chad will be able to get a lay of the land, become familiar with the campus, make contacts, and hopefully get leads on areas in Bath where we'd like to live. His trip will last from March 8-15. I'm sorry to not be going with him, but I'll be at Kripalu getting massaged for two months. Alas.
3. We've gathered a few contacts in the general Bath/Bristol area, and a couple in London as well, and are making strides to get in touch with as many people as we can in the UK so we won't be quite so alone.
I've also started reading "The Anglo Files", a book written by a former NYTimes journalist who moves to the UK with her British husband. She chronicles her adjustment to living in a new culture, and the many, many faux pas(es? what is the plural of faux pas?) she manages to make. It makes me anxious that I will do the same, but grateful for her book for preparing me.
That's all for now. I hope the next entry will include a successful transfer of our savings to our new bank account at Lloyd's TSB! Fingers crossed!
1. We're in the process of figuring out how to open a bank account in the UK so we can have a cache of pounds ready and waiting when we arrive (and so we will be protecting some of our money if the dollar suddenly tanks). We've been experiencing a distinct lack of expediency on the part of the bank (i.e. it takes 11 days to get a response to an e-mail). Luckily, my boss has a contact in England who is making the whole process much easier (for example, letting us use his address in the UK and vouching for us at the bank, as well as scanning and emailing us an application for an account--what would we do without him?).
2. Chad has booked a trip to Bath to attend a seminar at the Centre for Death and Society. I'm very excited about this step because Chad will be able to get a lay of the land, become familiar with the campus, make contacts, and hopefully get leads on areas in Bath where we'd like to live. His trip will last from March 8-15. I'm sorry to not be going with him, but I'll be at Kripalu getting massaged for two months. Alas.
3. We've gathered a few contacts in the general Bath/Bristol area, and a couple in London as well, and are making strides to get in touch with as many people as we can in the UK so we won't be quite so alone.
I've also started reading "The Anglo Files", a book written by a former NYTimes journalist who moves to the UK with her British husband. She chronicles her adjustment to living in a new culture, and the many, many faux pas(es? what is the plural of faux pas?) she manages to make. It makes me anxious that I will do the same, but grateful for her book for preparing me.
That's all for now. I hope the next entry will include a successful transfer of our savings to our new bank account at Lloyd's TSB! Fingers crossed!
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