Buy American deodorant.
Holy crap, that Irish deodorant was no match for the American heat! Too bad I stocked up on it too. Guess it will have to be used in cool weather only!
I've been thinking about my first blog since repatriating. How should it go? Should it be about the trials and tribulations of moving to a new country? Should it be about culture shock? Things we miss from Ireland?
I hate to say it, but (knock on wood) so far it's been a breeze. The worst part was the taxi drivers at JFK who wanted to charge us $100 to drive us 3 miles to our hotel. Don't worry, we found the FREE shuttle bus that took us to the hotel for FREE. Wes had to have an interview at immigration and he was done with that by the time I found the cat sitting in her crate all by her lonesome in the middle of the baggage area and figured out I had to pay $5 per cart for the airport luggage carts (boo for not being free!). The guy told him he was lucky because sometimes people have to wait for 3 hours for their turn.
Since I know you're dying to know, we did not have cat litter or food for the cat. The hotel wasn't in the nicest part of town, so we weren't about to go exploring. She had lots of water and I tore up newspaper to put in the litter box I had brought along. She actually used it! I brought her back some milk from breakfast and my sister and BIL came to the rescue the next day with food and litter so she was a happy cat.
We stayed with my parents for a few days then moved into the house in Baltimore. Wes was added to the bank account with no hassle. We had movers coming on Friday to get the stuff from the storage unit. And you know what? They showed up on time. We had an appointment for to have our internet/cable/phone hooked up and you know what? He showed up on time and was done in about 25 minutes. It was amazing. When I moved to England it took 6 WEEKS for my internet to finally get hooked up. Why? I have no idea. They never had any good reason for it to take that long. We went to apply for his SSN and it was totally hassle free. Right now the only thing we're waiting for is our shipment from Ireland. It has cleared customs, so it could be delivered at any time now. Fingers crossed it's all in one piece!
Here's hoping jobs come as easily! Previously we had been looking for jobs as far north as Boston, west to Chicago, and south to Raleigh. We're so sick of moving, so Baltimore and Washington it will be for us!
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Glad it went well! We had the same easy experience when we moved back from the UK, and my husband had his official green card in the mail like 3 days after we arrived. Much faster than the UK!
ReplyDeleteSo glad moving has been easy. Good luck finding jobs!!
ReplyDeletePS: Aren't the orange juice cartons huge?!?
Oh my God, I can't wait to join you in America.
ReplyDeleteYeah, for a good move! I hope the jobs come quickly for you guys, too!
ReplyDeleteHappy it has been smooth sailing for you guys!
ReplyDeleteA hundred bucks for a 3-mile taxi journey?!?! I hope you told him where to stick it... erm, I mean, I hope you had a frank and earnest discussion with him.
ReplyDeleteYour experiences with how much quicker with services/stuff the US is reminds me of a story. After the wife and I had lived out in Buffalo for 4 years, I moved back to the UK.
ReplyDeleteThe day after I arrived I went to our local HSBC and asked them to "convert" the account from the US version to the UK version. The guy at our branch in the US had explained it wasn't hard at all and that it was best to wait until I actually physically was in the UK. The women at the bank in my mother's tiny little town told me she didn't know how to do that. And just looked at me. And waited for me to leave! Having been in the US for a short while I had lost the roll-over British attitude and INSISTED she go and find out how to do it. I was firm but not nasty or anything - I just made it known they had my money so best figure it out. The bank lady acted as if I'd bluntly asked to see her vagina. She left and a few minutes later the manager showed and asked me what the problem was. It took them nearly a week to figure out.