Expat

The Story of that Overseas Check(s)

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Apparently one of my US banks made some error in interest calculations or something. I know this because they sent me what as of this writing is 4 separate checks with an explication. Each check has been for well under $2. Two of them for under 10 cents each.

This is noteworthy because they sent paper checks instead of just direct depositing money back into my account. This is of course a bank i still do business with. The biggest reason for calling this out is that the postage for each of these checks was $1.30 since they were sent internationally. None of the checks were worth more than the postage it cost to send them. That is funny as is. When one of them is 4 cents it gets into bonkers territory.

Sorry New York State I Have Moved On

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I get it NY state. I know I am a catch. The thing is I have moved on. You need to get over me.For some reason even after I have moved overseas over nearly 4 years ago I keep getting emails about renewing my drivers license. That is normal. I get it you are trying to be friendly. The thing is the license expired years ago. By your own rules its expired. Even with you special Covid rules about renewing. It has expired.

You need to just get over it. Me and my tax money left in 2017 and its not coming back. You will always be my first drivers license. I have fond memories.

The Story of a New Addition to The House

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M has wanted a new vacuum for a while. There was much debate between a fancy Dyson bag less and a bigger bagged one. I preferred the Dyson. M did not want to clean out another vacuum without a bag. She ended up getting Henry.

It was implied to me that we are now a typical British family for having one. My first thought was now there is another man in the house. That means I am only outnumbered 3 to 2 now!

The Story of 3 Years in England

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airport display boards

Today mark’s the milestone of our family’s arrival to London. As with most anniversary in some ways it is feels that so much time has passed. Yet another is it feels like it was so recent. I have many vivid memories of the day we travelled. Actually I remember vividly parts of the day before and the few days after our trip. So much to remember that I hope I journaled enough of it.

So much has changed in the three years we’ve been here. And as cliché as it is to say much has not. One thing is for certain I am still enjoying living in London as much as I was excited to be moving here on this day three years ago.

I sometimes cannot believe that I’m living in another country. It happens every so often when I take a step back from the day-to-day. I realise wow I’m living in a completely different culture. Usually that is followed by “cool” in my head.

There is likely so much more I could write however I want to keep this post brief. I think what sum’s everything up isthree years in and were still happy to be here and look forward to the next three or however many more…

To Keep or Cancel the Apple Card

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When I moved my Apple ID to the United Kingdom I was prepared for the fact that Apple Cash as well as my Apple Card would stop working, or need to be canceled. I know that the Apple Card was only available to those in the US. I remember when I tried to sign up for it using my US Apple ID and the region on my phone was set to the UK it did not even work. I assumed then that the card would simply either not work or I would get forced to cancel it after switching my entire ID to be associated to the UK.

Knowing that I would likely run into issues I figured I’d be proactive and simply call to cancel the card before it became a sort of challenge. One afternoon right after switching my Apple ID to the UK I called Apple. I spent about 30 minutes on hold. Then I spoke to someone and got bounced around from person to person. Finally got someone that said they could actually help me. It turns out they themselves could not help me since in order to cancel an Apple Card a Goldman Sachs supervisor needs to do it. So I spent some more time on hold. In the end it was their own customer service representatives asking me if I wanted to keep the card. They knew that I had moved to the UK. I was confused however they said as long as I had any address I could use in the US, I can keep the card. They asked me if I had any families address? They said the only real reason I needed a US address is in case I need a replacement card or statements sent to me in an emergency. We still have plenty of friends and family in the states that will be happy to do that for us. I decided to just keep the card if that was the company issue I got its attitude. I decided to continue using the address I previously given Apple/Goldman and make no change.

I was surprised that Apple (Goldman) prodding me to keep the card. It did feel like they were pushing me to avoid canceling. It wasn’t very forceful however under the circumstances I thought it was a no-brainer that they would want me not to have the card. Retrospectively a friend suggested that in the current climate of Covid-19 they probably want to keep as many cards that are in good standing as possible. And I was in good standing.

I then thought maybe there’d be some weird technical issue with using or having the card on my phone. I had already removed it from my iPhone before I called. I then tried to add the card back to my iPhone and I was surprised when there was absolutely no issue in doing so.

I thought the byproduct of moving my Apple ID to the UK would be losing this Apple card however for now it’s business as usual with it. I assumed the same would be apparent for Apple Cash. I am pleased with the outcome even though I’m not sure what systems have interdependencies where they will flag an anomaly with my setup.

Switching My Apple ID (Finally) to The UK

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In early June I finally decided to address an annoyance I had since I moved to London. I took my Apple ID I used in the US and ported it over to the UK. The final straw for me was that I wanted to try out Apple Music (again). Since when I tried it out originally and now they decided to play nice with Amazon Echo’s. That was one of the big reasons not to sue the service. Then I remembered I could not use Apple music the way I wanted to if I switched between Apple IDs to download stuff. Previously I have had to switch between my US and UK accounts on my IOS devices. Lots of things I have were tied to what was my US account. I did not want to use it for new stuff since I wanted to be using UK app store. Every time you switch App Stores on IOS I would lose my downloaded music if I was not logged into the store and had my Apple music account tied to it. That was one of the major drivers for switching to Spotify in the first place.

The hold up for me switching was I had subscriptions that according to Apple’s knowledge base I needed to wait to cancel before I could move. I also wasn’t sure what was really going to happen to all my stuff. After using the UK store more I was pretty confident but not 100% the most of what I had would be working fine. I just was not sure what was going to happen to my photos and I cloud when I switched over.

Since the longest subscription I had wasn’t expiring until next February I decided to call Apple and see if there was anything I could do. After speaking to one person I got escalated to someone else. She asked me to just switching countries to see the error I would get. When I called I was planning on just asking some questions and have the conversation be a mainly academic one. I figured it would be information gathering. On some level I was not ready to pull the trigger. Talking to the lady on the phone gave me some confidence so I took a leap of faith and tried to make the switch. There were one or two challenges that she addressed however surprisingly within 30 minutes my account was moved over to the UK app store.

Prior to the move I had to break my family share with M. Setting that back up and confirming everything had moved was pretty straightforward and didn’t take anywhere near as long as I thought it would.

The only hiccup I had was some odd errors on my iPhone related Apple music that didn’t exist on any other device. A day or two later or reboot or two later the issue is fixed. I’m not sure really what resolve the problem.

My iCloud data and photos seem to have seamlessly moved over. I spot checked one or two applications I purchased and they also seem to be working just fine. I haven’t bought media from the Apple store and I do not know how long so I am not that worried about any of that not working. I have long since been buying music from the Amazon MP3 store when I bought music. Now I mainly use spotify or other streaming services. I never really did download many TV shows or movies and what we have was for when the girls were much younger so I’m not worried if some of it’s not available.

I know at some point many months from now there’s going to be some gotcha that I didn’t realize until then. For now I was impressed with how seamless the switch was. Many of the reviews online talked about horrific experiences making the change. I am only assuming that in recent years Apple made it easier to do this.

The next thing I have to address is that I still have another UK Apple ID where I have a subscription. I have one software subscription tied to it. I get a good deal on it having previously bought the app before they went to s subscription model. I am not sure how to transfer that over to my main Apple ID. Of course I’m not sure if it matters that separate other than it being a moderate nuisance.

I also have to set up a new US Apple ID in case there is one or two things that I cannot get in the UK app store. There already is one free app that annoyingly is not available. That’s a minor inconvenience though. All in all one major technical debt issue I had from moving to England is now solved. It only took me 2 1/2 years to have the courage to try it.

Things I learned in England Roundabouts Are Good Not Weird

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It’s funny how perspective changes when you move to a new location. The roundabout (aka to americans traffic circles) used to be one of these weird anomalies that I never understood. Why in the world did they exist? In the two years I have lived in England I have also spent time driving around Ireland on holiday. I have a newfound respect for the roundabout, a.k.a. the traffic circle.

They can be a bit scary however the fact that you don’t need traffic light is pretty awesome. The bigger the exchange the bigger the circle is. In some remote roads I’ve seen traffic circles basically be this small post in the road, large enough just to have people drive around it. No need for a stop sign. Now that I’m living in Europe I wonder why it’s looked upon so oddly in the United States. I only know of a handful of them in the states yet in theory it makes perfect sense to have a lot of them. I guess I am slowly assimlating.

Things I Miss From America

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Before moving I read a lot about people complaining about you cannot get XYZ in London.  Many others noted (I believe correctly) that you will adjust better if you do not get held up by something not being available.  You should flip things around and think of it as an adventure and try new stuff.  That is the attitude I am taking in the 6 months living here so far as of this writing.

When we first moved here and i had go shopping for household stuff i was overwhelmed.  I had no clue about more than half the brands I saw.  I used that as an opportunity to try to save money and went with the brands that were relatively cheap.  For most food and household items that worked fine.  Instead of

Feedback from others was that the two main things people miss out on are certain consumer products and foods. As products go there were a few things here and there that I prefer an American version of. Mainly some clothing brands. I don’t buy that many clothes and what I do by last a while. When I need something I either wait till we’re back in the states or order it online to pay the shipping. When people visit I sometimes send them stuff to. It’s generally been few and far between.

The same goes for some over-the-counter medicines. Most of the stuff we get is local however there are a few things that we simply prefer from the US. Apparently we are nowhere near as picky as many other people we read about. As time moves on we rely on less and less from the states and simply have been adapting to what’s available.

As for food goes there is definitely plenty of things that I like that is not quite the same with what you get in the United Kingdom. For example New York style pizza is pretty unique. A good bagel and locks is possible to get here however not everywhere. The bagals are ok just not the same as New York. Before we moved I was worried that both of those examples would be things I missed dearly. In practice I do not. Don’t get me wrong when we were visiting New York I went for a good slice of pizza. My mom took us to my favorite pizza place growing up. We also made it a point to go to our favorite bagel place when we were in Forest Hills as well. It was just as good as we remember it. We enjoyed both experiences a lot. The experiences in New York are definitely not the same as those in London however we can still get decent pizza and halfway decent bagels and smoke salmon. I don’t even eat bagels as much as I use to. We have different morning rituals now. If we go out I like a good full English breakfast.

All the things I mentioned having a different version of them or not having them at all has been relatively easy to adapt to in London. For me there was one thing that I missed that I did not realize how much I missed until I was back in the United States. I realized early on that most places in the United Kingdom did not prepare burgers the way I like them. I think it’s around the fact that they have to cook them a little bit more well done then I like here. I’m not really sure though. I just know that in most cases hamburgers aren’t as juicy and delicious as I am used to in the States. In fact my favorite hamburger in Europe actually was in Copenhagen. I still eat burgers all the time when we are out. It’s my go to food. Although depending on the place Fish & Chips is catching up as a good backup option. I have not been sorely missing a good burger.

When we were in Florida in February to go on our cruise we went to lunch with my in-laws. It wasn’t anything fancy. We just went to Chili’s. The juiciness of the hamburger reminded me how a really good burger should taste. It wasn’t until then I realized I missed that. Shake Shack and Gourmet Burger Kitchen are really good however I just don’t think any of those places got my burger as juicy as the one I had in Florida.

Some people would be upset by this. They may even stop ordering them when they go out. Not me. I’m on a mission to find good burgers in the UK. That means if I go somewhere and it looks good on the menu I’m still going to order it. If it turns out to be so so then I know what to expect. The turns out to be really good although where to go back to. That will hold me over until we’re back in New York and I can go to outback or chilis or any other mediocre chain restaurant that will grill me a juicy burger.

Reflecting On New Years Eve

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The end of the year/decade always gets you thinking back. I know everyone is doing it. It’s hard not to. So much has changed in my life from 10 years ago. I met M. We got married. Had kids. Moved to another country. I don’t think in my wildest dreams I would have been able to predict correctly I would be where I am right now 10 years ago.

For new years eve we were having another family over our house for a mini party. It was just the four adults and four children total. I had to run over to Sainsbury’s for some last-minute things I forgot to order when we put in our Waitrose order earlier in the week. As I was walking around Sainsbury’s I was thinking how I have never seen it so busy. That confuse me since I remembered when we just moved in I had to run to Sainsbury’s on New Year’s Day and it wasn’t that busy. Then I realised I was comparing New Year’s Eve to New Year’s Day.

New Year’s Eve two years ago we barely got the heat fixed in our house. Some of the furniture we ordered from Ikea had arrived and M was putting it together. We slept air mattresses. M worked till 2 or 3 AM in the morning New Year’s Day trying to get the girls bunkbed built.

Reflecting on how different life is now than it was when we first arrived confirms previous thoughts I’ve had about how adjusted we have become to living here.

The most profound takeaway I have from this experience for future Scott is don’t go to Sainsbury’s on New Year’s Eve. Going on year’s day is probably okay.

Two Years and Counting

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It took me until around 7:30 PM to realise that today was our two year anniversary of being in England. We were out one of our neighbours for drinks and appetisers for the holiday. Somehow in the conversation the topic came up on how long we have been living here. I had to think about it for a few seconds before I realised it was almost down to the hour two years.

I thought about the anniversary coming up quickly earlier in the week however today it slipped my mind with all the people doing on our holiday.

In some ways it feels like no time is pastorale. In other ways our world is entirely different than it was two years ago. What hope we love the next two years here as much as we did the last two…

NOTE: I forgot to post this on the 29th so I am posting it in early Jan with a retroactive date stamp.)