expat

A Test of The HorcruxNet

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When explaining my Resilio personal cloud setup to someone at work they replied that i have my own personal Horcrux minus the killing.  I liked the idea so I think i am naming my Resilio backup setup HorcruxNet.

The network is having its biggest test this week in its 3 or so years of existance.  I am moving.  Movers are packing up our stuff tomorrow.  That means i am putting my electronics into “Cleaning Lady Safe Mode”.  it is what i used to have to do when our cleaning lady showed up.  I would unplug everything so she didn’t mess stuff up.  She did a few times.

I have expanded my network to have replica or partial replica copies on my laptop.  I also have 3 working remote sites thanks to friends and family hosting some nodes.  While we move and my two primary full nodes (my Synology) and mac mini) will be offline for about 4-5 weeks.  During that time my remote hosts will hopefully keep humming along.  With my home network offline i doubt there will be much changes however since my laptop has a partial replica if i do make changes it will propagate out.

I love a nice well configured computer system if I do say so myself.

So you want to move to another country Part 4: The Visa Application

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Once I signed my employment contract for the relocation things started happening pretty quickly with my companies human resources and mobility groups. They got all the information they needed together to send The lawyers who are working on my visa application.

The visa application process was much more stressful than originally thought it would be. From reading the EU Rules on citizens relocating it seems pretty straightforward that we could move. The lawyers initially had major concerns because I was the one with the job yet I was not a citizen. As we got into more details they quickly came back and said our application should be pretty straightforward. However they were being lawyers initially and to me seemed all doom and gloom. It boils down to the more information we gave them when they asked for it the better our chances became that this would be pretty straightforward.

Surprisingly the hardest part in this entire process was the time zone difference with the lawyers. The other challenge was around document Catherine. For the visa application I needed to provide a huge amount of documentation. Most of it was pretty straightforward however I ran into a snag with my bank statements. Generally are use an online bank for most of our finances. It works great and I typically have no problems. The only time I recall there being an issue was when we bought our apartment I needed a bank certified check that I simply could not get from them. For the visa application the UK government requires a physical copy of statements. I opt to get electronic distributions of my statements. The lawyer said that’s not a problem print them out and have the bank sign and stamp them to certify they are authentic or simply order print outs and have them delivered. That was easier said than done. One bank we use housing for a walk down the street and have some statement signed and stamped in 15 minutes. Do you mean online bank however originally gave me a lot of back-and-forth on that they would not even do what we needed.After finally getting fed up with the back-and-forth I actually got results by sending a Twitter message to their support group. They confirmed that could go to a branch and have documents printed stamped and signed. Like I said they are an online bank however they do you have a few branches in the United States. Big challenge for me is the nearest branch is an hour and a half drive from New York City.

MC and I opted to drive out there together with the girls and make a morning of it. She took the girls to play playground while I got the documents printed. We then met up with her parents for lunch. They lived only about 30 minutes from where we were so we thought was a good opportunity to see them.

In the end things worked out and I was able to get all the documents I needed however it was extremely challenging pulling all the information together. I was glad that I keep really good records of things. Not having lots of readily available digital copies of information to send the lawyers would’ve drawn out their preparations.

Once we got all the documents together we all had to go to a visa processing center to get pictures and fingerprints. Only my youngest daughter who is under five did not need to have her fingerprints taken. I’m glad for that since she barely would look into the camera to get her picture taken.

After we had that done the application was submitted with all the documentation to go along with it. We were concerned that we wouldn’t get it back in time for the trip we were planning to house hunt in London. The guidance we were given what is up to 15 business days to get a reply. It turned out we got an email saying the visas were being printed within two days of it being submitted. Total duration between when we submitted the paperwork to the lawyers and when I picked up all the papers and the pieces was one week or five business days. It was a major relief.

But wait we’re not done. What I learned on this process started because you get a visa for six months that get you to United Kingdom. Once you’re there you apply for five your visa that you can only apply for if you’re actually living there. This might be different depending on your situation however for that type of visa that we are getting at is what we had to do. That means once we get there we start the process over again. I’m not sure what documentation we need to provide for that however i’m assuming it’s going to be as much or more information then we’ve already provided for the first visa.

In the next part of the series talk about money. I am told they don’t take US dollar:)

From Cellular to Mobile

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One of the first things I need to get in England is a phone. More specifically a UK Sim card for my iPhone. It sounds pretty simple. You can get them pretty much anywhere. Seriously the recommendation was to buy one in a Tesco (a Grocery Store) Surprisingly for an American they’re super cheap compared to US plans. I think we pay around $130 for two iPhones and one iPad with about three or four gigs of data and unlimited minutes between them.In the UK you can get close to unlimited or unlimited minutes and three or four gigs of data per line for about 15 to 20 pounds a month. What I found is not all plans are created equal.

I’m probably a stickler for technical details more than most people however there were a few things that I’m concerned about. For one what is the service look like where we want to live and near my office? When I had AT&T in time square I basically could not use my phone for three years at work. That’s not really acceptable in 2018. Since we own our phones were looking for a pay as you go or a pay monthly without contract.

I’m going to try 3. The reviews have been decent. I’m concerned about coverage but I’ll have to be there to test it. The advantage they have over everyone else is for about the same price they offer complete roaming in Europe and the US for no additional charge. That means calls to the UK and data usage is like I was still in the UK even when traveling. I would need to continue the use of voice over IP solution when calling US phone numbers however that’s not different from when I would be in the UK as well. That set up seems like the most liberal roaming policy of everyone. It’s even better than the T-Mobile options I have in the states now.

One thing I learned that I heard rumors about previously was you by prepay some cards from the grocery store. That’s a little different from the US. While on our house hunting trip I bought a 3 & EE SIM card at a Tesco.  I wasn’t able to use 3 Sim card I bought.  I was able to use the EE card for my phone and i bought another one for my iPad. I didn’t really pay attention to signal strength in the neighborhood we were looking to get a house. I also wasn’t near the office very much. I was hoping to settle on a carrier during the trip and then keep the number when we moved. What I learned when I went top up the prepay card while I was there was to do a top up remotely you need a local address. Even though I had a local debit card it’s still tied to my US address until we move. At the time of this writing we don’t have a house sorted so I will either not use the number I got or once the house is sorted I can top up a card and be ready for when we arrive.

I know I can do most of this when we get there however especially for technology challenges like this I want to be prepared. This particular challenge won’t get resolved until were actually living there. I will likely post an update once I have figured out what we will do and then see how it goes.

So you want to move to another country Part 3: Selling Apartment

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By early September with paperwork imminent for my work relocation our focus shifted to actually getting ready to move.  Up until this point we felt like the move was a possibility however until we had something tangible in our hands we did not want to believe it was happening.

When the reality set in that this was happening we realize we needed to scramble and get her apartment ready to put on the market. We had to declare and give away a bunch of stuff. MC already started the process of purging some things however that process kicked into high gear. We also had some minor work around the house to do. Nothing major but things we were just procrastinating on until then. The deadline is a great motivator. By the middle of September we had secured a realtor and listed the apartment. We were pleased to hear that it was a sellers market. We have a two bedroom in a great location. That type of apartment is generally low inventory and there’s demand for it. All things as a seller we wanted to hear.

The first day realtor show the apartment we had somewhere like 23 people show up. From that we got an offer we were happy with and work to get the contract. That took longer than I would’ve liked. Of course that’s one of those things that can ever go fast enough even if everything is perfect.

I was concerned about the timeline for selling especially since we live in a co-op and the guidance we were given was 60 to 90 days from contract close due to board approval and other things that have to happen. Not having to worry about the New York apartment would be an extra bonus when we moved. I was pleasantly surprised to be able to go into an offer as quickly as we did. That just confirmed he original assessment about low inventory and high demand.

At the time of writing this we are still not sure if we will get the closing before we leave. It’s not a huge deal since we can have a power of attorney with someone. Having apartment clothes on or around when you’re planning to leave is also beneficial because we don’t have to worry about being temporarily homeless before we leave if we close to soon.

We’re not done yet so I’m knocking on wood as I write this since I don’t want to jinx myself however I was concerned about this process being one of the more challenging parts of our move. What’s turning out to be more challenging is finding a house were preparing to find a house in London versus selling in New York. That however is another chapter.

So you want to move to another country Part 2: You Need a Job

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This is part two of “So you want to move to another country”.  My overview of the process we went through to be able to actually move to London.  So far I am still writing the series so not sure how many parts it will eventually come out to.  I am finding it very therapeutic to write this all out.  Hopefully friends and family enjoy it and anyone on the internet thinking of doing the same thing might find it useful.

Having the ability to work in the EU with MC now being an citizen of an EU country was only the first step. Even though it felt very complex and stressful in and of itself it was likely pretty easy compared to what came next. Let’s face it MC was able to prove her criteria to be a citizen. All she had to do is jump through the hoops to get the paperwork. Finding a job on the other hand was nowhere near as guaranteed.

MC and I both agreed that our most viable option would be if there was an opportunity within my company. Where she worked was very small and niche. The challenge was at the time of those discussions in the summer and fall of 2016 there appeared to be no opportunities in my company availible. MC and I still agreed to move forward with citizenship process anyway since it was something that kind of always wanted to have done anyway.

Opportunity presents itself in the weirdest ways sometimes. At the end of March of this year my group was part of a large reorganization within the greater technical operations group. As part of that reorganization some of the work that was currently part of the group I managed was getting spun off into a new central delivery group. What was left was purely a support organization. I’ve done IT operations support on and off in my career for years. I have done operational support more than anything else however prior to that group I was doing service delivery and I liked it. In my role at the time service delivery was a small part of what i did and I was a little frustrated with it going away. When my boss at the time asked me how I was doing after the announcement of the reorganization we had a long chat. I voice my concerns and he presented an opportunity to lead the group that was being formed out of the people from my current group and my peers groups in the new organization. At first I wasn’t so sure I was interested.  It would be a smaller group and doing something different.  It was similar to what i had done at a smaller scale in the past and i enjoyed that.  Even if support can be tiring I sometimes enjoy the adrenaline of under pressure problem solving.  I had mixed thoughts about the opportunity however the more i thought about it the more interesting it became.  The final deciding factor was that there seemed to be an opportunity for overseas relocation.  In my group at the time i was responsible for Americas.  It was very regional and no real overseas opportunities.  The new position was managing a global team again.  The was a case to be made to do that job from England.  My new manager agreed and was interested in seeing if we could make it happen.

At that point it was only an idea but it sounded promising.  Due to some other re-org related dependencies I had to stay quiet about my job move until late April / early May.  Once that change was announced i started in my new position.  I also started working with my new manager to make the business case to his management about my move. His manager seemed opened to the idea and wanted to see it written up.  Once that eventually got approved it had to go one level higher for approval.  During that time there was debate over where to send me.  London was an option that i assumed I would goto, however there was another site in England that was an option too.  MC and I would have been happy with either.  During the summer it seemed like this decision was more we are going but not sure where yet however nothing was in writing.  In August i got word that everything was approved for London.  The next part of the move was to have our Mobility and HR groups get involved.  it wasn’t until early September before i got the details of the offer.  It was another week or two before I had paperwork to sign.  It is one thing to know something is happening and it is another to actually have something to sign.  The entire process from hearing it was a possibility to do in March to having signed papers in September was almost 6 months.  It was totally worth it however as they say the waiting is the hardest part.

When this originally started looking like it was a possibility we were targeting a move at the end of 2017 or early 2018.  Even with things feeling like it took a long time it turned out that my finger in the air guess on when we could move would actually come true.

In Part 3 of this saga I will describe the process of actually selling our apartment…

The W Sisters and the Story of The Promised Pony

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When we talk to people about our move many of them ask how we told the girls? Or what do the girls think about the move? The answer is they are super excited. Why you might ask? Because to sweeten the deal on our international move we promised the girls we would get them a pony. We figured we could live on a nice British farm near a village and we could have a pony they could use on the weekends. Not really sure how we can figure that out logistically but we both agreed that the best way to convince them this move was good would be to promise them a pony.

So maybe some of that first paragraph isn’t true. I hope people realize that. That is either my version of click bait or I just thought it was pretty funny. Yeah, I just thought it was pretty funny. What is true about that paragraph is that people ask us those questions. They’re valid very good questions to ask.

I was probably pretty bad parent during this planning of the move in the early stages. I would talk openly to MC about things in front of the girls. They are old enough and they did understand a lot of it. We realize we needed to tell them what was going on when T got upset and thought we were giving away our apartment. We had to explain that we were selling it and that we would be getting a house when we got to London with a backyard. That was something that MC had wanted for years no matter where we lived. The girls were definitely excited to hear that. An added benefit of the house was that we would not need to continue to yell at them all the time when they ran around. Nowadays we do that since our neighbor downstairs does complain now and again if the girls do that.

We did promise the girls other stuff however. Just nothing as crazy as a pony. For almost what feels like two years the girls have been asking for bunkbeds. For most of that time however they’ve been crazy lunatics at bedtime. That means we did not want to get them any sort of vehicle to be able to jump off of when they’re in the room by themselves at night. Since the beginning of the summer I think they’ve been going to bed most nights without any problems so they’ve grown up enough that bunkbeds are a viable option for them. The added benefit of that is we can get a bunk bed and not bring the two top their beds that were once their cribs with us when we move. Both girls are extremely excited over that. The challenge they have is they both want to be on the top bunk. We agreed that they would rotate innate to be determined rotation schedule.

Other things the girls are excited about are the castles that we told them are all over England and Ireland. They are very curious about the princesses that may live in those castles and tried to explain to them that there probably aren’t any. That not change the fact that T will likely look for or ask for them when we go on trips.

For the girls this move is just an idea. When we first told them we said it was a long way away. We didn’t want them to get scared or apprehensive about it. We told him they have Christmas and Hanukkah and A’s birthday to go through before we move. I don’t think the reality is going to start setting in for them until either we start packing the apartment or we actually get to our new house in London.

So you want to move to another country Part 1: Being Eligible For a Visa

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Pretty much everyone that we tell or finds out we are moving to London says “wow that is so cool”. The main exception is for immediate family who will miss us, and are not so pleased.  They say they are “happy for us”. On top of that anyone I know who has been an  Expat in London has said we will love it and its going to be a great experience.  I believe those who have done it.  I am super excited for this move. I have been passively and actively trying to make this happen for a while, so yes we are all excited including the kids.

With all of that out of the way this post is about the monumental amount of effort that is required to make a move like this happen. Some things you think about and others you just can’t imagine. I am writing this before half of the actually moving happens and it is extremely stressful and mind bending what you have to do. I want to write this post or what is ending up being a series of posts to outline the effort and stress involved. This move is not something we decided to do on a whim. It is not without its risks, challenges or stress. So here goes.

So you want to relocate to another country. That’s great. It is easier said than done.  We knew that MC was eligible for citizenship in an EU country for years. It was something we talked about even before we were married however didn’t really do much with it. After our girls were  born MC mentioned that if she had gotten her citizenship before they were born they too would’ve gotten it. We were lazy about it however not the end of the world. What must’ve been about a year and 1/2 ago we were talking to a friend who had gotten the documents to get her Irish citizenship. To sum it up I think she said something like it’s simple but not easy.

Somewhere around the summer time of 2016 MC and I started talking about it more. I had always been interested in an overseas assignment. Up until that time nothing seemed to have presented itself. I am not sure what was the motivator however I realized life is too short to wait for something to drop in your lap. So the more MC & I talked about it the more I decided I wanted to see what opportunities there were and seek them out. At the same time MC was going to gather all the documents she needed to finally get the citizenship done. MC’s parents were great help with this. They had either originals or photocopies of original documents that we would need. Some stuff going back over 100 years ago. It was her parents that had enabled MC to have the claim.

It wasn’t until the fall of 2016 that we really started getting the paperwork together to submit an application. Around the same time there was rumblings about whether or not my office in New York would remain or if other locations would become more prominent.

The friend we spoke to previously was right about the application process. What you needed was very straightforward. Getting it and having it certified in the right way to be used was time-consuming and in some cases costly. The fact that we lived in New York City and enabled MC to go to the courthouse was very helpful. It took almost 3 months of part-time document gathering before we had a bundle ready to submit to the Irish government.

We sent our application out in mid-January 2017. They said it could take up to six months to give us a reply. We were pleasantly surprised four months later to get MC’s foreign birth registry document. Then we used that document along with a lot of the other ones we had gathered to apply for MC’s passport. We had that done sometime around late June or early July 2017.

This long drawn out timeline of what we had to do to get MC her Irish passport is important. Without that our family had much more limited options. With a passport from an EU country any opportunity within any EU country was open to both of us. Since as a spouse of an EU national I have the right to work also. Without that it’s not impossible however significantly more difficult to be able to do what where undertaking now.

In Part 2 I will talk more about the opportunity that made use of all this work.

My Decor Choices in the New House, Oh I Mean The Blog Has a New Name

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That picture is the decor of the master bedroom in our new house. Ok maybe not. I am not sure if MC would be cool with that. I really did not ask. If she is then I might totally go for that minus the monolith. Unless the Monolith has a flat screen in it.

The main reason for this post is after I wrote my blog renaming post yet before it was published this Wednesday I came up with what I feel is a great name for this site, A Scott Odyssey.  I have had a few names over the years but have never focused on the name aspect of the site identity.  I have fixated more on the URL and as i have written before i kept coming back to what i am using today.  With my track record in waffling on names and URL’s i may change both in 6 months.

I think “A Scott Odyssey” is something fun and semi descriptive enough.  I also feel that it avoids all the things I highlighted I do not want to do when I renamed. On one hand writing about this is too much technical side of the blog itself however this is the minutia I OCD over. I like the Odyssey part and the play on words from 2001. Life is an Odyssey and this move we are taking is the next Chapter in it. Here is to another 14 years of writing at “A Scott Odyssey”.

Expat Blogging Minus The Catchy Title

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One thing I want to continue to do is to blog internal about my experiences. Since our family is moving overseas it makes logical sense to write a lot more about being an expat and all the new things were going to be doing in England. In researching our overseas move I did a lot of searching the Internet for blogs to follow of Americans living in Ireland and England. Some of those blogs have been pretty entertaining and informative. Many more of them were either sites left unattended with no recent posts or just dead links. On one hand I was surprised I found a bunch of active blogs. On the other hand  all the sites I came across referenced all the other sites highlighting how small of a community that was.

One thing I decided I did not want to do was change the name of my blog to some catchy phrase to note that I am an American and I’m in England. from all the blog reading I have done I know that’s the thing to do however I’m going to buck the trend.

I might still rename the site since Blog @ Scott.ac just isn’t that catchy. Since I no longer use my powerz.org domain name the old title of the site “Powerpedia” is no longer applicable. I did love that name however. Going to look for any previous posts over the last 14 years that explained powerz. I must’ve wrote about that if not I will need to. I’m thinking of a name something like Scott-o-Pedia? I am not sure. I’m open to ideas as long as they’re not catchy on American in London phrase of some sort.

The W Sisters and the Story of “American Food”

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For a few months now I have been trying one night every week to introduce some traditional American summer food to the girls routine.  They have had hot dogs a bunch of times prior to this but have generally been meh with them.  It has been very hit or miss.  I did try real hot dog buns vs just wrapping them in bread.  I enjoyed it but they didn’t take to it as I would have liked.  It is also work to de-skin sometimes and slice the long way the hot dog a bunch of times so they don’t choke on it.

Recently I have also tried hamburgers.  Surprisingly The girls have not really eaten them. Both of the girls have eaten hamburgers at least partly. The problem is I can’t get both of them to eat a full meal of it at the same time. T has fared better recently. The last time I made them cheeseburgers A picked the cheese off the burger and that’s all she ate. At the same sitting T at least ate 1/2 a hamburger.

With our upcoming move getting them to eat classic American fare has become a mission of mine. I guess I like to take on unnecessary and probably un-winable missions. They do eat the other traditional American children’s food the chicken nugget. I have heard people say  it is definitely harder to get a good hamburger in England then in the states. I’m not so sure if that’s true however I’m not taking my chances. I’m pretty sure a good American hotdog is going to be a challenge to get. I don’t keep kosher however I like and all beef hot dog. Sometimes that’s hard to get even in New York so confidence is low that I will be able to do that in London all that often. For me not a huge deal since I don’t eat hotdogs very much and although I love hamburgers I eat them for less than I used to. I do want the kids to appreciate good American comfort food.

While we are on the topic of good American comfort food I have to point out how baffled I am that T doesn’t eat grilled cheese. Well I’ll clarify that. The grilled cheese they used to give at school every week she did not eat. We would go out and she would sometimes eat it. I had to scratch my head at that one. She loves toast. She loves toast with butter. She loves cheese. All those things  put together makes you a grilled cheese. I did get her to articulate  once that her issue is she did not like the kind of cheese however I’m not really sure if that’s true. That would solve the mystery however like the doctor my kids lie. Not a bad way, in a standard little kid way that you can’t really trust everything they say.

Before we go I need to figure out what other American steeples should I introduce the girls to so they have an appreciation of it before we go.