Housing differences

Back in America, I was somewhat spoiled.  I am used to spacious houses with a front and back yard.  Here housing is very different.  To have a detached home is pretty expensive.  Many homes are in fact attached or are a block of homes all attached.  This seemed strange to me when I first visited, but I am now used to it.  Many homes are brick of some sort, you hardly ever see siding. The rooms are small compared to what we are used to in America.  There is hardly a thing (except in brand new homes) as en-suite bathrooms.  Most homes in fact, only have one bathroom.  If they have a second, this is just what we know as a half bathroom.  In most cases, your washer and dryer (if you have one) are in the kitchen.  Nothing like efficiency right??

I am not sure if there is central heating here, I am sure there is but most homes are heated by gas with radiators.  I kind of like this because you can choose to heat only one room, or the whole house. There is also no closets in bedrooms.  You use a clothing wardrobe.  At first, I couldn't stand this.  I felt like I had no space, but I am getting used to it.  Your back yard (if you have one) is called the garden.  Often times, it is just a small enclosed grassy area. Here is our communal garden.

We live in a one bedroom flat. We live on the second floor, but here it is called the first floor.  The first floor is called the ground floor. We have solar panels on our flat, which is nice because it reduces the amount of electricity we use during daylight hours.  One of my favorite things about England housing is the electricity.  They have on/off switches on every plug.  Not only does this save electricity by not always having it run... but it also saves little fingers who get curious around the power sockets. However, that being said it is hard for me to remember to turn those plugs off!

  I will show pictures of the rest of the flat later.  We want to get it painted first.  The renter before us had our bedroom painted hot pink and black.  Bright colors seem to be pretty popular here. 

The time I paid with the wrong money

I've tried to educate myself on the cash here. They use a coin for one and two pound {pound is their currency} notes, instead of a bill. Well a couple weeks ago I was feeling real confident. Anthony and I walked across the street to the spar shop ( like a corner market). We pick up the can of jalapeños that I needed,  and we go to pay. The can was something like £1.50. I had {thought} I had grabbed a five pound note and a two pound coin out of my purse. Just an FYI sales tax is already included so what the sticker says, is the price you pay. Makes shopping on a budget easy to calculate! Anyways, I'm feeling real confident and the cashier says "£1.50 please."  So, I grab my two pound coin hand it to him, thinking I got this! Then, the guy looks at me and says ummm that's two pence(cents), I need more money.  I was so embarrassed. I laughed said sorry and handed over my five pound bill. Needless to say, Anthony didn't let me live that one down. Moral of the story... Double check before you pay.  😜😜

Fun British sayings and words

Hello again!!! I thought I would share something a bit lighter and fun. Here's some British sayings/words that are different than American phrases.

You alright? :This is what people say to greet you. Like a "how are you?" It throws me off because I always think something is wrong with me, lol.

Jumper: what we call a sweater. 

The letter Z: pronounced zzzzz in America, here it's zed.

Trolley: shopping cart

Chips: French fries

Crisps: chips

Sweets: candy

Ice lollies: Popsicle

Plaster: bandaid

Jelly: Jell-o

Rubbish: trash

Lift: elevator

Petrol: gas

Biscuits: cookies

Bellend/ knobhead: dick head 😂 (Sorry mom!)

Cheeky: playful/ornery

Knackered: tired

Chemist: pharmacy

Toilet: bathroom/restroom

Jog on: get on with it (not necessarily the nice way to say it)

Boot: trunk

Trainers: sneakers

Trousers: pants

Pants/knickers: underwear

My favorite non verbal expression... Equivalent to our middle finger! Plus gives you an idea how jog on is used.
jog on!

How we almost missed our wedding in Mexico

Hello again! I previously wrote about our visa application, and now we are waiting for an answer. We applied in early September. We thought this would be plenty of time to make our wedding in Mexico in December. The home office had both of our passports with my application. Mine was needed because the visa is stamped into it. His was to prove he was a British citizen (we've since found out a photo copy would have worked..thank you lawyer for the misinformation). 

Now, these statistics were from January but are similar to the ones when we applied. We were assured numerous times by the lawyer it wouldn't be ninety days. Turns out he was wrong. As each day moved in we became more nervous we were going to miss our wedding. We tried calling a pay per minute number to try to find out information, always unsuccessful. Anthony even traveled to Sheffield (visa application center) to try to beg for an answer. No such luck. I traveled to Chicago in November, to try to obtain a secondary passport. Finally, we caught a break. They issued me a same day passport..now only to get Anthony's. Finally, I received an email on November 30,  saying a decision had been made and my application was being mailed back to me. At this point we didn't know the decision, and we didn't care we were going to make our wedding! I tracked my package and waited all day for UPS to show up. If I could get it sent that day, Anthony would have his passport Saturday. His original ( well our) travel date was that Saturday. The hours dragged on and still no UPS. I was starting to freak out. If it didn't get to me in time I couldn't send it, and his passport wouldn't be there until Monday, making him miss his now second flight booked. Yikes!! So, my mom and me begin praying hard. UPS shows up right at 7 pm. We jump in the car and race to UPS to make the drop off cutoff. Success!!! Anthony's passport would be there by Saturday, he would fly out Monday and our wedding was happening. Well guess what?? UPS sent his passport to the wrong location. We called every possible number and were told were pretty much out of luck, not their fault. Now I'm all but pulling my hair out, so close yet another road block. So, we contact the travel agent and get Anthony a new ticket ( the only next direct flight was for Wednesday, our wedding was Thursday). So three flights for Anthony later, plus my new flight ( originally booked out from UK had to rebook from US) we both made it to Mexico for our wedding. Not to mention..... MY VISA WAS APPROVED!!!  So much stress, fear, and uncertainty but we made it to the most beautiful wedding either of us could ask for. 

The process of moving to England

Hiya, I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but I thought I would start here. In 2014 I met my now husband,Anthony by an act of fate. Long story short, we met on vacation and the rests history. I'll share that story later. Fast forward to NYE 2015 and that lovely British man was proposing to me under fireworks on the River Thames in London. So the moving process slowly begins. I was in America he was back in England. Let me just explain....we were clueless on my visa process. We didn't even know where to start. In fact, before I even met Anthony I only knew vaguely what a visa was ( besides the credit card 😜 Lol ).

After much research, stress, more research and some more stress we decided to hire an immigration lawyer. Going back, I would skip this step.. But it was a life lesson right?  Before we started this process I had no idea how hard it was to move to the UK. The visa we were applying for is a proposed marriage visa aka a fiancé visa. To apply, it's a lengthy online application where the British home office asks you questions about you and your partner from A-Z. We also had to prove my sponsor (Anthony) had a minimum income of £18,600. The amount goes up for every dependent you apply with. Thankfully, Anthony more than cleared this amount... But during the process he had switched jobs. So we had to prove he was going to be employed with the new employer for the foreseeable future. We also had to provide evidence of our relationship, phone records, Skype records, emails, photos, etc. Then we had to have proof that we intended to marry, had a place (non council) to live, among other random things. I had to get my biometrics (fingerprints and photo) taken and sent over the UK.  Once all evidence was gathered and biometrics taken I was able to send the application off.  We chose not to do the priority service, due to costs and the stats said most Americans know within us a month or month and a half.  Then the waiting began...  to be continued.