C l a r i M i c h e l e

In July 2015, we packed up 4 suitcases, 2 cats, and left our life in California behind for a new adventure in London. Of course, moving to the UK wasn’t as simple as booking a one-way flight. Becoming an expat is a process, and not something that happens overnight. For us, the journey started with a shared dream to someday live in Europe. It was just a thought in the back of our minds for a few years while life carried on as normal. We graduated from college, got married, and I started a master’s degree. Then Andrew was given the opportunity to change his work-base to the UK, and we didn’t think twice about pursuing it.

If you are interested in how it all went down, here’s the whole long story of our roller coaster first year in the UK. I’ve also included a list of all the posts I wrote during the first 12 months at the bottom of this page. (Be warned, you’ll have to scroll awhile to get there, click >>here to jump.)

But first a bit of context…

Andrew’s company is fairly small, not a huge corporation that relocates employees all the time (or ever), so we did our own research and planning for this move. We had *hilarious* American expectations that made it difficult to navigate London real estate/banking/life. International moves are a beast, and we learned so much from conquering this one! (But let’s just say, there are a few things we’ll do differently next time.) ;)

– Preparing To Move –

I won’t bore you with all the details of getting ready to move. We spent MONTHS filling out paperwork, and waiting for other people to sign off on it. Things really didn’t start coming together until July 2015 when our visa applications were accepted. With that precious document in place, we were able attach actual dates to our move timeline. In mid July, we carefully packed up all our possessions into a wooden crate, and it all started to feel real.

All the preparations that went into moving felt like a such challenge at the time. Admittedly, there was a lot to figure out, and living in limbo was stressful. But preparing was so so much easier than executing! As they say, hindsight is 20/20.

– Arriving In London –

It wasn’t until our plane landed in London that I began to realise what we had just done. Andrew’s company paid for us to stay in a Travelodge for 1 week (that turned into 2), and our plan was to find a place to live that was available immediately, open a bank account, and set up a phone plan – all in 1 week! It might have been achievable in America, but it was overly ambitious for England. We immediately felt the weight of that 1 week deadline, but there was no going back or plan b!

We left the airport and took the tube from Heathrow to our temporary home in East London (Walthamstow to be exact). I had never been to Europe before, and whole experience of being in London for the first time ever TO LIVE was so overwhelming. My first experience on the tube was us juggling bags and suitcases through central London at rush hour. Once we’d dropped our stuff off at the hotel, we had to head back to the airport to collect 2 extremely jet-lagged cats from animal reception. Andrew wanted to take them to our hotel via the tube, but this time I knew what that entailed and flatly refused. The airline-approved pet crates were bulky and awkward to carry, I was exhausted, and our feline travellers hated us for putting them through such an ordeal. Andrew wisely agreed to get a taxi instead, and I had a meltdown while we waited for the taxi …as one does.

– First Week In London –

The next morning, we put our game faces on and set out to get ish done. But what to do first? A bank account seemed like the logical place to start, so we popped in to the nearest Lloyds with our passports/visas in hand. The poor bank clerk looked at us with disbelief when we told him we’d just arrived in the country the day before, and had no address -let alone proof of an address. He didn’t say, “good luck with that one,” but might as well have. Andrew thought maybe the larger bank branches would be equipped to set up accounts for newbies like us, so we tried a few more before giving up.

The second day we tried to set up a phone plan, but without a bank account or financial history, we couldn’t do that either. Time was ticking away, and we were getting no where. By the third day we were pretty discouraged. I made a few inquiries for properties listed on Rightmove and Gumtree. Most of them were ignored, but one property owner did reply with the below email:

I doubt very much this is the flat for you. Its quite small. Your husbands job must be quite well paid and I’m sure you can afford something nicer – not that there is anything wrong with this place, just a bit small and out of the way.

Most Americans live in the west of London – Notting Hill and the surrounding area (which is expensive but lovely).