As we fall into routines and patterns, the number of days becomes less important and whilst we still count ourselves in "phase 2" (with jobs but no house yet), the rhythm of life definitely feels more familiar as we start "phase 3" (house hunting). However, this Sunday marked the 100th day here (which seems crazy, given that the longest holiday we'd ever spent here was 43 days), and I've been meaning to celebrate it with a general update, and probably some photos on Facebook. Everyone is out tonight, so with a bowl of Goldfish crackers on one side, a beer on the other and the Red Sox crushing the Minnesota Twins on the TV, let's go through the family.
Sophie
Let's start with the smallest. Sophie turned 1 in June (I need to write and back date her letter!) and is slowly revealing her personality to us. She has an infectious giggle and the most charming, engaging smile that I've seen. After Jake, who was always slightly suspicious of strangers (and still is to an extent), she will smile and gurgle at anyone, and the combination of her big grin and crazy curls means that she makes friends wherever she goes. She's learned to crawl at fast pace (watch out Marlowe and Brody!) and is currently climbing up and pulling herself up on everything. Walking is not far away at all, and it's crazy to see her small little body getting ready to move.
Jake
Jake becomes a young boy with every passing day. Whilst he's only grown half an inch since we arrived (I measured) he seems taller and bigger than that. It might be that he's that much more confident, or that much more happy or just that spending so much time out in the sunshine and fresh air is stretching him. In any case, he is turning into a much more friendly and socialable kid with other people. We went to see the cats on the farm (not a euphemism!) and he chatted and went with the farm owner who he had never met before. We also went to a birthday party a while back and it was delightful to watch him play with his friends from daycare, freeing me up to make some friends of my own. He's also becoming a book worm, easily wrangling two or three books a night out of anyone who will read to him (including Nana checking in him whilst Kelsey and I were out!), and I leave him each night reading a book to Hobbes. It's such a sweet routine, and I can't wait for him to start being able to read (he picked out something with his name on the other day, so the process is starting).
Kelsey
Kelsey is quickly getting up to speed with her new job. It's quite an intense role, attempting to integrate new Americans and refugees into the school system. The organisation that she's working for seems to be a little chaotic, but I can see her making changes to make it all more efficient. The "so today at work" stories continue, but tend to be about crazy kids rather than work colleagues making her life difficult. It's a trek across to Concord each day, and her summer schedule has her working long hours. We're hoping that it will calm down when schools starts, but it may be a while before she's can do the routines quickly.
Me
As for me, I'm loving being out here. My job starts up properly in September, but I've filled my summer with some summer school work and a whole bunch of training. My school district is part of some big educational changes (more of this in another post when I've got my head more fully around it) and it's an exciting time to be a teacher in Kingston. My parents arrive in New Hampshire next weekend for a family holiday in Ossippee, which is going to be fantastic to see everyone! They're then with just us for a week, including a game at Fenway Park with my dad (very excited, the tickets have already arrived!), so whilst I'm officially on summer vacation, my schedule is booked up until school starts.
We have the periodic conversation about whether we made the right decision. I honestly don't think that the move could have been any better. It still feels like an adventure, and our recent decision to actively start looking for houses (seen 5 so far, with no hits) brings the exciting next phase as a close reality. That's when the real adventure will start.
Thursday 21 July 2016
Tuesday 5 July 2016
Banking
I've had fairly few dealings with the American banking system over the years, mainly moving money from the UK to the US and adding myself to Kelsey's account. However, being here permanently means a more intensive relationship and working out how processes happen over here. Some things are great, some things are annoying and some things are just downright amusing:
The Great
As with most things over here, the customer service that I've received has been uniformly helpful, cheerful and quick. I've not had to wait more than 5 minutes on the phone and in the banks I feel like a valued customer. It's been easy to set things up, like savings accounts and, surprisingly, a credit card. Whilst I have no credit here, they know me from having an account here, and that combined with my visa status was enough to get me past the credit checks. The online banking here is much quicker than in the UK, with payments appearing on my statement within minutes of being made (meaning I can call Kelsey to ask her why she spent $43 at the pet store, and other such fun conversations!). You can pay checks in using an app, an invention that makes so much sense in an age where banks refuse to change their opening hours to suit people who also work 9 - 5. Finally, let me talk about drive up ATMs. Just about everything has a drive thru (sic) here, so it makes sense that banks do the same. It's such a better system than having to find somewhere to park up and run in to get some cash.
The Annoying
The main downside that I've found with the American banking system is that there is a fee attached to everything. Often times, you can avoid these by meeting certain criteria, or doing things in a different way, but you have to read the small print and think carefully about what you're doing. For example, withdrawing money from an ATM that belongs to your bank is fine and free, but try using another system and not only will you be hit with a fee from their bank for the privilege, but you also incur one from your own bank for sending the money. I never realised how useful the LINK system in the UK actually was! Other fees include not paying a set amount into your account each month, ordering a check book (again, I didn't realise how good it was to have free checks in the UK!) and trying to send payments to people online.
The Amusing
This last point gets me onto to a discovery that I made last week that I still can't quite get my head around. We pay for Jake and Sophie's daycare by check each week (and weep when we do over the cost of it), but since I have to pay for each check book, I decided to see if I could do it online. In the UK, this is a simple and free process to set up a standing order, and most of my payments and bills were made this way. I logged onto to my banking here and lo and behold there is a process called BillPay that allows you to do this. However, when I went to set up the payment, I couldn't find anywhere to enter the account details. I could enter their address however, so I went ahead and did it. It didn't quite seem right to me, so I called up (on hold for less than 1 minute!) and discussed it with the bank. Apparently what happens here is that they will send a check out on my behalf (they can verify my signature from the times when I've been in the bank in person) to the nursery. For free. However, it costs between $3 and $10 to transfer money online, without the need for checks, printing and postage costs. I still don't get how this is cost efficient for the bank, but in the meantime I'll be making use of it.
Next step in my banking adventure is to see how getting a mortgage stacks up - more on this in another post!
The Great
As with most things over here, the customer service that I've received has been uniformly helpful, cheerful and quick. I've not had to wait more than 5 minutes on the phone and in the banks I feel like a valued customer. It's been easy to set things up, like savings accounts and, surprisingly, a credit card. Whilst I have no credit here, they know me from having an account here, and that combined with my visa status was enough to get me past the credit checks. The online banking here is much quicker than in the UK, with payments appearing on my statement within minutes of being made (meaning I can call Kelsey to ask her why she spent $43 at the pet store, and other such fun conversations!). You can pay checks in using an app, an invention that makes so much sense in an age where banks refuse to change their opening hours to suit people who also work 9 - 5. Finally, let me talk about drive up ATMs. Just about everything has a drive thru (sic) here, so it makes sense that banks do the same. It's such a better system than having to find somewhere to park up and run in to get some cash.
The Annoying
The main downside that I've found with the American banking system is that there is a fee attached to everything. Often times, you can avoid these by meeting certain criteria, or doing things in a different way, but you have to read the small print and think carefully about what you're doing. For example, withdrawing money from an ATM that belongs to your bank is fine and free, but try using another system and not only will you be hit with a fee from their bank for the privilege, but you also incur one from your own bank for sending the money. I never realised how useful the LINK system in the UK actually was! Other fees include not paying a set amount into your account each month, ordering a check book (again, I didn't realise how good it was to have free checks in the UK!) and trying to send payments to people online.
The Amusing
This last point gets me onto to a discovery that I made last week that I still can't quite get my head around. We pay for Jake and Sophie's daycare by check each week (and weep when we do over the cost of it), but since I have to pay for each check book, I decided to see if I could do it online. In the UK, this is a simple and free process to set up a standing order, and most of my payments and bills were made this way. I logged onto to my banking here and lo and behold there is a process called BillPay that allows you to do this. However, when I went to set up the payment, I couldn't find anywhere to enter the account details. I could enter their address however, so I went ahead and did it. It didn't quite seem right to me, so I called up (on hold for less than 1 minute!) and discussed it with the bank. Apparently what happens here is that they will send a check out on my behalf (they can verify my signature from the times when I've been in the bank in person) to the nursery. For free. However, it costs between $3 and $10 to transfer money online, without the need for checks, printing and postage costs. I still don't get how this is cost efficient for the bank, but in the meantime I'll be making use of it.
Next step in my banking adventure is to see how getting a mortgage stacks up - more on this in another post!
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