I hadn't intended to post twice in a day, but a) the Red Sox are playing late in California and b) I was scanning through my previous posts and wanted to keep up to date with the news of our first year over here.
Everything was seemingly OK with the kids daycare, until 2 things happened. The first was that Sophie's main teacher made it clear to us that she felt she was struggling to make a relationship with Sophie. This became more apparent by her lack of enthusiasm when greeting Sophie in the morning, and when discussing her at pick up. Now Sophie can sometimes be picky about who she wants to be held by, especially when tired first thing in the morning, but she's a happy kid on the whole and has a thousand-watt smile that is hard to resist. This rang some alarm bells.
The second difficulty was a letter we received home, written in the owner's inimitably confusing style, which concluded with the brief statements that the centre would close at 5pm and that the fees (which we already felt were high) were to be increased by 5% in September. Given that we'd already had some trouble being late for 5.15, the early closure would mean even higher fees.
This meant that we were on the market for a new daycare. Whilst my parents were visiting, we drove through the town where my school is and we spotted a daycare literally on the other side of the road to my school. I investigated and found that it had spaces. It also felt much more like Jake's daycare back in Leeds, with plenty of kid artwork on the wall, small seats even in the infant section and lots of toys in the outdoor areas. The best part is that they feed her as part of the fees!
More tricky to organize was Jake. We're moving to a town with just under 4000 people, and one school that runs the gamut from K - 8, so daycare options there are limited. We were keen to have him start there, however, as this time next year he'll be starting kindergarten (given the spate of "first day at Reception" photos I've seen on Facebook, I feel quite relieved that he's got another year before formal schooling starts). Eventually we found an in-home care which also runs the before and after school care at Strafford school. Not only will Jake get good pre-k support, but he'll also start visiting school as part of this club in January, meaning that he'll already have an idea of where his kindergarten is and who will be in his class.
All of this has taken some time to organise, including who will drop off and pick up the kids on different days. However, the benefits include: Me leaving my classroom at 4.55 and cuddling Sophie at 5.00, no time limits on picking either kid up and no charges for not attending over the summer vacation. We should end up saving a bit of money in the short run, and even more when they turn 2 and 5 next summer. Going on vacation to Europe will suddenly save us $450 a week! Both kids seem to be enjoying the transition, and Sophie even gave her keyworker a cuddle this morning instead of screaming the house down. Watch this space for more developments in the future, but we think we've found a good system that works.
Tuesday, 6 September 2016
Hiking: Kids of the River
Initially, when I found out that Barrington had a town forest, I laughed until I cried. Given that this town of 48 square miles (Milton Keynes, my hometown is 34 square miles for comparison) must at least 75% trees, the idea of having a dedicated section of this as a "town forest" seemed like a waste of time. However, the more I live here and see how much land each housing development takes up (our new home has just over 1.5 acres, for example), and the idea of having sections of the town that are protected from development makes much more sense.
As part of my effort to become fitter, and also as my natural curiosity about my surroundings kicks in, I wanted to see what trails existed in Barrington for me to explore with the kids. This led me here:
http://www.barringtonconcom.org/Barringtons_Trails_%26_Conserved_Lands.html
Apart from wanting to join this association (I wonder if they have one for Strafford, our new home town?), I was instantly intrigued by the listing of 16 tracks of land that are town protected, and in particular the 12 trails that are linked. Always one for a good project, I started looking into these, and whilst none of them will represent a huge day hike, they all look emminently doable with a baby in a backpack and my son by my side.
So that brings us to today. It's the 4th of September and 75 degrees outside (a delightfully warm temperature without being too hot) and the humidity of previous weeks seems to have gone for now. Jake was snoozing, so I decided to take Sophie out for our first adventure, labelled Kids of the River.
This is a short hike towards the Isinglass River, one of the many waterways that crisscross Barrington, and one of my favorites, mainly because of it's middle earth sounding name. It's also shallow enough to play in and deep enough to canoe in (in a year that didn't have a drought). The trail itself starts less than 10 minutes drive from our house, though the sign is a little small, and you have to know that it's there to find it.
However, once you've parked up, the woods of New Hampshire are there for the taking. The path runs behind some houses (with some less than friendly signage), before heading left into the forest proper and towards the Isinglass. At the time of writing, the Barrington library has taken the book Sal's Blueberries and planted the pages on placards every 50 feet or so along the trial. I really want to take Jake on the hike before they remove it as I think it's a cute idea.
As part of my effort to become fitter, and also as my natural curiosity about my surroundings kicks in, I wanted to see what trails existed in Barrington for me to explore with the kids. This led me here:
http://www.barringtonconcom.org/Barringtons_Trails_%26_Conserved_Lands.html
Apart from wanting to join this association (I wonder if they have one for Strafford, our new home town?), I was instantly intrigued by the listing of 16 tracks of land that are town protected, and in particular the 12 trails that are linked. Always one for a good project, I started looking into these, and whilst none of them will represent a huge day hike, they all look emminently doable with a baby in a backpack and my son by my side.
So that brings us to today. It's the 4th of September and 75 degrees outside (a delightfully warm temperature without being too hot) and the humidity of previous weeks seems to have gone for now. Jake was snoozing, so I decided to take Sophie out for our first adventure, labelled Kids of the River.
This is a short hike towards the Isinglass River, one of the many waterways that crisscross Barrington, and one of my favorites, mainly because of it's middle earth sounding name. It's also shallow enough to play in and deep enough to canoe in (in a year that didn't have a drought). The trail itself starts less than 10 minutes drive from our house, though the sign is a little small, and you have to know that it's there to find it.
After the turn, the path runs in a straight line through the woods before bearing left at 90 degrees about a quarter of a mile in. The path is unmistakable, if nothing else for the story placards along it.
However, for those feeling more adventurous, there is a marked "white" trail up a hill just after the "red" trail leaves the houses. It runs uphill for a couple of hundred yards before depositing you on a rocky outcrop which is quite beautiful in the dappled sunlight.
The white trail then runs downhill and brings you out just at the end of the red trail, where you'll find a picnic table next to the babbling Isinglass. It's a secluded spot and one that is ideally suited for a snack for hungry walkers. As we didn't have Jake with us, we simply signed the visitors book and turned for home, ready to return with more walkers and some smackerels for the picnic table.
As I walked back to the car, I ruminated on the fact that the walk would not have felt out of place in the UK, if it wasn't for the fact that there, the edge of the forest would have been fairly close and there would have been a dozen other families on the route. Here, the forest continues for miles in all directions and the trail is a small project run by some school kids and the local library. These will be a very different series of hikes.
Wednesday, 24 August 2016
Reminders
I struggled to come up with a suitable title for this post. I wanted to talk about a couple of things this last week that have made me think about the UK, and I would normally think about this as being homesick. However, that's the wrong word because I don't particularly miss the UK (the people there for sure) and being homesick implies that we're here temporarily, to return one day. While that may be true down the line, we've set up home here and the UK is now somewhere we'll visit on holiday, rather somewhere to return back to. Therefore, I can't be homesick in the traditional sense of the word. This is why I chose "reminders" as these things reminded of our life in the UK and made me smile in remembrance.
The first was a British tea party hosted by one of my new friends at school. For clarification, the tea party was held by an American with a strong British affiliation, and the decor and little touches were fantastic, right down to the white bread cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off. However, the reminder that stirred me was the sausage rolls. There's something visceral about pastry and meat together, but had you asked me before to name a food that I missed from the UK, it wouldn't have immediately come to mind. However, as soon as I bit through the puff pastry, my mind raced 3000 miles away into Greggs, and I realized that good sausage rolls and pasties would be hard to come by over here.
The second reminder came as part of a long winded saga with our new doctor's practice over here. We've been trying to catch up Sophie's immunisations since she turned one, but trying to convince them to use the little red book that everyone gets in the UK with their baby has been hard. I ended up having to call our doctor's surgery in Leeds and was greeted by a lass with a broad Yorkshire accent. Now, I've had to make calls to the UK before, but always ended up in some Scottish/London/Indian call centre. I've also talked to my friends and families multiple times, but there's something instantly soothing and smile-making about the Yorkshire accent. It made me smile for the rest of the day, and I had to use my best Yorkshire voice when relaying the story to my wife.
There will be more reminders as the months and years go by over here, and each of them will make me remember different parts of our life in the UK, and hopefully each one will make me smile as much as the first two.
The first was a British tea party hosted by one of my new friends at school. For clarification, the tea party was held by an American with a strong British affiliation, and the decor and little touches were fantastic, right down to the white bread cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off. However, the reminder that stirred me was the sausage rolls. There's something visceral about pastry and meat together, but had you asked me before to name a food that I missed from the UK, it wouldn't have immediately come to mind. However, as soon as I bit through the puff pastry, my mind raced 3000 miles away into Greggs, and I realized that good sausage rolls and pasties would be hard to come by over here.
The second reminder came as part of a long winded saga with our new doctor's practice over here. We've been trying to catch up Sophie's immunisations since she turned one, but trying to convince them to use the little red book that everyone gets in the UK with their baby has been hard. I ended up having to call our doctor's surgery in Leeds and was greeted by a lass with a broad Yorkshire accent. Now, I've had to make calls to the UK before, but always ended up in some Scottish/London/Indian call centre. I've also talked to my friends and families multiple times, but there's something instantly soothing and smile-making about the Yorkshire accent. It made me smile for the rest of the day, and I had to use my best Yorkshire voice when relaying the story to my wife.
There will be more reminders as the months and years go by over here, and each of them will make me remember different parts of our life in the UK, and hopefully each one will make me smile as much as the first two.
Sunday, 21 August 2016
21st Century Homesteading - some lessons learned
With only a week left of the summer vacation (or "my relaxed life in America" as I've learned to call it), the garden here is also starting to wind down. We recently picked the last of the cukes, zucchini and summer squash, the basil has gone and the sunflowers all now have their heads. The tomatoes and peppers are still going strong, so we've still got some picking left, but I wanted to record some things I've learned to think about for my own patch next year.
1. Grow what you like
This year, we've grown lots of different vegetables, most of which I like to eat, but some, like the summer squash, I've not been a big fan of. Now admittedly it's not my garden, so I've been very much under the guidance of Kelsey's mother who has her own preferences, but for next year, I want to make sure that I'm excited to eat everything that comes off the land. Next year, I definitely want to be a position to make a meal fully out of the garden, so that will involve growing my own onions, garlic and salad leaves, as well as the tomato, basil, cukes and zucchini from this year.
2. Grow what you need
Today I put the final pieces of zucchini into some zucchini bread (my best effort yet!), and whilst it's been a tasty adventure through many zucchini recipes (including zucchini spaghetti with a spiralizer - tomato based sauces only!), we've still had throw multiple ones in the compost because we couldn't eat/use them quick enough. Whilst there's no official food wastage involved as they'll simply get reused to kick start next year's crop, there's part of me that cringes about throwing away good food.
The difficult here is that they tend to sell the seedlings in 4 packs, and whilst they don't look big and intimidating in the garden centre, each zucchini plant spread around 6 feet in diameter. Multiply this by a similar spread from the cukes and summer squash and suddenly the 300ish square feet of garden becomes much smaller. Whether the answer is to discard those that we don't need, or find other keen gardeners to take the unwanted seedlings, I'm not sure, but I do know that I want to maximise the efficiency of the lot next year.
3. Keep pictures of the final product
I was incredibly excited to discover that I could grow fresh chillies outside here, as the temperature gets hot enough for most varieties to grow to full height. My friend Matt wages an annual war in his greenhouse to make them grow, so having them as a simple part of my garden has been satisfying. However, I've run into problems as whilst I know what a ripe tomato or zucchini is meant to look like, there's at least two species of chilli out there that I only know by name, and I'm not sure when I should be picking them. Pictures on the internet are ok, but when the shade difference is from light green to yellow, it's hard. For some, however, my wife's mother put the label that came with the seedlings into the ground, and this has made it easier to recognise the fruit and when it's ready to be picked. Whether I keep the tags inside or out next year, I want to make sure I recognise the ripe goods when I see them.
4. Soil composition
We've had a particular problem with end rot in the zucchini and summer squash plants this year, and a couple of the tomato plants withered a fair bit before bearing fruit. All our research points to a lack of nutrients in the soil. This may be because there's a lot of big plants growing together, or that there's been a chronic lack of rain this year in New Hampshire, or simply that the soil is old and needs refreshing. In any case, I want to start my research early about the soil preferences of each of the vegetables that I want to grow so that I can prepare my fresh beds with the optimum composition of minerals and natural fertilisers.
5. Keep it organic
I've never really understood/thought about the organic movement in any great detail until we started discussing the vegetable patch this year. My wife's mother is a great proponent of pesticide free gardening and I've bought wholesale into this idea. Not only does it mean that the kids can eat straight off the plants, but it will help with our bee keeping project next year. It does mean a bit more time watching out for bugs and finding natural fertilisers for the soil, but it fits with my homesteading ideals, so it will be coming with me next year.
As we wade through chilis and tomatoes over the next month, think of me with a massive smile on my face each time I make a bolognese with just a few less ingredients from a supermarket.
1. Grow what you like
This year, we've grown lots of different vegetables, most of which I like to eat, but some, like the summer squash, I've not been a big fan of. Now admittedly it's not my garden, so I've been very much under the guidance of Kelsey's mother who has her own preferences, but for next year, I want to make sure that I'm excited to eat everything that comes off the land. Next year, I definitely want to be a position to make a meal fully out of the garden, so that will involve growing my own onions, garlic and salad leaves, as well as the tomato, basil, cukes and zucchini from this year.
2. Grow what you need
Today I put the final pieces of zucchini into some zucchini bread (my best effort yet!), and whilst it's been a tasty adventure through many zucchini recipes (including zucchini spaghetti with a spiralizer - tomato based sauces only!), we've still had throw multiple ones in the compost because we couldn't eat/use them quick enough. Whilst there's no official food wastage involved as they'll simply get reused to kick start next year's crop, there's part of me that cringes about throwing away good food.
The difficult here is that they tend to sell the seedlings in 4 packs, and whilst they don't look big and intimidating in the garden centre, each zucchini plant spread around 6 feet in diameter. Multiply this by a similar spread from the cukes and summer squash and suddenly the 300ish square feet of garden becomes much smaller. Whether the answer is to discard those that we don't need, or find other keen gardeners to take the unwanted seedlings, I'm not sure, but I do know that I want to maximise the efficiency of the lot next year.
3. Keep pictures of the final product
I was incredibly excited to discover that I could grow fresh chillies outside here, as the temperature gets hot enough for most varieties to grow to full height. My friend Matt wages an annual war in his greenhouse to make them grow, so having them as a simple part of my garden has been satisfying. However, I've run into problems as whilst I know what a ripe tomato or zucchini is meant to look like, there's at least two species of chilli out there that I only know by name, and I'm not sure when I should be picking them. Pictures on the internet are ok, but when the shade difference is from light green to yellow, it's hard. For some, however, my wife's mother put the label that came with the seedlings into the ground, and this has made it easier to recognise the fruit and when it's ready to be picked. Whether I keep the tags inside or out next year, I want to make sure I recognise the ripe goods when I see them.
4. Soil composition
We've had a particular problem with end rot in the zucchini and summer squash plants this year, and a couple of the tomato plants withered a fair bit before bearing fruit. All our research points to a lack of nutrients in the soil. This may be because there's a lot of big plants growing together, or that there's been a chronic lack of rain this year in New Hampshire, or simply that the soil is old and needs refreshing. In any case, I want to start my research early about the soil preferences of each of the vegetables that I want to grow so that I can prepare my fresh beds with the optimum composition of minerals and natural fertilisers.
5. Keep it organic
I've never really understood/thought about the organic movement in any great detail until we started discussing the vegetable patch this year. My wife's mother is a great proponent of pesticide free gardening and I've bought wholesale into this idea. Not only does it mean that the kids can eat straight off the plants, but it will help with our bee keeping project next year. It does mean a bit more time watching out for bugs and finding natural fertilisers for the soil, but it fits with my homesteading ideals, so it will be coming with me next year.
As we wade through chilis and tomatoes over the next month, think of me with a massive smile on my face each time I make a bolognese with just a few less ingredients from a supermarket.
Thursday, 21 July 2016
State of the union - 100 days
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.
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.
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!
Friday, 24 June 2016
Voting
This started as a Facebook post, but a) it will be waaay too long for most people to read on there and b) it touches and mingles on some other issues that I think belong better on this blog instead.
So let's start with the EU referendum. One major source of frustration is that whilst I followed all the rules for registering for a postal vote, and it was officially handed to the Royal Mail in time, I didn't receive it. Despite nagging, querying and chasing, I ended up without a say in the most important vote of a generation. I feel gutted by this, not because it would have made a difference, but because without a vote, there's no point in living in a democracy. Hopefully it will be resolved by the next vote.
Onto the Brexit outcome. I've seen a couple of my friends on Facebook post thought-provoking items about how, in essence, last night was democracy in action and we should start to learn how to live with the decision, so we shouldn't be sad or frustrated and definitely shouldn't be hurling abuse at the supporters of the other side. I agree with these sentiments entirely, but I still can't get rid of the sadness that the result implies to me. My sister posted this article from the Guardian: http://bit.ly/296Awev which accepts the results but puts into words my sadness:
"We are also diminished. Our politics are poisoned, our discourse is fragile, our leaders are discredited. Facts ceased to matter, knowledge ceased to be valued, compassion appeared to evaporate. As large majorities for one side or the other racked up in various parts of the country it became clear that for many of us, beyond our families, we didn’t just disagree with the other side. We literally didn’t know them. Britain is not greater for this decision and this campaign but smaller, weaker and more vulnerable."
The rest of the article is well written and thoughtful, but this section stuck out to me. The Brexit vote may work out or it may catastrophically fail. In either case, we are a country divided, with over half willing to sacrifice the rest on the basis of mis-represented truths and perceptions.
When Michael Gove was allowed to say "people are fed up of listening to experts" without condemnation or judgement, it makes me worry for our future as a species. When within 2 hours of the referendum result, the claims on £350 million being spent on the NHS instead of the EU and that leaving the EU would reduce our immigration fears had both been retracted, it makes me worry that politics is just becoming a game where you can say whatever you want without being accountable for it.
This became startlingly clear with the murder of Jo Cox, where the fear and hatred being stirred up by the debates were being used to gain votes without a second thought that these feelings were being internalised by millions.
This brings me to why I decided to put these thoughts on my blog about moving and living in America. There is a similar pattern of mis-truths and false reporting going on in the presidential election, with an ever increasing fear that Donald Trump could end up as leader of this country. Again, it won't be for anyone to throw insults or complain about the democratic process if he wins, but it will mark a divergence in the vision for America. Hillary will continue the liberal legacy of Obama and those before him, whilst Trump makes the world a smaller, more suspicious and less trusting place.
I hope that the Democrats look at what happened last night and learn the lessons. There are lots of angry, frightened people out there who need to be listened to and convinced that voting Trump isn't an appropriate way of "sticking it to the man". I hope that the election campaign doesn't run on fear, mis-truths and mudslinging. I hope not to feel the sadness and desperation that I feel now.
I hope all of these things as once again I will be a spectator in the democratic process, watching and listening without speaking.
So let's start with the EU referendum. One major source of frustration is that whilst I followed all the rules for registering for a postal vote, and it was officially handed to the Royal Mail in time, I didn't receive it. Despite nagging, querying and chasing, I ended up without a say in the most important vote of a generation. I feel gutted by this, not because it would have made a difference, but because without a vote, there's no point in living in a democracy. Hopefully it will be resolved by the next vote.
Onto the Brexit outcome. I've seen a couple of my friends on Facebook post thought-provoking items about how, in essence, last night was democracy in action and we should start to learn how to live with the decision, so we shouldn't be sad or frustrated and definitely shouldn't be hurling abuse at the supporters of the other side. I agree with these sentiments entirely, but I still can't get rid of the sadness that the result implies to me. My sister posted this article from the Guardian: http://bit.ly/296Awev which accepts the results but puts into words my sadness:
"We are also diminished. Our politics are poisoned, our discourse is fragile, our leaders are discredited. Facts ceased to matter, knowledge ceased to be valued, compassion appeared to evaporate. As large majorities for one side or the other racked up in various parts of the country it became clear that for many of us, beyond our families, we didn’t just disagree with the other side. We literally didn’t know them. Britain is not greater for this decision and this campaign but smaller, weaker and more vulnerable."
The rest of the article is well written and thoughtful, but this section stuck out to me. The Brexit vote may work out or it may catastrophically fail. In either case, we are a country divided, with over half willing to sacrifice the rest on the basis of mis-represented truths and perceptions.
When Michael Gove was allowed to say "people are fed up of listening to experts" without condemnation or judgement, it makes me worry for our future as a species. When within 2 hours of the referendum result, the claims on £350 million being spent on the NHS instead of the EU and that leaving the EU would reduce our immigration fears had both been retracted, it makes me worry that politics is just becoming a game where you can say whatever you want without being accountable for it.
This became startlingly clear with the murder of Jo Cox, where the fear and hatred being stirred up by the debates were being used to gain votes without a second thought that these feelings were being internalised by millions.
This brings me to why I decided to put these thoughts on my blog about moving and living in America. There is a similar pattern of mis-truths and false reporting going on in the presidential election, with an ever increasing fear that Donald Trump could end up as leader of this country. Again, it won't be for anyone to throw insults or complain about the democratic process if he wins, but it will mark a divergence in the vision for America. Hillary will continue the liberal legacy of Obama and those before him, whilst Trump makes the world a smaller, more suspicious and less trusting place.
I hope that the Democrats look at what happened last night and learn the lessons. There are lots of angry, frightened people out there who need to be listened to and convinced that voting Trump isn't an appropriate way of "sticking it to the man". I hope that the election campaign doesn't run on fear, mis-truths and mudslinging. I hope not to feel the sadness and desperation that I feel now.
I hope all of these things as once again I will be a spectator in the democratic process, watching and listening without speaking.
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