Also, the first class tickets for the train were totally worth it.
Welcome! Do you have a football team already or are you going to support Bastard Rovers?
I support whatever local football team will not get me beaten up. Otherwise, sport is not my thing.
That would be Blackburn Rovers but that’ll get you beaten up by ME!
In all seriousness you’ll be fine either way. I do recommend a match, it’s a different experience to American sports and it’ll be a useful small talk opportunity. Otherwise you’ll have to talk about the weather all the time.
Welcome to Europe! I moved to Germany almost 20 years ago, and holy batflaps am I happy about that choice.
I hope I will be as happy. Thanks!
Congrats on getting out of here! Good luck on the future!
Wow! You weren’t kidding.
I’m so glad you got out, you’re one of my favorites.
Thank you, and likewise!
I hope y’all can relax soon. I don’t regret having left the US years ago; the only hard parts are not being able to see some family much (though Skype and the like help) and certain foods that just don’t exist here (less of an issue in the UK than Japan), but copycat recipes can get things close.
Isn’t the UK Distopian in other bad ways? Like insane government surveillance and monitoring
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
[Edit] Most countries have pretty bad surveillance. America is unique in projecting bad things on other countries without having any self reflection.
https://aithority.com/news/top-10-countries-and-cities-by-number-of-cctv-cameras/
https://archive.is/2wN7a (Archived copy)
The UK isn’t great, but its not really an outlier compared to anywhere else.
China has at least 200 million cameras installed in the country. … other countries such as the United States and Germany have 50 million and 5.2 million CCTV Cameras each. The list goes on with other countries with more than 1 million cameras. The United Kingdom has 5 million CCTV cameras installed
In fact
The United States has 15.28 CCTV cameras every 100 individuals, followed by China with 14.36 and the United Kingdom with 7.5.
You know what it doesn’t have? People in power wanting to put queer people in conversion therapy or oppress them in other ways. Which is the main reason we moved.
My daughter isn’t trans, she’s a lesbian, but they won’t stop with trans people. They want to erase queerness in America.
This is true. And right now, at least for the next two years, they have every bit of conceivable power there is. The President, the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court. There are no checks and balances of Donald Trump.
We have our problems, but we haven’t just voted a literal fascist into power so we’ve got that going for us
True that
Still remember your post months ago asking for advice for moving. I’m happy it worked out for you and your family squid! Hope you guys can settle down soon (I’m sure there’s tons of paper work and other bullshit) and relax!
Hasn’t quite worked out yet. I still need to find a job (but I have interviews lined up) We came over a little early because we were worried that when the deportation start, everyone who can grab the first plane they came out of the US. We might never get out otherwise.
Wish I could help, but I’m not in UK. Nevertheless, I believe in you and keeping my fingers crossed that you find a job quickly.
I am optimistic. Thanks.
You’ve done right by your daughter. Good luck on the job search!
Thanks!
good to see you didn’t wait to find out, the Berlin wall went up overnight after all.
Hey, I’m in the same job hunting boat, but I’m in Norway! Good luck on your job quest 😊❤️
worried that when the deportation start, everyone who can grab the first plane they came out of the US
The logic is sound. Flights will be snapped up like pandemic loo roll.
That is definitely what I am expecting. Like everything else I am expecting in the next four years, I just hope I’m wrong.
The Nazi salute and the pardoning of all of those January 6th terrorists doesn’t give me much hope.
Good luck, mate.
Glad you got out.
I remember seeing the post about you looking for a job there. Congrats on making it out!
Hey, no crabs are allowed to leave this bucket!
How is the teenager taking it, apart from sleeping on luggage? With leaving behind friends and all that?
She has been an amazing trooper. Other than a breakdown after a really stressful situation where we missed the first train, then got on the wrong train a second time and had to climb up and back down a ton of stairs with our suitcases (understandable at that point) she has really made me proud of her. Especially considering how hard it is for autistic kids dealing with change. We’ll see how she fares tomorrow.
Sounds like somebody earned themselves a really nice new plush toy or whatever kind of thing it is they like!
At this point (and she’s not demanding), I will buy her anything she wants within reason.
Good luck to both of you! If you would like some help I can reccomend Evan Edinger’s videos on his experience migrating to the UK. It may not be useful to a teen though, but he does have a couple videos comparing the UK and US school systems.
Thanks! Always good to have as much research material as possible in these situations.
You did it!! Good on ya.
Hey, congrats for taking that big leap, even if it is to the UK (having lived in a couple of places in Europe including over a decade in the UK, my opinion of the UK is pretty low).
It takes a lot of guts to take yourself out of the environment you know (with all it’s implicit expectations of “this is how people behave”) and move into a different environment were people don’t value the same things, expect the same or behave the same.
Good luck!
Thankfully, due to my British father and grandmother, I know some of the basics. But I still have a lot to learn. Thankfully I’ve got us registered with an NHS clinic (waiting to hear back from them) and just got our new phone numbers.
Yeah, it’s a bit of a headache to figure out all those details if you have nobody to help you, though generally you can figure out a lot of those things by talking to coworkers - as a saying from my country goes “Those who have a mouth can get to Rome”
However the “expectations” I was talking about are more the nitty gritty details of interacting with others in everyday life one isn’t really aware are social conventions (because everybody follows the same version of it as you do in your country, so one naturally thinks that’s just the way people behave in general) until moving to a different country and finding out those things aren’t actually universal.
Things like saying “it’s interesting” when an English person asks you your opinion about something is actually being very critical (you can literally use it as an insult), you’re supposed to stand on the right side of escalators if you’re not walking (especially in a Tube station) or that, unless indicated otherwise, you’re supposed to queue for things if there are other people waiting for it.
Figuring this kind of stuff out is actually quiet an interesting personal growth experience, IMHO.
Where do people not line up for something to wait for it?
It’s pretty common in most countries for things like waiting for the bus to not queue and in some countries people won’t even queue when the bus arrives and they’re trying to go in, and instead just try and jostle their way in.
Often it’s more like not respecting the sanctity of the line. Americans got the tradition of the queue from the Brits. It was a source of constant annoyance when I lived in Germany when people would cut the line and others just let them without objecting.
people would cut the line and others just let them without objecting.
I can’t even imagine that being the case in a place like Germany… Some places sure, but there!?
It was 30 years ago, at least. Can’t speak to today.
Wow, you actually did it! I remember you laying out your plan here on Lemmy a few months ago. Kudos to you
Yeah it was a fun journey to watch it all unfold!
Good luck to you and your family, Squid. You took action!
