Did you hear the one about the Swede and the Dutchman who moved to San Francisco with their Swiss Dog from London?

Remember that time when we said we’d live in London for a couple of years and then move somewhere else? Believe it or not, but that was 12 years ago now and we’ve enjoyed every second of our time in London. But now its time for a new adventure in sunny California.

New Blog

Welcome to our new blog by the way - or perhaps we should call it scrapbook, travel journal or a bunch of electronic postcards? Whatever you like to call it, the idea is for us to stay in touch with friends and family from all over the world as we take the plunge and move across the pond from London to San Francisco later this October.

We kind of wish we would have started a blog when we moved to London all those years ago, it would have been fab to look back and see what crazy British things are now just part of our everyday lives.

Did you know there is actually a bit of science behind the different phases you go through when you move to a new country? I studied international marketing in Uni and one of the lectures that I remember most clearly is the the one about how expats initially have to deal with culture shock and gradually learn to adapt in their new countries. I think I remember it so well because I had just left the so called ‘honeymoon’ phase and missed Swedish food terribly as my tutor explained the different phases you go through.

The good news is  that the more countries you visit or move to, the easier it becomes to adapt to a new place. This will be Jelte’s third country and my second. If you’re interested to read more about expats and culture shocks, then have a look at this blog.

Our blog will hopefully not get too boring to follow as we talk about all the crazy American things we’ll stumble across and learn to either love or hate!

The Big Move

As you can imagine the move is being planned meticulously and there is already a huge spreadsheet in place with all the plans for what needs to happen and when. So far we’ve ticked off quite a few ‘to do’s:

• Linda has been taking driving lessons so she can get back into driving ‘over there’ (Thank god the roads are wider in the US than in the UK!)
• We’ve found an estate agent who will help us find good tenants for our flat
• We have found a doggie travel agency that will ship Alfie across the pond and he is now being crate trained so he gets used to staying in a crate before his first flight.
• Jelte has filled out a looong form for our Visa applications, including a list of all his flights to the US in the last six years!!!
• Linda has been filling out a ten page form for the US customs about moving all our furniture and things - and that includes a long list of every single item in our flat that needs to be insured.  

That's it for now - over and out!