Ready to go...well almost

My lovely shiny new wallet and passport holder from Radley arrived yesterday so now all I need is a bunch of shiny credit cards to go with it and I'm ready for America!

In other news - Jelte's driving licence arrived safe and sound in San Francisco wednesday morning, so he is off to pick up our rental car. 

Alfie was a brave boy and passed his pre flight health check, and will be sleeping in his crate for the first time tonight...

Until next time...
 

Our San Francisco Corporate Housing is looking pretty good

Jelte has arrived safe and sound in San Francisco and managed to get to our temporary flat despite the fact that I had his driving licence in my purse. Whoops! Oh well, luckily there are companies who specialise in delivering things so he should get his licence tomorrow morning...

Our Temporary Housing

Judging by the photos Jelte emailed me last night, our new home is looking pretty nice, with a little balcony and even a little food bowl with treats for Alfie. I was worried as the marketing materials showed the flat had cream coloured carpets (imagine keeping them clean, competing with four muddy paws) but its looking pretty good. Our plan is to stay in this flat until our own furniture arrive & we can find a flat of our own...

Meanwhile in London

Alfie is getting to grips with staying in his crate for short periods of time with the door shut. His initial comments went along the lines of "Roooooo  wooooooof wooof, let me out of here you bitch", but later he went back in the crate by his own initiative so he seems to be coping well. 

I have sprayed Alfie's bedding with a calming spray called Adaptil which is supposed to reduce stress and make him feel happy inside. With all the stress of the move I'm thinking of drinking the whole bottle myself before checking him in on the plane! :-) 

Alfie will be on the same plane as me, but he will be travelling in his crate along with the luggage. I know he will be safe and comfortable in there, but I have a feeling I will still listen out for his rooo'ing over the jet engines as soon as our flight takes off.

Here are some more pics of the flat:

Preparations & List Making

So as the big date for our move is drawing closer, we find ourselves incredibly busy trying to get organised. We've had our leaving party already, the VISA's are sorted and now its just a matter of figuring out the final logistics.

The big plan is as follows

The whole move is following a big masterplan consisting of hundreds of 'todo's' laid out in a neat planning tool called Teux Deux. Yes its geeky, but if you're planning to move two people and a dog across the atlantic you have to be.

The pub we had our leaving do in decided that the party was just for me as they couldn't spell Jelte's name!

Jelte is flying to San Francisco in a couple of days on the 14th, and Alfie and I follow on the 21st. That leaves only a couple of days working what he should bring in his luggage, what I should take and what can go in the big move.

Jelte is going a week earlier than me and Alfie so he can arrange the practicalities like getting dog food, a rental car and anything else before picking us up at the airport.

In the meantime, over in the UK,  I'll make sure that Alfie gets his final vet checks, and that the flat gets rented out and making sure that Alfie is used to staying in his crate before the flight.

We have arranged for the movers to come and pack up our flat after Alfie and I have left for the airport as we don't want the dog to get upset by having strangers going through our stuff.

Temporary Flat

We are going to stay in a temporary flat in the SOMA district for the first two months while we're waiting for our furniture and stuff to be shipped over, so we need to make sure we pack the right things in our check in luggage. While we're staying there we will of course start looking for a flat somewhere in the Cow Hollow or Marina District which is where we'd like to live eventually.

That's it for now - the next update is likely to come from across the pond.

Getting a bank account in the US - surprisingly easy

 

Planning ahead for our move in October we thought it might be a good idea to set up a bank account in the US whilst on holiday in San Francisco. 

I remember how incredibly difficult it was to get a bank account when we moved to London, and thought it would be just as difficult here in the US. I still remember the snotty receptionist at Natwest turning my Polish friend Ania's application down because the cover of her passport was worn. And that was before she even got to see a banker! Jelte had to call about a hundred UK banks before finally finding the UK branch of his Swedish bank, willing to take him on as a customer.

American Bank Account requirements

Turns out, as long as you have money to deposit, an American bank will be happy to open an account for you straight away. All we needed to show was the following:

1. Two types of Id - we brought our passports and driving licences

2. A letter from Jelte's employer

3. An address in the US where the bank can send the bank cards - the employer address is fine.

All in all the process took about an hour and a half, and when we left we had both bank account and Internet banking set up. Easy peasy.

On our way out we saw a little dog leading his human to the dog biscuit bowl, demanding a treat for his good behaviour in the bank. Very cute...

San Francisco Neighborhoods

Tried and Tested South London Neighbourhoods 

When we moved to London all those years ago we didn't really research which area we might want to move to. In hindsight, we probably should have spent a little more time looking into where we were going.

I (Linda) ended up in some awful student accommodation all the way out in Eltham where I had to share a flat with six stinking students and a pigeon and her egg (we left the windows open and she moved in). Jelte found a horrible flat in the London Bridge area where he nearly got mugged and his landlord tried to trick him into paying her outstanding electricity bills. Oh and lets not forget there was only a bath tub and no shower in that flat. 

Since then, we've tried and tested pretty much every south London postcode on the map before finally settling in wonderful Putney a couple of years ago. And yes we do have a decent shower now!

San Francisco Neighborhoods 

So what's all this got to do with San Francisco? Probably nothing, or possibly everything. This time around we've done lots more research into areas we might want to live in and we have a loooong list of requirements including dog friendliness, closeness to restaurants and shops, and safety. Oh, and we want to live close to the sea too.

We went to San Francisco earlier this year and did a tour of all the residential areas that fit our rough criteria. With a population of just over 800,000,  San Francisco is tiny on the map compared to London but there are still so many neighborhoods (did you notice the American spelling?) with their own 'personalities and styles', just like in London.

On our tour of the city we liked Cow Hollow and the Marina district the most, and that's where we'll be staying when we go to San Francisco next week for our next research trip. Watch out for lots of photos on Facebook.

Our Holiday Reading List - All about San Francisco

• San Francisco City guide
• San Francisco and the Bay Area Rough Guide
• Tales of the City  by Armistead Maupin
• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick

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!