3 years on

The last three years have gone by so quick. Exactly three years ago we would have just landed at SFO. I was super stressed and worried about the dogs and eager to get through immigration and customs and go get them. Our immigration process was quick but felt like it took forever, and we then had to get various paperwork signed before we could pick the dogs up. They were so pleased to see us as we were to see they were alive and well (yes I did have moments on the flight where I imagined going to get them only to be told they didn't survive the flight!)

We are now living in our third house and third location since moving to USA. Our first house was in Burlingame, then we lived in San Francisco (well the outskirts of SF) and now we are living in North Oakland (the nice part!), I think the house we are living in now is probably my favorite and the area is really really nice too, even with all the hills!

When we moved here we were on 3 year visas with the option to renew them, so there was a slim chance that if things didn't go to plan I would have been writing this post from England. Luckily things have gone great and earlier on this year we both got our green cards and became Permanent US residents :) 

Now I am a GC holder I am allowed to work, but so far I have been keeping myself busy volunteering 4 days a week at various organizations.], and doing lots of baking.

A few questions I constantly seem to be asked.

What is different here than in England?  ironically I normally say the weather! but today it is cold and chucking it down just like in England! Yes the weather here is a lot nicer and I think people in general are a lot friendlier too. 

Would I ever move back to England? I'm not saying never, right now life is good here and we have no plans to go back, we have been back each year for a visit and had lots of people come to visit us too. In two weeks we are going back for a visit to celebrate an early Christmas.

Does the home sickness get easier with time? This is a good question, and it's this time of year that I normally feeling it the most, you associate Christmas with families and it is hard when we wake up Christmas morning and we know we won't be seeing anyone (except for on skype), I think that is a feeling that will probably never go away.

Do you consider here your home now? I guess the answer to this would be yes it does now feel like home here, but England will also always be my home too, I spent almost 33 years of my life there, and that accounts for a whole lot for sure. 

What do you miss the most about England? I definitely miss friends and family the most, and appreciate that people do spend time and money coming to visit us. It can be tough when we go back for a visit to see everyone, but we do try our best and we do stay in touch on facebook and skype with people. Yes we have made new friends here, but will never forget our friends back home :) and of course proper cadburys chocolate and Greggs sausage rolls!!

Here's to many more years here (well at least 9.5 as that is how long we have until our GC need renewing)

Love you all xxx