In the town, where I was born...

Hello hello lovely people uber much has happened since my last post so I shall not even attempt to fill you in on everything. Life is quite good at the moment though. Work is going well and I am continuing to learn a lot, and my colleagues are great. It's definitely humbling trying to come off as knowledgeable about systems that I only have a basic knowledge of. My friend and I have drifted into nerddom and overachieverdom though and attempted to begin study sessions to increase our knowledge so that we don't come across as complete idiots. So far these sessions have only been 1/2 way successful as they are fairly disorganized and probably filled with more talk than studying.

Since my last post there has been lots of family time. I went to the U.S. at the end of May for my brother's wedding! I now have an awesome new sister in-law. The family also came over to the grand old U.K. to celebrate my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary earlier this month. It was so great to spend time with the family, and friends on both of these occasions, and it's crazy to see how our lives are changing so much!

One of the highlights of my time here I have to say was the Saturday that I went to Wimbledon and Bon Jovi... It was fantastic!!! My friend had a friend of hers visiting from the U.S. and she invited me to join them and her boyfriend for the day as her boyfriend had already gotten the Bon Jovi tickets before her friend had informed her of her visit. I'm not a huge Bon Jovi fan but I have to say that they are amazing in concert, like seriously one of the best I've been to!

If you know me at all you know my love for Wimbledon and how far it goes so this visit was one of my top 10 goals achieved right there. I will definitely have to go again and plan a little better as the queue was ridiculous and I have since found out some secrets, but the experience was fabulous and amazing!!!

Well I will try to update more often from now on but laziness does overcome me at times unfortunately, it is a sad truth!!!

You don't understand what it's like being the only newbie in the village...

I'm not even going to bother apologizing for not updating more regularly because... well it's just a waste of space, so in lieu of taking up space here actually apologizing I will just talk about not apologizing. Makes sense right????

Anyway dear readers, life has been ticking along rather swimmingly. The job has been rather crazy. Several of my cases seem to have enjoyed blowing up in my face and slapping me around for good measure. In the interest of not divulging too much information I will just say that for one of my cases I had to go with my co-worker Tom to take a child to live with her grandparents in Wales. Before the trip we discussed the multiple ways the trip could go but fortunately she ended up being an angel and just sat in the back seat and slept. Tom and I even got to bond through hours of good conversation and laughter over being the strangers in a very small Welsh town. Let's just say we walked in to a pub for some grub and every head turned to see who these two strangers were and what the hell they were doing walking into this exclusive pub. Our accommodation was also spectacularly sketchy. We dubbed my room the D.V. Room (Domestic Violence Room) as there were holes all over the walls. Wales is beautiful though and worth another trip. Overall my cases are not bad though, they just never end up being as straight forward as they should be and end up taking way longer than they should. It is good to be busy though!

Outside of work life has been going well. I appear to be spending most of my time either in London or Maidstone at the moment as I have several friends who live in the Maidstone area, and London is just always a happening place to meet up with people. Four of us; my co-worker David, his roommate Jonas and another U.S. recruit Robyn, have developed a habit of hanging out quite a bit in their area of Maidstone on the weekends. It's always a fun time of hanging out and making fun of each other.

My co-worker Tom and his fiancee Laura have been trying to get me to join their running club too. They meet at 8am every Saturday for a 4K (2 1/2 mile) run at a mall about 5 minutes from my flat. I have gone once and do plan on continuing but must say that it is not easy to find the motivation to go. I have been a little slack with this and my regular gym routine so I do need to step it up for sure!

The good the bad and the ugly!

One of my friends and fellow VCU grad's asked me awhile back about the differences in Social Work in the UK and the US. I don't know how qualified I am to really give an analysis of the differences yet but I will go ahead and discuss them from my limited experience.

I think one of the biggest factors is the welfare benefits that families can receive in the UK. Parents can get a monthly stipend for each child no matter their income, actual homelessness appears to be quite rare too as there is so much housing assistance out there, and they have no medical expenses to worry about. I must say that it is worrying what will happen with the new government here. So many people rely on these services that I don't even want to think about what could happen if spending on social services is cut.

I've been talking to a lot of people over here about the healthcare situation in the U.S. recently. I have to say that it has made me feel better about it as I don't feel so crazy for despising the U.S. healthcare system and seeing the ridiculousness of it. Granted the NHS has some major flaws but at least EVERYONE freaking gets decent basic healthcare. There is no picking and choosing, everyone gets the same. The British are just completely flabbergasted by the U.S. system and ask me "well what do people do when they can't afford it", and I say "they file for bankruptcy".

Anyway, I will continue to update as a discover more system differences to discuss but that is all for now!

Red Tape

Today I had to go for an "interview" to get my National Insurance number so soon I should be allowed to get sick, become unemployed, and receive benefits. If I continue to work I should also be able to collect a pension someday! Since I took a 1/2 day I also registered with GP (general practitioner), I now have to wait a week to see if I'm accepted and can go to them for my healthcare needs. Not only that... I got an absurd amount of money taken out of my last paycheck for taxes because I had yet to send in a form with my new UK address. Oh the red tape, the red tape!!! I have to say though, I think the red tape is more understandable here than it is in the U.S. I mean really... you can get so so much from the government here that they have to make you do something for it! I am not organized/motivated enough to keep up with it though so I'll be glad when it's all done and I can just work and live!

Anyway, so I am now about a month into my employment and without a doubt I am definitely keeping busy! Last week I went on my first assessments which ended up not being as nerve- wracking as I thought they would be which was surprising! I am usually very anxious and nervous when I'm starting a new thing but honestly I think the pressure is low right now because I am new so I feel like people will be understanding if I do something slightly wrong so I'm staying calm. I don't have any "Child Protection" cases, which are the most severe cases, yet either as I haven't been trained so my current cases are quite low maintenance. Right now my main concern is trying to learn all the community resources and the jargon and lingo for everything. Community resources are the be-all-and -end-all of social work so not knowing what's out there is more than a little frustrating.

I am not alone in my newbie status though which is fabulous! My co-worker David started about a month before I did. He is a recruit from Sweden. The Council not only scoured the U.S. for suckers, they also went all over Europe! It's nice to have someone else around who is in the same position at the office. I don't feel so ignorant as he is just a clueless! Our combined ignorance isn't good when trying to find the unfamiliar addresses of clients however. Anyway, that does it for now! Just a shout out to the grand old U.S. congress for taking one small step towards true greatness and passing the healthcare bill last night!!!

Where are you going?????

Yet again unfortunately I have slacked off like crazy with the updates, so sorry! So much has happened I don't even know where to begin. Perhaps a quick note on my flat, car, and job for now then my next post will be more reflective which is what this whole blog thing was meant to be. My flat is amazing. I live in a two bedroom place in Greenhithe, Dartford, Kent (if you want the address let me know!). I live with the landlord who is very nice and has been so helpful. It's worked well!

I got my car, a Toyota Yaris about a week ago and I must say there is nothing like driving a new car. I do miss my Ron but our time together was most definitely up and our separation was well overdue. Driving has been a feat! My first day with the car I took my fellow newbie co-worker David to his first solo interview as he has yet to receive his car. My new GPS decided to just never work properly (got exchanged this weekend) so we were left with google map directions and our superior navigation skills to get us there. Well ok most of you know I lack navigation skills so we relied on David's skills. Needless to say they weren't too much better on this trip and we failed, having to call the office in shame to get directions... I must say in our defense though that the English aren't big fans of road signs which makes it hard to know where to turn right on "Main Street" when you can't even see "Main Street". The upside of the trip however was our finding of a lorry with a naked blowup doll stuck to the back.

Work has been pretty standard, for a first week that is. Everyone has been really good to me and I do believe it will be a more than fabulous work environment. The work seems manageable and they seem to really want us to stay so I feel good. about the situation I need to make sure that I don't put too much pressure on myself though. I have a habit of putting unrealistic expectations on how long I should take to learn a new job.

Well, that's all for now! I promise the next post will be more reflective and not so diary-like!

What can I say...

Many apologies for my lack for update dear readers. Lot's has happened in the week that I have been in the great UK. My home search has been a bit of a headache perhaps somewhat of my own doing. I viewed some fantastic places in both Dartford and Sevenoaks. Dartford is cheaper so I settled on that pretty quickly I mean I'm a Social Work $60,000 in debt with school loans... Spare money can evade me quite easily if I'm not careful. I did only view one bedroom places though so after talking it over with other people and thinking about it more I have a place lined up but will be viewing a 2 bedroom place that I would be sharing with the landlord tonight that looks fantastic and is well cheaper than the other places I was looking at so my fingers are cross! Will keep you all posted on how it goes.

I met up with Emma in London on Friday evening and had a fantastic time. It's was hard to believe that I wasn't just visiting and we were able to actually make future plans to hangout. We went to an Indian Vegetarian restaurant that was really good, highly recommended. Emma said that we could either take the tube or walk and we voted for walk which may or may not have been the smartest choice. She knew the way there but wanted to see if another way might get us there quicker. Well, after fighting our way through Soho and checking Emma's phone map about a million times Emma's directional landmarks... sex shops... got us there and we made it to Tottenham Court Road Station which is the area the restaurant is in.

I met everyone else who came over with me from the U.S. on Sunday evening and everyone is so friendly. We all have similar anxieties and concerns so it's great to be with everyone and talk to people about things. Right now it kind of feels like we're living in dorms or something as we eat most meals and hangout together when we can. It's great especially given the journey that we've all embarked on

Since I arrived early and was able to go out and view places early I had the opportunity to go out to my new office and meet people and shadow some people for a couple of days this week. It was very comforting as everyone seemed really nice and approachable and it doesn't seem like it's as high stressed as most Social Work jobs. No doubt my opinion on that will change but it all seems manageable and I don't feel as much pressure to be perfect as I normally do as everyone is very understanding. Most of my time was spent with the social work assistant on my team and he was a fantastic help and was very open and told me all about the work and the team. Very chatty bloke as they would say here which was definitely what I needed since I want to know all I can about my job and also I'm taking so much in at the moment that I enjoy not having to make forced conversation and just have the opportunity to process everything.

Finally.... Today I drove in the UK for the first time!!! It was a bit nerve-wracking but alas I did it and passed the initial driving assessment although they recommended I do another 2 hours with them to build up my confidence, which I'm actually happy about. I have to say that when I basically stopped driving after Ron's demise a month ago I did not think that my driving skills would be effected but I really don't think it helped that I hadn't driven a manual car in so long! Oh well, with some practice and time I'll be fine and will think nothing of it.

Anyway, I believe I have babbled on enough and have sufficiently bored you all so stay posted for more updates!

It took 16 1/2 years but I've made it!

My times at the airport brought some, but very few, troubles. I made it through check-in and security in record time and sat myself down at the gate my ticket told me I was flying from and began to make some calls to pass the 2 hours I had to kill. Unfortunately good and meaningful conversation distracted me and I guess I missed the announcement that the gate was changed. Eventually, after my parents brought me back to reality and I found the proper gate and waited for the rest of the time. The plane, of course, was about a hour late because the plane was delayed coming in from LA and then needed cleaning. Eventually we made it onto the plan a landed safely in England!

When I first arrived I just couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that I had done it and had arrived in England. It was very overwhelming and I was full of anxiety. The thought of being so far away from family and friends was alot to handle but it was exciting to be driven through London on my way to the hotel in Maidstone and realize that this was not a short-term thing, I am staying for the long-term. I got to the hotel finally and got up to my room where I opened up my suitcases to see how my belongings did on the trip. As I did that I began to feel almost lonely and didn't know where to begin my stay in Maidstone, Kent. After checking out the internet I decided to be bold and ask for directions to the Towne Centre. If you know me at all you know that I am terrible with directions and trying to find my way around an unfamiliar city on my own was a big thing. I did it though as I knew that sitting in the room all day would not be good for me. Walking through the shops and exchanging my money and picking up a few things made me feel very independent and good!

My first day back in England has been great! I feel like I'm taking the next step in life and branching out more than I ever have before. Although I am a very independent person I definitely have had to learn how to put myself out there more and not keep to myself too much. Anyway, stay tuned for continued news for my UK adventures!!!

Staying Zen in all the madness...

So I decided to post again about my travels to my new home in England. Embarking on my new adventure in the UK was a crazy and eventful journey! Mother nature was not cooperative and did it's best to keep me from making it to the airport yesterday. My original plan was to have brunch with Paul and Shannon and my parents, before my parents and I drove up to Mark and Sarah's. I was also supposed to say last minute goodbyes to 3 of my favourites. Then my parents and I were supposed to spend a nice day with Mark, Sarah, and James going to dinner on Saturday and brunch on Sunday. At that point my parents would head home and I would spend some fabulous quality time with Mark, Sarah, and James and fly out on Wednesday night at 10:08 pm. I had also arranged to have dinner with friends on Sunday and Tuesday nights. Alas some of this went as planned but much of it did not...

It all started Friday night when all hell broke lose in Hampton Roads and about 6 inches or so of snow fell. Now of course this never happens there so obviously preparation and clear-up was not what it needed to be. So the decision was made to just hold off on the departure until Sunday at least and most likely Monday. This ended up not being the worst thing to happen as my packing was not going as planned and I needed more time to ensure that I did not go over the luggage weight limit. So plans began to unravel and I was unable to have brunch with Paul and Shannon and had to settle for stopping by their place and saying my goodbyes. Then Joy was unable to stop by on Monday before I left due to work issues, but I was able to visit with Mr. and Mrs. Sluss right before I left which was so nice! The huge decision of who was going to drive me up to NOVA was made and at lunch time and it was decided that my dad would take me on his own. Right before we left my mum noticed that one of my suitcases had a tear. The trip up to NOVA was really good and there were very few issues however upon our arrival at our destination we found that the suitcase had split beyond our repair.

I was fortunately able to reschedule my dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and had a fabulous dinner with them on Monday night instead of Sunday. Tuesday morning I said a tearful goodbye to the father and got to spend some great quality time with the sister-in-law and nephew. Poor little man was pushed a little too much being dragged around looking for replacement luggage. The forecast Tuesday morning brought bad news though as snow was about to take down NOVA but we managed to make it home as more snow began to arrive and due to the forecast I got to have lunch with Jen as well as dinner plans were not looking good. Dinner plans were canceled for Tuesday night as the weather was just not good. Wednesday went as planned though and Sarah, James and I spent more quality time together and I was able to have a nice, albeit anxiety ridden, dinner with the Curtis Family the Sequel. They were then nice enough to help with with my ridiculous luggage and saw me off inside the airport.

Throughout it all I did my best to stay zen and not get upset or anxious about all the things that didn't go as planned and remember that as long as I made it to my flight nothing else matters really. It's not like I will never see people again! Anyway my lovelies that is all for now!

Preparations

The two questions I am getting the most from people as I tell them about my move back to England are... "Are you packed and ready to go" and "Are you excited"? In my preparations for this move I keep on thinking back to our move from England to the U.S. I remember all the little things that my parents had to so such as the endless calls to the embassy to get the work permit situated, and the week we kids spent with our grandparents while our parents packed everything up, just to name a few. These memories are making me feel like there is so much more that I should be doing and that I am not at all prepared enough. Whenever I get anxious about it though I have to keep in mind that we were a family bring all of our things with us, and we did not move with the assistance of an agency. We also did not have the added bonus that I have now of having duel citizenship. It's hard to keep those things in mind but when I think about the things I need to do I am doing ok and feel pretty good about my how ready I am.

The second question of whether I am excited or not is alot harder to answer though. I have a great mix of emotions which I think is only natural. I mean seriously, I am moving away from my amazing family and friends, and also from the life I've known for the last 16 years. That's not easy to do at all but I remind myself that it's really not a whole lot different to my moving to another state or something, and no matter what I did I was going to have to make a life for myself meeting new people and learning and experiencing new things. It's an exciting and scary thing but I'm ecstatic that I get to start this new chapter of my life in my birth country, the country that I have wanted to go back to pretty much since I left it, or at least since the novelty of being in a new country wore off. So to answer the question I am very excited to be moving to England but that excitement comes with a mix of sadness, fear, and anxiety that I think is only normal and I will soon get over it! Well bye bye for now dear readers my next entry will probably be done in the great U.K.!!!