First Day In Your New Life

[OberonSH]

(not sure if this is the right forum, but I'm sure Punky will shift it if needs be)

So guys, what did you do on your first day in your new life? Once you stepped off that plane, after your last one way flight?

I'm trying to imagine how it's going to feel, and I really can't imagine what we'll spend the first day doing. Paperwork probably!

[Kriz1]

Hubby was working on the Cape...so me and the kids spent the day in Boston shopping....it was the end of Nov and really warm...he picked us up a few days later...so we could go house hunting and car shopping...

[Hamiltonscot]

Hi,

We spent the first day unpacking and trying to sort out the rental house. We arrived at 10pm and we didn't even have a bed to sleep in. The unpacking took ages though, as I kept taking little breaks to go outside and look at the pool, pond at the back of the house and admire the palm trees and lovely plants around the house.

Enjoy.

Phil
PS 2nd day was paperwork :)

[byjove]

Went straight to mates house in Merritt Island to "chill" before our move to Bradenton (1st place we lived in). January 2004.

[reecey]

Hubby and I arrived seperatly he arrived friday with oldest 2 sons, both dogs arrived saturday and youngest son and I arrived the following Wednesday, first day spent unpacking and meeting our neighbours it was May and lovely as we had just left a rainy UK

[Kriz1]

You have to make the most of those first few weeks...because the feeling of being in the US goes quickly...the little thing you notice that are different...like flags everywhere...driving on the other side of the road...houses and plants etc...become normal....palm trees still do it for me...but then we have very few up here...so FL is still like a different country to me...

[byjove]

I wish we could have bought our old dog with us! He was 15 years old, blind and deaf, the vet advised us not to take him on a flight, he may have passed away during the flight due to stress. So he went to a very good friend of ours that he used to stay with every time we came over here, he had his own bedroom, was allowed on the furniture and had a huge garden to run around. When he did "go" he went VERY happy with his lot. But I do miss him!!!!!! We all cried for ages!

[Kriz1]

We left both our dogs in the UK because we had no home over here...I think we did the best thing for them...we never had the time for pets the first few years here...and I've got used to not having pets now....

[lorraine]

We arrived and couldnt find our house that we had bought lol. We came over in April and bought the house when it wasnt finished. We drove round for ages then phoned our relator who came and found us and took us to the house. We walked in with 2 suit cases and a toilet roll, completely empty home very daunting......... we stayed in a hotel for 2 nights whilst we went and bought loads of furniture.

[SHEILA 13]

We arrived and got lost as you do and found the home at 1am,just layed down and went to sleep then next day went out to visit some friends to chill out and thought "Oh God we are here."

[OberonSH]

How did it feel when the plane was coming down to land? And when you got out of the terminal? Did it strike you that you'd only gone and moved thousands of miles away!

[SHEILA 13]

No not really as long as you have your family and pets if you have any with you.
I love a new adventure.

[lorraine]

It did me, I still feel like that 2 years on lol

[OberonSH]

I suppose thats the good thing about us - I have no family I'd admit to being related to, and his family are all a bit....well..... bonkers. No ties here except the business and a circle of friends - all of whom are booking us for their hols in 2009!!!

I cant wait, especially as the train I catch to work goes straight to Manchester Airport - one day we qon;t be getting off at Scunny, we'll be all the way to the end of the line and I for one will not be looking back.

[kirtida8]

Took ages to get through customs (nearly 4 hours!) and so was panicking about the rental car still being available! Kids saw the size of it and asked if I was going to be OK to drive it - Cheek LOL - mind you we had a Corsa in the UK and so having a Durango SUV was a BIG difference. Had booked an afternoon flight as I hate driving in the dark especially when you dont know where you are supposed to be going - but because of the delay at POE, it was getting dark and had started to rain to boot! Had booked rental condo from the UK, and when we eventually found it, the landlord was nowhere to be found! Luckily a neighbour (expat) let me use his phone to call him, and when he found out who I had bought my business from - told me to watch my back! How true those words turned out to be..... Just unpacked essentials and went to bed. Next day explored and took a deep breath - never looked back.:D

[tracifrost]

well myself hubbie and four year old daughter arrived quite late into the evening we stayed at a Holiday Inn, as we were just too tired to drive to our rental home. The room was awful it had this horrible smell, usually i would ask to change the room, but we was so tired by now (about 1,00am) that we just slept there!

the next day we woke up, dressed, checked out and i remember sitting on a bench outside the Holiday Inn, having my first ciggie of the day,
thinking 'what on earth have i done'?
i still think that now!! ha ha,
but the feeling of leaving a very big family behind and just being 'out there'
i will never forget that day.

[debd]

We arrived late in the evening, my husband had been here to get the house ready so me and the kids were really looking forward to it. Got struck by the heat the minute we walked out the airport, then the neighbour scared the kids by telling them about a poisonous frog. We all went to bed after the kids had jumped in the pool and woke up to a tropical storm which lasted for two weeks, I have never seen so much rain and thats saying something coming from England.
I have to say though being completely honest, it took me a long time to feel settled, missed home and Mum loads. We've been here 4 years now and I can't imagine moving back to London. I've just come back from a 3 week holiday over there and I felt like an outsider, everything seems to have changed, loads of smaller cars on the road which seem to drive really fast and everyone moaning about taxes and schools and immigration - the list goes on.

[byjove]

Must admit our first few months here was "OMG! What have we done?" All the contracts we bought with the biz went! We lost LOADS of money, Couldn't get into new construction with out previous referals!!! NIGHTMARE! Then 1 new/c company gave us a break as they were fairly new too! And its been up and down since! Some months over $100,000 another $5,000 Very daunting but I'm lovin' it!" Spend many nights worried! But spent many days happy!

[Kriz1]

My what have we done thing happened after saying yes to the job...then driving around in a ft of snow with no cars in sight...thinking can we call this home...we then worked out that this was the place 'Wings' was filmed a tv show I loved...so no looking back...if I get worried I just go down to the airport and listen to the small planes fly in from the Islands and think..I used to just watch this on TV...and now I'm here...who would of thought it...

[byjove]

Does anyone else do the "tourist" thing when you go back to UK? I do! Went to the pump has in Bath, the Abbey in Hastings, Sea life in Brighton (remember when the dolphins used to sing happy birthday when I was knee high!) OH! The days, the days!!!!

[tracifrost]

haven't been back yet, but im sure i will probably do the tourist thing when i do.
and SMUGGLE some Marks & Spencer food back into the country!! ha ha.

'anything to declare?' (at customs in Orlando)
'yes i have some marks & spencer stir fry, and some marks's profiterole deserts, some super noodles, some decent bread! and some...................................'

[byjove]

Dont forget the knickers either.

[tracifrost]

yes exactly!! you know. my knickers will never be the same again. lol

[byjove]

:o Not buying 'em here anyway!!!:o

They must have odd shaped bums, or we have!!!:rofl:

[debd]

I do, Buckingham Palace, Millenium Wheel, London Dungeons, all very nice but with the exchange rate not being so good for us going back it proved to be very expensive

[byjove]

Choke! Cough!!! Yup! I forgot that little detail!!!!!!!!! Even flights have gone up at least $1,000 since last year! $1,100 with BA last may/june $2,500 this.

[InnVic]

our first days were frenetic....
Arrived tuesday evening at 11.30pm picked up cats and spent night at friends near airport. Wednesday morning got lift to Nissan dealer (we'd arranged to buy on previous trip and so just had to collect) and drove off in our HUGE Titan. Arrived in Chester and spent afternoon sorting out bank accounts, telephone, gas, oil, water etc....Thursday 10.00am closing on business - checking inventory, financials etc... eventually did a little unpacking. Friday evening first guests arrived! Saturday morning previous owners left! We then realised that what we'd bought was a big house not a business as they have virtually shut shop when we signed the contract. NO income, no bookings, no cutomer database, no advertising, nada! E2 delays cost us more than time! The first six months we haemohraged money...but fortunatly we seem to have turned the corner and now actually manage to show a little profit! Our sayings at that time were numerous...like many others we used to look at each other and say "What have we done!" another (more upbeat) saying of the time was "if we build it they will come" (which luckily they did!) It seems like an eternity ago but it was only just over two years. It flys by...and before you know it its visa time again! What a ride! :drunk:

[chris]

We arrived 7 years ago, so the memory is dimming. Arrived Delta via Atlanta, then Orlando, with wife, 2 kids (1 & 4) and one Westie. Have you ever pushed 2 trolleys and a big trolley with the dog on - Bloody hard work. After having half the poor dogs tinned dog food confiscated by the POE (after the long flight I couldn't help but tell him I hoped he enjoyed it), we finally arrived at our home late evening. It was our 2nd home, so after sticking the family pics up, it was fairly like home at least for 3 weeks as we were moving out to a new house.
First full day was spent getting money out of escrow only to be told by *******s at Bank of America we couldn't clear the check for 2-3 weeks, so had to rush around to the issuing bank and sort that one out. That was followed by picking up hire cars till our proper ones arrived at the garage. One of them eventually got lost for 3 days somewhere on a railway line in Florida. The latter part of the first full day was meeting the landlords agent who told us the premises we wanted we couldn't have, the rent we'd been promised had increased and the refurb allowances promised were no longer available.
After that everything went OK or downhill whichever perspective you want to use. The newly selected replacement premises ended up being 4 months late due to a steel shortage and after getting the keys, I put my back out assembling flat pack office furniture and ended up in ER and a $2500 bill. I was off work and in bed for nearly 2 weeks after that. After that things went well, we only had 911, the Irag invasion, the hurricanes - nothing much!
But we are still here, older, poorer, greyer and less hair, lost weight (a bonus) and my tan looks better. Oh and I'm certainly wiser!!
But isn't this what life is all about? Life's little adventures. You look back and think gosh wasn't that hilarious? I remember when I was being taken to ER, my wife had called 911 and the first thing that turned up was a huge fire engine with lights and sirens all going. We had no idea that down here fire truck and ambulance are joined at the hip. You call one and get the other one free. I had 6 paramedics/firefighters standing over me asking me if I wanted to go in the ambulance or make my own way there. With pain clsoe to waht my wife had in childbirth, I picked the ambulance, only to find out later that I was going to pay $64 per mile for the trip. We think back and laugh that what he should have said was do you want to by ambulance at $64 per mile or make you own way. Guess what I would have done!!

[JulieC]

My vacation home was burgled the first day we arrived, someone bashed the door down, so my husband spent his first day repairing locks and I spent it trying to calm guests down and wondering why oh why did we sack our former management company straight away and start doing the job ourselves from day one. It was a sort of start as you mean to go on day!

[tracifrost]

yet another LOL post from Chris!

[Susie]

Hi Chirs,
LOL


I was in panic when I arrived. I only had one weeks notice by attorney saying my L visa would expire and as husband was applying for change of status had to be in the USA before my expiry date and day after arrival submit a change of status.

Was then landlocked even though I immeadiately applied for advanced parole and had to wait eight months before I reveived the approval notice

[JanetTom]

We too arrived late, dog tired, couldn`t find the house, called the realtor who came and rescued us. Neigbours who we had not met had decorated the house for Xmas as we arrived 18th December. They even put a tree in our lounge. We had bought the beds and a sofa from the previous owners who where relocating to the Bahamas.

We spent the next day at Wal Mart and filled 4 trolley`s of essentials.... which I have since been and replaced.... false economy or what. The old saying of "buy cheap buy twice" springs to mind.

I drove round with a stupid grin on my face for weeks/months..."look at us living in America"

I loved it when we went to the Mall to buy stuff and shop owners would say,
"are you here on holiday?" and I would reply, "No, actually we live here!"
I sometimes wonder we were 6 parts stupid and 4 parts daft doing what we have done moving here, but so far no regrets....

[anniefromessex]

OMG, I cannot believe what you guys went through. To be honest because we had been spending 6 months here, 6 months back in the UK for the previous 4 years we were really already up and running as far as house etc was concerned. We were used to a lot of things over here, already had a car so our transition was pretty good - gone downhill since, but hey, you can't have everything!!!! I think it going to be more scary going back to the UK and am not looking forward to it one little bit.

Love Anniexxx