Down and Out in London

Mostly due to poor timing, we found ourselves making the move to London with only about £100 to our names.  Seriously.  Luckily the £35 train tickets had already been purchased some time ago (else they would have been over £100) but other moving costs, and living costs, would be deducted from this amount.  Unfortunately, with all our worldly belongings in eight bags (and a guitar), taxis would be unavoidable.  Happily, our new place in Bermondsey is much closer to King's Cross than our last London residence (in Cricklewood) and total taxi cost in both Dundee and London was only an additional £35.  Not too bad at all; moving from Dundee, Scotland to London, England for only £70.  Sadly, even this low amount still reduced our net worth to around £65.

With no additional income expected for at least another week, we are pinching every penny.  But, even with no money, no internet and no jobs, we're still enjoying the crap out of London.  On top of just exploring our new city, I am amazing at finding awesome free events (usually including free alcohol and food) and our first week in London has been no exception.  On Wednesday we found ourselves at the quirky and fantastic Ninetyeight in Hoxton for an event sponsored by Cointreau.  We received four free Cointreau drinks, a goodies bag (including a small bottle of Cointreau), a short tutorial in cocktail mixing, and I got a free manicure (Mike didn't want one).  We jammed to Paul Simon's greatest hits, lost track of our free cocktail glasses (dammit!) and got to see feather covered lampshades in context (they're lovely and I want them).  Cointreau, you had me at hello.

Next, on Thursday we headed into The City, to Broadgate Circle, for some swingball, including free Pimm's and hotdogs.  For free events, it rarely matters what exactly goes on because free is the magic word.  Proving that philosophy, neither of us knew prior to this event what the heck swingball was.  As we found out, it's kind of like tetherball but played with paddles and totally kicked our butts.  Three hours of intermittent play and my right forearm is destroyed, I can't make a fist with my right hand, my lower back is mad at me and Mike's right shoulder feels bruised.  GD we're getting old!  Still, we had a great time and are pretty sure our future includes our very own swingball set.

All fun aside, we're both looking forward to starting normal life in the big city and getting back on track after our Dundee detour.  Towards that goal, today I got a call from my temp agency with a job beginning Wednesday afternoon (YAY!) and Mike will be starting his job at the gallery on Friday.  In addition to these revenue streams, we should be receiving both the deposit from our previous residence as well as my last paycheck from my previous employer within the next week.  Hopefully, our days of poverty are nearly over.  Although these first weeks aren't exactly as we had hoped, living down and out in London is a vast improvement upon our recent existence in Dundee.

Next Chapter, Please

As we begin to bid Dundee adieu, I'm trying to frame how I'll come to remember our time here.  Throughout these two years I've been rather depressed and disappointed by the whole experience and, while beneficial for Mike, these years have been rather detrimental for me.  Although I'm thrilled to be ending this chapter, I carry a fear that these years will come back to haunt me.  For example, I will not be surprised when the doctor tells me that the reason for my fatal illness is due to the short time I lived in Dundee.

When we first arrived in Dundee, we were very happy with our new surroundings.  It would take a couple of months for the excitement to wear off and the reality of our situation to emerge.  It became evident by mid-October 2010 that Dundee was a small, depressed town with a severe binge-drinking problem and a rather high level of drink crime (e.g. vandalism, mostly in the form of broken shop windows).  Employment options were limited and the realisation that we were going to be unable to continue to meet our financial obligations back in the States proved very stressful.  These first months would prove to be our hardest.

Things began to get brighter once we got down to London, in May 2011.  I regained a bit of my confidence, Mike was able to find employment in his field, and we began enjoying the UK a bit more.  Upon returning to Dundee, in September 2011, we had a wholly different perspective and were ready to give it another chance.  I know now that any attempts to paint Dundee in a positive light were just our attempts to mentally prepare for another two years here.  However, as soon as Mike made the decision to graduate early, all attempts to shine this turd stopped and the reality that this bad situation would be ending shortly has made these few remaining months almost as difficult as the first few.

I know that I will remember our time in Dundee differently than how I've represented it here.  If I don't purge these years from my mind completely, I may actually remember parts of it rather fondly.  In the short term I will only remember the bad but my long term memory will probably be quite kind, if for no other reason than the amount of travel I've been able to achieve while stationed in this purgatory.

Although we've been here since August 2010, we've actually only lived in Dundee for 15 of these 22 months.  Moving here has provided us with the opportunity to move to Paris, Mallorca, and Rome for a month each and to London for four.  Additionally, we've been to Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, and Belgium, all within these 22 months, not to mention extensive travels within Britain itself.  If this time has benefited me at all it is due to these travel experiences.

As we approach our final days in Dundee, and try to contain our glee whilst surrounded by people who are choosing to remain here, we are willing to acknowledge that this experience, when taken in context, has probably been a net positive one.  Besides the possibility of these years being the cause of whatever kills me, this time can be viewed positively in the immediate aftermath because it is now over and we can move forward. In the larger context, Mike now has a BA Fine Arts from an esteemed institution and the confidence to practice as an artist.

Though the remainder of our thirties will be spent paying off this debt (and that incurred during our twenties) and establishing new careers, at least we've accomplished what we set out to do (and enjoyed at least 30% of the experience).

False Start

Right after posting about our new flat, and exhaling after a rather stressful flat search, we were notified that the landlord had given our flat to someone who could occupy sooner than 2 July.  Apparently, paying a deposit and receiving confirmation via phone doesn’t translate into confirmed accommodations.

Although our deposit was refunded rather quickly, we still felt pretty defeated after receiving the news.  As is our way, we allowed ourselves a day to wallow but awoke the next with renewed determination.  Happily, after only a short period of doubt, we have found another, better flat.

Rather than the smallest flat we’ve ever lived in, this one will be closer in size to the one we have here in Dundee (less a bedroom).  Located in Bermondsey (south London), we’ll be on the ground floor, have a private garden and be closer to the neighbourhood we had originally coveted (Southwark).  Overall, we’re pleased with how things have worked out and are confident we’ve emerged from this debacle as victors.

London or Bust

This week has been an exciting one for our little family in regards to our upcoming relocation. Not only did we finalise our accommodations but Mike also received news that he has a job waiting for him upon our arrival.

Our flat is in Bethnal Green in east London. Although neither of us have seen it yet, besides a few pictures, based on comparative rent and location we’re confident our new flat will be an improvement upon last year’s arrangements. Though this flat will be our smallest (13 sm) at least we’ll have a bathroom (seriously, we had been considering an option without one).

Mike in front of his gallery last summer

Mike’s job is the same one he had last summer, working at a gallery in Mayfair specialising in the Vienna Secessionists (douchey artistic term provided by Mike) such as Klimt and Schiele. His first two months will be part-time, allowing him the freedom to market his own art and, hopefully, get something exhibited, but then in mid-September he begins a full-time schedule preparing for an October exhibition which will take him through mid-December. The whole arrangement is a dream and, especially coming less than a month after his graduation, better than we could’ve hoped.

Plan B

Mike spoke with his adviser this past week and she basically reaffirmed what we had learnt on our own:

1. The Post Study Work Visa has been eliminated and no existing students are being grandfathered into the programme, and
2. If we want to stay in the UK, our only option is the Employer Sponsored Work Visa (aka indentured servitude).

Happily, she did have one piece of good news for us: the UK gives us 6 months after Mike's graduation to get our shit together.  We had thought we'd only have until October, so this is actually quite helpful.

We're moving to London on 2 July.  Our plan is to duplicate last summer's success and, if we're lucky, find an employer willing to sponsor one of us.  However, unsure of the difficulty involved, we're not expecting to stay in London past December.  Come January 2013, we'll be calling New York City home.

We had hoped to live in London for at least two years, travelling Europe whilst earning British pounds to help replenish our completely exhausted savings.  Now, we'll have six months in London before moving to one of our favourite cities in the world.  Definitely not on the same level as Plan A but not a terrible alternative either.

We're disappointed about not getting to see as much of Europe as we had hoped but we're oddly excited about returning to the States.  Even with every decision we've made since 2008 having been in support of our plan to live abroad for the foreseeable future, we've been able to formulate our Plan B rather quickly and without too much anger or sadness.  Of course we'll still try to wring every last bit of adventure from our remaining months in the UK but we're also looking forward to living a more permanent existence back in the States, without fear of deportation or visa revocation.  Surprisingly, we're really looking forward to coming home.

Visa Chaos

On Thursday morning at 8am our flat was raided by the UK Border Agency.  They had a warrant to search the premises and to arrest the former tenant.  Happily, they realised almost immediately that we were neither that person nor colluding with her and the whole episode lasted less than 5 minutes.  Still, it was traumatising.

This run-in with the law caused me to begin researching our post-study visa options, wanting to prevent any similar episode from happening again.  Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a simple transition now appears rather complicated.

Since arriving in 2010 we have been assaulted by the British government's anti-immigration rhetoric.  We've mostly ignored it though, since our visas were sorted until Oct 2014 (Mike's original graduation date).  However, now that Mike is graduating in June, our visas are no longer sorted and we are elbow deep in this anti-immigration tsunami.  In an attempt to prevent immigrants from stealing all the jobs, the Government has revamped the visa schemes, including those targeting international students.  The Post-Study Work visa, which we were relying on in order to stay in the UK after Mike's graduation, has been eliminated effective 5 April (yes, just a few short days ago), leaving us with few options to extend our stay past Mike's graduation.

We have sacrificed so much (houses, possessions, credit ratings, savings, etc.) in order to live abroad and for Mike's career and it was all going to pay off once we got down to London.  Now, we're faced with the reality that all that sacrifice may have been a bad investment.  Sure, Mike will now have a Bachelor's degree and we've gotten to travel a bit but that's it.  Was it worth it?

Mike will hopefully speak with the international student adviser at his university on Monday.  Hopefully, he'll get some concrete options from that discussion.  Based on the UK Border Agency website, if we want to stay in the UK Mike will either have to remain a student or receive a Graduate Entrepreneur visa, only 1000 of which are available this year.  Needless to say, Relocation 2012 is shaping up to be much more chaotic than its predecessor.

Time To Move On

Yesterday Mike discovered he had the option to graduate with his BA this year, if he wanted.  After talking with a few advisers, he’s decided to take the option.  As of June 2012, Mike will have his BA Fine Arts.

We went from expecting four years in Dundee to three and now we learn we only have a short 4+ months remaining.  Thrilled does not even begin to describe our emotions.

In early July, right before the effing Olympics, we’ll be relocating to London, with no plans to ever return to Scotland.  Though our timing could be better (seriously, the Olympics?!), we won’t be staying in Dundee any longer than necessary (our lease expires on 2 July).  

It is early days still, so we have no concrete plan yet, but we have our date in sight and I can finally exhale.  It is no secret this time has not been easy for me but, like my childhood, I’m sure I’ll forget most of it due to the gift of post traumatic stress disorder (don’t underestimate the benefits of memory repression).