Averagely Adventurous

Pedro's first solo flying adventure was not a good one. Before his first flight landed, I saw his second flight was delayed. No bueno. His flight was delayed 30 mins, which meant he'd have 30 mins to catch his third flight (really 15 minutes since boarding stops 15 minutes before takeoff). Of course, as the information is coming in I'm relaying this to him, his mom, my mom, all while trying to help him out. The tight connection is at the Amsterdam airport, he lands at a gate in the E concourse and has to go to a gate in concourse D to catch his flight to Glasgow. Those should be right next to each other, right? To the Google! "How big is the AMS Amsterdam airport?" "10.76 mi²"....."One of the biggest and busiest in Europe"...Crap. This requires more Googling. I found a gate map of the airport and sent it to him. I said you have to get from the top dot to the bottom dot in 15 minutes. He said he'd try. Might work, right? Cue another ...

 Along with Pedro's parents, we dropped him off at the airport over two hours ago and his flight doesn't leave for another hour.  Oh well, better early then too late.  He called to tell me he was at his gate before we even paid for our parking.   We went inside with him to make sure everything was good with his tickets and baggage.  With visas and COVID, the paperwork alone is a nightmare.  Before his flight, he had to fill out the passenger locator form, before that he needed to book his arrival test, and for that he needed his arrival airport terminal which did not update until this morning.  Complicated.  So it took two hours this morning, but we got it all done, confirmation numbers printed out and packed together.  Pro tip: passport wallets. Absolutely worth it, only $10 on Amazon. We ended up not using them for money, but for all the paperwork and cards they require at check in.  In that one wallet, he fit his passport, social...

Looks like Pedro and Savannah will be taking this adventure separately. Despite checking on the return label tracking every hour, it has not made any progress. I will not have my passport and visa in time for the flight. So Pedro and I accepted the inevitable and starting changing the plans for him to go solo. Whenever my passport arrives, I'll book my flight to join him. Delta made this exceptionally easy. Since the pandemic, they have made "main cabin" tickets and above completely changeable and transferable via eCredits. I canceled my flight and got my value back via eCredit, which is what I'll use to rebook my flight whenever my passport comes in. Pedro called the hotel we had in Glasgow to switch the reservation to his name, minus one adult. Since we're going separately, we had to divide the money as well. He needs enough to put a deposit on an apartment if he finds one, so he'll get the bulk. (Side note, seeing Pedro trying to shove the money bri...

Today was bank day. Ask our questions about fees and activity requirements, international transaction fees, and closing accounts. We decided to keep our individual checking accounts and credit cards. Savings and joint checking aren't worth the money we'd have to keep in there to avoid monthly fees, so we closed them and cashed out. Next was ordering foreign currency. Of course, we used to be able to buy currency and receive it the day of, but COVID complicated that as well. The teller informed us that since the pandemic, the banks have pulled foreign currency from the branches rather than have it sit there. No one is traveling, except us crazies. It may take 2 days to order from California, and we leave in 5 days (including a weekend), cutting it close yet again. We decided to convert a little over $10K, in order to get an even number of pounds (no pence), so it came to $10,819.66. That will give us £7510. The interesting thing is, we have to declare that cash when we tr...

 Just when we thought everything was running smoothly!  When my visa arrived, we were not home.  Pedro's mother sent us a picture when it came in the mail. Thank goodness she did too, or we would not have noticed the mistake.  It was in small print, under "Obsrv".  It said, no work, no business, no public funds.  NO WORK. As in, no work for 5 years!! Cue panic.  That's a mistake, right? The university said I could work and earn money.  I mean, this is just my entry clearance visa, not my living visa, but still...If I enter the country with the wrong information, I am going to be stuck in that situation for a long time, may even have to leave and come back.   So I start searching who to contact.  My frenzied search was a blur of immigration websites between countries, so I can't even tell you how I found a email to the New York office where I originally sent my visa to be processed.  I explained my concerns, and they forwarded t...

It's official, we're outta here by the end of the month.   We've been on this course for a while, knowing the end game, but now it seems real.   We have a timeline and everything.   No jobs, no home, and no intention of staying here. My visa arrived yesterday, and we booked our flights before the price skyrocketed.   For $2K, we'll be traveling for 13 hours and 46 mins on August 30th, landing in the UK the next day.   We also found out about a few extra forms we have to fill out.   (As if the UK government doesn't know our entire life history by now.)   We have to book hotels and COVID tests.   Luckily, we're currently in an "Amber" list country, and fully vaccinated.   So a COVID test before and after our flight is all we need.   No quarantine!  (Hopefully that doesn't change in the next nine days.) Still no apartment secured, so I booked us a week in a hotel.   We'll have to see if the UK government and hotel agree to hav...

Ever wonder about just dropping everything and moving to another country?  How hard can it be, right? Find a place, ship your stuff, and fly out.  Even simpler if you already lived by yourself.   As my husband would say, I don't mean to throw a stone at your parade, but it's a LOT of money and effort.  Unless you're a rich (or even a well off) person, you can't just wing it. Even things we've tried to save for this trip or money we've set aside weren't enough, and we needed help from the fam.  We've poured how much $$, you ask? How many hoops did we jump through? Let's see! Our health insurance has to be paid for up front for the entire duration of our visa.  That means we had to pay for all five years of insurance at the time of our visa applications: 3,721.23 USD(each) The actual visa application fee was for processing, photos, and fingerprints: 496.00 USD(each) side note about that  trip: apparently, my right ring and pinky fingers are not real...

In suspense of moving to the UK, our lives have become a series of "one last times" and goodbye tours.   We spend time with Pedro's family and then time with mine.   His  family is in our hometown, so we visit our favorite childhood hangouts, we eat home cooking, and flavors of Hispanic food.   Our favorite hangout was this street downtown.   It had a bunch of night clubs and restaurants, but it also led to a giant green lawn right in front of the coast.   We would eat, walk around, laugh, and always end up by the water.   We'd talk for hours until it got dark.   Our parent must have thought we were on drugs.   We would be away for 8 hours of the day, and when asked what we did, "walked and talked" was all we came up with. We decided to do it one last time, dinner and a walk to the water.   We fell into our old worn paths and reminisced about everything that was different but all the same.   We ended up at the water, looking at ...

Our visa applications have been a very difficult and delicate acrobatic feat. Everything has to be timed right and finessed correctly to get approved. Pedro had to go first, as he is the student, and I am the dependent.  He plugged in all the numbers and letters he was given, double and triple checked each one, and then asked me to do the same.  He had pictures, fingerprints, along with $4217 taken, and a month later we sent off his passport and paperwork via Next Day Air. I did the same process two weeks later.  We packed up our apartment and moved to south Florida with Pedro's parents and little brother. Today as my brother-in-law was leaving, he picks up a UPS envelope from the doorstep.  I think "huh" and my husband yells, "That's my visa!" Lo and behold our anxieties and doubts were all for naught.  He has been granted a 90 day visa, perfect for our estimated departure of September 1st.  Mine (fingers crossed) should arrive two wee ks from now.

It started with an interview in the car.  Pedro and I were on our honeymoon in the Smokey Mountains.  A mad dash to a city café, a scramble for strong enough Wi-Fi, and we realized a hot spot in the car was the only option.  They couldn't fault him for perseverance. This interview was for a chance to study veterinary medicine at the Royal Vet College of London. As in the UK, as in 4,321 miles from our apartment in Gainesville, FL.   As I sat in the passenger seat and tried to melt into the side of the door and not hang on every word, I picture living in the UK. If this interview goes as well as the last one, we (well, he) can have a pick of Glasgow, Scotland or London, England. (Spoiler alert....We picked Glasgow) Pedro asked me if I would mind.   Me: Mind?? Pedro: Yeah, I mean I would like you to come with me, but I would respect your decision to stay. I believe a good amount of gibberish and stuttering came from my mouth, but I was able to say, ...