I’m an American primarily from Texas and California, but currently living in West Sussex in Southeast England.
I love to explore the UK and help others fall in love with this beautiful place.
So how did I wind up in the UK?
I’ve actually moved here twice! In 2014 I moved with my husband and young daughter from Austin to Kingston Upon Thames outside London. That move included travelling with two cats and starting my daughter in British school.
Then, in 2015, we had to face our crappy visa prospects for staying in the UK long-term. It has never been easy for students to stay in the UK after graduation, but when I graduated there were zero options other than finding sponsored employment. (NOTE: This is not the rule for student visas today!)
We eventually decided this just wasn’t a battle we were likely to win and moved back to California, where we had lived years earlier. We gradually set up a life, bought a house, and my husband and I both landed jobs at companies where we had dreamed of working.
Moving to the UK x2
When Covid lockdowns struck, my daughter was suddenly schooling from home while my job stress amped up exponentially as my employer coped with those “unprecedented times”.
On our many walks around the neighborhood, my husband and I eventually decided it was worth a try to line up another living abroad adventure. Neither of us saw value in going back to school at this point, but we also both had a lot more career experience than the last time we had been in the UK.
My husband’s career is in IT, which tends to be in demand to some extent all over the world. About nine months after we started looking, he got the offer that would bring us back to the UK. We came back with a dog and a cat just in time for my daughter to start secondary school. We’ve been here ever since.
Where I’ve Travelled
I currently live just outside London, and head into the city at least a few times each month. As a result, I have a unique familiarity with London that comes from very frequent visits, but not being so local that I forget to admire the views.
Beyond London I have fallen in love with:
- roaming the countryside in a way unheard of in the US
- listening to the pebbly beaches that are so different from California
- wandering historic cities full of awe-inspiring architecture, and
- meeting more wonderful people than I can count along the way.
I’ve wandered by train, car, plane and ferry ship, and can tell you plenty about how to navigate without losing your mind!