moving to the US - the plan
it has occurred to me that although i've sort of mentioned it and made reference to it a couple of times, i haven't really written* about our plans to move.
short answer: Bex and i are planning to move to the U.S.
slightly longer answer: about 1.5 - 2 years ago i came to the conclusion that i was ready to leave Wellington**. and along with that decision was the acknowledgement was that if i was going to leave Wellington, I would be leaving NZ, because there is nowhere else in this country that i would rather live.
from March - July of 2009, Bex and i had a series of ongoing conversations. figuring out where we might like to move to.
based on our respective citizenships, we narrowed it down either Australia or the U.S.
and then based on our respective experiences/preferences/etc we narrowed it down to
Melbourne, Australia
Portland, Oregon, USA
San Francisco***, California, USA
Sydney, Australia
Sydney was never a favourite. pretty much the only reason for us to move there is if Bex decided that she wanted to get back into the film industry.
Melbourne was looking pretty interesting. we had just been there a few months earlier on an impromptu holiday for new year's and had really enjoyed it. Bex had previously lived there for 6 months and had been wanting to get back to it. what she had experienced in that time she had enjoyed, but her experiences were somewhat limited by the fact that she had been working so much. Bex has a couple of friends there, not a lot, but enough to give us a start on developing a social life there.
with that in mind, we went to the US in late August 2009.
we were on holiday, and so our experiences didn't look or feel like what actually living there would be like, but then again, the same could be said for our trip to Melbourne 9 months earlier. over the course of 5 weeks, we spent 1 week at Burning Man, 3.5 weeks in the SF bay area, just under one week split between Portland and Albany, and a couple of days in Napa.
everywhere we went we had a wonderful time and all of my many friends (and family) warmly welcomed Bex, as well as being delighted to see me after many years absence.
by the time we returned to Wellington, we were no longer considering Australia. i wanted to move back to the US. we mulled it over and decided that Portland was great but because the majority of my people (and Bex's brother) and better job opportunities were in the SF area. so we've set our sights on Oakland, probably the Lake Merritt or Rockridge neighbourhoods.
initially we were planning on moving in March or April of 2011. that was the soonest that we could reasonably expect to have enough money saved up and to clear all of the bureaucratic hurdles. Lynn, Bex's mum then pointed out that her 60th birthday is May of 2011, and she would like us to be here for that.
so we changed our move date June 2011.
then Bex got a great new job, and so we've changed our move date to August 2011. this gives Bex the opportunity to learn more and the extra time at the new job also looks better on her CV. allows us a bit more time to save money. it also guarantees that we will get to go to Burning Man 2011. matter of fact the plan is that we will arrive in the US, go to B-Man and then when we return we'll start looking for an apartment and jobs.
if we had moved in June, it's possible that having just gotten new jobs (presumably) we might not be able to afford in time and/or money to go to B-Man 2011... and that would be a damn shame.
the downside of moving in August is that we'll miss most of summer in the US
now we're talking about the possibility of delaying the move until March of 2012. the further delay gives us the same benefits listed above, but even more so.
we would still go to B-Man 2011, but then we would come back to Wellington for another 5 - 6 months before actually moving to the US.
the plans remain fluid but the goal remains the same.
*although i've talked to plenty of people face to face about it
** and Bex has been abundantly clear that she would left Wellington several years ago if it weren't for me,… among other factors.
***well, the SF bay area. most likely Oakland, possibly Berkeley
short answer: Bex and i are planning to move to the U.S.
slightly longer answer: about 1.5 - 2 years ago i came to the conclusion that i was ready to leave Wellington**. and along with that decision was the acknowledgement was that if i was going to leave Wellington, I would be leaving NZ, because there is nowhere else in this country that i would rather live.
from March - July of 2009, Bex and i had a series of ongoing conversations. figuring out where we might like to move to.
based on our respective citizenships, we narrowed it down either Australia or the U.S.
and then based on our respective experiences/preferences/etc we narrowed it down to
Melbourne, Australia
Portland, Oregon, USA
San Francisco***, California, USA
Sydney, Australia
Sydney was never a favourite. pretty much the only reason for us to move there is if Bex decided that she wanted to get back into the film industry.
Melbourne was looking pretty interesting. we had just been there a few months earlier on an impromptu holiday for new year's and had really enjoyed it. Bex had previously lived there for 6 months and had been wanting to get back to it. what she had experienced in that time she had enjoyed, but her experiences were somewhat limited by the fact that she had been working so much. Bex has a couple of friends there, not a lot, but enough to give us a start on developing a social life there.
with that in mind, we went to the US in late August 2009.
we were on holiday, and so our experiences didn't look or feel like what actually living there would be like, but then again, the same could be said for our trip to Melbourne 9 months earlier. over the course of 5 weeks, we spent 1 week at Burning Man, 3.5 weeks in the SF bay area, just under one week split between Portland and Albany, and a couple of days in Napa.
everywhere we went we had a wonderful time and all of my many friends (and family) warmly welcomed Bex, as well as being delighted to see me after many years absence.
by the time we returned to Wellington, we were no longer considering Australia. i wanted to move back to the US. we mulled it over and decided that Portland was great but because the majority of my people (and Bex's brother) and better job opportunities were in the SF area. so we've set our sights on Oakland, probably the Lake Merritt or Rockridge neighbourhoods.
initially we were planning on moving in March or April of 2011. that was the soonest that we could reasonably expect to have enough money saved up and to clear all of the bureaucratic hurdles. Lynn, Bex's mum then pointed out that her 60th birthday is May of 2011, and she would like us to be here for that.
so we changed our move date June 2011.
then Bex got a great new job, and so we've changed our move date to August 2011. this gives Bex the opportunity to learn more and the extra time at the new job also looks better on her CV. allows us a bit more time to save money. it also guarantees that we will get to go to Burning Man 2011. matter of fact the plan is that we will arrive in the US, go to B-Man and then when we return we'll start looking for an apartment and jobs.
if we had moved in June, it's possible that having just gotten new jobs (presumably) we might not be able to afford in time and/or money to go to B-Man 2011... and that would be a damn shame.
the downside of moving in August is that we'll miss most of summer in the US
now we're talking about the possibility of delaying the move until March of 2012. the further delay gives us the same benefits listed above, but even more so.
we would still go to B-Man 2011, but then we would come back to Wellington for another 5 - 6 months before actually moving to the US.
the plans remain fluid but the goal remains the same.
*although i've talked to plenty of people face to face about it
** and Bex has been abundantly clear that she would left Wellington several years ago if it weren't for me,… among other factors.
***well, the SF bay area. most likely Oakland, possibly Berkeley