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...going to London...

First of all, I have to say, it pains me about the pups, I know my most difficult thing to adapt when I came to Europe was the lack of our animals....but is a year, not a permanent thing so I am sure you will be ok in all fronts. :)

Thanks Courtney for the tagg, @bestcee I ll try answer as good as I can:
I was going to say watch the luggage allowance, then I saw you can ship stuff for up to a 100 dollars, so it wont be a problem, but Courts idea of a Kindle is the way to go...
I was against E readers -I am almost 60 years old and at the beginning of home computers I thought the internet was a devil's creation :giggle - until we traveled to Turkey for almost a month in 2011... we only had 15 kilos allowance, so I got a Kindle. Best ever thing.
You can register in the local library, I don't think you even need to show anything but maybe a rent contract or your Oyster Card..... not sure if it applies outside London but you can't go anywhere in London unless you have an Oyster, so I would check that. Not sure about Windsor, but in London the libraries have really great catalogues.

If you want to come to London and would like to see the wonderful places that the tourist buses don't show you, we are in an amazing neighborhood, and really near attractions at the same time, if you give me 24/48 hours notice I can make sure I am able to drive and show you around here, there is the highest point of the city in the Hampstead Heath, is a forest/woods that is huge, heritage so they don't modify, but with cropped areas so people do picnics and there are the ponds to swim, even if you don't use any of the facilities, it grants awesome photography. and there is a view point you can see the whole city from, that is a 2 minutes drive from my house, we are 10/15 minutes drive from the British Library and 30 from the British Museum, we are 5 minutes from the Camden Markets and the Round House, that area is also amazing for photography.

About net use.... if you are that near the Castle, I'm sure you have to be able to find a Starbucks or Costa coffee? the public local library would have wi fi if it was London, but the coffee shops I am almost sure will have free wifi, so you don't waste your net allowance at your place.

I think you have a pretty good idea of what to pack already... if you are going to buy boots here, I would suggest you spend a bit and a get a pair of Hunters. These days they are even fashionable, and you will guarantee dry and warm feet especially where you will be, it gets very cold, and we are having minus temps , they are telling us it will get even colder...

there is something of the USA I LOVE and is either impossible or really expensive to buy here: coffee creamers. We only have Coffee Mate and is the plain one, not flavors :( so if you like them, bring them or send them...

Be careful with the medication, make sure you get the prescriptions on paper and have them in your and luggage because both Immigration & Customs are a bit aleatory .... you may not be stopped at all, or you may be stopped for a few questions, or you may get an officer having a bad hair day and it can be a waste of time, tiring and really annoying unless you can produce the right papers on the spot (I used to work for them)
Also, I'm not sure how your USA insurance works for you guys, but I would find out a local GP surgery and register, here health service is free, and if your husband is working with a contract then you have free access to doctors and hospitals. I had travel insurance when I first came, I had a really good medical allowance in the insurance and it was great for some stuff, but things that needed seen on the spot, I wished I had registered with a doctor (I was studying when I first came to England so had the right to) as the insurance people were sending me to a clinic very far away from where I was.

The streaming services on Netflix do change with the area, but these days I reckon we are getting more or less same things... same with Amazon Prime video, plus you have access here through the BBC on the TV to a huge number of series that show on Netflix later....

If you want to buy clothes once you get here, let us know and I get my daughter to give you most of the stores we shop... these days I am not too mobile with my health deteriorating so I don't go out much but my daughter does it all, so she will be able to direct you to the more reasonably priced places :)

The trains here are absurdly expensive, so you may want to look into National Express buses (or any bus service) which is often a 10 or 20% of the train prices.... especially from outside into London and back. If you get a bus to come to London, we talk and we can pick you up at the bus stop, and I can sit with you and show you a bit more of how the underground works, ot isn't difficult after you look at it from the map and do a couple or three trips

I'll pm you my number, so when you are settled if you would like, we can arrange something for us to show you around, in the mean time, feel free to ask if anything I missed in here or pm me and I will try answer asap :)
 
Angela Toucan said:
the weather is nearly always wet.
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my thoughts when I suggested she gets Hunters... not sure in London but in the Windsor area, I think only one of the 8 times we were there was dry!!!!!!
Kat, just in case you don't know them, the originals are these
they have lots of different models now, some are amazing, I prefer the originals, but there is so much, I can get lost in the site!!! you can see their website here
 
Angela Toucan said:
the weather is nearly always wet.
Click to expand...
:giggle You're not wrong....

I'm in the UK too! I'm not sure I can offer any more advice than everyone else has given but I just wanted to pop in and say hi! With regards to TV, if you have Amazon Prime UK you'll have access to quite a bit of stuff - maybe you could hook up to some free wi-fi somewhere to download?! Oh and booking in advance for trains can give you massive savings if you want to explore further afield than London! (Try thetrainline.com for advance tickets)
 
How cool! We'd almost be in the same time zone!

bbymks5 said:
A year is a long time to try and pack for...I wonder if you can find some fun second hand shops to get most clothes from?
...
I'm not even sure if I'd bother packing toiletries and things like that?
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I lived in Canada for about a year, 8 years ago. And I only packed clothes and some personal items. Plus medicine with a medical passport. Because you need the medical passport or they won't accept it. I believe that's pretty much a rule everywhere. So get the passport.

No toiletries because those take a lot of space and weight and are just as easily bought in a different country. We do the same when we go on holiday for longer then 3 weeks. It's definitely not worth it to bring all of that. I bring one specific day/night creme because it's not available everywhere and my rosacea acts up if I use other stuff. But things like shower gel, shampoo, razors? Buy it in the UK. It's a modern country you know, we have the same quality and mostly the same assortment in Europe as you have in the USA...

bestcee said:
I know this can be iffy for people, but do you have a Kindle? If you do, and it's attached to your American address, with a library card you can usually check out books. Plus, as an avid book lover, I adore that I can carry around 100's of books in less than the space of one!
...
What I know about DVD is that UK uses a different region: PAL vs NTSC. Now, an interesting fact I just read is that most European players will play both.
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Yes to the Kindle! And you can easily buy some UK cords, that way you don't need to use those bulky converters. And I'm not sure how it will go this way round, but my EU cords in USA plugs using converters are not great. I feel like it's not good for them. And a year is a long time...

About the DVD players: no, most will only play region 2 (EU). Some will be region free, but most are not. I wouldn't count on it, I'd check before I brought my dvds. I used to have a player that was region free and when it broke I looked everywhere for a new region free one. No luck. So...
 
Hi im originally from Scotland, lived in Twickenham worked in London for 4 years, then moved to Canada.

I would not take your blu-ray I think there is incompatibility with the TV's
Books - e-reader - you can change the region on your reader, from UK to US and back etc, but I have one for the Uk and one from Canada so I can access all my books at once.

The trains are excellent when you get used to them, I would highly recommend working that out.

with regards to the Tubes, a lot of the time it is quicker to walk between destinations. just look at a map in advance and know where you are going. I find the street names are quite well signposted.

a lot of people in London are not from London so when asking for directions its often easier to ask for landmarks rather than streets, so find a landmark close to where you are going.

if you want to practice on the tubes I found sunday mornings are normally pretty quite to work your way around them.

you have to be careful with the adapters, the voltage in UK is stronger than Canada/us, so taking things over here they take longer to charge but taking things over there they can get too much power at once.

If you are going for a year I would take minimal stuff as you will gather stuff when you are there also.

if you want to do some touristy things I would actually suggest a book called eccentric London, the normaly tourist stuff is great and easy to find, but this book has some hidden gems
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eccentric-London-Bradt-Travel-Guides/dp/1841621935

People tend to walk a lot more in the UK, im not sure exactly where you are from, but we never get that cold or hot that you have to take the car, going out and just looking around and getting to know the neighborhood on foot is a great way to get to know the area and your neighbors.

There are still a few local scrapping groups and crops in England, so if you can find one close to you that might be a great way to get to know people.

If you have any specific questions that I could help with please give me a shout.
 
@berniek My oldest daughter watches a lot of beauty "gurus" on YouTube and will occasionally send me a video or two, I'd love to go to a Boots! I know it's pretty much like our Walgreen's but dangit, they have some amazing products!!
 
Hope you got there safely! I look forward to hearing from you when you are settled.
 
This sounds so exciting! Let us know about all your adventures!
 
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