Dental Care

I take pretty good care of my teeth. I brush and floss and get checkups ever six months.

Dental care in England scares me. That's not something I'm looking forward to. I've seen the stories on the news--pictures of people standing in mile long lines to get signed up to see a dentist. I've seen stories about people forced to pull out their own teeth with pliers. Bad teeth are part of the British identity. We've all seen Austin Powers.

My interest in British dental care led me to this article from the BBC News. I hope you enjoy it.

Re-Entry Permit

So what I wrote earlier was partially true. My husband can apply for a re-entry permit that allows him to live outside the country without loosing his resident alien status. The permit only allows him to live abroad for two years--not the three that I thought. Of course it costs money. Everything does. There is a $305 filing fee and you must file US income taxes every year.

He's going to apply for it, because we're just trying this moving to London thing out. We might want to come back. Really, I don't think we will, but keeping his green card is important to him.

Here's the link to get the form and information.

Are You Sure?

The other day I watched the video for "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve on You Tube with my husband. The whole time he was saying, "Are you sure you want to move to London? Look at how dreary it is."

Yes, I'm still sure I want to move.

You can watch the video here.

Resident Aliens

My husband is a resident alien here. He doesn't want to lose his resident alien status when we move to England. If we decide to move back here, it would be difficult for him to get another green card. He heard from another resident alien that there is a form that he could fill out letting the government know that he's leaving for awhile. If he does this he can be out of the country for up to three years without losing his status. So far this is only a rumor. We need to check it out. I'll keep you informed.

How should I ship my things?

The other day I wrote about freight forwarding as the best way for us to move our things overseas. Today I was trolling the Internet and I found this website. It talks about the different options for shipping things overseas. I thought it was very useful.

Freight Forwarding

We've decided to send things via freight forwarding. It looks like the most economical option for sending my husband's keyboards and my stepson's desktop computer. It should cost a little more than $800 from what I've seen. We'll also be able to send some boxes of clothes and books in the freight. I still don't want to bring too much.

My husband is so excited about the freight idea that he keeps thinking of new things he wants to bring. "We could take the futon," he said the other day. "And how about the bookshelves?"

I can understand wanting to take the futon, but we bought the cheapest bookshelves we could find at Target. The shelves are bowing and they're falling apart. They are not worth taking to England. I'd rather stack my books on the floor than have these shelves follow me overseas.