Canadians & Americans in the UK

Today I am excited to share an interview with Colleen Wagner, an American in London currently working with London Relocation Services.  I met Colleen in November 2009 and we instantly hit it off.

Here, Colleen shares her experiences moving to London and all that entails.  Happy reading!

Name: Colleen Wagner

Current Location: London, United Kingdom

Home town: Bartlett, Illinois USA (suburb of Chicago)

Education: Bachelor of Science in Finance at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana; Masters in Education at DePaul University

Hi Colleen. Thanks so much for letting me interview you for this little blog.  So you are an American now living in the UK, and specifically in London.

When did you make the move across the pond?

Late September 2008

Why did you decide to move to London?

I had gotten married that summer of 2008, and at the time I was in the Chicago area while my husband was still in New York (that made for a fun few years of long-distance…). He had left a job he wasn’t happy in, but could not find any good opportunities in New York or Chicago at the time. He had a good lead in Providence, Rhode Island, however, and then received two job offers in London. We knew several friends in London whereas we knew ZERO in Rhode Island, so we decided to go for the adventure London would offer!

What was the visa process like for you?

It was luckily not too difficult for me because my husband’s company sponsored it. We had HR and their legal consultant taking care of most of the nitty-gritty, so we just needed to complete the application (which, granted, is lengthy but not complicated) and show up at the assigned location for our biometrics (which only took 5 minutes of fingerprinting). The visa process that posed me the most stress was the one after my purse was stolen with my passport and visa inside it! When you’re already in the UK when that happens, it entails making an appointment with the U.S. Embassy to replace the passport and then another with UK’s Home Office to have your biometrics redone, additional forms completed, etc. It’s a massive pain because you may have to wait weeks for these appointments, and if you reapply for the visa by mail, you need to send in your passport and not get it back for 3 months; the expedited alternative is very costly (over 500 GBP), but you get to keep your passport and are issued a separate visa card that arrives within a couple weeks of the appointment. I shall never forget that delightful afternoon sitting at the Home Office in East Croyden for SIX hours…

Do you have any stories to share about flat hunting in London?

Flat hunting was quite the new experience, as I had no idea until we got here that these lettings agencies don’t use MLS (multiple listing system) as they do in the States. Therefore, when you walk into an agency, they only show properties in their immediate vicinity, which is only partial coverage as the agency next door will have their own separate listinsg in the same area. Some agencies do arrange “split deals” in which they collaborate with each other on a property and share commissions, but not all.

This industry has no regulation here—you do not need a license to be a realtor, so you or I could just start up a lettings agency, draft up some leases, and start showing properties if we wanted. That fact alone makes it a very unsettling experience indeed.

The result was that, as we lived out of a hotel at no small cost, it took me 2 weeks to see 23 properties—and then add to that the multiple RE-viewings of several of them when I could bring my husband back with me (he had to start work right away when we came over, so I was on my own for most of the process). I’ve lost count how many different agencies I had to go through to get that coverage, and I only focused on the area around our hotel because I didn’t know anything about any neighbourhoods to know to go directly to an agency in one of them.

I think we really lucked out in happening to randomly walk into the last agency that we did, as they were truly professional (I couldn’t say that for some of the others…they seemed like young kids just enjoying that they had a company car to drive around in) and had our interests in mind when they showed us Lucky #23, where we are still living now in our 2nd year.

So you first came to London hoping to teach, but did that for only a short while. Why did you stop teaching in London?

There was an intersection of factors that all came together to create a Perfect Storm at that time, really. I moved here for my husband’s job, and, left to my own devices, I would have stayed home to be near my family, friends, and fabulous teaching job. Added to that is the fact that we were only just married and this was our first time living together—first time in the same city for 4.5 years, for that matter!

So, needless to say, the transition after relocating was very difficult for me emotionally, so there’s no question that I was not operating at 100% when I started that job. I felt drained of being able to give more of myself and was too vulnerable to absorb much more external stress. And I’ll admit it—I was totally spoiled with my job back home. I have only ever taught in the suburbs of Chicago, and at the schools where I taught, the worst behavioral issue is chattiness; students are generally compliant. I had never been exposed to the city school climate and applaud those who are able to effectively rule with an iron fist as it seems they need to, but that was just wasn’t my personality. I’m not tough like that.

When I had to break up 3 fistfights in my first week teaching here in London, I was incredibly intimidated by the task laid before me, and I further wasn’t quite sure how to manage the 12 and 13 year olds that UK secondary schools also encompass. And without UK qualification status, this was the calibre of school to which the teaching agencies were sending me. Resources were wanting; the administration first gave me curriculum materials after I had already started, and even then they only trickled in incompletely. It isn’t that I can’t improvise and design lesson content myself, but when these UK students need to be taught strictly toward their GCSE exams, I began to worry that my lack of experience with the national curriculum would be a hindrance in their progress.

It came to the point when I needed to put my personal well-being ahead of my career—teaching was once what fuelled me and gave me great happiness, but there was no joy in this. I feel guilty, as I know it probably sounds like I’m way too soft and threw in the towel too soon, but I have no doubt that my decision was the best one for me at that time. I’m still a teacher, and I WILL teach again; we only plan to be here another couple of years, so I think this is a grand opportunity in the meantime to enjoy London and travelling with my husband and indulge in interests I’m also passionate about like reading and creative writing. And now that I’ve fallen in love with London and feel very well-adjusted, I’m considering going into tutoring and perhaps back to part-time supply-teaching.

Then you discovered London Relocation Services right? How did that come about?

When teaching didn’t appear to pan out, I decided to pursue administrative work to help pay the bills. I was tremendously disheartened during this search, as I’ve never just had the “day job”—I’ve always thrown myself into everything I do, and while I couldn’t give teaching all that it required for the time being, I still wanted to be passionate about my daily work. I happened to stumble on the job advert for London Relocation Ltd., and voila! Here I am! Given the whole dramatic spiel I rambled about earlier, it obviously means a great deal to me to now be assisting other folks undergoing the same transition. I bring a vast amount of empathy to the table, and it’s satisfying knowing I can continue to help people in this capacity.

And what do you do with the company?

I assist in fielding the enquiries of prospects of who contact us through our website, email, or phone. The people we hear from are all at different stages in the process—some are just seeking general guidance on how to get rolling with the visa process, find a job, or how expensive cost of living is in London, and others are ready to hit the ground running and find a flat soon. We discuss budgets, average rent prices for different-sized properties in different areas, and any and all property/neighbourhood specifications that I need to qualify before passing them on to Anthony, the relocation agent who will arrange and take them on their viewings.

We have recently hired another wonderful colleague, Billy, who primarily fields these enquiries now and works with me to schedule appointments. More recently, my role has evolved to concentrate more on social media, so I write the company blogs, update our profiles on various social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and I administer our new social network, London Living at www.londonrelocation.ning.com. Social media is relatively new territory for me, so I’m having a blast exploring and educating myself on it, and interacting with all the quality people out there who are so eager to connect with others in positive collaborations.

Okay, so now that we understand your life history in regards to moving to London and what your work is, let’s get into some more nitty-gritty details. What do you absolutely love about your life in London?

Hands-down it’s the opportunity to explore the historical and cultural layers of this city and travel so easily to other countries from here, even if only for a weekend.

And what could you do without?

At the risk of sounding like the Ugly American, probably the slow responsiveness in service and storage issues.

Do you miss “home”? Or do you call London your home now?

Oh yes, I continue to miss home a great deal, but we’ve been blessed to have so many loved ones willing to come over and visit us, and I make it back every few months; the internet helps so much as well when you have options like email, Facebook, or Skype, and there are some great international calling plans out there (I LOVE that you can swap SIM cards in and out of your mobile! Can’t do that at home!). I think if I could just move everyone I love to the UK, though, I could stay here forever. My heart really has found its place here, and I know I’ll be “homesick” for London when it comes time to relocate back.

Who are your friends and community? Do you mostly spend time with other Expat Americans or do you have other friends as well? Were there any cultural barriers to overcome?

I was lucky to start out already with several American friends that my husband and I knew from past jobs and school (I actually fell back in touch with a friend who I hadn’t hung out with since 4th grade, and we’re great friends again now!), so it’s been a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with those people on local turf. I’ve also become good friends with several lovely Brits that I’ve worked with here, and I’m psyched to hopefully meet up soon with some great people who’ve been interacting on our London Living site.

I haven’t really encountered cultural barriers obstructing me from establishing quality relationships with people. The British do have the tendency to be less direct and might talk around an issue rather than directly confront it, but I think it’s all in the name of courtesy, and one thing I will never criticize is their fine manners!

In terms of lifestyle, what do you think is different about your lifestyle in the UK compared to your lifestyle in the states? And what’s the same?

I think London is an ideal start for North Americans wanting to try out an international experience because there is reduced culture shock–it’s more Western than continental Europe, so the day-to-day experience isn’t much of a jolt. That being said, one has to get accustomed to living on a smaller scale, both physically and figuratively.

In the first sense, buildings and streets are smaller, narrower, as are the stores. I’ve had to learn to shop for groceries more frequently and in smaller quantity—I felt like such an American arse when I first bought food and had to hail a taxi to get it all home when everyone else in line had their little baskets with just a few tomatoes and a baguette tucked inside (basically, rather than stock up, they shop for what they need for dinner that night).

Storage place is limited in most flats, so you can’t bring everything from home with you—for us, that included most of the fun wedding presents we’d just gotten and are now sitting in storage back home! The other sense in which one has to scale back here is in terms of energy—every outlet has a switch for shutting it off when not in use, and lights in hallways will go out after a minute unless you click the switch or a motion sensor detects you.

Gas and electricity are REALLY expensive compared to home, so I find myself constantly turning lights or the heater on and off as necessary. And they tax you on freaking everything—owning a TV, a car, etc. Overall, though, you really do learn what you can live without and start to make more conscious choices, which I think is a good lesson.

If you could offer any advice to fellow Americans considering the move to the UK, what would it be?

Be open-minded. Don’t expect the UK to be exactly like home. If you want it to be just like home, then, in all brutal honesty, an international move might not be for you.

It’s important to respect the ways of the nation you move to and know that you can learn from them, just as the people there can learn from you too. To maintain this positive sort of engagement with your new surroundings, you have to be positive yourself.

Things will be annoying. Things will go wrong. The unexpected will always occur. This I promise. But if you can take these things in stride and understand that there are trade-offs, you’ll soon recognize that what you’re gaining in exchange for what you lose is an invaluable experience that you’ll carry with you for a lifetime. For a lot of us, it’s only a temporary situation anyway, so you have to enjoy it for what it is during that time.

Thanks so much Colleen! I really appreciate your honesty and the time you took to answer all these questions for us. 

If anyone else has questions for Colleen, please leave them in the comments section.  Or, if you just want to share your two pence, please do!  Watch this space for more interviews with Canadians & Americans living in the UK.

Also, if you do contact London Relocation Services as a result of this blog, please be sure to mention my name, Victoria Westcott.  Thanks!