Insider knowledge

I know I only posted last night, but this is how it seems to be going:  days where nothing happens, then I get loads of info at once!

I sent all the forms for Olivers school today.  They have already processed his application!  I now need to get Mr Ancell to fill in a Teacher Recommendation form, then send this along with his birth certificate.  They also asked if Oliver spoke German (no!), so he does not need to be in the German for native speakers program.  Paul then received an email from the Clarity testing people wanting to check out when we are in South Carolina, so they can arrange the test.  Have looked at their website, and it doesn't seem to be an academic test, more a test to see if his abilities match those of a 1st grader.  I have no worries about this, he read a whole page of Harry Potter tonight....

Paul had a good chat with a collegue today, who went out on the ex-pat scheme a couple of weeks ago.  So he has given some good guidance on where to live, the look and see (kids may get bored, thank god for iPods) pushy real estate agents  (stick to what WE want, not what they want us to have).  He also gave Paul his address, looks very nice!  He commented on how HOT it is, after all our rain, I am really looking forward to that.  He has a large communal pool, tennis courts, baseball field, basketball courts and a clubhouse with a gym.  But they are currently living in an apartment complex while they wait for their container to arrive/house to be ready.  Apartment pictures look nice, lots of good facilities.  The container picture looks scary though, how much of our lives are we going to be packing up???  When do we do that?  Do we live with little furniture in our house???  Another unknown....

He also warned that the HR department in Oxford need to be pushed, as they are really busy.  We also need to be prepared to pay deposits for utilities (up to $1000!!!) on our Look and See, which we knew about.  We will also have no credit rating when we go out there, apparently it is like being 16 again!  It is also going to cost us about $1000 at the embassy when we go for our visa's, and he advised to not take the kids, as it can be a LONG wait.  Will have to see about that one when we get our appointment.

They also discussed cars, typical men!  Paul's grade will enable him to get a X5 for nothing, as an ex-pat we also get a second car.  We keep the cars for 14000 miles, thats about 6000 more than Paul has his here.  When you collect your first car, you have to place the order for the second one straight away.  Paul wants to get a 6 series convertible for himself, but we are not to tell them that I will be driving the X5.

Pauls collegues child was due to start school in the UK this September, but given that they don't start till the September after they are 5 in the states, is starting next year.  He did give some details on which kindergarten she is going to, so going to look that up in a minute.

That was enlightening reading, and certainly brightened my day