International Kite Festival at Schreveningen last weekend.

Krystle wondered: I wanted to ask you whether maybe you could give us some tips about house hunting in the UK..any advice about the best way to go about it? We are thinking of going over to the UK for a couple of days just to look at some properties…any tips re.this? Your help would be greatly appreciated :)

Wow! How exciting, Krystle!! Do know where exactly you are moving? It can be quite frustrating to look for properties in the UK as there is no MLS service. Property Finder is the closest we’ve found:

Here is the best advice I can give you when looking for properties:

1. Make your appointments in advance. Rarely can you make same-day appointments.

2. Allow enough travel time between appointments as it ALWAYS takes longer to get from one place to another. I don’t think it would be a bad idea to double the time Google Maps tells you ;-) Or at the very least add 10-15 minutes.

3. If you are going to be driving, try to rent a car with a GPS or rent a local GPS somewhere. It is SO worth the expense. We got terribly lost so many times when we were looking for a house (outside London in Berkshire).

4. This is something that surprised us: rent is negotiable, but how much you can negotiate depends on the area and demand, of course. Also, and this is pretty standard, check your contract to make sure you have a 6-month break clause. This means that after four months, you can give two months notice to move out. As expats (with the threat of moving on always hanging over our heads), this clause was important to us.

Are you moving from the US? If yes, my husband pointed out that, if possible, try to open up a bank account while you are still in the States. I can’t remember which banks have UK branches, but when we moved in 2007, there were a couple of banks that we could have worked with. It takes about two weeks to get your account up and running in the UK, so getting things set up while in the US is definitely worth looking into.

If there is anything else I can help with, please let me know! I am really excited for you and wish the very best.

Julia of A Bike Ride to the Beach asked: I was walking around Target the other day and noticed a whole aisle devoted to Christmas decorations!!! What are the holidays like there? Is Christmas over-merchandised like it is here?

Julia, I can’t believe Target already has Christmas stuff out! What about Halloween and Thanksgiving?! So far, the only seasonal thing I’ve seen here was in the grocery store–a display of winter cookies made by Bolletje. Some of the cookies are similar to gingersnaps and are about the size of a slightly flattened malted milk ball. I like the ones covered in a caramel icing called “Karamel Kruidnoten“.

As for Christmas in the UK, the stores are decorated by the end of October, but I think it isn’t quite as over-merchandised as in the US. A lot of the stores I went to sold really beautiful ornaments made from natural materials and glass. Stores like Tesco had a few, small aisles of Christmas decorations similar to what you might find at Target.

I can’t wait to see what they do for the Christmas season here the the Netherlands. Sinterklaas is a very big deal. Apparently he is from Spain and arrives by boat in early December. I’ll keep you updated. ;-)

Lisleman of A Few Clowns Short wondered: You might have noticed the big issue of here lately is healthcare reform. So do any of the locals in the UK or Netherlands think they should change their system to one more like ours? We are told that it would be just awful to have a system like the UK.

Ack, this is a tough question, Lisleman! I am going to skirt around it a bit and say: I think for simple things like a cold, or the flu, or routine check ups, the health care system here is fine. Fortunately, knock on wood, we’ve never had to try to get more than antibiotics from the GPs here.

If any of my Expat readers would like to offer opinions on this, please feel free! I don’t think I am well-versed enough on this topic to really do it justice, sorry, Lisleman :-(

Emm of Emm in London asked: Do you not miss having people get you? Being able to make a joke and not having to explain what you’re talking about or knowing that you’ll say something and at least half the people you’re with will agree with you?

Hi, Emm! As an expat American, I actually don’t miss having people “get me” because 1) I have my family here and they SO get me! LOL and 2) We are surrounded by a lot of Americans–mostly at Roxi’s school.

Sometimes I think we’re not taking enough advantage of living overseas because we tend to socialize (too much?) with Americans. Every couple of months or so I think: Oh we are missing out on a lot of the local culture and people… Sometimes I wish Roxi were in a local school so she could really get a taste of what it’s like in our temporary home countries, but because of curriculum differences, that is not possible.

I will tell you that what I do miss is being surrounded by other artists. That was a really hard adjustment for me when we moved overseas nearly three years ago. There is a lot of creative energy that is shared when you work in parallel (or collaborate) with other artists. I sometimes feel like I don’t have enough time to settle in and find my own art community because so much of my energy is spent trying to figure out how things are done day-to-day. I think it took me about a year and a half to really get settled into my life in the UK. My adjustment time was shorter here in Holland–maybe three months? Once my Dutch classes are over, I hope I can find an art community. Maybe I’ll take a class and hope my Dutch is good enough to understand the instructor!

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Well, that’s it for this round. Thanks for the questions, Krystle, Julia, Lisleman, and Emm! If you have a question for me, please leave it in the comments and I’ll answer next Thursday :-)

Fijn weekend!