24 December 2007

Yippy!!! I'm out of my funk and am FINALLY excited about moving across the pond. Everything is in order. I sold the credenza (it was the only thing pending) and moved out of the apartment. What an exhausting couple of days! Vaneza came over to help me on Monday and Thursday. We moved the rest of the boxes and were cleaning the apartment until 2am. Ugh. It was so hard to say goodbye to my little apartment... and furniture. I choked up just a little but walked away without looking back.

The following day, it was time to go visit the parents for the holidays. They picked me up in Asheville, NC and we didn't get home until 2am. The next day, guess what I got to do??? I had the pleasure of cleaning my parents new house with them. ha. Just when I thought I had had enough. But, it's OUR house, I assume, so I might as well help as much as I can. Besides, the two of them have dwindled in to nothing. Mom is already little, and dad has lost his belly. Never thought that would happen. ;)

Can't believe it's only 4 more days before I leave for London. The only thing I'm waiting for is my debit card from HSBC. If I don't get that, I guess I'll be eating out of garbage cans once I get there. That wouldn't be good.

18 December 2007

I have been in a major funk lately. Everything is falling in to place perfectly. I have a place to live, have a second interview with Think London, have sold almost all of my furniture, etc. But for some reason, I've been really sad and somewhat depressed lately. I bought this soduku book and have been addicted to it. Rather than getting up and doing work for the move, I've been sitting on my arse playing games.

Last weekend, I had my going away get together with my friends. The snow was absolutely horrible outside. Out of the past 4.5 years I have lived here, I have NEVER seen it snow quite like that. I was completely amazed that anybody showed up at all. My first friend in Chicago, Kathy, made an appearance. When she left, I teared up. By the time most of my friends had left, I was feeling so melancholy and started to cry a bit more. Ugh. Can't imagine what it's going to be like the minute I say goodbye to my parents. :( I'm an emotional reck!

My best friend from Atlanta, Tony, came in town just in time for the party. It was so nice to have him here, although I felt so bad that I did a lot of cleaning and running around on Sunday in preparation for the move. He swore it was ok and said that it was the first time he was able to sit down and relax.

Last night, a few of my co-workers took me out for drinks. We did a little pub crawl - Elephant & Castle, O'Leary's, and Fado. It was so much fun!!!

Today, my project team took me out for lunch at Pizzeria Due. The pizza was sooooo good!!! Some of them came bearing gifts. One of the guys makes pens as a hobby. He gave me this beautifullll white and black pen made out of marble, I believe. Then he popped out a bigger, fancier pen he had in his pocket. I jokingly said, "Now, THIS is what I was expecting!" Everybody laughed in a roar (mostly in disbelief, I'm sure). He gave me the fancy pen. I couldn't believe it! I felt so guilty that I asked him quite a few times if he was sure. And he said, "Most definitely!" Such a nice guy.

Vaneza is coming over tonight to help me pack up more boxes in to her big huge mothership, so I call it. I think once all of that stuff is gone, I will feel much better. Everything will be done, for the most part. I never realized how much stuff I had accumulated over the years. Yikes! Could have been a lot worse, I suppose.

There is also a lady coming by to take a look at the credenza. If I sell it, that will be an extra bonus, since I was really planning on keeping it.

Chris, one of my friends in London, is taking me to see Cirque de Soleil as a "Welcome to London!" present. I thought that was super sweet of him... and very thoughtful.

12 December 2007

Turns out that I had a problem with my phone, which is why Nick couldn't reach me. :( I was so embarassed. The ONE time I am waiting for a phone call and the phone doesn't work. Everything was settled and Nick and I had our interview yesterday. It went ok, but I have to be honest in that if another opportunity came up, I would take it. I was hoping to get more Financial exposure, especially in the Financial center of the world, and they will not be able to provide me with that type of experience. He did say that one of his colleagues is looking for a fluent Spanish speaker to work in the European division. He was going to chat with her today and have her contact me if she was interested.

Heard from the University today. They said that they have been diligently trying to get in touch with Credit Suisse and it looks like they may want to interview me the first week of January. I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed for that one.

So, I went to the HSBC branch here in Chicago today. They have moved in to the Hyatt building, which is brand spankin' new and absolutely beautiful. I felt so strange when I got there because it wasn't like a typical retail branch. They had to come downstairs to get me and then I found out there are only 3 people that work in that office. ha. How funny is that? Anyway, she told me that I had applied for the wrong account and now I need to apply for an International account. Luckily, she is going to help me with this one and it should be set up rather quickly. Tomorrow, I have to return to their offices and submit all of the paperwork. What a pain!

Yesterday, we had our company Christmas party. It was a lot of fun! And the food was delicious! We went to this place called Wildfire (steakhouse) and they had karaoke. When I first heard they had karaoke, I thought for SURE that nobody would get up there to perform. Boy was I wrong! We had a guy get up there and perform "Jump! Jump!" by Cris Cross. It was so funny! Everybody at my table was up dancing. And he was really good too! The VP of our department was up there singing and dancing too. It was a good time.

Until next time...

10 December 2007

The weekend was a great time! I'm managing to spend good quality time with some of my closest friends and continuing with the preparations for the new chapter of my life.

This coming weekend is my last weekend in Chicago. I can't believe it! Friday night, one of my friends is throwing a holiday party in her loft condo (it's really beautiful!). Saturday, my best friend from Atlanta, Tony, is coming in to town for a conference of some sort in the burbs. I'm having a farewell get together with my friends at this bar that's 2 blocks from my house. There will be nearly 40 people there! Sometimes I forget how many people I know in this city. It's amazing considering I started out with not knowing a soul four and a half years ago! And Sunday, Barb has decided to do a Sunday Funday. Not sure what that will entail this week, but I'm sure it'll be a great time for all!



Today, I was scheduled to have an interview with the last company on my list of preferences, Think London. They are a not-for-profit organization that helps organizations get established within the London area. Surprisingly, they have offices all over the world, including two in the United States. The interview was scheduled at 10am this morning, so I decided to grab some tea and head down to the lobby. Waited until 10:20 and decided that he probably wasn't going to call at this point. I was a little disappointed, actually. Even though they were the last on my list and I told myself that I didn't really care to work for a not-for-profit, it would have been nice to ask him a few questions to see how my professional goals would fit in an organization such as this. Ah well. Perhaps they will contact the school to reschedule.

7 December 2007

Things are starting to calm down quite a bit now. Today, I went to the British Consulate to get my Visa changed to new dates, which are now from 7 December to 15 July. :) The ladies at the consulate were very nice and accommodating.

6 December 2007

Everything is just coming along so beautifully. Jenny dropped by last night to take a look at the apartment. She was so excited and absolutely loved the apartment and the neighborhood... and my furniture. She said, "When I get back home tonight, I am going to go online and apply for the apartment. I am so excited! It's perfect!"

This morning, I received an e-mail from her asking me if should could purchase my sofa and bedroom furniture. How could I say no to that?

Heard back from the leasing office this afternoon and they said they have approved Jenny's application. WOO HOO! It's official. Now, Jenny and I will need to work out when she wants to move in, etc. I can breath now...

Also received the visa back in the mail yesterday, but noticed the dates were wrong. They were from 12/3/07 - 5/1/08 and I really needed for it to be from 12/29/07 - 6/29/08. Looked all over the website for an answer of how to get it changed. Looked for the phone numbers to contact somebody, sent an e-mail from the website, etc. I was so exhausted and so frustrated that I couldn't get in touch with anybody that I could feel my eyes starting to swell. I tried out the numbers and one of them wouldn't take my credit card (it said the expiration date was invalid?) and I can't dial a 1-900 number from my cell phone (it's restricted), so I felt like I was screwed!

Finally, after tons of searching, I found the fax number to the visa department at the Consulate. Wrote up a little letter explaining my problems and faxed it over. Within 20 minutes, I received a phone call from a lady at the consulate and she said I could drop it off tomorrow and they will fix the dates for me. Phew.

So, really, I guess everything is working out beautifully. That was the last thing on the list I had to stress about. Now, I can just relax and get excited about moving to a wonderful new city!

OH! One last thing. I put in my resignation today here at work. My Supervisor phoned me up and told me that the VP has approved for me to take a 6 month leave of absence. They are just waiting on HR to make the final approval. Wouldn't that be nice? Although, I never quite imagined myself coming back to work here, but if things don't turn out like I plan for them to, it certainly would be nice to have something to fall back on.

5 December 2007

OH MY GOD! I have fab news that has absolutely nothing to do with moving to London. Ok, so, I know some people may find this a bit silly, but back in September (when I decided I was going to move), I thought it would be interesting to see if I could network with different folks over there... ya know... to pick their brains... and maybe to use as a professional reference for a job or internship. I signed up on LinkedIn and started looking that way. But then I also signed up on a London Love website and started to meet folks within' the Financial industry (amongst others). It was great! To date, I have managed to keep in touch with quite a few of them and they have all been very helpful and will be wonderful friends once I get there.

Back to the news. Last week, I found out that Radiohead was going to perform in London for 2 dates in June, but the tickets hadn't gone on sale yet. I was sending messages to my friends and asking them if they liked them (so I could seek out a concert buddy, naturally) and they all said they liked them ok. Except, one of them (namely Nick) told me that his boss is a fanatic! I asked him if he would ask his boss if he wouldn't mind a silly American tagging along. I guess he didn't mind because I heard this morning from Nick that the tickets went on sale and he got me a ticket! How great is that?! I'm so excited!!!

In other news, I sold my dining room table last night and stayed up until midnight cleaning my apartment and packing up my artwork. There is a Jenny that is coming to take a look at the apartment this evening. I'm REALLY hoping that she will be the one to take the apartment. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!!

4 December 2007

It's officially official! The British Consulate has sent me a confirmation e-mail that my visa has been processed and approved. I should receive it tomorrow! I'm sooo excited!!!

Another revelation... I have been told by several people that it is very difficult to set up a bank account in the UK. You have to show proof of residence, and submit a ton of paperwork in order to open an account. With that in mind, I have asked several people which bank is most prominent in London and they all said HSBC. Looked on HSBC's website and noticed they have one branch here in Chicago. Rather than going to the branch, though, it was much easier for me to open a student account online. They had a few things to verify before they could accept my application. I received notification today that my account has been approved and now I can start populating it with a few dollar bills. :)

Additionally, I have finally received word from the University of where I will reside. Originally, I was thinking that I was going to be neighbors with the Queen and living in Victoria (it was my first option), BUT it turns out I will be living in Highgate Hill, which I hear is very lovely. It's about 30 minutes from the campus on the tube and about an hour away from all of my new friends.

The only thing pending now is the whole apartment situation. I posted it again on Craigslist last night and haven't had any bites today. It's making me really nervous!

1 December 2007

I received the e-mail I have been waiting for! The British Consulate has received my application! WOO HOO! Luckily, I turned it in when I did. They said in the e-mail that around Thanksgiving and Christmas time is their peak season and they may need up to 10 days to process the visa. Yikes! The heart has stopped palpitating... thanks goodness.

This morning has been quite a whirlwind. A couple came by this morning to look at the car. An hour later, it was sold. I can't believe it! As I was running upstairs to get the title to the car, I ran in to a couple with their daughter that was looking at my apartment. Richard, the maintenance man, was showing them a few units here. The couple told me they would have a decision by Monday. They said it was between mine and the one on the 3rd floor. I'm almost certain they will choose the one on the 3rd floor, since they like the timeframe of when that apartment will be available better. But that's ok. I can feel that the apartment worries will be coming to an end realllly soon!

Until next time.

30 November 2007

My heart is palpitating. I walked down the street to the British Consulate to drop off my visa application, rather than spending money to mail it in. They said, "Nope. You must FedEx it so they will have a tracking number in the mail room." Grr. So, I walked across the street to the FedEx shop and spent $17.00 to mail the package overnight. They received the package on Wednesday morning. I'm SUPPOSE to receive an e-mail of receipt from the consulate and have YET to receive anything. Seriously, I'm freaking out! They said it takes 5 - 6 business days to process, so if I don't receive anything by mid week next week, I will REALLY be freaking out! They certainly don't make it easy for you to check up on the status of your application. They give you a number to call, but it's $3.00 a minute with a $12.00 minimum. NOT cool. I've never heard of anybody doing that before. Everything is so cold with the lack of a human connection and I don't like it at all. ha. (My saying lately has been, "Life is all about the human connection.")

On another note, renting the apartment has continued to be a struggle. A lovely couple from South Carolina dropped by last night to have a look at the property. They were wonderful! BUT, again, my place was the first place they looked at... which isn't good, I don't think. There was another guy droping by this afternoon around 2pm, another lady tomorrow morning at 10:30am, and another on Wednesday evening. I can feel it. It's getting closer and closer to the end of the apartment battle.

The car. Interesting story. I have received SO many e-mails and phone calls about the car. Had a few people scheduled to come take a look over the weekend. I was excited because I just KNEW it was going to be sold soon too. Today, my friend here at work sent me a text message and I mentioned the car. She started asking a load of questions and I asked, "Do you know anybody who would be interested?" She replied, "Yes, actually my boyfriend needs a car. He's been using his parents car when he needs it and it's getting a little messy." He happened to be in the area, they met me in the lobby, we walked across the street, and it was sold! WOO HOO! He's going to give me a down payment tomorrow when we take it to the mechanic for an inspection and then on Thursday he will give me the rest. What a relief!

Lastly, I received an e-mail from the University. They were in the process of setting up an internship for me. She came back with 6 different companies that are interested in interviewing me... three of which are Islamic windows to large financial institutions. I couldn't believe it! I had mentioned working in Islamic Finance to her and she delivered! The other three are just investment firms, but either way, I will be so happy to go to any of them. I'm finally going to receive the experience that I need to get out of the IT industry. Phew.

As people always say (and I need to constantly remind myself), "Everything will work out in the end." As long as I keep my head above the water, it'll all be good.

23 November 2007

Well, not much has developed since the last posting. I'm still waiting on the advising office to help me with approving a few other courses. Still haven't turned in my visa application, but plan to do so on Monday (wanted to wait until after the holiday). I still haven't sold my car or rented out my apartment. There have been several people coming through to look at both, but no cigars as of yet.

Otherwise, this long holiday weekend is dedicated to going through all of my stuff and deciding what to keep and what to throw/give away. I also have a few boxes so I can start packing the stuff that I do want to keep.

Yesterday, I went to my friend Dawn's house for the Thanksgiving feast. It was three of us girls (including Elcin) cooking all day and just lounging around drinking wine and champagne. It was so nice! Elcin is one of the first people I met when I moved to Chicago. She moved here from Turkey when she was 18. She's such an inspiration to me! Not only did she move here from a foreign land, she also moved here alone. That's such a scary/risky thing to do at such a young age! She's managed really well so far and will graduate from her University at the end of June.

Ok, so Elcin claims to have a 6th sense. Over this past Summer, she read my fortune after having a Turkish coffee. What you do is when you've finished drinking the coffee, you turn the cup upside down, make a wish, and wait for it to cool off. Once it's cooled, she will look in the cup to see the story the coffee grains will tell you. She mentioned over the Summer that she sees lots of boxes and that I will be moving. Of course, at that time I told her, "Girl! I'm not going anywhere!" Boy was I wrong! I completely forgot she had told me this. She also said I will be married with children in 2008. I don't believe that for a second!

Last night, we decided to do another reading. Dawn's reading was very cool to hear. One thing Elcin saw was Dawn praying and she had lots of angels around her head... and the angels were giving her two children. Dawn's wish was to have a family.

I decided to make a note of all of the things Elcin said about my fortune. It was all positive, luckily. I had asked for any negative news, if she saw some. So, here is a listing of some of the things Elcin said:
- She saw lots of fishes in my sea (fishes = men). But underneath the fishes, she saw one dolphin, meaning that I would have a relationship with one of them. He will be either British or Irish and he will be tall and average sized (not skinny or chubby)
- I won't be living in the dorms for long. She thinks I will be moving in with one of the guys?? ha
- I will take 5 trips - 2 with the same guy, and 3 with different guys
- My best friends there will be guys and they will take me out and show me everything
- I will meet a LOT of people - both men and women
- She saw me visiting a lot of families and having lots of dinners at peoples homes
- I will be going to a lot of house parties
- I will be very successful in London (that was my wish)

That's all I can remember. So now, it will be very interesting to see how much of this will come true! :)

Until the next time...

15 November 2007

Getting things in order is still a challenge. Yesterday, I took a sick day off of work (I really was sick), but I ended up doing a lot of work for the London thing. I posted the apartment and the car up on Craigslist and frantically searched for more classes to take at the University of Westminster. My advising office is being difficult (or, perhaps it's the Finance department) with allowing certain courses to substitute in for my Finance Electives... and the U of W is having problems finding availabilities for some of the courses I have requested. Well, not too many problems, but enough so that they would like for me to list four more classes for them to choose from.

Since September, it is now requested that all students coming over to the UK must have a student visa. It used to be, if you were going to be there for less than 6 months, you didn't need a visa. But now, well, lucky me. I have to fork over $220 that I don't have to their government. I believe the rate changes as the dollar devalues, which is nice (can you detect sarcasim?). It should be a fixed rate not based on the exchange rate fluctuations. I mean, we're students. Who can afford $220 for a visa on top of all of the other costs? Ugh. On top of the costs, the consulate wants to see an acceptance letter, your old and new passport, and your financial statements to prove that you'll have enough money to live. The latter makes me really nervous, since I haven't quite figured all of that out yet.

I'm a little concerned at this point. If I can't find several other classes that are approved from my advising office, does that mean that I can't go? What if, from the perspective of the consulate, I don't have enough money in my account to prove that I will be able to live? If I can't get the visa, I can't go to school or do my internship. What stress!

The beginning

So, I had decided back in 9th grade that I didn't want to live in the US anymore... or that I wanted to have an opportunity to live outside of the US for quite some time. To bring the story forward about 18 years. In September, the decision was made that I will be moving to London in 2009. Then, I thought, what the hell, I'll move it up a little to Summer of 2008 and will do what I can to get an Internship. THEN, while I was in the computer lab at school, I saw an advertisement that said, "Study Abroad in London!" and I just knew it was a sign that I should go. This was in late October, 2 days after the deadline to get in the application for the program. Right when I got home, I decided I was going to fill out the application and then send it over that night along with a note to the Study Abroad office. To my surprise, I received an e-mail back from the office the next day telling me that I could still get in to the program if I could hurry up and get them the other items they needed (transcripts, references, etc.). So, I did. I worked frantically to get in contact with old professors, request the transcripts from the school, fill out the applications for the Universities in London, write a personal statement, update the good 'ole resume, and whatever else it was that they needed for me to do. I found myself spending more time getting things together than I did on my full-time job or school work. It was unbelievable!

Once the paperwork had been submitted, I had received an e-mail telling me that there is a meeting that I must attend at the school. There is where we met up with the Director, Sharon, of the Study Abroad program... and we were advised that we had all been accepted. She reviewed some of the things that we should know before going, and how we should prepare for the trip, and that the only University I could attend based on my GPA was Middlesex University. I was not happy. Middlesex didn't offer any of the courses I needed to graduate. She also said she was leaving for London in a couple of days and asked for us to give her some questions to ask the Universities while she is there. All I wanted to know was if there was wireless internet in the dorms. I didn't really care about anything else.

A few days passed and Sharon got back to us with answers to our questions. I responded to her e-mail to see if there would be any way that University of Westminster would make any exceptions (I figured if you don't ask, you won't know). She responded and said that she would much prefer for everybody to attend University of Westminster and that she thinks that if I write a strong personal statement and have additional references, I ought to have no problem getting in. With the help of my good friend Dawn, I wrote a kick ass personal statement (that I had to do anyway for the Internship), but I just didn't have time to get any further references.

About a week later, I received an e-mail from the University of Westminster telling me that I have been accepted in to the program. Seriously, I thought I was going to cry. I couldn't believe that I was finally going to live my dreams! With this e-mail came more forms to fill out and fax over.

Now, I am not the typical study abroad student. Most students are about 19 - 21 years old, have no responsibilities, and have mom and dad to support them. I, on the other hand, have an apartment, a job, and a life that I am dropping in order to make this move. I am SCARED like you wouldn't believe! Every weekend is spent cleaning out a closet, going through storage, figuring out what to sell and what to keep, putting the car and the apartment up for sale/rent, networking with people in the UK, studying for school, etc. It's exhausting.

As you can imagine, my to-do list is huge. The most recent things that I have checked off of the list have been purchasing the ticket (arriving on December 28th) and applying for my cell phone number through PicCell. The next big things on the list are to figure out the financial situation and to apply for the visa. Ugh. I'm tired.