So the past six months or so have been a bit of a whirlwind, to say the very least. Long story short, on the day we were getting the keys to our new house, my husband got offered a job in New York, what timing eh?! Anyway, four months later, after filling in a tonne of forms, visits to the embassy, putting our house back on the market and finally getting our visa, we said goodbye to our friends, family and life in Devon to embark on the next chapter of our lives in New York.
We have been here for three months now and are finally feeling a bit settled. Moving to New York sounds so exciting, and it really is, we keep having to pinch ourselves that we actually live here now. Every time I venture into Manhattan and arrive into Grand Central Terminal or look up to the high rise buildings seeing the Empire State Building in the distance, I think how lucky am I to live here. It is such an inspirational place to live with so much culture, so much to see and do that I don’t think I will ever get bored.
For the first couple of months though, even with all this around us, it was still quite tough. Moving your whole life to the other side of the Atlantic, did not come without its pressures, it was like starting life again! For the first month we had rented furniture which was ok, but everything was bare and had no character. Processes like getting a car, finding insurance, finding a pre-school for my son was all completely different to the UK. Nothing was familiar, walking down the street, I didn’t know where things were, going to the shops completely overwhelmed me, so many different new products and brands I didn’t know where to begin. There was also the heat, when we arrived it was over 30 degrees so I was literally a sweaty mess for weeks!
However three months on, things are familiar once more, we have all our belongings and furniture from the UK, I can now drive on the wrong (!) side of the road, I know how to get to the malls, I know what brands are good in the supermarket, my son has settled into a lovely pre-school, I can navigate my way around the NY subway and everything just feels a lot more easier than a couple of months ago and life is good! I am looking forward for what lies ahead!
Regarding my blog, I feel that I haven’t been that focused over the past couple of months with all this going on. Of course I have been posting quite regularly, but have had no real time to dedicate to network with other bloggers, schedule posts or plan my workload. Now that William (my son) is at pre-school some of the week, I will have a lot more time to focus on my blog which obviously I hope to expand. I am still going to predominantly focus on beauty as that is my passion, but I also want incorporate some lifestyle posts as I think living in New York, it would be almost be rude not to.
Thank you to everyone who has supported my move over to the US, even by just asking how’s it going, it meant a lot when I was getting settled and everything was new and strange!
If there are any posts you would like to see from me now that I am in New York, please leave them in the comments below.
Jo x
Come and join me!