Resettleus

A collection of 36 posts

Resettleus

It's all Happy Holidays here

By Karina Rook No one says ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘what are you doing for Christmas?’…..it’s always ‘the holidays’ or ‘Happy Holidays!’. The local bus even has ‘Happy Holidays’ displaying where the route number should be. Is it the reference to ‘Christ’ that is unacceptable, or just another cultural

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Thanksgiving and Black Friday

By Karina Rook We got through Halloween fine, Tim and I were just as excited as the kids – playing around with the dry ice and answering the doorbell with huge smiles. I just threw out the last of the candy, the dregs that no one wanted. Nobody likes candy corn,

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Halloween etiquette in Silicon Valley

By Karina Rook As a newcomer in this strange land, I’ve been asking around about what is ‘the done thing’ for Halloween when you have a 10 year old and a 12 year old. Wearing your costume to school is NOT the done thing according to my daughter’s

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Our US hospital experience for a tonsillectomy

By Karina Rook Well, first off, the entire operation only cost us $36. My daughter has had several operations in Australia (to insert tubes in her ears), and even with private insurance we were several hundred dollars out of pocket. I couldn’t believe how little we had to pay

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Half days at school due to funding crisis

By Karina Rook Oh dear, parent-teacher conferences start on Monday. What’s amazing is that the kids get 3 days next week as half days to accommodate this activity. Yep, the school district can’t afford to pay the teachers to stay back after class and do the parent-teacher interviews

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Still can't get tipping right in Silicon Valley

By Karina Rook You eat in a restaurant, you always tip – I’m clear on that one. Pretty similar to back home in Australia, but it’s the subtleties I’m not getting. A friend and I recently ate in a bakery where we paid at the register and had

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Permanent police presence with Officer Andre

By Karina Rook My kid’s Middle School has a police officer permanently stationed at the school. He has his own car park too – the best one right in front of the school office. The school has 1,100 students covering grades 6, 7 and 8. They are not violent,

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Why can't I get my usual tablets here?

By Karina Rook I need to take 5mg Folic Acid tablets daily, but in the US I can only buy 1mg tablets. The general consensus from my local pharmacist and the two doctors I consulted  is that I’ll just have to take 5 tablets instead of the one. Really?

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Hop to it. Task Rabbit, a San Francisco company

By Karina Rook I run errands for people for money. I am a TaskRabbit. TaskRabbit is an online service for freelancers who bid on completing tasks for people. Many of these tasks are in your local area, but some are virtual tasks too, with clients anywhere in the world. Anyone

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We call it Fall not Autumn

By Karina Rook The feeling of Fall is everywhere, oranges and browns, cute decorations on porches, harvest-time flags and pumpkin patches along the roadside. Most townships have a stall selling pumpkins for decorating for Fall, Thanksgiving and Halloween. As you drive down the main road you see they have erected

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Getting credit history in Silicon Valley

By Karina Rook When you rent a house in the Silicon Valley, your application needs to include a credit report. This is a document issued by a credit agency that looks up your public records using your Social Security Number (SSN) and assesses your repayment history on bills, store cards

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Finding your community in Silicon Valley

By Karina Rook There’s an interesting new social network called Nextdoor that recently launched in our area – it’s all about getting to know your neighbors. There are defined neighborhoods which you can join once you verify your address, and you can view a map of the area labeling

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Leaf blowers constantly buzzing

By Karina Rook Boy they love their leaf blowers in California – I hear them all day long. The Mexican gardeners look after everyone’s gardens in our neighborhood. I don’t how much they charge as our landlord pays for them to look after our place. They arrive in a

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The best toy ever... the Ezy Roller

By Karina Rook Thanks to a generous ‘bon voyage’ gift from my son’s grandparents, he bought the best toy ever soon after we arrived in California. The EzyRoller is like to a self-propelling go-kart which uses a swiveling leg motion to move forwards. It rolls beautifully down hills and

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Recycling and reusing made easy in Silicon Valley

By Karina Rook I am pretty darn impressed. I had an SUV full to the top with furniture packaging and I managed to make sure none of it ended up in landfill. In Australia this would involve driving to the rubbish tip and recycling what was possible, and then having

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Rent Vs Buy in Silicon Valley

By Karina Rook This is a debate we’re having at the moment, well, more like a friendly discussion to help us decide what to do for housing here on the Peninsula. We arrived seven months ago when renting was the only logical choice due to time factors, financial factors

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Navigating the US medical system

By Karina Rook We have private health insurance in California through a salary package, so already I knew we would be ‘taken care of’. I learned this through watching years of Grey’s Anatomy on TV, where the poor un-insured people get slow medical help, if any. Before moving to

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I just want bread that isn't sweet

By Karina Rook Shopping for loaves of bread has been a very frustrating task due to the fact that most US bread has a sweet taste. Apparently this is because sugar/high fructose corn syrup is used as a preservative in the bread, rather than the chemical preservatives we are

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The moving notebook lives on

By Karina Rook My faithful notebook that was so essential in helping me to get organized before we made the move proved to be very handy once we arrived in San Francisco. I just started using the last pages of the book to record research and lists, with topics like

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The joys of getting a work permit

As the spouse of an E3 visa holder, I am entitled to work in the USA, but I needed to get an EAD (Employment Authorization Document) issued before I could start earning any money. It all starts with the form, the I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. Pretty simple form in

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Tips for getting your Californian licence quickly

By Karina Rook Yep, it’s like the DMV office in The Simpsons that Pattie and Selma work at. It’s a weird environment where you feel out-of-place, you don’t know the rules and angry people shout at you. I have spent several hours at my local DMV office

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Volunteering at school

By Karina Rook A great way to meet other parents and get to know a school better is to offer your time as a volunteer. Whether it be ad hoc for fundraising events, or a regular gig, you need to jump through a few hoops first. Hoop 1. Get the

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The right order for resettling in Silicon Valley

By Karina Rook There’s so many tasks to do, some are fun (shopping, yay!), some are dull (visit the bank, meh!) and some are scary (take that driving test, no!). Let’s assume you have landed and are in temporary accommodation, are searching for a house, but have employment

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Leaving behind the family dog on our move to California

By Karina Rook This was a tough one... Molly was our miniature Labradoodle puppy that we bought when our son turned 5yrs old. She had been our pet for over 5 years when we decided to leave Melbourne and move to the Silicon Valley. We are dog people anyway, but

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How much commuting can you handle?

By Karina Rook Aside from choosing a school district in the Valley, another factor in deciding where to live is your proximity to work. A one hour commute is considered normal for many San Franciscans, and everyone owns at least one car here. Many employees at my husband’s work