[Thylacine]

Hi! My name is Greg Stephens and my Wife Irina and our daughter Svetlana just recieved our resident Visas last week. I am from Eastern Kentucky originaly and my wife is Russian. Svetlana is a U.S. Citizen.

Like many of you we became sickened with the politics here and began applying for a visa the day after the 2004 elections.

I have worked in the tech publishing buisness for a few years in Indy (I made the cd's in the back of the Dummies books) I was a technology teacher for several years in Florida and Kentucky. Lately I have been a catastrophic insurance adjuster. I am on the teaching registry allready.

My wife has had some trouble passing the english exam due to the technical nature of the material (and the accented English).


We are going to move as soon we sell our house. We are more or less committed to Wellington.

Our biggest questions are about good schools and decent neighborhoods, how much cash should we actually have before packing and what kind of stuff should we load up into our container.

Thanks Greg & Irina & Svetlana.

[keeweescot]

Hi Greg & family :)

I'm sorry I can't help you with Wellington or schools :no but someone else will for sure! Just wanted to say welcome & I love those Dummies bookes - they're excellent :clap

All the best with your move

Sal

[Thylacine]

Some of them were cool... When they first came out my teaching friends would try to come up with crazy dummies titles. When I worked there we basicly did the same thing.
Where are you from?

[Bruckner]

Welcome to the forum Greg, Irina and Svetlana! Can't help with your questions since we're still in the US and not moving until next year.

Emily

[keeweescot]

Some of them were cool... When they first came out my teaching friends would try to come up with crazy dummies titles. When I worked there we basicly did the same thing.
Where are you from?
my life in a nutshell: grew up in Christchurch, then Auckland, Hamilton, Waikato all in NZ, Dublin & London in 2000 & been in Glasgow since 2002.
So you hope to be in Wellington soon? what's your timescale?

[Thylacine]

No idea.. We were waiting for the hurricane season, thinking that we would have more money. No hurricane so far, so we may be shorter on cash.

The real estate market is on the decline here. Also we are getting cold feet a little. The cost of living there is what bothers us more than anything.

I talked to an insurance adjuster manager there the other night and I was shocked at how receptive he was. An American would never have talked to you unless there was a crisis.

We are still very committed to going. Now we are concentrating on finding the best school & community for our precocious 4 year old girl.

[Moorf]

Welcome to the forum Thylacine :cheers