The Joy Of Illinois

New Driving Licence and Cellphone (or not)

I am about ready to kill someone right now. Or at least I was earlier, but I have calmed down a bit now.

We are only allowed to drive here on our UK licences for 3 months, by which time we have to get an Illinois licence, which involves taking a written and practical driving test.

I decided to take my driving test today. As I am not allowed a Social Security number, being a non-working non-citizen, I have to get what they call a Temporary Visitors Driving Licence. There are loads of DMV offices around (Department of Motor Vehicles), but there are only a few of them that do my type of licence. And the nearest one is a 90 minute drive away and they only do those licences on a Monday. I wanted to take the test while we still had the hire car, rather than doing it in the truck which would possibly not be so easy to manoeuvre. So I called them last week to find out what I need to take, and if I need an appointment (no), and have studied the ‘Illinois Rules of the Road’ over the last few days.

I packed up all my paperwork, studied the map and drove there this morning. I watched about 3 people in front of me get turned away for not having the right stuff with them, but felt fairly safe myself. But when I showed my paperwork I was told that the letter from the Social Security Office proving lack of SS number was not good enough to act as proof of address, even though it had my address at the top, as it had not been posted out to me, but had only been handed to me at the SS office. I had nothing else on me so had to drive all the way home (90 minutes) to find something from the bank with the address on, and went back again (another 90 minutes). And then that time they told me I cannot take the test as my visa has less than 6 months to run. Yes, that is another problem we have to sort out – we thought it was valid for 3 years, but when we got into the country I was told that it is only for 6 months, but can be renewed, we just need to figure out how and when. So I currently only have 5 months left to run on it, and they only let you take the driving test if you have at least 6 months left. But I will never have more than 6 months on the visa, as it will only be issued for 6 months at a time until we get married, I am only supposed to drive on my UK licence for 3 months, and we will not be getting married for at least 6 months. So after some fruitless begging and crying, I left again, for another 90 minute drive home.

Now an American might not think much of driving 90 minutes to get somewhere only to stay 20 minutes, but an English person expects an overnight stay at the end of that kind of journey, or at the very least a full day out. I mean, come on, we could get to the other side of the country in that time for God’s sake!!

Also we had gone on Saturday to the mobile phone shop to try to get a cell phone for me (look at me, I am bilingual already, mobile phone/cell phone!). We weren’t able to get one before as did not have any ID, but now Gordon has had his SS number for nearly 2 weeks, which is supposed to open up so many more doors for us. So we spent about 30 minutes in the store while they tried to run some credit and ID checks on us, only to be told that there was no record of him or his SS number in the system. So no phone allowed. Gordon phoned the SS office this morning to check, and they said the number is definitely valid and it must be a fault in the system of the cell phone company.

It feels like for every step forward we make here, we take 2 steps backwards.

posted by Lorraine Kenmuir @ 6:25 pm 0 comments

Have Wheels, Will Travel

We picked up the new truck last weekend. Of course I have not had a chance to drive it yet! It is a red Chevrolet Silverado pick-up truck. We are actually a 2-car family right now, as we still have the hire car until next Wednesday.

And we bought a new bike for Gordon this week as he did not have one to ship over from the UK. I have borrowed one from some friends to use myself until mine turns up with the rest of the stuff.

So we went for a bike ride one evening. We were going to find a trail through some local forest, but Gordon wanted to go to Home Depot (like B&Q for all English people reading this) to get some tools, so he looked up on the internet to find the nearest branch, which showed as just over 4 miles away. I plotted a route from the map that avoided all major roads, and off we went, only to discover when we got there that it is actually just a Home Depot training office, not an actual store. So we cycled the 10 mile round trip for nothing! But it will be nice to be able to explore further now by bike than I could before on foot.

posted by Lorraine Kenmuir @ 12:07 pm 0 comments

Everything is Different!

The language – I am having to spell my name and address several times to each person, as if they have never heard of these words before. I think it is just my accent, especially over the phone. And there are so many words that are different. It is much easier for us to understand the locals as we have so much American TV in the UK, but they have no idea of half the stuff we are talking about, and we often have to repeat ourselves or re-word things.

Writing the date – they write the date the wrong way round – 13th April is written 4/13. Hence September 11th being called 9/11. I have so far not got used to that at all. After 30 odd years of writing it one way, it will take a lot of training to change it now.

The whole kitchen: washing machine – top-loading, with totally different dials to anything seen before. The detergent pours in with the clothes, there is no separate drawer for it; dishwasher – very antique looking, like the first ones we got in the UK, but at least easy to operate; kettle – not electric, have to boil on the hob; garbage disposal – great gadget, once we had a lesson on how to use it and found the switch for it that was hidden behind the microwave. We have been having fun experimenting with what it will take and how big the pieces can be. The oven is pretty normal and easy, apart from using the grill, which gets very hot very quickly – I burnt the toast the first time I used it, literally had flames leaping up!

The vacuum cleaner – again looks like an antique. Reminds me of the very upright, carpet sweeper type model my grandmother had when I was a kid, with a bag that runs the length of the handle, and no attachments or accessories at all. And this is not just an old one that we have been given, I saw an advert (commercial) on TV just the other day for one exactly like it!

Recycling – this is actually very good. There is a bin right outside our front door for all plastics, glass and cans, which can all be mixed together, and another one for paper and cardboard. So what with those and the garbage disposal for food, we have virtually no rubbish to put in the regular kitchen bin.

Television – Ok, this is not so different from what a lot of people have in the UK now, with satellite and cable, but I only ever had the 5 basic channels at my place, but now we have around 65 channels. And from what I can gather, this is only the basic package! Once we move into the next place, we can install cable which will give access to a whole load more channels. The one good thing about that will be that we will at least be able to see what is on. At the moment we have no way of knowing what the programme is, or how long it has been on, as there is no teletext or on-screen programme guide of any kind, so we just spend most of the time channel surfing, and never settling on anything for long.

Driving – on the right, and therefore wrong, side of the road. I can manage that one fairly well, as have driven loads in Europe. So far have only gone wrong once, and that was only in a car park so doesn’t really count. The biggest difference is that you can turn right (equivalent of turning left in UK) on a red light. I think I will probably need to be reminded of that one by the line of impatient drivers behind me sometimes!

Everything is so bloody far apart from everything else! – being a one-car family now, I have been walking anywhere I want to go. I don’t mind walking at all, and obviously only choose to go out on days when the weather is dry, but it takes so long to get anywhere. For example, I wanted to go to the Post Office the other day to buy stamps. I found out where the nearest branch was, then checked on the map. I figured it would be around a 40 minute walk each way, sticking mainly to the back roads as they are nicer to walk. But about 10 minutes into the journey, I discovered that one road on the map does not even exist, and that was quite an important one as it was supposed to take me across the railway line. Instead of the road, there was grass and a fence! I asked a local passer-by, and she directed me up the road to the train station where I could cross the tracks, but that extra bit took me further away, and so added about 20 minutes to my journey. So it took an hour to get to the Post Office! Obviously I was not going to trek all that way back, so I had to put up with walking along the very major road, 3 lanes in each direction, to walk the more direct route home. Even that took 45 minutes! In the UK, you could get to a Post Office from most places in around 15 minutes! Needless to say I am really looking forward to my bike arriving from the UK! That will open up a whole new geography for me.

posted by Lorraine Kenmuir @ 12:04 pm 0 comments

Sorted!

We went apartment hunting over last weekend, and looked at quite a few over the 2 days, some very nice , a couple pretty awful. By then end of Saturday we had a favourite but it was a little pricey and also they wanted a tenant for a year, whereas we would prefer 6 months as the idea is to get a mortgage as soon as possible rather than keep paying out rent. But we cant get a mortgage right now as we don’t even exist in this country yet!

But then Sunday we saw better places, not that they were loads nicer, but they were prepared to do 6 months, and they were fairly nice as well. And each place we saw was better than the last. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we finally settled on an apartment building that is classified as being in Mundelein, but is right on the border of Vernon Hills, so is really not very far from Gordon’s office. The place has recently been taken over by a new management company, and was closed down for a complete refurb, so everything is brand spanking new. It is still only part opened, with only about half of the apartments finished and let, and they are still building the outdoor pool. Why always outdoor pools when the weather only allows them to be open for a few months? Everywhere seems to have outdoor pools though! So they say the pool will be ready by end of May which is when all the outdoor pools open anyway. Let’s hope that runs to schedule. And they have a brand new clubhouse, with a TV room with huge screen TV, free wireless internet, and a gym. And this is all really close to our apartment, so no more 15 minute walks to get there!

The apartment itself is only a 1 bedroom. We originally looked at 2 bed places, but then realised that the 1 beds were still plenty big enough to have people stay, and much cheaper, so giving us a chance to save more. So 1 bedroom, with plenty of closet space, 1 bathroom, huge living/dining room, kitchen and balcony. The kitchen and bathroom are all completely new, plus new flooring, new paint, new fixtures and fittings. So real luxury living for us! We have signed up for 6 months initially, but could stay or change up to a 2 bed place if still no mortgage hopes and we like it enough after that.

So we move on 27th April, which is the day we have to be out of this temp place anyway. But our stuff from UK doesn’t arrive til at least 6th May, so for a couple of weeks we will be roughing it quite a bit. We brought towels, duvet and bed linen with us, but will have no actual bed, and no other furniture at all, and nothing in the kitchen apart from the appliances (that’s no china, utensils, pots & pans, etc). We are going to ask around to borrow what we can, otherwise will have to sleep on the floor and live on cold food and take-aways, eating with our fingers! I survived Glastonbury (an outdoor music festival which involved camping in pouring rain and ankle deep mud, awful food, being wet and cold continuously) last year, so I can definitely survive that!

And we pick up our truck this Saturday, so we are all sorted. Apart from the fact that we are still trying to sort out car insurance for it. It seems that the fact that we do not have US driving licences means they can charge us an arm and a leg for it. Plus we still need to take out renters insurance, and health insurance for me, all of which had been complicated by the fact that we did not yet have a Social Security number between us and have not been in the country long enough to qualify according to some insurers. But those sorts of things should get easier now as Gordon got his Social Security number yesterday. So now he does exist in the database.

We (that is Gordon) managed to get the home laptop hooked up so that we can go online from home now, so I don’t have to walk down to the office every time, although it is a but slower, but is great to be able to go on and off whenever now, no more planning the whole day around it.

My tenant is still due to move into my place in the UK at the end of this month, so all going well there. And we may finally have a buyer for my car. I had originally put my faith in what I was told by one dealer as to the value of the car, and it now turns out he had over-valued it by around £1000, so that would explain why it didn’t sell! So now it has been valued elsewhere, and the most recent highest bidder on ebay is due to pick it up this week from my Mums. But there was someone else due to go there for it last week, who just never showed up on the day, so I am not counting my chickens just yet. Am keeping fingers crossed though.

posted by Lorraine Kenmuir @ 5:57 pm 0 comments

For sale, still!

Good news - I had an email from the agency the other day saying they found me a tennant for my flat back home! It is a couple with a baby, who want to move in end of April, but do not want all the furniture that I left there. So I have had to set my sister the task of selling it. But at least I will now at least get the bills covered. One less worry. The car is another story - someone was supposed to go and view it yesterday at my Mother's, but didn't turn up, so that is still for sale.

We are currently enjoying a few days of glorious weather here - it reached 75F yesterday, but the forecasters say there will be more storms tonight or tomorrow. We will watch out for those golfballs!

posted by Lorraine Kenmuir @ 12:51 pm 0 comments

Reality Strikes

Gordon’s first day at work. I ironed his clothes last night and laid them out for him and sent him off this morning telling him to play nicely with the other children. I even offered to pack a lunch-box and put it in his satchel, but he declined that offer!

Will meet him later at the gym that is in the apartment complex – it is about a 15 minute walk from here, he will go there straight from work. The swimming pools are outdoors so are not open til Labour Day or Memorial Day, whichever one of those is late May. Either way it is no good for us.

posted by Lorraine Kenmuir @ 3:17 pm 0 comments

Whatever the Weather

We seem to have survived our first few days here, finding our way around OK. Wednesday we went to the DMV to get applications for our new driving licences, the Social Security office, and then the supermarket. The day started out sunny and warm, but by the time we came out of the supermarket, $300 lighter, it was absolutely pouring with rain. Later that evening while we were watching television, the programmes were interrupted 3 or 4 times to say there was a weather warning and to turn to channel 3 for details. Channel 3 listed several areas, including ours, that were to be hit by major thunder-storms and tornadoes during the evening. A bit alarming on your first day in a new country! But it was quite impressive to watch from the balcony, the rain was sheeting down and pouring off the roofs. They also had warned of hailstones the size of golf-balls, but we didn’t see those.

Yesterday we went car shopping, not intending to actually buy a car, just to start looking, as we have a hire car provided by the company for the first month (along with the apartment). On discussion with a salesman, we came to the conclusion that it would be very difficult to get any kind of finance as we have only just arrived in the country and so have no credit here. So we then started to look at 2nd hand vehicles within a price range we felt we could afford in one hit. There was quite a number to look at, but Gordon very quickly narrowed it down to the only 2 trucks on the list. He has said from the start that he would love to have a truck, and the 2 they had were both nice. We took them both for a test-drive and chose the red one, getting them to reluctantly agree to take a deposit, with the rest being paid in 2 weeks after Gordon gets paid from work. So at least that job is done and out of the way, and he has his truck.

Today we made our first foray into Chicago city. There is a train line that unfortunately runs right past our apartment, which carries passenger and freight trains (meaning all through the night), but it doesn’t run passenger trains at weekends. So we had to drive a short distance to the nearest station on another line, and got the train in. It is a 45 minute journey to Chicago centre. The place lived up to it’s name of the Windy City (even though it is not named that for the weather). We walked along the Lake, onto Navy Pier for lunch, onto the beach, then up the John Hancock Tower for cocktails in the bar at the top. There is plenty more to do there but we thought we would save some of it for when people come out to visit. Then we caught the El (elevated train line) back to Union Station and the train home.

posted by Lorraine Kenmuir @ 9:15 pm 0 comments