First Edition - Welcome to My Blog

Welcome! I decided to chronicle my adventures of being an expat in London as a way for me to remember and look back on all the things that I will experience living abroad. I also love to journal so it only seemed natural to start a blog that I could share with my family and friends and the world...

So here's my story on how I got to London. It might be a little long. In April 2007, I had a major life change that made me realize that you only get one life to live and I need to live it doing the things that I've always wanted to do. I had always loved to travel and always said I wanted to live somewhere different...I just didn't think it would be in London.

Fast forward to the winter of 2008....I remember it as one of the coldest, worst winters in Chicago. It was so cold that my poor little Shih Tzu Stanley (you'll hear a lot about him) refused to walk a few steps out of the door. I started thinking....What would it be like to live somewhere warm. I approached my manager in the Spring and asked to be transferred to our LA office. She was receptive to it and I had planted the seed. Once I started to say something, it was as if I was daring myself to go through with it. I went to visit a friend in San Diego...not quite LA and it was freezing for being a warm place. Now I'm sure California is a nice place to live but it really didn't have the appeal I was looking for.

Then a few months later, I started managing projects in Europe and my colleague in London said, "Oh, if you were here, you'd be able to attend the kick-off meeting in Spain or Paris." I was jealous! He dared me. I thought how cool would it be to live in London and to have all the opportunities for travel at your disposal. When I graduated from college and could actually afford travelling to Europe, I fell in love with Southern Spain - Andalucia. I coupled my trip to Spain with meeting up with a different group of friends in Paris. It was amazing. I promised myself that every year I would start taking a trip to Europe or somewhere outside the US.

Back to 2008.....One of the final factors....My friend Erica and I co-chaired a woman's event. We were researching topics when she sent across an article by a woman executive. This article said that sometimes women need to go abroad for career growth and opportunities. After 7 years with my company, this would only add to my tenure there and overall career growth. There were definitely signs everywhere telling me I had to go and pursue this dream of mine.

In August 2008, I approached my manager and said, I'd like to go to London. This is the right move for me and I gave her the business case for it. She agreed there was a need and told me that she would do everything she could to help me get there.

After a few obstacles, I'm in London! Almost a year to the date that I approached my manager....It still feels surreal.

I arrived on October 2nd so I have plenty of stories to blog about for days! Stay tuned for my adventures in London!