Whitney Haldeman
This Week in the World: Week 10

This Week in the World: Week 1

this week in the world

Happy New Year! We finally bid farewell to the tumultuous year that was 2020. And while I know that all our problems won’t magically disappear, I’m still comforted by the idea of a fresh start. Even if the start of this year feels like 2020 2.0, I hold a lot of optimism for the road ahead.

As we turn a new page, I’m very excited to introduce “This Week in the World”: a weekly recap of content from around the globe. I wanted a consistent way to share that didn’t have to fit inside a neat and tidy box… so you can expect this corner of the internet to really range across a lot of topics. My hope is that each week, no matter where you are in the world, you’ll be able to feel more connected to it: through news, travel, food & wine… really, anything that appeals to the culturally curious.

So without further ado, let’s dive right in.

TRAVEL UPDATES

  • If you have an AMEX Platinum Card like me to rake in the travel rewards, you know some awards recently went away (like $20 a month for streaming services and cell phone bills). BUT the good news is we could see some new rewards like a monthly PayPal credit. More HERE.

WORLD NEWS

  • 4+ years after the initial vote, the UK has officially left the EU. THIS VIDEO simply explains what Brexit deal was actually agreed upon and what that means for the future.

WEEKLY FAVORITES

  • FAVORITE WINE: I recently ordered another case of this Francois Carillon 2016 Bourgogne Chardonnay because I've been reaching for it again and again lately. If you're not a fan of real buttery California Chardonnays, but still prefer a fuller bodied and complex white, give this a try. Chardonnay originated from this region and is aged in a much softer, more neutral oak (so it's not so "in your face). This is a perfect, quintessential (and delicious!) white burgundy, but still great price (good wines from this region can be spendy!) And if you want to learn a bit more about Chardonnay (not just in Burdundy, but around the world) while sipping, THIS is a great podcast on how versatile the grape can be!

  • FAVORITE TRAVEL PRODUCT: A few months ago I switched to this memobottle because I love how it perfectly sits flat in my purse (better than a clunky round water bottle) but also how it easily fits in the seat pocket in front of you on a plane! Plus, their environmental policy is top notch and for every bottle sold, memo bottle provides one person with two months' access to clean water.

  • FAVORITE PODCAST I LISTENED TO: My morning routine is to go for a walk (usually around Hyde Park) and listen to a few podcasts, always starting with “Today in Focus.” While I’ve taken a bit of a break because of the holidays, I did manage to listen to THIS EPISODE on Veganism. I’ve been eating a lot less meat than I used to (both for environmental and animal welfare reasons) but this episode made me want to cut back even more!

  • FAVORITE NEW PRODUCT: I got so much use out of my Whitney English Planner in 2020 that I knew I had to re-order for 2021! If you want to support a small, woman-owned business while keeping organized this year, be sure to check her products out.

  • FAVORITE RECIPE: I made an old favorite this week that I ate countless times during quarantine : THIS NYT Brussel Sprout Pasta (it is so good!)

COMING UP IN LONDON

  • It's unclear when restaurants will be able to re-open, and I realize headlines look bleak. But in the spirit of optimism and looking toward a brighter future, I anticipate when they DO open, we'll likely still have to dine outdoors if we want to mix with other households. HERE are some pub gardens with heaters to keep warm (and still be able to see your friends!)

  • Regardless of whether you’re in London or not, going to the theater in-person isn’t an option right now. HERE are the best London theatre shows you can stream online right now.

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That’s all for today. Happy reading and hope to see you back again next week!

xx

Whitney

MOVING TO LONDON: I GOT MY VISA!

MOVING TO LONDON

I usually try to keep content here focused on travel resources that benefit others, so forgive this gratuitously self indulgent post about my own news… but I’ve wanted I've wanted to write these words for over four years now- so humor me. It feels SO surreal to finally be able to say: I GOT MY UK VISA AND AM MOVING TO LONDON! This process has been the bane of my existence, and quite painful at many moments, for years now. My close friends and family (and honestly, sometimes even me!) could barely keep up with all the plot twists, so I really limited what I've shared online along the way. Now that everything is official (and in an attempt to make this potentially worth someone else’s time reading) I wanted to create one place where I could speak to the common questions around the subject of moving abroad… and also what that means for me personally.

Whether you’re reading this because you’re also interested in moving abroad, or because you’ve heard me lament about this for years and you’re simply curious what all the fuss has been about, let me be clear that I am not an immigration attorney (although I do recommend you hire one if you’re wanting to move yourself). These are simply some questions I’ve already been asked that I can now answer a bit more clearly.

Considering the next week is going to be probably the one of the craziest in my life to-date, I wrote this post in the final hours of waiting for my visa to arrive (both to give me a good distraction and also so I could hit the ground running with things once it was “go time” instead of attempting to field any questions). Now that it’s here and I can finally press “publish”, here’s the tea:

Q: “Wait, don’t you already live in London?”

Considering I get messages from people daily who are under the impression I already do live in London, I imagine some of you are scratching your head right now. Honestly, it's been such a confusing journey for me alone (and I lived every step of the way) so I can only imagine how it looks from the outside! So technically, I've never actually LIVED, lived in London… I've just stayed for extended periods of time as a visitor. While collectively I've spent almost a year of my life in London, it was never all at once (usually a few months at a time) and I was never able to function as an actual resident (my bank, my taxes, my insurance, my healthcare… all were still tied to the US). I kept a detailed spreadsheet of my days I was allowed to be in London (and always maximized it). With that said, I was still able to feel like I've "lived" in London because I stayed at the same flat for months at a time over different trips that felt like "home" (and I very much have built friendships and a life of my own here over the years). Even still, I'm so excited to be a LEGIT Londoner (and that I don't have to keep track of my days anymore… I can stay as many days out of the year as I please!) For more about my time spent in London in the past, see HERE.


Q: What kind of visa did you apply for?

It's genuinely not my intention to sound vague or secretive, but it's honestly far too complicated to detail out the intricacies of my particular visa. There are many visa options (and they vary person to person in terms of what each individual qualifies for). While I very much hope to be a resource on travel (and will certainly share a glimpse into life as an expat now too!), I don't feel qualified enough to speak at length about visa types. The best person to ask questions about visa intricacies is an immigration lawyer (I hired one and while it wasn't cheap, it was the best thing I could have done). If you want to know more about types of visas and how to hire an immigration lawyer, see HERE and HERE.


Q: What is the visa application process like?

Again, it varies for everyone and I can only speak to my personal experience. For me, I had started to pursue a visa multiple times and always had to change plans due to policy changes that would impact my qualification (when I add up all the attempts, I believe I pursued 5 or 6 different types before one stuck!) In regards to the one that worked, here is the Reader's Digest of my timeline:

  • Feb. 2020: After many dead ends and working with 4 different lawyers over the years, I was connected to my current immigration lawyer, who had worked with other friends of mine and produced successful results. She presented a visa path to me that she believed I was a suitable candidate for.

  • March 2020: I signed an "engagement letter" (essentially a contract agreeing to my layers terms and fees) and paid her for her work up front to officially hire her so she could start working on my case.

  • April-August 2020: We spent a few months ironing out necessary details that were specific to my particular visa (not worth explaining because chances are slim this process would be the same for any two people… again: immigration lawyers are key!)

  • August 2020: Once we had everything we needed in place, we could start the actual application process. My lawyer and I spent hours on the phone together filling out my UK visa application online (they ask so many questions: everything from my parents full names, birthdays and places of birth to being required to log every single trip I've taken outside the US in the last decade). At the end of the application, you're able to schedule a biometric appointment for a week later (biometrics are essentially anatomical or physiological data by which a person can be uniquely identified… more about that in a minute). I had to go ahead and pay for my NHS (healthcare) surcharge, as well as my application fee (I paid an additional fee to make it a priority application so I could get an answer within a week). Part of your application requirement is to say what your projected date into the UK will be (which is hard to do when you aren't sure how long the turnaround will take!) Since airlines are currently offering flexible change policies anyway, I went ahead and booked my flight for my projected entry date (which was about a week after I was supposed to hear an answer). I knew I could change it if I needed to, but wanted to lock in a ticket before prices got any higher.

  • September 2020: I went to my biometrics appointment to get the last piece of required paperwork for my application. At the biometrics appointment, they collect your fingerprints, take your photo, and have you sign your name for electronic capture. Immediately after I took all my materials (my application paperwork and my passport) to FedEx to send everything off to the visa office for approval. Five days later, they e-mailed me to tell me a decision had been reached (but they don't tell you what the decision is, which makes it feel so dramatic!) About two days later, my parcel arrived with my passport (with a visa in it!) and a letter providing instructions for what to do next.

Keep in mind that while this particular visa attempt only took about 8 months start to finish, I spent YEARS before this investigating other options, working towards necessary requirements to qualify me for different types of visas (only for the rules to change halfway into the process every time and forcing me to start from scratch on a new plan once again). Some visas are very straightforward if you qualify. Others are incredibly cumbersome. While you shouldn't let one persons long journey discourage you from trying to get a visa yourself, you should also be weary of someone else's seemingly easy journey making it seem like it's all a piece of cake. It just depends on so many things.

moving to london


Q: How soon will you move?

Very, very soon. The turn around from when the visa arrived in the mail to when I actually move is only one week. In normal times I might have left more of a gap in between to not feel rushed, but in COVID times and so much changing every day with borders I wanted to get over before things could change (can you imagine if I waited 4 years for a visa, FINALLY got it and then couldn’t get into the country!?) With that said, although I am arriving in the UK in one week, I’m not technically arriving in London straight away. Anyone arriving to the UK from America (no matter your nationality) is required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival (more about that HERE). So just like I did this summer when I visited the UK, my boyfriend will pick me up from the airport and we will drive straight to the countryside for my first two weeks to quarantine (his family has a house there and there’s a lot more space than what would be available to quarantine in London). So as of now, I’ll arrive in London by the beginning of October.


Q: Where in London will you live?

Moving into my own flat is something I’ve dreamed about for SO long. Even when I had my own place in Nashville, I didn’t really make it feel like “home” (because I knew I was trying to leave). Now that I can finally live where I want to live (full-time and legally!) I absolutely plan on getting my own place. I plan on living somewhere in Zone 1 or Zone 2 because I prefer to be fairly central to start, but there are lots of great neighborhoods I would live in). I actually already have a prospective flat that I’m really excited about (but will wait until I’m actually moved in to share more… still navigating this process!)


Q: Why London?

I can’t tell you the number of times someone suggested to me that I “just live somewhere else” when this process wasn’t looking very optimistic. While I genuinely wished at the time that I could just flip a switch in my brain and change my mind, my heart was set on London— even in the worst moments of the journey. To me, London is the most multi-cultural, diverse, exciting city I’ve ever been to; and the place I noticed I felt the most myself (does that sound as terribly cliché as it does for me typing it?) It has so many “comforts” of home that make it easy to live in (as silly as it may sound: they speak English, there’s a Whole Foods, the list goes on). It also has just enough differences to still feel exciting (again, as silly as it sounds: they have different accents, different architecture, different cultures… the list also goes on!) It’s also especially exciting for my career (a 3-4 hour car/train journey for me currently takes me to Birmingham, AL or Louisville, KY. Once in London, a 3-4 hour car/train journey will take me to Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels or Germany!) I’m so excited to have a place to make “home” that’s a quick weekend trip to so many European destinations that I need to visit frequently for work… and ones that I still haven’t been able to visit!

It sounds so cheesy, but this whole process truly feels like one of those “all roads in my life have brought me here” kind of moments. I could write a novel about emotions I’ve felt along the way… but today I’m overwhelmed and over the moon with excitement! So until I can get around to sharing anything beyond what’s above… I’ll be over here gushing because:

I’M MOVING TO LONDON!!!!

HOW TO THROW AN AT-HOME BIRTHDAY

photo c/o Etsy

photo c/o Etsy

I'm a social butterfly who typically, loves using my birthday as an excuse to gather my people and do something fun. This year, I was meant to be in London with a group of my friends at one of my favorite pubs. Any other year, this would be a very normal way to spend ones birthday. Enter COVID-19. This year, many of us will celebrate unconventional birthdays thanks to this novel coronavirus. And while it's certainly not ideal circumstances to celebrate, I refuse to believe we can't have fun still. I was chatting with my friend Rebecca (who was supposed to be on a sailing trip in the Caribbean for her upcoming birthday). We started brainstorming some ways we could take our plans that had been cancelled and weave them into our at-home celebrations. I realize that even if COVID19 wasn't a thing, there are tons of people who celebrate birthdays at home for a variety of circumstances. So whatever your reason may be, if you're celebrating your birthday at home this year, here are some ways to make it a great one:

1. PICK A THEME

francophile birthday

Since I was supposed to be living in Paris this spring (and since I've been thinking a lot about Italy lately with everything going on in the world) I decided I wanted to have a French celebration for the first half of the day and an Italian celebration for the latter half. Rebecca was supposed to be on a sailing trip in the Caribbean for her birthday, so she is opting for an island theme. While ours are both location based (given that travel is such a key part of our lives and something we are missing a lot), it felt natural for our themes to reflect that. Perhaps you have another location in mind (like a London tea party!) or, a theme that has nothing to do with location (planned around your favorite film?)




2. ENGAGE YOUR SENSES

Once you've landed on a theme, it's time to bring it to life! Try to think about all your senses as a touchpoint for planning to really make it seem that much more realistic.

SEE: Plan the decor! Festive balloons are appropriate for any occasion (opt for biodegradable!) Find some paper plates that coordinate with your theme (I found these for my French breakfast and for cake plates). Additionally, adding some festive straws or glasses that coordinate (I love these champagne flutes and Rebecca ordered some fun straws for her rum punch cocktails).

SMELL: I'm planning to light the candle that Hotel Plaza Athene in Paris gave me from a previous visit to remind me of my time there. In the evening, I'm going to diffuse some lemon oil to remind me of the lemon groves near Amalfi.

HEAR: Set the scene with an appropriate playlist (music is everything!) Here is what I'm planning for my French and Italian soundtracks (Midnight in Paris Soundtrack, Aperitivo Time + I also have some films I want to watch throughout the day, like Midnight in Paris (or one of these Audrey Hepburn films set in France).

Photo from the film “Funny Face”

Photo from the film “Funny Face”

TASTE: This brings us to our next point...



3. SET THE MENU

Arguably the best part of an at-home celebration… the food! Find dishes that align with your theme. Here's what I'm planning for both the French + Italian portions of my day:

FRENCH BREAKFAST: I have a bottle of champagne that I bought on a trip to Champagne a few years ago and have been saving. I am either going to make this quiche recipe that Rebecca gave me, or order some almond croissants from a local French bakery (honestly, I'll probably do both!)

ITALIAN APERITIVO + DINNER: I have some truffle honey I bought in Tuscany that I'm going to pair with pecorino cheese for aperitivo time (I'll use the leftover champagne from breakfast to make a spritz and listen to the previously mentioned "Aperitivo Time" playlist, which was the soundtrack to my Puglia road trip this past September). For dinner, I'm either going to make this cacio e pepe recipe, or order take out from a local Italian spot. *I'm also contemplating opening a nice bottle of wine I bought in Puglia, but it depends how much alcohol I can drink in one day!



4. LEVERAGE LOCAL BUSINESSES

Whether I cook myself or order take out will largely depend on my mood as it gets closer. Either way, I doubt I'll want to cook both meals on my own birthday, so chances are I'll order out for at least one. I know there are lots of great local businesses who greatly appreciate the support during times like this. So whether it's for food, ordering some flowers or any other ideas you can muster— try to pull them in where you can.




5. DRESS FOR THE OCCASION

Considering this is day 16 of being in lounge wear, I'm so excited for a reason to put real clothes on! I'm already planning to FaceTime/ Skype/ Zoom with my friends I can't celebrate in person with, so it will be a nice change of pace to feel like myself again! Even if you don't spend the entire day dressed up, putting on an outfit you love for your meal is a great way to treat it like a special occasion (and not another day glued to your couch).

I’ll likely wear either this green dress or this white dress for my at-home birthday. Both have been hanging in my closet untouched (I picked them thinking they’d be perfect for living in Paris this spring… but my Parisian/Italian themed party will have to do for now!)

It may not be the most ideal way to celebrate, but I’m still looking forward to making the most of a quarantined birthday with this list. I’m also looking forward to when this is all behind us and we are able to gather again (my friends in London have already been warned that we will be having a belated gathering!) I’m hopeful it will be on a sunny rooftop on a warm summer day that I would have never been able to have on an April day in London…

Sending you all virtual hugs and lots of optimism as we all continue to look for the good this season. There are still so many reasons to be thankful and celebrate this life- even if things look different right now.

Hang in there.

xx,

Whitney

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