The move to Scotland went about as well as could be hoped for. We’re unbelievably privileged to go through the process of emigration with one of us being a citizen already, and with (I try to say honestly and without undue attempt at bragging) a decently-sized cushion of money. It’s still a *massive* pain in the ass. Even everyday trivialities like driver licensing and paying taxes are an order of magnitude more complex than you’d expect or hope for.
It’s beautiful here, and I’m glad that we’re ~half way through the time needed to get the kids dual citizenship because it gives them an out if the US goes sour long term. I’m not sold on the UK. As an immigrant, every interaction with the british bureaucracy has had an air of “who the fuck are you?” and quite honestly I look around and reply “who the fuck are you to be asking?” I’m doing your English asses a *favor* by being here. This is no exaggeration; I pay more taxes than the average household gross income in this third rate excuse for a country that still thinks it has an empire and it’s dead obvious for anyone with a functioning brain that England thinks it’s king shit of this place over everyone else. The UK national covid stats reporting doesn’t even include Scotland! You have go looking through the Scot gov website for that. Scotland would be far better off as a smaller consitutional republic member of the EU instead of eating the table scraps England deigns to give it in the name of “union.” Some would call this arrogance, I call it “I have better options and I’m only here because my love thinks this is the best of them.”
Aside from everyone having covid right now and the UK being expensive and lame, things are actually going pretty well. The boys are, despite their best efforts, growing and learning, we’re happy most of the time, and things will evolve in due time. I really hope the election next week here ditches the idiot Tory brigade that have been infecting the UK since 2010 and that this November the US doesn’t make a hard u-turn into crazyland by reelecting that orange smear of human feces.