Cayman island move
 

Re: Cayman island move
 

There's really not much to tell you that hasn't been told in this Cayman Forum already. But is your job-offer from a private doctor or one of the hospitals? Also: do you have a speciality? The range of salaries is quite wide, to the best of my meagre knowledge.

Re: Cayman island move
 

Re: Cayman island move
 

There isn't a lot to do when it rains, but if it's raining wait a few minutes, usually it will have stopped. You can't get a bad meal. Cheap flights and hills don't exist. You can get all the home comforts (brands of food etc.) but it will cost you. You don't need a coat or heels, ever. Rosé wine is known as Zin. It's hard to integrate and the place makes it known you are here temporarily so it will never feel like home (right from the moment they segregate you in the passport control queue as you disembark the aircraft). The standard of driving is (putting it politely) poor. There are hardly any paths. The queen is on the money and stamps, we get a day off for her birthday but this is NOT little England, quite the opposite. The summer is awful (humidity) and the winter is amazing. The island is split into two historical time periods, pre-Ivan and after Ivan. Lamb is hard to get hold of, bread is poor unless you pay for the £5 stuff. The sea is still full of amazing life and reasonably well looked after (until they build the pier and over dive it). The place is real small and driving 5 miles soon becomes the equivalent of driving hundreds, driving to the East End becomes a major day out. 7 mile beach is over crowded and isn't 7 miles long. Dart must be paying someone high up. You will pay out 2k for a car you wouldn't give £200 for back home and feel grateful you've got a good deal. Chips are fries and the word aluminium is lost on them. Patois is the equivalent of speaking to a Glaswegian, if they slow down enough you can just about make out what they are saying, sometimes. The price of some items depends on your heritage and accent. 15% is added to your bill automatically and a pint is 20% smaller than the UK but petrol is sold as an imperial gallon. Like Scotland they want independence but know that would be financial suicide. It costs to transfer money online but not if you go into the bank and move it around using a paid bank teller in a building that costs a lot of money to run. Queues are the norm in government run buildings, the government can't empty the bins but create a smoke screen on the issue. A seemingly large proportion of top officials seem to retire after suspension without the public ever finding out what they did wrong (including Anwar Choudury). Caymankind exists most the time but not all.

The place is amazing, it is very different to back home in good and bad ways but then that's why we are here - to experience another culture (and their sun).

Re: Cayman island move
 

Re: Cayman island move
 

Many of the people I work with are on their own and so quickly form friendship groups with each other, I would assume that you would be working with other nurses and many will be in a similar situation.

Re: Cayman island move
 

That was a great summary of TandD's, and his later comment on friends is spot on, too. I'm long retired from the social scene, and although my son is in his 40s I don't keep track of where he finds his friends. Anyway, he's lived here on and off his whole life, and is always bumping into people he knows from way back. We don't know what your preferences are, Rachel, but there really is something for everybody here; and failing all else it's always sensible to go and watch sporting events. Tandy mentions the local dialect, but everybody speaks understandable English, pretty much. The Jamaican accent is tough, when spoken quickly (the actual patois ("patwa") is impossible!), and with a hundred nationalities represented here you'll hear a variety of foreign accents. Good luck with it all!

Re: Cayman island move
 

Re: Cayman island move
 

You need to do the theory test to convert a UK license to get your Cayman one within 3 months. It's easy if you can remember your highway code plus a few americanisms to learn (can turn left on red, a 4 way cross and don't pass a stopped school bus even in the opposite direction). It depends on what you mean by integrating, like often sticks with like here (which is a shame or maybe my social skills are poor). Eating out is a major pastime here, there is one cinema, there is theatre but much more limited, walking isn't easy as no paths and too humid a lot of the time, days out are often to the same place, it's not like you can take the train to a different city each weekend. However there is paddle boarding, snorkelling, diving, sailing, kite surfing plus much much more.

Re: Cayman island move
 

No, but there are places to fly to for a long weekend - Jamaica, the Bay Islands, Cuba, Florida and Texas. We've done all those, since we've been here - plus taken charter flights to Costa Rica and Panama. There are also occasional charters to Belize and Yucatan, which we haven't bothered with. And there are always the two Sister Islands. No trains, though...!

Re: Cayman island move
 

Cracking summary from TandD until this bit 'Like Scotland they want independence but know that would be financial suicide'. That's a step closer with the imminent implosion of the Tories. We'll free ourselves from English yoke at last. Alba Gu Brath!

Did you ever get here Rachel? How do you find it?