firedance

Hi there, i am new to the site and i am trying to get some information. At the moment i am living in canada, where my husband brought me and my son to live 3 years ago. We moved from the uk, so he could work as a truck driver. He left us and went back to the uk in jan this year.
My questions are: would i make it as a single parent?
Where are the best places to buy homes?
I work as a teaching assistant, would it be hard to find a job?
We love cyprus, but is the cost of living high?
Thank you for your time,
Linda

Honest_H

Hi Linda,

You've been left in it! Not fair of your husband to leave you in a foreign country!!

It is pretty hard to get work here, well anything with a decent wage.

I know that the British Bases here are always on the look out for teaching assistants. Try the MOD website. Might also be an idea to send your CV to the private english schools, although the pay is low, you will get a large discount if you decide to send your son to the same school.

People think that its easy living in the sun, but let me set you straight. Its hard, really hard. Fine if your retired, my parents are having a ball! My husband and I are finding that no matter what you go to do here, everything is bogged down in paperwork, its been two years since we arrived and we have yet to receive any child benefits, our second daughter was born here and it doesn't seem to make a difference.

I'm not saying, don't come, but just give it a lot of thought and research before you make any decisions.

Ask any questions you need to on here, people are full of information. Its been very useful for me

justdreaming

Hi, I have been reading the posts with interest & I wonder if anyone knows if there are any jobs for youth workers or motobike mechanics? My husband is Greek so the language is not a problem. We wouldn't like to move without a job arranged as we have children. How do you find jobs on the MOD bases?
Also what areas are best for families?
Great reading everyones experiences-really helpful!

Honest_H

I really can't say what the jobs would be like for youth workers or motorbike mechanics, although I'd say it would be easier for a mechanic that a youth worker. Would you consider setting up a business for the motorbikes? Although, there are plenty of mechanics on the island, finding one that will actually do the work when they say and complete it when they say would be a real advantage.

For jobs in the MOD, look on their website.

Area's for families, I'd look at schools first, once you decide on a school then that's the area to go for. Will the children be going to English or Greek schools?

I will say that it will be very hard for you to get jobs when your not here, unless you use an international recruitment agency, (GRS Recruitment for example), but these are mainly for office type jobs, give them a try though.

justdreaming

Thanks for replying to my post about finding youth work/ motorbike mechanic. My husband actually combines his skills in the above work,he teaches/trains young people (or anyone!) motorbike mechanics.He runs adult learning classes as well. At the moment we are looking at the possibility of starting our own business as there seems to be a lot of interest in gaining these skills.
If we thought there was a market elsewhere we are open to suggestions!
The reason I asked about MOD was that they have a youth service section, we wondered if they would be interested in this line of youth development work.
I work as a learning assistant so not sure about jobs for me.
Sorry its a long post!

Honest_H

Your husband could try contacting the colleges, they may have courses that he could teach on. You never know.

Forgive my ignorance, but can you explain learning assistant? Is it the same as a classroom assistant? Or is it working with special needs?

You could try contacting the english schools in the areas that you wish to live, they advertise for teaching staff, but only in the local papers. Also, again, the british bases always need teachers of all descriptions. Again, these will be advertised on the MOD website and also in the "Lion" (the forces weekly newspaper in Cyprus)

justdreaming

Thanks for that info. I will try to contact colleges and also english schools. My husband has the advantage of speaking Greek and English (not so for the rest of the family!). Yes, a learning assistant is the same as a class assistant, are there special needs schools in Cyprus?
Have you been in Cyprus for a while, what kind of work do you do?(if you don't mind me asking).
If you can think of anymore useful contacts we would really appreciate it.
Thanks again.

Honest_H

We've been here for 2 and a half years. My husband is an accountant working for the french construction company who are building the new airport. Unfortunetely, he gets paid according to the local market, so only earns a quarter of his worth. I work for a software company doing admin and project management. Again, I'm on about a third of the English wage that I should be getting.

I'm really not sure about special needs schools here. I know there would be Greek ones, which wouldn't help you if you don't speak Greek. Ask when contacting the schools.

Ask any questions you want to, I wish we'd have had someone to ask when we moved. I would have been a lot different for us if we had.

justdreaming

It is good of you to offer to answer my questions. How difficult was it to get settled in Cyprus? Is finding suitable property a problem, as there seems to be mixed views on renting/buying. I am also interested on the cost of living, social opportunities (we have four children ranging between 9-20) education, health service and the all important climate! What are winters like and how hot is it really in the summer?
What are the main pitfalls do you think?
Sorry its so many questions, but you did say to ask!
Appreciate your views.
Thanks.

Honest_H

OK.

SETTLING IN
The first few months your still on holiday mode, so you sail through. Once jobs, schools etc come along, then you start to settle in properly. It really depends on the type of person you are, as to how you'll get on here. You have the added advantage of a Greek speaker in the family.

SUITABLE PROPERTY
My advice is to rent first. If, after a few years, you decide that this is the place for you, then buy. Trying to find a good builder is hard, so buy a re-sale that has title deeds available.

COST OF LIVING
I would say its on a power with the UK really. The Euro comes into affect on 1st Jan and already, people have put prices up. Electric is dear, but water is cheap. Thr "rates" are very cheap. A standard house is about £80 for the year. This covers street lighting and refuse collections

EDUCATION
Given the age range of your children, they will need to go to English schools unless they are fluent in Greek. There are plenty in the major towns (Nicosia, Larnaca, Limasol, Paralimini, Paphos). They all vary in price. The primary school that by daughter goes to will not cost anymore that £2k for the year until she goes into secondary school. Not sure how much that will cost. You will need to watch University's though. Overseas students are charged about £10k per year. Expensive.

HEALTH SERVICE
There is a health service. Its means tested to see which of the three brackets you fall into, free, band A or band B. Bands A & B pay, but it depends on your income.

I'm covered through my works insurance policy. 90% of people here have private health cover. Do consider it. I've been in a state hospital, and its not nice.

CLIMATE
Fantastic. July and Aug are extremely hot, Jan and Feb are freezing. Everyone laughs at that, but 9 out of 10 houses aren't insultated and certainly most don't have central heating, so the houses are cold in the evenings.

PITFALLS
Missing my sister and friends! Miss the NHS (you have to pay at least £15 every time you see the doc, miss child benefits (its £200 per year here, all paid at once in December - took us two years to get it, even though daughter number two was born here!). I know that sounds silly, bit its only when you've lived away from the UK, that you realise that its not such a bad place to live.

At times living here is fantastic, there's nowhere else like it, but when your low, your really low and it's hard to get out of. In saying all that, you have the advantage of a Greek speaker , so it maybe hugely differenct for you.

Sorry if I sound off putting, but I think you need to see the full picture.

justdreaming

Hi again, that was really useful info and not at all off putting! appreciate the honesty. I noticed that there was jobs for learning assistants on the MoD site, but not sure if they were for service personnel or civillians. I can't find the Cyprus Lion paper but I will keep searching. I think the key to any move is to do as much research as possible. As my husband is doing a full time college course we are unable to consider moving or anything until he finishes in June 2008. This allows us time to research as much as we can, we hope to come over to Cyprus early next year. Our other idea is to maybe set up business here and look at the possibility of a second home in Cyprus/Greece. Its very difficult to make the right decision for all family members!
I will keep reading expat posts as they offer different views.

Honest_H

Do, they offer invaluable information.

The jobs advertised on the MoD are for anyone. It might be best to apply well before leaving as the security checks may take a while. I don't think "the Lion" is OnLine, we buy it at the base near to us.

One thing that I wish we had done was to keep our house on in the UK and rent it out, it gives you something to fall back on. Maybe worth considering

justdreaming

I might be wrong, apologies if I am, but you do not sound too happy with Cyprus. Why did you choose Cyprus, and do you have any regrets on moving there?
We originally thought about Canada, but as my husband is Greek he prefers Europe. He feels that it is more accessible, you can move around quite freely. The main problem is deciding on where to go! Greece is the obvious choice, but I am unsure about their education and health systems - which are important factors to us. We like some of the Spanish islands and even thought of Malta (but none of us speaks Spanish). We are looking at Cyprus as it seems to offer the best of both Greece and the UK. Though I may be wrong.
Ideally we would like to rent our house here (you are right about having a house to fall back on if necessary). We do not need to worry about family, as they are spread around Europe and Canada.
We are disillusioned with what the UK has to offer, especially its young people. Life in Europe seems more family orientated and grounded. Again I might be wrong (like to get other opinions on this one).
We would like to try somewhere different, rather than having regrets later on.
We are not getting any younger!

Honest_H

I will never regret coming to Cyprus, I didn't want to go through life saying " I wish we had of...." Life is usually great here, but after a while, you start to think "is the grass really greener on the other side?"

I really have to think of the future for my family. My husband may have a hereditary disease, so I have to think of future care for him, which in cyprus is non existent. I wouldn't be able to work because I would have to look after him, which means I wouldn't have any money to school my daughters. There's no such thing as pensions here, so that's a consideration too.

If we had of realised all of this before we came out, we might not have made the decision. We did research, but all we were told was, "The health system is great", which it isn't really. My youngest daughter had a soft cleft palate, they wouldn't operate here, so we had to go back the UK. My concern is if something happens in the future, will the same happen again?

I'm not trying to put you off, because life here is great, but I really don't like people coming out here who are completely disillusioned, and think its all sun sea and fun. Its hard work for a family of working and school age. My parents are here in a retired capacity and are having a great time. They have made some very good friends and enjoy life to the max (when they're not looking after my girls!!)

We choose Cyprus based on the fact that most of the working sector carry out business in English. There are a lot of international companies here, so finding work for us wasn't that difficult, as long as you can except the lower rates of pay.

Like I say, I will not regret coming to Cyprus and trying out the different life styles. It has opened our eyes to different cultures (not only Cypriot), and we have certainly changed our ways of thinking. Our horizons have been broadened.

We now look at the UK, and can say, you know, its not actually that bad. We will go back in a few years, but we intend to enjoy ourselves while we're here and be glad that we've done it. We're not looking forward to the "we told you so" comments that we'll get, but we now know that those comments will only come from small minded people who haven't lived. We'd be going back to Northern Ireland, which, I know it sounds silly given its history, isn't as bad as reputation that England has now.

My final advice is to grab the bull by its horns and go for it, if it doesn't work out, then fine, at least you tried.

Please ask as many questions as you can, I wish I'd have, things would be a lot different and I think that we'd be here for life if we'd have done more research.

justdreaming

Your honesty is very refreshing and most appreciated. We too need to look carefully at the health system as our youngest child has an acquired brain injuy from the removal of a brain tumour. He is physically fine and attends mainstrem school, but requires support in class to stay focused. Due to the nature of this kind of disability we are unsure of his future problems(if any). We too want to experience a different lifestyle, and being able to give the children a wider view of life. Our children often say that they wish they had grown up in Greece, but life never seems to give you the opportunity when you would like it to.
I will keep on researching Cyprus and look particularly at health and education.