Originally Posted by tonrob

Had pumpkin curry for tea. Connecticut loves a bit of variety.

Originally Posted by cindyabs

Taking a walk on the wild side ain'tcha?

Originally Posted by tonrob

Hey - I'm not one of those people who eats the same old thing all the time - I love a bit of variety. I like pumpkin curries, cauliflower curries, chick pea curries, courgette curries, potato curries, paneer curries, egg curries... the list goes on.

Originally Posted by Englishtart

Hi Stacey, Welcome to BE

Lots of sites online for finding out the info you need, you can go to city data.com for the area info and greatschools.net to find info on all the schools in your district, if you don't know where you will be yet, this site will help you find good schools in areas that you might be thinking about

Good luck, I know there must be members that live in CT on here, they will be able to give you more specific help

Originally Posted by penguinsix

There are a lot of answers in the WIKI section. The schools bit is here:

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/What_d...kids_in_school

note: jabs are pretty important, so pay attention to that bit.

As for more specifics, try the search on this forum as many of the things have been discussed, even I think a few "Connecticut" threads. That might give you a few answers, but probably a few more questions as well so feel free to post them as you continue your research.

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Category:USA
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Category:USA_Lifestyle

Originally Posted by Hiro11

CT is a really strange mix of lily-white preppy hoity-toityness (Greenwich, Darien, New Canaan, Stamford area, a few small towns in the interior) featuring:
- lots of antique shops selling $500 fish-serving forks from the 1600s
- lichen-covered old stone walls
- olde Newe Englande towne centres w/commons, prep schools and pre-Declaration of Independance congregationalist churches
- snazzy shingle-style beach houses on the Long Island Sound and the Needle islands where rich kids have bonfires in the summer
- baronial Greenwich mansions for the hedge fund managers
- Porsche dealers
- Lots of blonde children in tartan school uniforms

and beaten-down Northeastern industrial awfulness (New Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford etc) featuring:
- gang violence
- Greyhound bus terminals complete with bums on the nod
- rusting steel girders everywhere
- giant abandoned brick warehouses
- good pizza
- rotting triple-decker tenements

It's a very up-and-down state, similar to New Jersey in that respect.

Originally Posted by N1cky

That really annoyed me when we moved over, my daughter was really bored in class, but the teacher refused to give her some harder work as she said, she doesn't know what some basic words are, she constantly marked her down for not circling the picture of an elevator as something that began with the letter L, etc.



I think it really depends how old your kids are too. We were unlucky to move when my daughter had done 1 full year reception and 3 months 1st grade in the UK, putting her way ahead of kids her age in the US as they had only done 3 months in kindergarten.

From my experience homework and work seems to ramp up in 2nd grade over here (7 years old and up) and they then seem to be on a par if not ahead of UK.



We moved over without doing any kind of reccie, although it seems daunting it wasn't too bad. The company put us in temporary accommodation for 4 weeks (a furnished long stay apartment thing) and as I wasn't working this gave me enough time to look at schools and check out areas.

I set up some appointments with schools before we came out. We also tried to find the right school before focusing on where to live, therefore not committing to a house only to find the schools in the area were not what we were looking for.

Originally Posted by moving2nyc

Hi Stacey,

My family are moving from Bath to New York next year, I'm looking at Greenwich because it's an easy commute to manhattan.

Happy to keep you upto date with our progress if you like, I'm already here which makes it easier. The wife and youngest daughter are here for the next 2 weeks for a reccie.

Good luck

Originally Posted by Stacey p

I think thats what we're gonna do, our company have offered a months accomadation also. I would love to be within walking distance of the school if poss. Mine has just started school in Sept over here, and has started to pick up loads already, but as they start a year later over there I don't know whether I can start him in school or pre school? BTW is kindergarden pre school or reception? I'm still trying to work out what the equivilant is to the british system.