Thursday, July 28, 2011

After One Year I Gave Idaho the Bird

Yesterday was a benchmark. One year back in Idaho. Ugh.

First of all, I can NOT believe that it's been a year. Time flies when you're trying to escape under a certain time limit.  But I'm here. I'm resigned. For now.

I got really excited there for a while when I found out my company has facilities in the UK. I talked to my director who told me to email our CEO who passed on my info to the UK CEO who passed on my query to the chief recruiter in the UK. Seriously- I was so excited. I was starting to fantasize in my head about what it would be like to live in London (what I would have to do to leave: what I could take and what would have to stay behind, selling Dory if need be, etc).  How would I get around, what would I do, where would I live... all kinds of things I was thinking about.  Then I got this email:

..."The migration of workers from outside of Europe to the UK has been a point of keen debate in the UK Parliament in the past 18 months. This has resulted in some draconian legislation coming into force that has made ICT’s and all non-European migration for work nigh on impossible on any large scale as well as extremely expensive for businesses.
In addition to this legislation, clinical and medical staff are required to be registered with the relevant UK professional health board (General Medical Council / Nursing and Midwifery Council) before they apply to the UK Boarder Agency for immigration clearance. Registering with the relevant UK professional health board adds an additional 6 to 9 months to the recruitment cycle. One final hurdle HCA International are legally required to complete is a procedure called a Resident Labour Market Test (RLMT). In short, this mean the Chief HR Officers need to provide documentary evidence to the UK Boarder Agency that no British or European citizen is capable of completing the role.

It is possible to move from the US to the UK but it is a costly, complicated and time consuming adventure..."

Depressing? I think so.  So now I'm working on the next plan. I don't know what that is yet. So stay tuned.
 
So on the anniversary of my homecoming, I was driving to work when an awful thing happened. I hope it's not some kind of bad omen.  I do everything I can to not hit animals while I'm driving (bugs don't count- they are not animals, they are a nuisance and the more that die, the better). I brake for squirrels, and I even wrinkle my face in silent hope whenever I see a mouse running across the freeway in front of me- hoping that the tires will just miss it's little vermin body. So yesterday, when I was driving to work and a bird hit my windshield, it did not go well with me (or the bird, probably).  I saw the bird take flight and swoop toward my car. I don't know if it's some dare game that they have going on, but the birds can usually swerve out of the way at the last second. This one must have been having an off day, because he didn't get out of the way in time. The crunch was sickening and the splat of gunk and feathers left behind caused me to only hope that he died instantly and wasn't suffering on the side of the road somewhere.  I cried the rest of the way to work. What a horrible way to die for a bird.  As grateful as I am for modern conveniences, it makes me sad the way we torture nature.
 
Anyway, I hope that's not a precedent of how the next year is going to be. *shudder*

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