May/10

The Grown-Up’s Guide to Running Away from Home: Making a New Life Abroad

5 Comments · Posted by admin in American Senior Living

The Grown-Up’s Guide to Running Away from Home: Making a New Life Abroad

ISBN13: 9781580088732
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

For empty-nesters, early retirees, and even established executives, midlife is the ideal time to turn travel fantasies into real and rewarding experiences. This second edition of THE GROWN-UP’S GUIDE covers estimating cost-of-living expenses, the dos and don’ts of international health care, the boom in online travel resources, and much more. Whether planning a monthlong escape or a whole new life in another country, this empowering guide will encourage mature would-be expats to pursue the overseas adventure they’ve been craving.

Rating: (out of 8 reviews)

List Price: $ 14.95

Price: $ 8.50

Question by TIMMY C: How does an American Senior High graduate take a gap year in the United Kingdom?
Hi,

My freind who has entered senior high school in California this year, wishes to take a gap year before college.
He’d like to spend this year in London, where I live and have a house in which he can live for free.
He would then look for part time (maybe bar) work just so he could be self sufficient.
Flights are not an expense, as he flies for free.

Is this possible/easy/hard?
Would love to hear from someone that’s done a similar thing.

Thanks very much,

Tim
That’s a bit of a bugger…thanks for the very helpful answer though!
Loopholes people…let’s have some loopholes!
x

Best answer:

Answer by RoaringMice
Not really, no. Well, not legally, anyway.

He won’t be able to get a work visa to legally work in a bar. He could either work illegally, or else he could work in a school, as part of the UK’s gap year scheme (linked, below). To my knowledge, coming out of high school, these are his only options for paid work in the UK.

As a US citizen, he could enter the UK without a tourist visa, and stay with you. He’d not be allowed to work legally.

There are many volunteer opportunities for a gap year in the UK, should he want to do that. They do cost, though.

When he graduates from college, he can of course do BUNAC. Linked, below.

If he chose to find work while visiting with you, that isn’t hard. Bar work is easy to come by, especially in the big cities, and many pay in cash. He’d just walk from place to place, asking if they had open positions. They’d understand, from his accent and age, what he was on about. I won’t say I did this when I was young, I’ll just infer it. :grins:

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Abroad · Away · cost of living expenses · empowering guide · from · gap year · GrownUp's · Guide · Home · international health care · Life · Making · remainder mark · rewarding experiences · Running · running away from home · timmy c · travel fantasies · work visa

5 comments

K. S. Hirschfeld · May 15, 2010 at 10:06 am

Review by K. S. Hirschfeld for The Grown-Up’s Guide to Running Away from Home: Making a New Life Abroad
Rating:
When I first happened upon this book I was immediately attracted to the title. As a person who had left the comforts of an active career 4 years earlier to see what I could build in Europe, I thought this book might be amusing and thought it might enlighten me about situations I had yet to encounter.

It turned out to be a great deal more than that and I wish I had read it before I’d made the leap. It would have saved me a lot of hand wringing on various subjects and helped me think through a number of topics in advance.

The book addresses those who want a few months’ getaway in a different environment as well as those who want to pull up stakes completely for a more `long term’ change of scenery. Although written to some degree from an American perspective, the issues and questions raised apply no matter what your departure point.

Knorr raises subjects ranging from how to choose your destination, the family planning that’s required, health care and medical coverage, insurance, passports, visas, bureaucracy, safety, financial considerations when operating away from home, what to take and what to leave behind, how to deal with the property you own, settling in, networking in your new environment as well as how to find a home, car, doctor, you name it, she thought of it.

Knorr gives you the facts but also addresses the emotional upheaval that can accompany such a move and helps you think through the permutations that always accompany a big decision! She writes with the wisdom of somehow who has passed this way and wants to save the reader some of the headaches she encountered while navigating the waters of setting up home in a new location. Her style is engaging, straight forward and very well informed .

If this book inspires you to take the leap, all the better, but even if I doesn’t, it’s a great read and will acquaint you with the adventure and challenges that await those who do. It is an easy read and jam packed with good information on virtually every aspect of making this kind of decision. If she missed anything, I’m not sure what it is.
Dr Cathy Goodwin · May 15, 2010 at 10:58 am

Review by Dr Cathy Goodwin for The Grown-Up’s Guide to Running Away from Home: Making a New Life Abroad
Rating:
As a career consultant, I find myself responding to questions about the ultimate getaway: finding a new job (and maybe a new life) overseas. It sounds so romantic…till you get into the nitty-gritty of paperwork, taxes and health care.

This guide gets 5 stars simply because it does what it promises: offers a straightforward guide to those who are considering a move but have no place to begin. However, I would recommend (a) reading multiple guides and (b) talking to folks who have been there. Try to find someone who’s been in your situation. A 60+ retiree won’t benefit from talking to a twenty-something; a single person needs to understand how a culture interprets her lifestyle.

I spent a few years in Canada on a “landed immigrant” visa (equivalent to a green card) as a business school professor. It’s been awhile, but I would say the info here seems accurate and balanced. The author assumes her readers will be concerned about safety and health care. Your beliefs, values, and interpretation of events will influence your own priorities.

But for a starting point, you could do a lot worse.
Cummington Cook · May 15, 2010 at 10:59 am

Review by Cummington Cook for The Grown-Up’s Guide to Running Away from Home: Making a New Life Abroad
Rating:
You CAN run away without buying this book. I did not learn anything that I didn’t already know from my own intelligence and common sense. I was intrigued by the idea of chucking it all and starting anew in Europe. I purchased the book and anxiously awaited its arrival. The enthusiasm with which I began reading shortly waned. Do I really need a book to tell me to submit change of address cards to the post office? I kept waiting for the author’s secrets to unfold. There are none in this book. If you want to run away from your current life… you need money and courage and language skills. I should write a book !!!
T. I. Farmer · May 15, 2010 at 11:26 am

Review by T. I. Farmer for The Grown-Up’s Guide to Running Away from Home: Making a New Life Abroad
Rating:
There’s nothing in this slim, superficial little book you can’t discover for yourself in 30 minutes’ focused Internet surfing. If you have genuinely never considered even the most basic issues associated with living abroad, and you find value in pronouncements like “Don’t buy a fancy car over there” or a list of 800 numbers for overseas airlines, you might get some value from this. If you’ve traveled overseas with some frequency, know the culture you want to join, and now need practical advice on tax and money management, visa and residency requirements, property ownership rules, etc., this book is more or less useless. The author quotes a couple of immediate-circle friends extensively about their move to Portugal but appears to have done little serious research… admittedly it’s difficult to write a guide that covers every country you might move to, but be warned this book is really an example of “once over lightly.”
Helle Dane · May 15, 2010 at 11:49 am

Review by Helle Dane for The Grown-Up’s Guide to Running Away from Home: Making a New Life Abroad
Rating:
The Grown-up’s Guide to Running Away From Home: Making a New Life Abroad is a really great read. I’m planning to retire to Europe and it is proving very helpful. It asks many questions, some that are obvious and some not, has check lists (such as how many months before the move you need to have a mail box set up, find renters, move furniture, change subscriptions, etc.) It also helps solidify the process of making decisions about where to live and why. I’m loving it and recommend it to everyone!