(photo credit: www.iconbar.com)Just a quick, and rather abbreviated update, for friends and family - I've had a recent crash course in how NOT to immigrate to a new country, learning the hard way. Lesson One - don't accept job offers off the internet, especially those without references, no matter how perfect it seems. If it seems too good to be true, believe me, it is. Lesson Two - don't be pressured to move to a new country so quickly for said dodgy job that you don't check out and follow immigration requirements thoroughly! And don't believe what they'll tell you at the New Zealand job fairs in the UK that it's quick and easy to get a visa and work permit in New Zealand, if you have a job offer. Depends very much on the 'job offer'. Lesson Three - don't be a woman and work for a single man with a jealous girlfriend. Lesson Four - make damned sure that you've got enough emotional strength, personal resources and good friends for when it all explodes on you and you discover yourself suddenly homeless, jobless, carless, and sponsorless in a foreign country where you've only been less than six months. Thankfully, I do. And thankfully, it's New Zealand.
At the moment, it's likely to end up in some messy litigation, so that's about all I can really say about my situation, other than - although still homeless and jobless - I'm not as bad off as I could have found myself, and there is reason for me to be happy and hopeful. I will be okay. It's just going to take a lot more work and headaches than I anticipated.
So posts on this blog will be sporadic at best for awhile. But please stay tuned...
