Unemployed
Okay, so I'm unemployed. I've been unemployed a lot before and I've always gotten through it okay. It's mostly the same being unemployed in Scotland, but there are a few differences.
1. Health insurance is not a problem. I can still go to the doctor and I can still get my prescriptions dirt cheap. I got a whole years' worth of birth control for the equivalent of $11.
2. No one thinks that it is a bad thing that I'm unemployed. Most of the people here are somehow living off the government. They get housing allowances and disability payments for papercuts and it seems like most of them are on some kind of unemployment or welfare. I think that this is because the taxes here have gotten so high that people reached their breaking point, and they do whatever they can to get some of their money back. But it does not work for me because I am an immigrant. I can't get any government money, and neither can my husband because I am an immigrant. In America, when I was poor my friends and family helped me out. Here, no one offers to help because they all assume that we'll just get in line for some government money.
3. They call resumes "CV's" for some reason.
4. People think that I am overqualified because I have a college degree. They don't realize that everyone in the US has a college degree. They didn't fight in Vietnam, so they didn't have the educational inflation that happened when everyone went to college to avoid the draft. In the US, I worked with a janitor with a doctorate and a data entry clerk with a master's degree. I just have a history degree. That qualifies me to work at McDonald's.
In a lot of ways, being unemployed is the same as back home.
1. Daytime tv is still bad here. I watch Mythbusters at noon and then go upstairs and play on the computer and watch old tapes of Mystery Science Theater.
2. Being poor sucks. My husband and I are trying to get into Costco as guests so we can stock up on rice and baked beans. We can afford most of our bills. As long as we don't eat.
3. I'm still really bored.
4. I still have occasional panic attacks about running out of money and losing our house and getting deported. Okay, so back in the US I had to worry about moving back in with my parents instead of being deported. Other than that, it's the same.
Alana
P.S. If you want to help me out, buy some t-shirts and crap.

Look, there are smileys here!
That's pretty spiffy.

