Jen - The Alien Spouse

Here are the biographical facts.

I was born in 1975 in London. As a baby I apparently very much enjoyed eating mashed up liver, but I am now vegetarian. I don't know if the two things are connected.

I'll skip forward a bit to me growing up in Norfolk where I attended an all girl school. It was not as much like St Trinians as I would have wished.

My parents divorced when I was a teenager. Both of my parents have re-married, and so now I have one half and two step siblings. I got my Mum in the divorce and, for various excellent reasons, I don't speak to my father. Consequently I have only met my half-brother once.

I went to University in Derby to study Film & TV (BA Hons). My dissertation was on mainstream Hollywood's use of drag to discuss issues of personal identity and gender.

After Uni I moved to Brighton, where I ran the kids section in one of the larger bookshops for about three years. Then I started to commute to London, where I did research and sales for film/tv archives. My last job in the UK was theatre ticket sales at TKTS in London's glamorous Leicester Square.

Whilst working in London I was lucky enough to meet Doc C, an American who had come to the UK to study for a Phd. We dated for about 4 years, and got married exactly one week after Doc C passed his viva.

The day after the wedding he was invited for an interview for a teaching post at a university in North Carolina. The Doc got the job, so we began the process of moving to America.

I had to work my way through the US Immigration system, so that I could join Doc C in the States. It took about 9 months and I received my temporary green card on the 25th October 2007. I've written a page about my experiences of the immigration process which you can find on the left sidebar of the main page under the title "How I became an Alien Spouse"

This blog was started in April 2007 and it's intended as a way of keeping in touch with my family and friends, and it's going to be about whatever I find interesting that day.

There will probably be photos of cupcakes occasionally, just so you know.