An American in the UK
Hello World! Yes, I am alive. I apologize for the length of time that has spanned since the last time that I wrote a real blog post. As you may or may not know between the last time that I wrote a post on here and now, I moved from the West Coast of the USA to the beautiful county of Surrey in the UK to study at an absolutely wonderful drama school. What I didn't fully comprehend when I made the move was just how hard I was going to have to work and just how hard moving an ocean away from your hometown is. Not to say that I am not enjoying myself or regretting the transition, on the contrary I am having the absolute best time of my life and I have never before felt more on the right path. But that doesn't change that moving to a new country can be a bit trying at times. I still feel like I'm just in the moving in stage but in reality I've been here for a whole of about 11 weeks now, which is quite a length of time. So, I thought I would push myself to get back into the swing of things with this blog so that I can document this particular change in my life, which I have to say is a pretty massive one.
I thought as my first post from the UK, I'd share a few things that I have noticed as an American while living here so far. These are not meant to be judgements or stereotypes, they are just my observations from my personal experiences in this country. So, here it goes:
1. The sky is the most incredible thing that I have ever seen, like, every day. I feel like I'm living in some old Romantic paining. The sunsets are the most vivid, stunning things in the world.
2. On top of the sky being beautiful, it is also incredibly grey. It tends to create an atmosphere of grey, like we are living in a little snow globe with constant fog swirling around us.
3. The supermarkets do this wonderful thing where next to the handicap parking, they have reserved parking spaces for shoppers with children under the age of 6. I'm a big supporter of that one.
4. When someone talks about coming over for tea, they usually mean dinner, which was very confusing when I first got here and expected the drink.
5. The light switches work the opposite way from in America, which I am still getting used to.
6. People here are incredibly polite, but not always completely genuine, often it takes quite a while to see the genuine side of someone and not the "you're still an acquaintance, I'll be cordial and polite to you" side of them.
7. There is a huge sense of pride when it comes to hometowns. People who live two hours away from each other have entirely different accents and their own set of slang words that are just used in their part of the country.
8. Sense of humor is a big one to get used to for me. Like you usually hear it is certainly far more dry and sarcastic, but in the younger generation there is also a huge amount of pranks that happen among friends that in America I would find quite mean, but here everyone involved seems to find them hilarious.
9. Stores close much much earlier, so that you really have to plan your week starting with the time that you can go shopping and organize everything else around that.
10. Lastly, again this is not a criticism in any way, it is just something that I have noticed in my first months of being here. The sense of community is very very different over here, it's a more competitive vibe than a "go team" vibe, if that makes any sense. For example, if I walked into class complaining about the cold on a certain day that (to people used to the cold) really wasn't that cold, the immediate reaction was a sort of "you're wrong" attitude. Phrases like "you're going to die when it ACTUALLY gets cold" or "this still feels like summer, it's not cold" were happening, which didn't upset me in anyway, but it got me to thinking that the reaction in America (from the people that I know) would be very different. First off someone probably would have come over to give me a big hug to warm me up and then suggest mittens or a scarf or suggest hot chocolate after class. Once again, I don't mean this in a negative way, it just happened to be the biggest part of the culture shock for me when I moved over here.
P.S. (there's one more) Don't make the mistake of going for a hug when you first are meeting someone because the situation will become very awkward very fast.
Luckily, I'm here for drama school which means that I am surrounded by theater people who happen to be some of the most loving, supportive, and encouraging people out there so I'm in fantastic hands over here. I am honestly having the most invigorating, incredible days of my life and I am beyond happy that the universe has helped me get to where I currently am right now. Can't wait to see what else is in store.
I thought as my first post from the UK, I'd share a few things that I have noticed as an American while living here so far. These are not meant to be judgements or stereotypes, they are just my observations from my personal experiences in this country. So, here it goes:
1. The sky is the most incredible thing that I have ever seen, like, every day. I feel like I'm living in some old Romantic paining. The sunsets are the most vivid, stunning things in the world.
2. On top of the sky being beautiful, it is also incredibly grey. It tends to create an atmosphere of grey, like we are living in a little snow globe with constant fog swirling around us.
3. The supermarkets do this wonderful thing where next to the handicap parking, they have reserved parking spaces for shoppers with children under the age of 6. I'm a big supporter of that one.
4. When someone talks about coming over for tea, they usually mean dinner, which was very confusing when I first got here and expected the drink.
5. The light switches work the opposite way from in America, which I am still getting used to.
6. People here are incredibly polite, but not always completely genuine, often it takes quite a while to see the genuine side of someone and not the "you're still an acquaintance, I'll be cordial and polite to you" side of them.
7. There is a huge sense of pride when it comes to hometowns. People who live two hours away from each other have entirely different accents and their own set of slang words that are just used in their part of the country.
8. Sense of humor is a big one to get used to for me. Like you usually hear it is certainly far more dry and sarcastic, but in the younger generation there is also a huge amount of pranks that happen among friends that in America I would find quite mean, but here everyone involved seems to find them hilarious.
9. Stores close much much earlier, so that you really have to plan your week starting with the time that you can go shopping and organize everything else around that.
10. Lastly, again this is not a criticism in any way, it is just something that I have noticed in my first months of being here. The sense of community is very very different over here, it's a more competitive vibe than a "go team" vibe, if that makes any sense. For example, if I walked into class complaining about the cold on a certain day that (to people used to the cold) really wasn't that cold, the immediate reaction was a sort of "you're wrong" attitude. Phrases like "you're going to die when it ACTUALLY gets cold" or "this still feels like summer, it's not cold" were happening, which didn't upset me in anyway, but it got me to thinking that the reaction in America (from the people that I know) would be very different. First off someone probably would have come over to give me a big hug to warm me up and then suggest mittens or a scarf or suggest hot chocolate after class. Once again, I don't mean this in a negative way, it just happened to be the biggest part of the culture shock for me when I moved over here.
P.S. (there's one more) Don't make the mistake of going for a hug when you first are meeting someone because the situation will become very awkward very fast.
Luckily, I'm here for drama school which means that I am surrounded by theater people who happen to be some of the most loving, supportive, and encouraging people out there so I'm in fantastic hands over here. I am honestly having the most invigorating, incredible days of my life and I am beyond happy that the universe has helped me get to where I currently am right now. Can't wait to see what else is in store.
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