Sunday, July 28, 2013

Warnings

Found this unpublished draft from who knows how long ago. I'll post it now since it's still relevant.

I have been reading blogs from other American expats living in the UK as research. I have already been warned about many things and hope I can avoid repeating the same information in my own blog posts.

  1. You have to pay for a shopping cart (trolley) at the grocery store and are expected to bag your own groceries.
  2. Brits use the phrase "You alright?" instead of "How are you?" and it seems to send every American and Australian expat into a tailspin of self doubt.
  3. There are many, many vocabulary differences between the US and the UK. (jumper instead of sweater, trousers instead of pants, pants instead of panties, etc.)
  4. Mexican food in London is a total bust.
  5. Bring your own peanut butter.
  6. It will take a lifetime to get a UK bank account.
  7. The Royal Mail sucks.
  8. London flats are exceedingly small and expensive. Just deal with it.
  9. Making the trek to the London IKEA takes all day and is a journey into hell. I'm still excited by the prospect of this, though.
  10. Groceries are expensive. Everything is expensive.
  11. Fruits and veggies are limited and super expensive.
  12. It will take about 6 weeks for any shipped stuff to get to England. Probably longer since we're from California, not the East Coast.
  13. There are no outlets in the bathrooms. It's illegal.
  14. The washing machine, if we have one, will be in the kitchen. It will be tiny. It will most likely be a combo washer-dryer that takes 3 hours to wash and dry one tiny load. This will be interesting and will probably mean that we are doing laundry every day.
  15. I will probably miss Target and Costco more than is healthy to admit. If I can control myself, I will not dedicate an entire blogpost to the this topic like some people have.

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