Friday 8 November 2013

LIFE: Dear America, Two Years In

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Sometimes I wake up on a morning and it dawns on me that here I am, living in America, it's not a holiday, nor a dream - that America is home. I still feel like that way two years road the road from landing in Detroit. But time has gone incredibly fast it's scary. Now don't get me wrong i'm still the Yorkshire lass inside, I still love a brew and a chocolate digestive, American sports confuse me, I listen to Radio 2 still and I love a British TV show fix. Yet more and more Americanisms creep into my everyday life especially with language. I've noticed myself slowly dropping the 's" from math, oh and I've been known to say "have a  nice day". 

Maybe without the immigration changes going on the British homeland I wouldn't be feeling this way about America, maybe, maybe not but i'm more then happy to be finding my home here. America has it's faults don't get me wrong - government shuts downs, the hoopla over healthcare and not really wanting to achieve gun control speaks for itself, maybe more so for me because I grew up with that. But watching what is happening in the UK right upsets me, I have no love for the Tories let's just leave it at that.

If only I'd of known the following two years ago;

  •  Winters are cold, summers are hot. You won't be able to cope with either.
  • Speaking of winter, your New Look boots really weren't made to stand a Michigan winter, talk about cold feet.
  • American radio doesn't compete with anything you grew up with - it's either all talk, or all music and commercials, just stick with Radio 2 you'll finally get to listen to the night time shows as you work on an afternoon. 
  • Christmas trees can go up in the middle of November and no one bats an eye, actually you'll probably me one of the last ones to stick it up if you actually wait to December.
  • You really will start to say "have a nice day". 
  • A favorite pastime will be watching Star Trek reruns on BBC America. No joke.
  • But even with thousands of cable channels, you still won't be able to find anything decent to watch on TV.
  • American sports will still not appeal to you, aside from hockey, that's growing on you, kinda. 
  • Cornish Pasties over here are really hit and miss, just bake your own, in fact you'll do lots of baking adventures through moving
  • Detroit has more things to offer then people realise and it's not all that bad, really but you live near somewhere people don't want to read positive things about and you constantly feel if you lived in NYC your blog would be hip and happening. But you live outside Motown, so it's not.
  • Speaking of cities Chicago is more amazing then you could ever hope to believe and visiting Pittsburgh will test your head for heights!
  • You'll wonder how you ever coped without a Target close by, or a Taco Bell, Joanns, Culvers, Jets Pizza, Steak and Shake milkshakes ...
  • It's a constantly battle of remembering the differences between the English and the American English keyboard. 
  • When the clocks change in the UK it'll through you off course for the entire week that there's only a four hour difference.
  • That spending two years in a long distance relationship was well and truly worth it for the fun and we have as a couple now. 
  • But in the end you'll miss the UK much less then you thought you might.
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Thank you to everyone that's stuck around for the ride, it means a lot to me and it pleases me to know so many of you enjoy my posts about American life as a Yorkshire girl. If you ever have any questions or topic suggestions be it about long distance relationships, visas to typical American life just drop me a comment!

13 comments:

  1. Lovely post. I couldn't imagine moving away from Scotland and think people who move country are so brave! Have succumbed to all the American spellings yet? :)

    Debi x

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    1. Yeah I have to admit my spelling has changed, I think a lot of it is through using the American keyboard and the websites getting angry at me if I spell things in the UK manner. I try not to drop my 'u"s in say colour and 'z''s are overtaking my 's''s when i'm not playing attention!

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  2. Love hearing about your American adventures and observations. And is it lame that my ambition is to visit a Target?

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    1. Target is life changing, kinda cliche to say but it really is a great store and I always wonder why such stores don't start in the UK. Their clothing range is awesome - I always end up getting my jeans from there!

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  3. Great post! It really is a world of a difference when you move. I moved 400 miles north from Southern California to Northern Nevada and it's so different. Not just the politics and geography but lifestyle. There isn't as much to do around here and there is such a huge age gap that there are very few people in our age group. The median age for our town is 42! I love living here because its a slower pace than in California, everything is cheaper and we get snow but shopping and entertainment is lacking.

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    1. Yeah it's the same more up north in Michigan although say cities like Traverse City come and go with the tourist season. Here in the suburbs of Detroit it's always go go go and everyone's always in a race on the roads, it's kinda crazy and certainly different from the UK.

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  4. Nice post.. Congrats on the two years! It's nice to hear that it gets easier down the line. I'm still struggling with the difference some days, it seems like a completely different world haha.
    I don't think I will ever get American sports. We watched the final of the world series because the Cardinals were in it and we moved to St Louis. I had no idea what was going on the whole time! Put me in front of a football game any day (and by that I mean Soccer obviously).
    xxxxx

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    1. Thank you, it's still hard at times - I have another post lined up with all the things about the UK, or at least British life that I miss. There's till moments when I remember crazy things about like how sausage rolls exist or Thomas the Baker and i'm like "darn I miss that". But for me, right now it was worth the move.

      American football seems so stop start that I can't watch it, seems to drag on so long. Love hockey though, it's rather feisty!

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  5. Aww, lovely. I really want to explore more of the US and go and see the bean! For some reason I really love that thing x

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    1. Ah the bean is awesome and so much bigger then I imagined - the way the city reflects upon it really is unbelievable! Wish I had had more time to explore Grant Park though, it was at the opposite end of downtown from where we were staying, but there's a lot of outside art there!

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  6. Happy Happy two years! I've loved reading your adventure posts and ogling at your amazing pics!

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  7. Awwh babe, all those things sound so adorable.

    I've never been to America but I really want to visit.

    "Have a nice day" ;D xx

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  8. One of my biggest ambitions in life is to move to America, I've not decided where yet...it all looks amazing to me!?
    This post was such a great read, my dream to move over their has become that little bit more!

    - Sarah xo

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