LIFE: Seeking Comfort in a Foreign Land

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While I often talk about exploring the US as a Brit, it's rare that I that share the feelings, the emotions of being thousands of miles from the land of my nationality. Sometimes that British land, it's countryside, it's TV shows and food feels so far away. So as part of the expat revelations link up with Holly - the blogger behind English Girl Canadian Man, I want to find the words to talk more about being away from the homeland in a strange country and all the emotions, feelings behind it. I mean it has been nearly 3 years, and writing about it might just help me deal with my lack of confidence because of being a bit of an outsider.

When those times arise when I miss the country, or all the rain reminds me of Yorkshire or I crave mushy peas, when I feel a little lost or I get bugged about my accent again, the one way of finding comfort for me, is food. But not in the comfort eating piling on the pounds way. Food is comforting but it's also a fantastic way of embracing your new home and culture and a way of keeping in touch with your homeland.

I admit, I love food, I love trying new food, granted sometimes it all feels a little overwhelming but it's a great adventure all the same. Prior to moving to the US I'd never eaten any Mexican food nor really had a milkshake - now both firm favorites. Let's be honest I'd barely stepped into a fast food place prior to moving here. Food is that bridge between cultures. You can embrace the new (the BBQ, pancakes, burgers) your own culture (the fish n chips, pasties) and even find new foreign cuisines in your own foreign land (in my instance Mexicantown). That's one of the things that makes America so great, it's history of immigrants, of movement and travel there's so much international influence in food. It all comes to play in food.

The English (left) verses the America fish n chips - which would you prefer?

It's even fun to make it a challenge - like my adventures in trying Cornish Pasties up in Traverse City and Mackinaw City to finding the best place in Metro Detroit that serves up fish n chips. I still get to eat a British favorite, but I'm eating how Americans think it should be. Sometimes it's bang on, sometimes it's presented in a way you might never have considered, sometimes it's way off the mark. It's fun all the same and sometimes I just need that plate of fish n chips, or I need that bacon sarnie with HP sauce dribbled all over, a boiled egg with soldiers for my lunch, my salad topped off with salad cream not one of the thousands of salad dressings you'll find in a store here.

I could go on.

Food itself is comforting. It can warm you up, cool you down, fill your needs and invite your senses to new places. Embracing the local cuisine, eating where the locals eat, to having a favorite on a menu is that step to reaching out, to finding a home. But sometimes just a trip to the local store (Meijer in my case) just to pass a glance over the British section of the international food aisle. Picking up a treat whether it's brown sauce, salad cream or an overpriced Yorkie bar, just that can take a girl back to her Yorkshire roots. 

But if there's one thing that is more comforting than anything, well that's always a cuppa tea.

That and my childhood teddy bear that I brought over with me, reading a good book, crafting but the cuppa tea, that's always a winner lets be honest.