Five of us moved here. Paul and I probably too old to change our accents but ready to adopt our new country, the children, at various ages, were bound to change pretty quickly. What would our new lives be like?
We moved from a small island to this vast continent, believing that the transition would be fairly easy. In many ways it was, but in so many other ways, it was fascinating, bewildering, traumatic and most often hysterically funny.
After the first few days of feeling like you are on holiday (now called vacation 'cos "holiday" means Thanksgiving or Christmas and so on!) you have to start filling the pantry like you are " living" here, not going home in a fortnight (this means two weeks and is a word Americans do not understand) so you head to the supermarket. Now you realise that to fill a pantry from scratch is quite a task even in a store you know, but here is an overwhelming array of products you don't recognise, items you have never heard of and apart from in the fresh veg and the cereal aisle you feel completely lost!
I spent the first month, like Ria from that old 80's comedy "Butterflies",
serving up unimaginable, inedible meals to my poor family. I was so keen to try all this new stuff but had little idea "what went with what".
Very soon you start to crave familiar products like Marmite, British bread, HP sauce, Cadbury's chocolate, Patak's Indian food, Bisto, Weetabix etc. This was the British family that never set foot in a British bar while on holiday in Spain. If we were in a foreign country we wanted to experience all it had to offer, so for us to feel like this was really weird!
My new task was to find the www.foodnetwork.com/food/cooking, a set of American cup measures and a good cookbook that had both UK and US recipe conversions. While I did this Paul got online and found where we could satisfy our food cravings www.britishfoodshop.com/ and
www.xpatshop.co.uk/britishfoodintheusa.
After that first visit to the grocery store where the checkout assistant asked my daughter if we have television in England! (Yes, honestly! Also
remember we do live in a small town and only 60% of Americans possess a passport) we realised that our lives here were going to be very interesting. A chance for us to learn from and to share with our new countrymen.
Let me finish today's post by saying that four years on, we love our lives here. We love the people, the climate, the food, even the football is growing on us!
We have so much we want to share with you.
TO DO LIST: New country/new life
- 1. Find a doctor
- 2. Choose the right school
- 3. Get a state driver's licence
- 4. Find the supermarket
- 5. Open a bank account
- 6. Teach your children about feet and inches (no metric kids around here!)
- 7. Buy an american cookbook and a set of cup measures!
- 8. Buy american/english dictionary
- 9. Put useful advice about living in America on my web page
- 10. And so on...
A little contribution to the page from Laura, our eldest daughter
Here are some of my experiences....
So do they have popcorn in England? - Alyssa, my first trip to the "movies" in 2003.
We have so much beer in Wisconsin, our "faucets" are Hot, Cold, and Miller. - Hanah, explaining the obvious abundance of beer in Wisconsin.
Isn't it guilty until proven innocent in the Britain? (The Britain?????) - Mike, asking how our justice system functions.
So are you cousins with the Queen? - Girl at McDonalds.
Are you Irish - Customer at Petco......btw this is one of the most FAQ.
Don't you guys drink your beer warm? - Drunk person at a bonfire.
So you guys like all live on a beach, cos the UK's like a little island right? - Co-employee at one of my places of work, asking the size of the UK.
That's all I can remember right now, funny how sheltered they are!!
So do they have popcorn in England? - Alyssa, my first trip to the "movies" in 2003.
We have so much beer in Wisconsin, our "faucets" are Hot, Cold, and Miller. - Hanah, explaining the obvious abundance of beer in Wisconsin.
Isn't it guilty until proven innocent in the Britain? (The Britain?????) - Mike, asking how our justice system functions.
So are you cousins with the Queen? - Girl at McDonalds.
Are you Irish - Customer at Petco......btw this is one of the most FAQ.
Don't you guys drink your beer warm? - Drunk person at a bonfire.
So you guys like all live on a beach, cos the UK's like a little island right? - Co-employee at one of my places of work, asking the size of the UK.
That's all I can remember right now, funny how sheltered they are!!
I love food, eating out and finding new recipes, both British and American style fayre...
This site will be a good way to share my favourite recipes, both from home and here.
Each season brings new tastes and desires, and I satisfy my needs by following favoured TV chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Rachael Ray, then hitting the kitchen and adapting their ideas to suit my family's tastes, sometimes making the American dishes alittle bit British and vice versa.
Watch this space for new recipes.
Each season brings new tastes and desires, and I satisfy my needs by following favoured TV chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Rachael Ray, then hitting the kitchen and adapting their ideas to suit my family's tastes, sometimes making the American dishes alittle bit British and vice versa.
Watch this space for new recipes.
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1 comment:
Alli, very funny blog... this is gonna be great checking out your blogs.
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