Dispatches from the North: My British Journey Begins…

I have been a resident of the UK for nearly 6 months, and although in comparison to my first weeks here I have definitely come very far, I still have so many things to assimilate to.

Thinking back to my very first day here, I felt thrust right into the thick of it. After our wedding my husband was deployed to the Middle East for 7 months so I remained in Chicago for the duration of his deployment. When I arrived here he had been away from our flat for those 7 months so there wasn’t a scrap of food in the house. So although there was no “bachelor food” for me to dispose of when I arrived, we had to grocery shop that very first day. This inaugural grocery-shopping trip was such a nightmare for me that I actually cried on the way home from the supermarket.

Even now six months after this first fateful trip to ASDA (an English supermarket owned by Wal-Mart) I still find myself not being able to find some ingredient I am looking for. I love cooking and make most things from scratch, so finding the ingredients I needed at the supermarket was at first like solving a riddle. It was so overwhelming to attempt to describe ingredients to an ASDA employee. If you had to, how would you describe something like chicken broth or Jello to someone? That was my greatest challenge and frustration and to a certain extent it still is. Every week there seems to be at least one item that has a different name or that I just can’t find because it isn’t kept in the place I would expect.

In time, the grocery shopping got a little better and in those first few weeks there were many things that felt foreign to me. I had expected to feel like I was on vacation for the first few months, but as soon as I touched down and became a resident of the UK the tests began and I never felt like I was on vacation. Not only was I new to the country, but I was also a newlywed learning to live with my husband for the first time. There is something about moving to a new place and establishing a home that lends a sense of urgency to settling, so I had to learn quickly.

Below I have summed up my top ten favorite things about Britain, some are big things and others are just lovely little things that amuse me. I could just as easily make a list of my top ten gripes about Britain, but for now I will just stick with the positive.

My Top Ten Favorite Things About Britain

10. British Cuisine

Regardless of the cuisine, you can order chips and brown gravy at any food establishment in the North. It doesn’t matter if it is Thai or Chinese food, they will have chips and gravy on the menu and usually burgers as well. I don’t actually order these things when I am getting ethnic food (although my husband does) but I find this so endearingly British.

9. Winter in Britain

The grass is green in the winter. I didn’t believe it at first, I figured like all grass I was familiar with that it would get brown and shrivel up until Spring. I was very wrong. As I sit here the grass outside is very green.

8. Local Accents

The Hartlepudlian accent is so strange and varied from what you probably think of when you think of a British accent that I doubt I will ever pick it up and my friends at home in Michigan will never have cause to compare me to my fellow Michigander, Madonna (or “Her Madgesty” as she is known here).

7. British Fauna

There are no skunks in Britain. I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.

6. BBC Beats C-SPAN Anyday

Unlike watching C-SPAN, watching a session of Parliament is actually quite amusing. The entertainment value falls somewhere between WWE Wrestlemania and a Colin Firth movie. It is always a spectacle in suits.

5. British Coastline

The entire coastline of Britain is breathtaking. The picturesque scenery certainly doesn’t end at the sea, but because I live on the coast it is something I have the privilege  of enjoying every day.

4. British Yellow Journalism

British journalism is fantastic. British journalists don’t try to be diplomatic and it seems that there are never any “off limits” questions. They educate themselves on all angles of the subject and regardless of whom they are interviewing, they won’t allow their interview subject to spin the truth without a challenge.

3. British Healthcare

The National Heath Service (aka, free healthcare). I still haven’t gotten used to the concept of this. The American healthcare system trained me to be reluctant about going to the doctor for fear of receiving a huge bill I couldn’t afford and now I keep forgetting that it is okay to go to the doctor.

2. British Commercials

The commercials (or adverts) are actually funny. Lately its seems like the vast majority of American commercials are trying so hard to be clever that they miss the mark completely and leave people wondering how it is relevant. British advertising is at the same time clever, relevant and entertaining.

1. Europe

Britain’s proximity to continental Europe. Taking the Eurostar train to Paris for my honeymoon was such a wonderful experience. I can’t wait to explore the rest of Europe!

Thank you for reading, and please feel free to leave any questions in the comments section if you have any questions about life in the North!