What you'll miss

When you come over here to the land of Her Majesty, there might be a few things you miss from the US of A. I also want to point outsome things you THINK you might miss but that you will find here.

[J's info corner: That's right, there's actually a real Queen here in the United Kingdom, as the name  implies. Now isn't that cool!? Non of this kennedy-dinasty-of-america, this is the real stuff!...(btw,  nothing against the Kennedys, I love JFK, or I would have if I'd been alive at the time). I'm still not sure why there is only a queen and not a king, the laws of succession are incredibly complicated. I get the feeling (also indicated by recent surveys like this one: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7162649.stm ) that the people here are still affectionate towards the monarchy, even though the locals don't seem to talk about it much unless it's media from some cheesy tabloid. Check out the film "The Queen" for more info, it's a great film.]

So here's a list of some of the things you might miss and what you can do about it:

• money:
  • the dollar is plunging to ever greater depths and the exchange rate for the pound is not very good for Americans. 1 pound is about 2 dollars. This kind of arrangement is psychological and tends to mess with your mind. You go around thinking that things are half as cheap as they really are and you must constantly remind yourself that you must double the amount to get it in dollars. Now things aren't actually twice as expensive, it's more like 50% more to buy the same product her in the UK compared to the US. Especially for electronics. So if you're just about to buy a new laptop, get it before you come over to the UK.
  • How to survive? As the saying goes; "when in Rome, live like the Romans", so in this case, live as the British: Shop at tesco or Lidl (quit convenient), eat a lot of beans on toast, go to drink at your Uni's union bar instead of the fancy ones (those are for special occasions), get a bike instead of a car (gasoline is WAY more expensive here) and as mentioned before, any big purchases that you have to make, do them in the US.
• the Sun (unless you're from Oregon or Seattle):
  • I've never seen so much rain in my life. Not that we get torrential flooding (well, actually we do) or hailstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes etc., but it's that constant drizzle that goes on day after day. Since I came back after Xmas (more than 2 weeks ago) there hasn't been one single day without rain!!! I almost forgot what the sun looks like. Now, I guess it is the rainy season so it's not always like this. In fact I should also say that September, October and November were very rain-free and quite nice.
  • So remember to bring all kinds of impermeable stuff to cover yourself and your gear if you plan to be outside a lot.
• Wide open spaces:
  • Like most of Europe, which has been urbanized for millenia, the UK has no great expanses of prairie, woodland, mountains, desert etc. Land here is very valuable and so a luxury. Things are compact (like the cute Mini car) and space saving. Bigger is not always better here. But then the villages, towns and cities have that beautiful British-old-continent feel and look to them.
  • So if you're really into hiking and the outdoors, don't go to London. Actually Wales is a great place for the outdoors (when the weather is good). It has some beautiful national parks and stunning coastline. They say the surfing is also real good here, if you can stand the cold water.
• Certain American cuisine items:
  
  • Ok, brace yourself; they don't got Taco Bell, Papa John's, Cool-whip, almond snickers, peanut-butter M&Ms, Mountain Dew and Cinnabon is only to be found in a few places. Thankfully they DO have Dr Pepper (great sigh of relief), but sadly, not the Berry-and-Cream and Cherry-Vanilla varieties. Of course there must be tons more stuff missing that I don't know about, so if you are particularlyapprehensive about one, just ask and I'll do my best to find out if they have it here.
  • I recommend just ridding it through as when you get back and can cover you taste-buds with that special flavour you longed for so much it will be a real treat.
• Finally, here's a quick list of other things you might miss; pickup trucks and hummers, driving on the right, the lack of stairs (almost every apartment you will live in has one or more flights or stairs), guns, baseball,American football and basketball (here it's only soccer, rugby and cricket) and the Fourth of July and of course friends and family. 

And now, just in case you were getting worried, here's a quick list of things you WILL find here:

• Most fast-food chains (except for the ones mentioned above),
• steak houses,
• most of the popular US sit-coms (although showing a but later than in the US),
• junk food of all types,
• pool/snooker (a lot of pubs have it),
• binge drinking (chug chug chug chug!),
• roast turkey dinners (but not whole fried turkey I'm afraid),
• plenty of celebrity gossip,
• California wines
• giant shopping malls

Now I'm sure that when you've been here for a while you'll develop your own list of things you will miss from over HERE once you get back to the states. I would predict that in that list you will include British humour (Mr Bean is only the tip of the iceberg), cosy pubs in the countryside, awesome architecture and...oh yeah, fancy dress parties!!!