After not being in the US for 2 years, I expected some degree of culture shock. I got the usual comments from people about making sure to drive on the right side of the road. This was heard often enough that I don’t know how much people were joking and how much they thought that transition would be hard. Being that I barely drive in the UK, that thought never even crossed my mind as an issue and had no problem driving, even driving 3+ hours in heavy traffic and rain, on 4 hours sleep, from Dulles Airport to Towson.
That was my first moment of culture shock; the traffic and roads. While driving wasn't hard, you tend to forget how much traffic there is in parts of the US. We were moving less that 5 miles an hour on a freeway that had 4 or 5 lanes (each way). I kept thinking how different this was that my usual rush-hour travel, of me riding a bike through slow traffic on a road that has one lane each way; traffic that is only delayed by red lights, not unseen ‘traffic’ that led to the crawling pace we were moving on, on a major freeway.
The other culture shock I was prepared for was the diversity. When I go to a shopping centre in Edinburgh with our kid, I’m not the least bit surprised if my kid is the only brown-skinned, curly-haired person in the entire shopping centre. In Towson, I’d be a bit surprised if our kid is the only brown-skinned, curly-haired kid in the line to check out. This isn’t shock, really; it was a welcome relief to not stand out so much when I was out and about. I don’t know how much our kid appreciated not being the only brown kid in stores, in playgrounds, in the children’s museum we went into. She never made any comments about it, even though she comments about people’s skin colour in the UK, but I’m hoping she appreciated the diversity.
Because most of the trip was spent visiting people we knew, there was no culture shock there. I felt like the rest of the trip was spent buying stuff, so I had a number of shopping-related shocks.
I forgot about sales tax. In the UK (like much of the world), taxes are built into the price, so the price you see is the price you pay. I’ve never liked the US system of showing you a price, then tacking on sales tax after the fact, especially since sales tax differs from state to state. Something that says it costs $4 could cost you $4 in one state, $4.28 in another and $4.40 in another; it’s annoying.
I was in Safeway and saw something for $5. Sweet, I thought, that’s a good price, so I go to the self checkout and am told it’s $5.30. $5.30 is not a bad price for what I was getting, but I didn’t have any coins, and didn’t really want to accumulate coins on this trip. In that transaction, I got back 70 cents of coins, which I then had to figure out how to use up. I spent more time on this trip trying to use up unwanted coins (primarily on sales tax) than I had planned.
Our kid doesn’t always choose the right time to let us know she needs to do a poo. It’s happened several times while I’m in the queue at the grocery store and, most notably, while we were about to board a plane from Dublin to Washington DC (she said she couldn’t hold it until we got on to plane). Anyhow, on our first trip to Target, she and I were separated from Lauren when she announced that she needed to do a poo. I said what I almost always say when she says this in public, ‘Right now?!?!’. I started looking for a ‘toilet’.
I asked the first employee I saw ‘Could you tell me where the toilet is?’. The response I got was given with an eye-brow-raising-how-dare-you-say-that-word-and-what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you look: ‘You mean the bathroom?!?!’
Right. The bathroom. Not a word I use much in the UK, and I didn't appreciate the guy's tone.
I know some people who are into guns and gun ownership. I don’t think these people are crazy gun people, or anything. I just can’t relate; I feel kind of the same way about Instagram. I just don’t get it.
Because of this, I had forgotten that one could go into a Walmart, and not far from where you can buy a kid’s bike, you can buy a gun. It’s not sitting out for anyone to pick up, but you could buy your kid a bike, and a gun for yourself, at the same time. I actually took a picture of the gun sales area, but it came out a little blurry, so I won't post it here.
Living in country now where guns are basically illegal, this sort of thing, and the ‘No Guns Allowed’ sign on a door to a Mall entrance (right next to a kid’s play area, I might add), are a bit unnerving. When I lived in the US, this sort of thing didn’t really strike me as odd, but on this trip, it was a bit scary to see a ‘No Guns Allowed’ sign as I was leaving the mall with our kid.
My dad likes ice cream. Who doesn’t? But the level that my dad likes ice cream is at a slightly different level than most. Before we left, I told Lauren that I thought he would have at least 4 different types of ice cream when we arrived at his house. He didn’t disappoint: Chocolate ice cream, Vanilla ice cream, Pumpkin Pie ice cream, a kind of ice cream called Waffle Cone, and Lime Sherbert (which is basically ice cream).
You don’t get ice cream at the cheapness and variety in UK grocery stores as you do in the US. Yes, I can pay a lot for some interesting Ben and Jerry’s flavour, but the store brand/generics in the US have things like Moose Tracks and Peanut Butter Swirl (I love those two flavours BTW).
At one point, I thought I would just check out the ice cream aisle in a store and was bowled over by the variety (and that an entire side of one aisle was all ice cream-related products). That’s the kind of shock I wish would make it’s way across the pond a bit. I could really go for some Mouse Tracks right now, but I can’t. I’m in the UK.
There were several times on the trip where discussions were had about if we want to live in the UK for the foreseeable future, or if we plan to move back to the US at some point.
On my last trip to the US, when we left, I felt kind of sad. I felt that I belonged more in the US than the UK. This time, I didn’t feel that. I wasn’t jumping out of my chair to come back to the UK, but I wasn’t saddened by it either.
I don’t know how much of this has to do with living here longer now, having a British kid, or what. Ask me which place I would rather live right now, and I can’t give you an answer. I honestly don’t know.
