American Wishes

I’ve been living here in the UK for the last 4 years.  I found the love of my life in my wonderful English husband and have decided that this is the place we will live.  Obviously, from the title, I am an American.  A lot of people ask me what I miss from the US?  Well, not a lot, truth be told.  Of course, I miss my family a great deal and particularly on the holidays.  Thanksgiving isn’t quite the same over here.  Not sure why?    Most of what I miss are conveniences, food items, certain stores…material things really.  Shall I share a few?  OK, I will:

1) I miss my family.  I miss being able to ring up my dad or mom and pop over for a visit.  I miss being able to meet one of them for lunch.  I miss the fact that they can’t spend an afternoon with Little Miss while I run errands.  I miss that my family misses out on all of Little Miss’ milestones.  They have to read about it here or Skype with us to see her.  I am grateful for that, though.  I do get to see them, at least and that makes the distance seem a little less than the 3000 miles between us.

2) I miss wide open roads!  There are no roundabouts where I am from.  Well, truth be told, they have now added 2 mini-roundabouts in my hometown but it’s on the right side of the road and they don’t know what they’re doing.  But they try.  The roads, though…so wide, no cars clogging one or both sides, no one folding in their wing mirrors.  There’s a lot of room!  Driving somewhere worth going takes more than 6 hours.  A 2 hour drive in the car is nothing to most Americans.  A 2 hour drive to Brits puts you in another country practically. 

3) I miss being able to shop at stores until 10-11pm every night.  Quite a few grocery stores are open 24 hours!  You need custard in the middle of the night?  You’ve got your pick of places to get it.  Sundays are not sacred…shops are still open until 10-11pm!  You don’t have to plan everything around 4pm on a Sunday.

4.) I miss Target (it’s a department store), I miss Panera Bread (a yummy fast-food restaurant with the best bagels ever), I miss Dairy Queen (ice cream!).  Other foods I miss: Cheetos, Jif peanut butter, Butterfinger bars, A&W Root Beer, Twizzlers licorice and REAL ICE CREAM.  If you’d like to send me any of these things…comment with your email and I’ll email you my address!

5.) I miss national pride.  Where I am from, every other house has a flag hanging from it.  There are no “bank holidays”.  There’s Memorial Day in May, Labour Day in September, Flag Day in June, Independence Day in July, Veteran’s Day in November.  After 9/11, everyone put their flags out, everyone wore American flags.  There are a lot of times when it’s not always great to advertise that you’re an American (like the years 2000-2008 for instance) but more recently, it’s a lot more OK to be an American.  I’ve got my shirt with a flag on it and I have my Obama shirt…I’m proud to wear them.  American pride is probably one of the things that foreigners get sick of, but it isn’t such a bad thing to be proud of where you’re from.

6.) I miss Customer Service.  Now, mind you, not every single business establishment is the epitome of customer service and happiness, but most companies pride themselves on the “customer always being right”.  If you’ve ever wondered what makes good customer service, take a look at Disney. 

But, don’t get me wrong…I love my new country.  So much so that I have taken the British Citizenship Test and one day will become a dual-citizen.  I think it’s important that if I live here, I should take part in what this country is all about.  I just need to win the lottery to be able to afford the Citizenship fee!  I’m very happy here in the UK with my husband and daughter.  It’s just every so often that I get a twinge.  Just every so often though!  Thanks for taking me on, UK…you’re a very lovely place to live.