You can’t get more British than….

British things are all around me! I’m in the land of Englishness! And what kind of things have been totally British recently?

Well, loads of Americana chums have asked for pictures of old English-y stuff. You got it peeps!

Tewkesbury Abbey. It’s like super old.

 

An ice cream van selling Mr Whippy. In January. 🙂

 

A ha-ha wall. Cos when you fall off it and everyone goes ‘ha-ha’ 😉

An old pub. This doesn’t have TVs in the bar. Imagine that! 😉

 

Sticky toffee pudding – or stoffee ticky pudding as we call it 🙂

You are welcome, my friends!

I particularly hope this amuses my American and my British friends who are still snowed in in Maryland because of the snowstorm Jonas. Now that was a snow dump! We got the tail end of it today in the Cotswolds, apparently. But when it came to us, it was just rain. Lots of rain, naturally!

Toodle pip!

 

 

 

British history and a Louisiana letter

Right, there’s some stuff that’s working for me back in England right now…and I feel a right lot smarter for knowing it, so I thought I’d share the knowledge and love…

Shepherds’ Huts

Look at this beauty in Somerset. It’s called the Dimpsey Hut (fyi, ‘dimpsey’ is the the time in the evening just before dusk used by folk in the West Country!)

The history lesson

In the olden days (like 150 years ago), before the advent of artificial fertilizers, distant pastures on many mixed Farms would be inaccessible the to the large farm manure wagons bringing manure from the Farm yard. These would have had a visit from the Shepherd and his flock of Sheep. The Sheep were not allowed to wander freely but were kept enclosed behind wooden hurdles.

This process was called ‘folding’. Once the forage crop had been grazed, the Sheep, Shepherd, his dog and mobile home; his Shepherds Hut, would move to pastures new. The land would then be ploughed, returning the nutrients in the droppings to the land. The Hut contained a small stove, a straw bed over a cage where lambs could be kept (known as a Lamb rack) and a simple medicine cupboard containing various potions. This regularly included a bottle of Whisky to revive a sickly lamb (or Shepherd).

British history lesson over. You can actually win a break to stay in this abode! Awesomeballs! Go here to enter…..

I’ve stayed in this Dimpsey Hut and it’s like a small piece of heaven. If you want to get all snuggly and secluded, like I do, then it is perfect. And since the balmy November week we just had has turned to a crazy cold, bitter wind, I can’t think of anywhere else I would rather be. Now that’s spot on British!

Miss Gloria in Louisiana

I recently got a few emails from a lovely lady in Louisiana and it warmed me cockles, as we say here in England! This is what she wrote to me and I just had to share her words:

Thanks

Hello there Ms. Claire,

(using our southern manner of address and five months ago)

We are going to miss you when you’ve gone.  Yes we are.  We are going to miss your laughter, your joie de vivre, and your funny (meaning ‘amusing’) writing style.  We will feel a hole in our hearts when you’ve gone.

We will miss you showing us the things, we would never have thought problematic for someone until you (or another expat) pointed them out to us who grew up here. – Gloria

Hello again (Nov 20, 2015)

Have tried to following you through your repat blog.  Have felt your difficulty in adjustment. Just wanted to say how much you have been missed on Am-soil. Wanted to show my appreciation to your past writings before I forget to let you know or am no longer able to.

About me: (I am old, southern, Louisiana-bilingual-bicultural, former teacher, love to read, used to love to write, but never wrote much.  Certainly never published.  Can appreciate good writers, and thus so attached to your writing.

May never read you much again so took this opportunity to wish you luck. (Probably never got over belief in grading someone’s work and letting them know my opinion.)

Hope all your wishes for your work or/and dreams come true.  I wrote a 2nd note and will send it too.  – Gloria

Hello there Ms Claire,

Thank you very much for letting me see my country through  your eyes.  I enjoyed your presence here immensely.  I’ve never enjoyed a blog more.  I always had much to react to positively when reading you but was always too shy to attach it in responses for all the world to see.  And I had once believed I would write.!

Anyhow, just wanted to tell you of my love for what you write, how you write, and how you write it when you write.  Perhaps because there’s a sense of humor (or shall I say humour now that you’ve gone home?) reminiscent of mine.  It has always been difficult for me to enjoy the British humour in films or television but your expressions were different all together. – Gloria 

Wow! Big shout out to Miss Gloria – I love such correspondence and am waving madly and sending British hugs to her from across the pond! I hope that one day we will meet! I hope that it will be in Louisiana, one of my favourite states! And now her lovely words are immortalised in my blog. Awesomeballs.

Stay warm one and all!

 

Bond, pussies and parties. You’re welcome :)

So, this week it’s all about British/ American differences in eating habits and at school.

Eating etiquette

First up, the Guardian published an article about the different ways of eating in the UK and the USA. You can read it here…

It basically says ‘Lots of American customs have invaded British culture over the past few decades, but I wouldn’t have bet on this one: apparently, British people have begun to brandish their forks in the American fashion.’

I was brought up using the method of cutting with my knife and keeping the fork in the left hand (as I’m right handed). I never adopted the ‘cut and switch’ method of many Americans, but I did enjoy certain meals, like salads, where I could just eat with my fork in my right hand not have to cut at all. It’s more relaxed. Prior to my American experience I wouldn’t have dreamed of eating like that (yes, the wrath of my Very British father played heavily upon my table manners!).

In the States I became a bit fascinated by how people cut/ate their food. I would watch to see how they held their knives and forks and sometimes try it their way to see if worked for me. It didn’t. I have a dinner party tonight here in the UK and I bet everyone just eats ‘the British way’. Simples.

But let’s not get to the stage where we judge people on how they hold their cutlery, shall we? Rather, let’s enjoy their company and the conversation and the food. After all, many cultures prefer to eat with their hands. Personally, I think it’s just darn wrong to eat a pizza with a knife and fork – pick up that slice and whop the bugger in yer gob before it all flops off! That’s how to eat pizza!

School’s out

In the States we could take Harry out of school whenever we jolly well pleased for our roadtrips and wotnot. And we did. We probably did it a little too much, but when you ‘visilive’ somewhere it’s going to be that way to make the most of it.

In the UK you can get fined lots of dosh for taking your nippers out of school and have to get sign off for attendance at funerals and the like, and they restrict the number of days they can be off.  That bit annoys me. Close family member dies: have one day off to attend the funeral only, if you please. If you breach this in anyway you get fined and then the Daily Mail runs a story about you heading off to Malaga for a beach holibobs with your kids in school time (bad) or the Guardian runs a story about you taking the kids out for an educational trip to the Galapagos Islands (good).

What do I think? I think a few days out of school for kids, especially for emotional reasons, or highly educational reasons, isn’t going to damage them. To be honest, Harry learned a lot more in historic Savannah, the Cherokee reservations, and watching elephant seals in California than he would have at school for those days. Fact.

Savannah!

We are now constricted to school holidays for our vacations in the UK and that’s been a hard adjustment, but it’s the law innit, and I don’t really want to end up in the Daily Mail just yet. 😉

Happy pussies

Interestingly my cats are infinitely happier here than they were in the USA. It might be the weather was too hot or too cold there; it might be they just love being in the house they grew up in, but it’s defo true to say my cats are totes British!

She might not look happy, but she is actually v v happy!

Gawd love the interweb

When your hilarious drunk American friends phone you via interweb technology at 630am British time on a Saturday you know they’re missing you. And boy do I miss them. Like oodles. Like so much I never realised that it’s possible to miss people this much. So many memories, so many laughs, so much joy. When people ask if I miss the States, of course I do, but really I miss the people the most.

James Bond fever!

Well it’s all about James Bond here in the UK. How proud we are of him! How British we are when we talk about him! How much my dad looks like Roger Moore! How much do I think of Russ Abbot’s take on it and Miss FunnyFanny from the 1980s?!

Anyhow, here are some delightful Bond facts for you so you can be all smart and smug about Bond at your next dinner party. You’re welcome!

Battle of the Bonds: Kisses, Cocktails, Kills, Cars & Cash – An infographic by the team at GB Show Plates

Read more at: http://www.gbshowplates.co.uk/battle-of-the-bonds-infographic/

The UK/USA differences become clearer…..

Differences aplently

It’s been two months now since we returned from the USA and the differences between the land I grew up in and the land that I ‘visilived’ in are becoming clearer now. (Visilived is a new verb which I made up just this very moment to describe when you do what we did for three years in another country 😉 )

Halloween

Big difference here. Practically every house in the States is adorned in Halloween garb right now I suspect, or furnished in fall magic. This one house in Ohio blew me away. They said it ‘crossed the line’. They might be right 🙂

However, here in the UK it seems it’s just Tesco that’s got the Halloween vibe.

Grumps

This is a sad difference. I’ve noted a lot of grumpy folk here in the UK recently. There are a lot of happy ones, sure, and I like them a lot, but by Gawd, it appears the colder it gets the UK the more entitled you are to be grumpy. Hang on a minute, that might be me too, cos it is getting colder and I’m not happy about it…..

UK forever?

I’m convinced the UK is not my forever home, since the opportunities to ‘visilive’ in other countries are far too appealing. (See that word does work!)

I took this quiz to find out where I should visilive next….https://www.sellmyhome.co.uk/where-are-you-destined-to-live-quiz

I got Hvar, Croatia. It says ‘As an island just 68 kilometres across, Hvar is not short of beautiful beaches and the nearby Pakleni Islands also offer a number of naturist hotpots, if that’s your thing. Hvar Town has plenty of character, with its traffic-free streets and surrounding 13th century walls, so if you’d prefer a smaller home town, next to crystal clear waters, then Hvar is for you.’ Interesting – a fine place to write my book me thinks!

Travel to open your eyes

The other thing about travelling is the opportunity to open your eyes to others’ lives. This is a curious and fascinating aspect of travelling to me. Today I read this by traveller and writer Cristina Luisa and it struck a chord with me about the way I want to travel in future and how we conduct our lives…..

‘Thinking that luxuries are necessities….When you’re wrapped up in the perspective of your own world, it’s easy to think that you “need” a better car, a new wardrobe, or a drink at the end of a hard day. After you start to travel—especially throughout developing countries—you begin to see how others live, forcing an immediate re-evaluation of what a necessity is. When you see children digging through garbage to find their next meal, families of 10 sharing a one-room shack, people without access to clean water, electricity or education, you just might feel ashamed that you once thought you needed a $350 haircut with highlights.’

True that.

Repatriation: A Different Mindset

This repatriation thing is different from the expatriation thing, especially if you’re like me and slightly in denial/a little bit anxious about going home.

This time three years ago I was a-buzz with excitement about moving to the USA. We’d had the move confirmed, were heading out to this area of Maryland for five child-free days to look at our new surroundings and to get to know the area, to check out the schools, see our new house, find some good eating and drinking places etc etc. I had endless lists, spreadsheets, post it notes, files, forms, websites, references. I had contacted people about jobs, sent off my ‘resume’, sorted the cats’ injections so they could come with us, had a clothes sale so I could fund my visit to the States, got boxes, started clearing out etc. I was in a state of energised euphoria about the adventure. Just read how excited I was back then!

My leaving party!

This time….er, not so much. I see it not so much as an adventure, but a chore, and yes, I know I have to get out of that mindset….!

Today I briefly looked at jobs back in Cheltenham and then got very despondent about it all. Then I sorted some of my son’s toys and wotnot, and got a bin liner full of stuff to throw away, and I am having a clothes sale, but that’s because a) I have no room back in the UK for my fabulous outfits and b) I’m funding a volunteering trip here in the USA. And then I took a look at the local schools in Cheltenham, knowing there was nothing I could do to get him a place in year 3 because they are all full and we’ll probably have to look elsewhere.

I have no folders, just a set of emails that say ‘UK 2015’, no files, no post it notes and no energy nor inclination.

Apparently, that’s part of the repatriation process – going back to what you know doesn’t create the same buzz, the same stimulus, the same ‘woohoo’ about it all.

‘Repatriation has its psychological phases that are unexpected and daunting. Most notably, encountering reverse culture shock when returning home is a surprising situation that’s overlooked by both expats returning and their businesses calling to come home,’ says Dean Foster, founder and president of DFA Intercultural Global Solutions.

🙂

He adds this: ‘Like culture shock, reverse culture shock has a number of stages; imagine this to be a U-shape curve. At first, you may be excited to return home – seeing friends and family members, wearing the rest of your wardrobe, and eating at your favourite restaurants.’

Okay, I can see a bit of that, but only in small chunks…..

Then he says: ‘This initial euphoria eventually wears off, and that’s when you find yourself feeling out-of-place in your own culture. This is the experience of reverse culture shock; it’s the bottom of the curve and often the roughest part.’

Yeah, I can see that bit.

However….. ‘The good news is, although it may take time, you will begin a gradual adjustment back towards feeling comfortable with where and whom you are.’

I’m looking forward to finding out when that will happen. Just as long as it’s fun, chaps!

How reverse culture shock happens

Reverse culture shock is experienced when returning to a place that one expects to be home but actually is no longer, is far more subtle, and therefore, more difficult to manage than outbound shock precisely because it is unexpected and unanticipated.

I wrote about that reverse culture shock feeling for Global Magazine, and interviewed some folks who had recently undertaken it. For them, it was cool, mostly, and pretty exciting. I’m sure I’ll get there. Some days I have the odd glimmer of hope and excitement, but that’s mostly when I remember wearing fabulous shoes in my PR job, working with those gregarious gals and playing netball.

And of course, the danger of lurking in the past in that way is that you’ll never dream about nor make a present and a future happen. And I intend to make both those things happen, once I get out of this bit of the repatriation curve…… Wish me luck!

The Fabulous English Cotswolds

Visit Britain’s Gem

I might be slightly biased, but as a Brit-who-lives-in-America-who-is-visiting-the-UK I find the Cotswolds still one of the most charming and delightfully English places of all.

But I don’t really know it properly; I haven’t discovered it all and there is much more to it than I am aware of. So I was over the moon to discover that there is a totally new tour of the Cotwsolds that shows you all the hidden nooks and crannies and gems of the area, and it’s aimed at showing American tourists the wonders of the land – so kind of perfect for me!

The tour is actually a full day tour of Cotswold villages that includes an invitation into a private home, The Secret Cottage, for morning coffee, a buffet lunch and a traditional cream tea. Can you get more Englishy-English than that? No you jolly well can’t!

The idyllic Secret Cottage

Every day throughout the year a six hour guided day tour of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire north Cotswold villages, combined with intervals at a private thatched cottage shows tourists these beautiful places in the countryside. I have to admit that on this return journey I am becoming more partial to the British countryside. It’s captured me!

Cotswolds joy!

Becky, the tour guide, drives a minibus to outstanding hidden villages that are inaccessible by public transport. The unspoilt villages that she has selected are made up of thatched cottages, clipped lawns and dusty lanes, which perfectly illustrate what life was like in the 16^th century. Having lived in the area for twenty-five years, her local knowledge is invaluable to visitors.

What gave Becky the idea for starting the tour was that every tourist yearns to see inside these cottages and to see how the English conduct their daily lives?  Well she lives in a pretty thatched cottage and though ‘I’d love to show people what I experience every day.’ Though she doesn’t dress in 16th century clothes, just so you know.

Becky’s home is called ‘Secret Cottage’ and is quintessentially perfect for guests to explore and experience how the English live in the Cotswolds. Inside everything is old and quaint, there are three inglenook fireplaces which are open log fires used to heat the cottage, the winding stairs and floors are made from original elm planks and the heavily beamed listed cottage is nearly 500 years old!

During the tour of villages, Becky periodically returns to Secret Cottage to serve morning coffee and pastries, a buffet lunch and in the afternoon you can see the scones being baked in the Aga, which are essential for the traditional English Cotswold cream tea.

Delightful!

All of the tourists are overwhelmed by the experience of being invited into a private home with many of them describing it as fairyland. Becky excels when it comes to deciding which route to take for the day, she’s brilliant at assessing what the different nationalities would like to see and consistently delivers a bespoke memorable tour that is guaranteed to please everybody with plenty of surprises.

With only seven passenger seats in the Mercedes minibus, guests are guaranteed that their tour is personal and can choose when they’d like to stop and take their pictures.

I tell you, American friends, and British friends too if you want to experience and really see the Cotswolds properly, you have to do this. Already, TripAdvisor has Ranked Secret Cottage #1 of 18 ‘Best Attractions in Moreton-in-Marsh’ and #2 of 91 ‘Best Activities in the Cotswolds’. 

The tour  was recently been part of a television series with a whole episode dedicated to Secret Cottage, this was organised by Visit Britain, Virgin Atlantic and Cotswold Tourism. Fancy that!

I adore the Cotswolds. And I’m seeing it all again through new eyes and appreciating it even more.

Britain is Bloody Brilliant…

‘Bloody brill back in Britain!’

So says Ben Barker, who’s a British expat in the USA and who has just returned to the States with loads of top banana things to say about the UK.

He’s so cheery and upbeat about Britain, I almost can’t wait to get on that plane this week and head on over myself.

(FYI: confession……I just watched the movie Night of the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and there are some great shots of London and when we saw it Harry and I were whispering to each other going ‘Ooooh, doesn’t London look faberooni!’) 😉

Anyway, enough Hollywooding of the UK, this is….

Ben’s Brilliant Britain 🙂

I’m just back from 12 days traveling in Britain. I hadn’t been back in a few years and a few of my expat friends had warned me that I might be surprised how things had changed. Mulling it over on the flight back here’s my ‘top 10’ of what I noticed and had reaffirmed while I was there.

1. We British have humour as part of their DNA. I had light-hearted banter with shopkeepers, pub staff, strangers on the street and immigration officials – it’s just a way of life.

I might be biased, but British humour is the BEST! 😉

2. Britain loves history. Sitting in a pub dating to 1460…I could see the concept of time sinking in to my teenage kids. There’s nowhere like it for discovering your ‘place’ in history.
3. Who knew: British food is really good! Not just the traditional stuff, now there are cafes and restaurants cooking really good stuff with all kinds of international influences.

It’s not all Spotted Dick, you know….

4. Public transportation in Britain is better than ever – clean, fast and generally on time – and people use it and trust it and love it.
5. It seems like there are ‘development’ and ‘projects’ and ‘schemes’ being invested in everywhere. The place seemed exciting and brimming with ideas on how to get things done!
6. Here’s an important one – the beer selection ‘on pull’ in pubs has really improved. The regional choices are varied and tasty.

Beer British-stylie

7. I people-watched a lot and chatted whenever I could: the British public are diverse and interested and opinionated and knowledgeable and eccentric and different and concerned and charitable…and outward looking. I enjoyed every conversation.
8. The British countryside is still truly stunning. From coast to stream to farmland to moor to woodland to mountain it’ll still take your breath away.

Beautiful Britain

9. I was struck by how ‘techy’ Britain is and how well ‘engineered’ everything is – from credit card systems to football stadium ticket scanners to hand dryers to sim cards to solar arrays to Sat Navs etc. Hi-tech is the norm.
10. Last, but not least, Britain remains a nation of dog lovers! They’re everywhere – all shapes and sizes. I used to think that a nation that watched the same TV shows at the same time always had something to talk about…or a nation obsessed with the weather always had something to chat about over the garden fence, but I now have to add the common bond of strangers discussing their fidos…and they do – a lot.

Now, I know Britain has problems (while I was there, there were headlines of inner city murder and child abuse cover ups and NHS emergency room waiting times and terrorist threats) – I’m not blind to those problems – but the good news is, no one in Britain is blind to them either. My sense is there is a normal, high level of work being done to fix the problems. The truth is I was interested to see what had changed to the Country I love and I am more than happy to report that what is fundamentally British hasn’t changed and may well have actually improved.

In short, Britain, in my opinion, is still brilliant and beautiful and this expat will try to get back as often as possible!

British bits

You can see more of Ben’s stuff about Britain, British pubs, pub banter and all sorts do with Britain stopping by his site BarkerBites 🙂

I’m super excited to get on over to Blighty now for that visit!

Seeing England With Different Eyes….

What’s it going to feel like…?

Many of us Brits out here venture back for a visit after a time, and things do look and feel different, and sometimes it’s like you’ve never been away – you just slot back in and life is normal for 10 days/2 weeks, and then you get back to the USA and mull it all over.

I asked my friend, Sarah, who is a British expat in Columbia, MD, and who has been here for almost a year now, what she made of her pre-Christmas visit back to the South West of England.

This is Sarah’s tale of Seeing England With Different Eyes….

It was with mixed feelings that I returned home to the UK a couple of months ago for a brief visit, after living for nine months in the US. I was returning on my own, primarily to see my mum, who is reluctant to fly now she is older. Life in Maryland had taken on a rhythm of its own and settled into ‘normaI’. On my return home, I knew that I wouldn’t have my children and husband around me as a buffer to any emotions I might feel. Yet, I was excited to be going back to all that was familiar. But how strange would it feel? The answer: despite noticing differences and similarities, it felt overwhelmingly normal!

Sarah (far right) and I hang out with chums in the USA

Catching up with friends and family was amazing. The gift of technology and social media has made the world a much smaller place and we know what is going on in each others’ lives, so whilst we were sitting and chatting, it was like I had never been away. It was a relief to talk with people face to face that you have a history with, not explain word choices, mannerisms or be in fear of making some politically incorrect faux pas!

My visits into the school where I used to work made me appreciate how wonderful the British education system is. Working in US schools has been a real eye opener for me. It was lovely seeing the whole school out to play at one time, teachers having time to bond together in the staffroom at break and lunchtime, the creativity of the curriculum, being utilised in the classroom as soon as you walked through the door. However, I caught elements of stress in the air – new initiatives for marking and assessment and a new curriculum. I was relieved to have temporarily left that behind.

Back in the UK

There were many things that I had forgotten that were different. Trying to buy some Costa coffees at a service station on my way back home from the airport, much to my friend’s amusement, I was temporarily flummoxed about to use my debit card in the machine. There was no place to swipe it! Whilst shopping, I felt awkward walking around town with a take away coffee, when in the US it is so natural to see people with a coffee cup in their hand, EVERYWHERE!

There were many things I realise I love about being in the UK. Driving low to the ground, with a manual gear box – bliss! Shopping along a beautiful high street, looking at British fashion, going to my favourite bars and restaurants, instinctively knowing my way around, being able to jump onto a bus! I was lucky enough to be home for Remembrance Sunday and at my local church service I felt so proud to be British and extremely patriotic, to the point that I was brought to tears. The display of poppies at The Tower of London was amazing and everyone was talking about it. That’s the kind of thing, as a nation, we do so well.

What didn’t I enjoy? I hated having to take a waterproof or umbrella everywhere with me and the general sogginess of the countryside, which you don’t really get for a prolonged period in Maryland. (It rained a lot when I was home!)

Oh soggy England!

Another emotion that I wasn’t expecting to feel was that of one of detachment from my house that we are renting out in the UK. We had spent many years doing it up and I’d loved living there. We are lucky enough to have wonderful neighbours back there, who welcomed me with such excitement on my return , that it made me realise that it’s the people who count, not the bricks and mortar. I’m now excited about what we can next do to our house on our return, with our supportive neighbours around us.

When the time arrived to return to Maryland, I felt incredibly sad to leave mum on her own, but knew home was where my immediate family and dog were and that was at present in the US. What I had learned from my trip, was that it is possible to feel ‘normal’ in two different places that you can call home, no matter how different those places are and have wonderful friends and family in both.

Thanks Sarah! I do look forward to my visit back 🙂

Back to Blighty…..

This time in two weeks, I’ll be at my parents’ house, and, since it will be 5pm in the UK, I suspect we’ll be having a bit of my mother’s homemade banana cake and a cup of tea. Or they’ll be having a G&T no doubt …. 😉

Cup of tea British-stylie

Yep, I’m heading on back to Blightly for a flying 10 day visit mid-January.

The reason?

Well, there are several……I haven’t been back since August 2013, January is a really pants month here in Maryland because there are generally 12 snow days out of 20 so Harry won’t be missing any school, my mum really wants us to pop over, it will be cool to see my friends and family, I have a job interview, I want to play netball at least twice, and…..I’m curious to see what it will feel like and look like. and I really want to get Harry engaged in the English way of life a little bit more so that the changes don’t come as a great big shock to him.

Just this morning I said to him ‘Have you ever had British fish and chips?’ and he looked at me and wrinkled his freckly nose and said, ‘What?’ So I explained the phenomenon that is British fish and chips, and now I really hope that they come in some form of newspaper from wherever we get them from, because that was the bit that appealed most to him….!

Proper job!

I also told him that I had had a dream that I was back in the UK and that it was really raining hard and I was driving on the wrong side of the road and there were lots of cars coming towards me. Let’s face it, both those things are possibly going to happen at some point…. ;). I’m sure the former is a certainty.

My top questions upon my return are these:

1. Will England look beautiful and appealing? When I went back in August it did look gorgeous, but that’s the summer, so I’m not sure if it will feel a bit gloomy in January.

England looked gorgeous in August

2. Will I just fit back in? What are my friends doing and have they changed? I’ve had such a crazy two and half years in the States, I wonder very much if it will feel just like I’ve never been away.

3. What new things will I spot in my hometown? Are there new restaurants and shops and stuff, and how will it feel?

How will it have changed?

4. Will I feel like Gulliver in Lilliput when I go to my house? Our UK house is much smaller than our USA one. Much. I often say, though, how much I miss our house in the UK because a) it was easier to clean and b) we didn’t have to YELL to each other from room to room – we could just talk. How pleasant. Here’s an anecdote from when I was six about how things appear to look bigger or smaller depending on what you’re used to. I went to Canada to stay with my aunt and uncle and they had a big Red Setter called Sunny. I was with Sunny for two weeks, and when I returned home my spaniel-lab mutts Bess and Babs looked really dinky and small because I was used to the great bigness of Sunny. Equally, when I visited Liverpool and spent some time with my great aunt’s terrier Mitzi, when I returned home Bess and Babs felt like giants. You work it out.

Our little house in Cheltenham

5. Will I feel excited at the prospect of having to come back to live in the UK, or will I feel desperately apprehensive?

Hmmmm. I’m slightly anxious, in all honesty.

Well, I’ll be charting it all here for you, folks, as part of my repatriation.

See you on the other side!

A return to London

As the months whizz by here in the USA and we’re on countdown to return to the UK, I become more curious about what it will feel like.

Small. I think it will feel small.

Old. I think I will notice the ‘oldness’ of England.

Strange. I think my life will feel strange as I try to settle back in.

I’ve asked a few people who’ve returned to the UK this year to share their impressions of spending time back there.

This is my American friend Jenny’s story about her visit to the UK, having been a student there a few years back (1980s).

Return to London

One of my fondest memories from college is the semester I spent studying in London.  I was on a humanities program through what was then called Beaver College (they’ve since changed their name for obvious reasons).  We studied literature, theater, history, art history, and architecture, but what we really studied was London.  We went to plays and art museums; we walked neighborhoods and chatted up locals in pubs; we travelled to Cornwall, Salisbury, Bristol and Bath, and we even spent a week in West Berlin.  We were housed in a gorgeous rooming house in Bloomsbury, and I imagined I was walking in Virginia Woolf’s very footsteps.

Poppies at the Tower

As college students we had no money – but we did have Underground passes – so a regular activity was riding the tube to random remote locations and getting out to explore; my friend Stacy and I often entertained (or annoyed) other passengers with improv games or songs.  I loved being in London – eating Weetabix every morning, drinking tea with warm milk from the college canteen, snacking on digestive biscuits and Cadbury’s, and, of course, fish and chips – although, to be honest, we generally could only afford the chips.

Needless to say, when my husband needed to go to London for work last month, I jumped at the chance to go with him.  I do agree with Thomas Wolf that “you can’t go home, again” but I’m here to tell you that you can go back to the city abroad where you studied in college – and it might just be even better!

Oxford St lights

London is a gorgeous city – teeming with tourists from all over the world.  I was there for Remembrance Day (we call it Veteran’s Day) and got to see the amazing installation of ceramic poppies at the Tower of London – more than 880,000 poppies, filling the moat and spilling out of the windows – one for every British life lost in the 1^st World War. It was amazing!  The crowds were enormous and constant for the entire week, but everyone remained calm and patient as they waited their turn for a view and stopped to take photos.  I’ve never been in a crowd like that here.

The London Underground is still one of the most efficient subways I’ve ever been on, and while I didn’t just ride around for entertainment, I did enjoy my rides, and I also appreciated the beauty of some of the stations.  There’s been restoration work done on a number of them, and they’re just gorgeous.  When I was a student in London I desperately wanted to fit in and not appear to be a tourist.  I avoided anything that seemed touristy – but now I’m in my forties, and who cares?!  I downloaded Rick Steeves’ podcasts and walked all over the city gawking away and learning fun facts that only Steeves can make amusing.  I explored parts of the city I’d never really seen before – like the financial district, full of new and quirky high rises, the East End, now a hipster haven with loads of street markets selling lots of used vinyl and leather jackets as well as some of the best South Asian food I’ve ever had, and the South Bank now home to the beautifully rebuilt Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern and restaurants galore.  Speaking of restaurants, it’s great going back to London now that I can actually afford to go to restaurants and now that there are so many choices. Sad to say, I had no fish and chips, but I did have amazing Indian, Pakistani, Malaysian, Spanish, Italian, and more!  And, while the tea in London is still outstanding – of course, I was thrilled to discover that coffee has moved in as well – really good coffee.

It really was a bit like a mini-return to my semester abroad – I saw plays, visited art museums, walked neighborhoods, and chatted up locals, but this time with the eyes (and budget) of an adult.

Ah, London! Oh yes, when I read this, Jenny, I know I’ll be ready to return, even though I won’t be based in London. I have to remember, after living in the USA, travel is the way forward. #lovelondon