11 Things I Didn't Expect When Moving to the UK - American in the UK

// WHO AM I
Hi! I’m Kalyn, an American expat in the UK, and I’m super glad you’re here (yes, I’ve lived in the UK for almost 10 years and the word “super” is still very much part of my vocabulary!) Whether you’re thinking about moving to the UK or just visiting, I have plenty of information and other resources for you below, so make sure to find your section and let me help you make the most of your trip or your move to the always-sunny, beautiful, and historic UK (okay, two of those things are true, but if you squint really hard at the lights when the London Underground is coming into station, you can kind of pretend it’s the sun?)

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[JustMe-ksqc]

You said "bins" without even thinking about it. I think we have assimilated you successfully.

[Psmith-ekhq]

As Basil Fawlty said in "The Waldorf Salad" episode to the American guest who was complaining about the narrow roads, "our cars have steering wheels".

[alanstebbings]

My favourite on the weather
I used to have a Polish regular customer and said to him one day"Marek, you're turning English You've been talking about the weather for the last five minutes"
Lovely guy

[OriginalNiceButOdd]

A lot of the country roads in the UK were once meant for horses, and farm carts etc, which is why they are narrow; these old tracks are often ancient and just get a coat of tarmac to enable cars to use them.

[xneurianx]

I love a cold drink, but ice is so annoying. Your drink just gets gradually more and more watered down as the ice melts and you drink more of the actual drink. That last third of a pint of cola that is more water than coke is just vile.

[davebarker]

Years ago on holiday we were drinking rum and coke. The bartender would throw in ice and half fill the glass with rum and hand us a bottle of coke to top it up ourselves. I don't like ice bashing against my teeth when I'm drinking so asked for no ice. The bartender filled my glass with rum to the same level as the others. From then on none of us had ice. The coke was cold enough to make it a nice cool drink. One disadvantage - The hangover next day

[tatters]

The blocking is done stateside, not by the UK. We have the same problem in Canada when we try to access U.S. content and it's blocked because we're not in the U.S. I understand that protecting copyright comes into it, but a lot of it simply because U.S. providers do not want to conform to foreign rules.

[rnp]

I love that the majority of our Plod don't carry guns.

[garysmith]

My Grandma was brought up in The Gorbals, Glasgow in the 1910's and 1920's before getting married and moving to Lancashire. Trust me, nothing I could say would be a patch on her language when she was in full flow!

[Phiyedough]

Here in Croatia the country lanes are the same width as those in UK. The speed limit is just a maximum, you have to judge yourself what speed is safe within that limit.

[capt.bart.roberts]

You don't like the weather on The British Isles? Wait five minutes! 😋

[jackjorgensen]

I know it’s a plug for the ad, but the blocked American content in the uk isn’t censored, it’s blocked by the websites themselves because they don’t want to comply with the UKs data protection laws, so they refuse the traffic, rather than face penalties for violating

[frogandspanner]

6:30 I live in the southern suburbs of Birmingham, UK - the second largest city. I choose to travel through the narrow lanes rather than major roads to go to the supermarket. Stopping at passing places, and pedestrian and horses in the middle of the road, are much less of an irritation than aggressive motorists on major roads.

[paulmidsussex]

The President makes a state of the Union address once a year. The British Prime Minister has to do it once a week AND take questions after it.

[alantheinquirer]

The UK is small, sits between the edge of the Atlantic ocean and a vast landmass, in the terminal of the Gulf Stream. Of course we talk about the weather ... we get a lot of it! 😆

[wyterabitt]

The websites aren't blocked, the website is blocking the UK. A subtle but important difference.

[glynnwright]

Many narrow roads were built for pack horses. Bulky items travelled by coastal vessels or canals.

[Poliss]

My sister never swears. She shouts 'Sugar!' 😁
Q. How can you tell when it's summer in England? A. The rain's warmer.
Of course we don't want ice in drinks. We're paying for a full glass, not a glass half filled with frozen water.
PMQs. Aka Feeding time at the zoo.
I was walking home from the pub one night. A cop car stopped and gave me a lift home. 😁😁😁
The locks that engage automatically when you close them aren't deadlocks. Their technical name is 'night latch, commonly known as a Yale lock. Houses with Yale locks may also have a separate deadlock. Back doors usually only have a deadlock, so take your rubbish out that way. 😁😁

[Stoggler]

Number 6: ice in drinks. One of my pet hates is asking for a pint of diet cola in a pub and getting American levels of ice in it. The result of an amount of coke that is no where near a pint, and within a few minutes, you have a very diluted unsatisfying drink!

[davidberesford]

The yellow flower: *Brassica napus subsp. napus*
Apparently most hay fever is associated with tree pollen, not grasses.