America to Britain

So, this will probably be my last post for awhile.........3-4 weeks or so. We're moving in to our new house tomorrow!!! So excited to finally be in a place of my own again. Living in a hotel the past two months hasn't been all that fun. I don't really have any fun pictures to post, but I thought I would post some of the major differences we've come across since being here versus at home in the U.S.

HOMES

Most homes here are ALOT smaller than the ones you'll find in the States. We have found, though, that the further away from base we get the bigger the homes are (and less expensive........I think the locals try to gouge a lot of the military here........but I think it's pretty much the same in the states). It's very rare to find a house with an open floorplan. We were very fortunate in finding one that had a nice open layout to it. Most homes don't have closets. Our new one does not and I am going to have to come up with some clever ways to store things! There is not a garbage disposal and, in fact, we have a separate trash bin that we have to put our food waste in. That should be fun.....not! Most homes we looked at had the washer & dryer in the kitchen. So relieved that we have a nice big laundry room in this house! To get the lights on in bathrooms there is a pull string. Bedroom sizes are generally way smaller here. For example, one house we went to was a 4 bedroom - 2 of the bedrooms were the same size as our closet in our Texas home and the other two weren't much bigger. Again, we were fortunate enough to find one out of the norm. Homes are heated by oil. There is no air conditioning.
Housing Terms
Flat = Apartment
Bungalow = single story home
Terraced/semi-detached = Town-home/duplex
Detached = any home sitting alone that is more than one story
Let = Rent

WEATHER

We haven't experienced much of it. I know there are four seasons just like in the Midwest. I don't really expect it to be much different than that. We are still in shorts and t-shirts but wear jackets of a morning and evening. The past couple of days we have had a little bit of rain and looking forward at the 10 day forecast it shows a chance of rain everyday. I've read that October and November are the rainiest months......We've been told when fall/winter rolls around it won't get light out until 8am and will be dark by 3pm. I don't know if they are exaggerating but I suppose we'll find out.

FOOD

We haven't had much of the traditional English fare. Their bacon is different. Derek likes it better. I think it's too salty. There are a lot of fish & chip places. We haven't been to any yet. I did have a fish & chip entrée at one classy British place we ate at called the Cutter Inn. It wasn't that great........however Derek and the kids meals were very good! By the way, chips are fries. Crips are chips. They like take-out food here. So there are a lot of those types of places around, except it's called take-away. We ordered some Chinese take-away and ordered the spiciest that they had...it wasn't spicy at all, so I would say they don't like a lot of spice here. There are also tons of tea & ice cream shops, mostly in the heart of a bigger village. Tipping at a restaurant is not common here.

MONEY

The currency here is the pound sterling. There are 100 pence per pound. Just think of pence as cents. The coins consist of : 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1, £2. The notes (or bills) consist of:  £5, £10, £20, and £50. Each note gets bigger in size. They don't fit in a wallet!

MAIL (Post)

We won't have to worry about this too much since most of our stuff goes to the base post office. But a difference is that the post boxes are red instead of blue. When mail is delivered to our house we have a slot in our door that it gets dropped in through.

SAFETY

We cannot have weapons, NONE. We don't like this.......we've heard Americans are targeted when it comes to break-ins and other crimes here and we can't even protect ourselves. Pepper spray isn't even allowed! That's why we are all about 'blending in with the community.'  Emergency # is 999, not 911.

MORE DIFFERENCES IN LANGUAGE

Yes, they speak English here. We've all heard the differences in the way they talk. There are some terms they use that are different than back home. Here are some we've come across:

When it comes to cars......
trunk = boot
hood = bonnet
turn signal = indicator
license plate = number plate
tire = tyre
semi = lorry
parking lot = car park
reflectors on the road = cat's eyes {I made a comment as we were driving in from London because I saw a sign that said "cat's eyes removed". Our driver started laughing and said it's not what you think and went on to explain.}
highway = dual carriageway
curb = kerb
sidewalk = pavement
gas = petrol

other things.......
thank you = cheers
garage = still garage but pronounced gay raj
don't be silly = don't be stupid {we experienced this after apologizing when Blake emptied the dog's water bowl onto the floor at the house we are now going to be renting!}
amazing = brilliant

There are so many but I can't think of them all right now and really it would take forever! Just come visit us and experience it firsthand! :)