YES! You had to pay to use the public bathrooms, and pay for the little ketchup packets at fast-food places, and pay for a glass of tap water...! It was totally baffling to us.

here I sit, broken-hearted
paid 2p and only farted.....

The whole of life is monstrously different and scary and weird US:UK. The main problem is that one expects similarity because we use similar language, so it's even more of a horrible shock than if we had moved to a county on the same continent that spoke a different language. So say all expats -US and UK- I've ever interacted with.

To demonstrate my point, let's take today, a really mundane and ordinary day in my life. And i'll compare it to life in the UK as best I remember where appropriate.

Got up at 5 to drive daughter to high school swim team practice before school. (No high School Swim team in UK. No school sports that require practicebefore school starts for the year or for the day. And demand wadges of money for team suits etc (and suits are swim costumes in the UK))

...and high school starts aged 11ish in the UK and lasts for 7 years, although you can leave after 5. And there's no "graduation", but there are exams/quizzes/tests in each of the 3 courses you take when you are a senior (upper 6th/whatever they call it now, they don't use freshman/sophomore/junior/senior)). Universities will demand certain grades in each subject for acceptance. No essay, usually. no Scholarships, either, in the main. Especialy not sports. There is no issue of having to sign a release for coaches to send reports of your student-athlete to interested universities. Most Brits probably won't even be able to make head or tail of that.....

And we're only at 5:45 am in my day. i need to go to bed.

The differences are HUGE

It's 20p now, Monster!

doesn't have the same double entendre, though...

no drive through banking dry cleaning etc in the UK -just a fe macdonalds. No boxes of complimentary Kleenex(tissues) everywhere -can be very awkward if you sneeze unexpectedly and nastily. No free refils on drinks, no boxes provided to take home your leftovers -people just do that on the sly occasionally, wrap food in a napkin (usually called serviettes). No servers in bars. Tipping very limited, nothing like 15-20%. much more common to have to put a coin to get a shopping cart -like at Aldi. Carts are smaller. Bread is less sweet. Bakeries sell a range of savory (as in not dessert) pies and pasties and sausage rolls. Gas stations don't sell beer and you don't pay at the pump and there's no lever so you can leave it filling while you wash your windows -there aren't any squeegees to wash your windows. And it's called petrol and you get it from the garage.

We've got a garage (= gas station) here that is also a DIY store and builders' merchants, and it also sells booze!

OK well once I got to the location I decided to make it a movie, on the spot, but I was not happy with the presentation. It's a mess. Nevertheless, here it is.



Movie Tavern

outstanding

Wow UT. Thanks for that glimpse of the everyday. I really ought to do the same here ...

I second the wow. And you were right after all, I am perturbed by it.
Wow again - because it's nothing like a town centre - English version. I mean if we decided a retail park would be called a town centre.

Possibly the biggest difference is the car-accessibility. The centre of our towns are generally so old that there is little or no room for that sort of parking. Things have to be within walking distance. It looks to me like an open air shopping centre/ retail park. On steroids. We stick something smaller outside of town.

Monster - some things have changed since you were away. I guess you know that, having plenty of contact with the UK. The two obvious ones are drive-through McDonalds (LOTS now rather than a few) and paying at the pump - my Dad expects it and would be quite grumpy if he had to go in the shop.

In Aylesbury we've had drive-through banking as long as I can remember (Lloyds on Gatehouse Road). But you are quite right, I have never seen it anywhere else, ever! And certainly in my experience, most people parked up and used the cashpoint on the other side of the building :)

Ketchup is generally free now, as is tap water. But no, very few places offer refills - if they do you pay a flat fee for it (as we did at Pizza Hut).

But the rest holds true. And your school experience is completely different to that of my niece and nephew.

Limes, the standard charge in London is 30p now.
I'm happy to pay it for spotless toilets. I'd be happier if it was free of course.

As an aside, Rome has virtually NO public toilets. You have to go into a bar or restaurant. My ex husband had a dicky tummy when we went, and refused to walk more than about 1/2 mile from the hotel. He hated Rome for making him feel uncomfortable. I hated him for ruining my trip to the Eternal City, which I'd dreamed about for years. It was a matter of months until we split up. And yes, he was paranoid, but yes I was a bitch.

This expat has to beg to differ...
of course there are differences between the UK and the US... language being listed among those differences but even allowing for those differences I find it immensely easier dealing with England and her differences than I do in dealing, even after 11 years here, with Switzerland and or France.

Nice breakdown, UT! There's one area here that is particularly insane. It's about 6 of those shopping centers you drove through, all surrounding a real shopping mall at the middle. Of course since all the "roads" are really parking lots, there are no street names or other directions. I have literally gotten lost inside the retail vastness before. It's worth noting for UK Dwellars that these little towns have names, too. We have Arbor Walk, the Domain, the Arboretum, Gateway...

On the other hand, when my car battery died, I found out that mall security covers the entire retail suburbs as well, and they came out and jumped my car for me, which was nice.

Thanks you guys! You know, I wanted to go into the Wegman's [supermarket] and document it too, because I really love that. But I chickened out realizing that everyone was going to look at me talking to this camera.

Maybe I can get J to film me, and then there would be support and it wouldn't be so difficult. Maybe I could get clearance from the store manager.