Forgetful
 

Tomorrow night at 9 I get on a plane to England. I not likely to be back in the States for 1-1.5 years. I really don't want to forget anything.

What common items have you forgotten when leaving for a trip?

You'll be fine as long as you remember to 'always know where your towel is'.

bugger, my reply disappeared
 

and I spent ages on it. oh well, try again....

If you have enough room, take comfort foods -notably condiments.(favourite peanut butter, maple syrup etc). Take extra underwear and toiletries -it can be more frustrating than you expect not to be able to find a brand of deodorant you like (in a last straw sort of a way).

I usually forget to pack Beest's hairbrush becasue I don't use one. Of course he could do his own packing, but we usually like to leave in the same millenium.

Beest(I) often forget(s) to pack his belt if he travels in a pair of trousers for which a belt is not required. Which means I can go undisciplined for weeks, even if I did forget the hairbrush.

So check for things you don't use everyday.

Pick up a bottle of Bourbon or similar at Duty Free -great ice-breaker at British Unis.

If you're likely to get homesick at thanksgiving, take something to help you with that.

American Expats can be a good resource for sourcing things you've forgotten.

I always forget the most common things...like my cell and camera and their *chargers* ...nothing that I couldn't have replaced though. Why ya leavin the states for so long? *Really* long vacation? :D

I find that if I have my passport and a credit card, nothing else is critical.

different electrical sockets in UK.

Plus cell only works if tri-band.... although I've heard most new ones are

passport and credit card, true but when going for a long time as a student, there are some things that money can't buy.....



Oh, don't forget your address book, Grant.

Remind me again, whereabouts you'll be in England?

If it's Newcastle I'd take a phrase book :)

Don't forget you're coming down to London at some point - I won't insist on being your tour guide but we should meet for a drink. I know we can rope in Cyclefrance (and hopefully Dana, schedule permitting)

Preferably one that gives pronunciation keys:P The Geordie accent is possibly the most distinct in England. Their vowel sounds are unlike most other pronunciations that you might encounter.

I'd definately try and get down to Lunnon sometime!

I'm planning on picking up a power converter and a couple of plug adapters when I get there. I'm just not going to have time to do it beforehand.

Belts and peanut butter. I was definitely going to forget those. Thanks, monster!

I think I'm going to try and record my lectures so I can compensate for the dialect. . . Hopefully they have a good policy in that regard.

Yeah, it's Newcastle.

It'd be great to meet all the Isles dwellers. A local tour guide for a day would be incredible, too! The last time I stayed in London I only did those stupid package tours, which was fine, but not very... interesting.

Oh, the lecturers won't be Geordies. Neither will most of the students.

What subject(s) are you studying?

Even if some of the lecturers are geordies they won;t be lecturing in full on geordie dialect :P

All the geordie lecturers bugger off down south where the support staff fawn all over them.

(The support staff will have Geordie accents, but they might slow them down in return for hearing your American one)

I love the geordie accent and dialect. It's one of my favourites. It's held out much longer than most of the other Northern accents against the homogenisation of language.

If you move from Lancashire to Yorkshire the two accents find a place to meet and merge into one another. Same if you take most northern accents down south. My geordie mate has been living in Yorkshire for over 20 years and spent time living in the Midlands and the South before that. He still sounds distincly geordie, despite attempting to tone it down to be understood. When he gets drunk he slips into full on Tyneside, some of which I understand...

E-Business and Information Systems. So basically very easy classes and a bullshit dissertation. Yay... I couldn't get into their Software Engineering Program -- the same program I got into at Durham, but didn't accept.

Okay. I've been here for just shy of three weeks. I'm fairly well settled in.

Is it possible to have culture shock in my case? It doesn't seem likely, but I can't figure out what's wrong with me. I feel way off.

Lot of stuff to get used to in three weeks, up to and including a change of water supply. It may just be you're adjusting to lots of different, small, environmental changes.

Or, it's a little bit of culture shock:P

What do you mean by way off?

you think they don't have toothpaste in England?

There are a few little things that bug me here. For instance, everything comes with chips or mash. And then on chain restaurant menus they tend to use chips and fries interchangeably (Nando's for instance. The place sucks, I'll never go back.).

I've finally adjusted to crossing the road. It's been a few days since I've nearly been killed by speeding vehicles.

There's a postal strike on this week, which is annoying. I can't remember a postal strike in the US.

I want peanut butter that doesn't look (and taste) like mustard. I want maple syrup. Period. I want a can of Barbasol, and I only want to pay $0.99 for it.

I want to be able to say cheers without sounding like an asshole.

I could go on for a long time like this. . .

The funny thing is that I really, really like it here. There's just a bunch of niggling little things that are hard to let go of.

Of COURSE you can be suffering from culture shock! George Bernard Shaw (renowned British playwright) said that the UK and the USA were two nations divided by the notion that they shared a language. What is the difference between "chips" and "fries" - I thought they were the same thing? Get stuff you want posted to you (it'll turn up when the postal strike ends ...) however humble it seems.
The advice I'd give you is to make sure you travel widely from your new, but temporary, base. I'm still kicking myself for the trips I never found time for when I live in Moscow for two-and-a-half years. Let me know when Scotland figures in your plans ...

Peanut butter tastes like mustard? It always tasted very sweet to me. You can buy maple syrup, just go to a reasonably large supermarket and ask someone. If the supermarkets aren't stocking it you should be able to find it at a delicatessen. I have no idea what Barbasol is :P

Perry, try their pop. It tastes much better than pop here, because it is made with sugar instead of HFCS. (If you are a pop drinker.)

chips are different from fries in the States. Maybe you call them crisps?

What you call chips, we call crisps. Chips are a little like fries, but they are just potatos cut into long pieces and deep fried. Fries are very thin and usually made from formed potato rather than just chopping up a potato.

But....Ovenchips, are actually fries, not chips....because they are made from formed potato (usually) and are usually thinner (unless they claim to be steakcut chips).

you say potato, I say potato.

wait, that didn't come out right . . .

Thank you for the definition. I had made the assumption that in the UK 'chips' meant what 'fries' means in the US. Good to know that in the UK 'chips' and 'fries' are two similar, but different foods.

Barbasol is a brand shaving foam.

I haven't actually tried the peanut butter here. But I hear it's pretty disgusting/different than I'm used to. I got a jar of the good stuff from home yesterday. My girlfriend and I killed half of it for breakfast this morning.

Yup. Even their diet soda tastes better. Diet Coke in the UK is better than Diet Coke in the US, but Coke Light from continental Europe blows both out of the water.

The funny thing is that there's this little Cantonese restaurant in Friars that has French, Czech, and German bottled soda.

Do you think they'll have real maple syrup, not the stuff that's primarily corn syrup?

I took a cursory look for it in the Co-operative, Tesco, and ASDA, and they didn't have any. . . I'm curious about marmite and treacle though. Morbidly curious.

you can always make your own peanut butter in a food processor. Peanuts, add salt, a little oil if you need it, and voila! It doesn't taste like Skippy, but it does taste like peanuts, and much better for you.

Waitrose or Sainsbury's (or some delicatessens) may be a better bet to find real maple syrup - just read the label carefully.

Marmite is a love-it or loathe-it substance - savoury flavoured, and a little goes a long way. Spread VERY thinly on toast. Those that love it make marmite soldiers (spread thinly on toast and margerine/butter which is then cut into fingers for dipping into soft boiled eggs).
I'm not a treacle fan myself, I prefer godlen syrup in the sweet and sticky stakes.

I second Sainsbury's & Waitrose for real maple syrup.
The very big Sainsbury's are very good for global food, you might even find some American peanut butter. Don't knock the British stuff til you've tried it though, just because someone else had some that was grim, doesn't mean another brand will be. Personally I'd find it all grim and advise you to eat jam instead :)

Don't fret about the fact it's the little things getting you down. You are out of your comfort zone - everything from the weather to the traffic to the local brand names to the food is different. And as you've found, words don't always mean the same thing. It doesn't matter so much on holiday (vacation!) because you are there for a short time and at your leisure. To take on a foreign country, away from friends and family AND a new university is a big deal.

Grumble about it here - you'll look back in a year and some things may still bother you, but I bet you laugh about most of them, forgetting you ever found them foreign.

Get a miniature pot of Marmite (with the mini jams/ condiments in big supermarkets). Not cost effective, but if you hate it you've wasted less money. I have it on cold toast with butter personally.

Forget treacle. Only bought by parents whose children need it for a specific recipe at school, then dies a sticky, dusty death in the back of the cupboard. BTW if treacle tart or treacle sponge are on the dessert menu, chances are it's really golden syrup. Well it can't all make sense can it? We'd be over-run with furriners!

William Gibson calls it "the mirror world" where everything is the same, except where it's different. If you like spy and/or action novels, you might like Pattern Recognition much of which is set in London.

*ahem*

yup, you are in the first phase of culture shock. Don't worry, this too, shall pass. Have you been to the American Expats site I recommended and asked them where to buy the stuff you crave?

treacle is pretty much molasses. I use it to make parkin around this time of year. yum. there are a few nice cookie recipes that require treacle too. and I would have treacle on toast if I ever thought about it. A very thin smear of it.

Marmite is the work of teh debbil.

Yeah. I've tried making peanut butter that way, and it's never been appetizing. I don't like my peanut butter to taste TOO much like peanuts. . . At least I've migrated away from the PB that contains HFCS.

Plus, that would require buying yet another appliance. We've bought a toaster, a jug kettle, a knife set, pots, pans, flatware, mugs, cups. Up next: a mixing bowl, cookie sheets, hand mixer, and maybe one or two other things. A food processor is somewhere further down on the list.

I didn't really account for these expenses in my planning... yuck.

At some point I might just have to try the varieties they have here. I actually am kind of curious.

The nearest Waitrose's is in Durham. Sainsbury's will take a bus excursion, but that's reasonable compared to going all the way down to Durham!

That book is amazing. I loved it.

I about lost my mind last week. My girlfriend and I went to eat at this "New York Style Italian Restaurant" (gag!), the place could have been anywhere in the world. I think that's one of the reasons that I can't stand eating at chain restaurants like Ruby Tuesdays or Olive Garden. They don't feel like real places.

Nope... I forgot about that site. Thanks for the reminder.

I tried to save space to bring my comfort stuff, but I was at the limit on both my bags with just neccesities. 22 kg is not all that much when you're packing for a year.

What's parkin? Any suggestions for cookie recipes?

I've been spending too much on store bought baked goods. I need to start making my own. Lemon muffins at Gregg's, cookies and turnovers at Marks & Spencer *drools*

Sorry for the mass reply. I'm a little cramped for time at the moment, but wanted to get back to ya'll.

Your GF made the move with you?

Basically, I made the move with her. We made the move independently, from a certain point of view. Depends on which way you want to look at it.

She was already lined up to come here to study. When we met she was up front about this. After things started getting serious, I decided that getting a Master's degree now is as good a time as any, so, after discussing things with the GF, I applied and was accepted to a few schools around here.

Huh. Education by induction.
Not a bad way to go.

Just wanted to say "I told you so"! I'll look up the parking recipe when i stand up. it's traditionally eaten on bonfire night.

Last night of the series for Saturday Night Takeaway tonight. If you've missed Geordie heroes Ant & Dec in that, I genuinely suggest you watch I'm A Celebrity... next year. They have made me laugh immoderately for the best part of 10 years.

If other students give you a cynical opinion of them, just remember students simply wear the Cloak of Cynicism to disguise their own lack of confidence - feel free to like Ant & Dec anyway, even if you have to tell fellow students it's in an ironic way.