Thursday, August 28, 2008

Back in Bristol

It was great to see everyone while in the States the other week. The weather while I was home was brilliant... mid 70's and sunny. After landing back in the UK I wasn't even able to make it to my flat without getting rained on.

Below are responses to a few questions I recently received from a fellow blog reader. Thanks for the questions.

Q: What was it like to come back and drive in the States?

A: To be honest, I hardly noticed. I must say, it was nice to get behind the wheel of my car (despite the fact that it drove horribly). I think the hardest thing to get used to is where you position your car within your lane. When you drive from the left side of the car, as you drive down your lane your body is just left of center. Position your body similarly when driving from the right side of the car and the left side of your car is in the lane next to you. I'm sure I've upset a few people over here once or twice because of this.

Q: How is the food and do you cook?

A: The food here is nothing to write home about. If England is known for one thing, it wouldn't be the food. However, there is quite the variety of food here from many other cultures and parts of the world. Like I've said before, the best food I've had here is probably Indian curry. And no, I don't really cook. Most nights, like tonight, is just something warmed up in the oven.

Q: Are the malls and grocery stores very different?

A: Pretty much the same. Except grocery stores are missing some of the staples... like Pop Tarts. Oh, and everything seems ridiculously expensive. Because of the exchange rate everything here pretty much cost double. For example, I bought a simple pair of Nikes yesterday. They cost 60 pounds. Doesn't sound too bad until you realize that's $120. When I fist arrived here I had a tendency to convert everything from pounds to dollars. It was depressing. So I try not to think about how much things cost in terms of dollars.

Q: Do people treat you differently b/c you're an American?

A: Hard to say, but I don't think so. I can't say that I've ever been treated poorly for being American. Sometimes I wonder if people even know I'm not from around here. I suspect they do as soon as I open my mouth and they hear my American "accent".

This weekend I'm headed to the Great Dorset Steam Fair. It looks to be similar to the Decatur County's Power of the Past... only English, bigger and with steam engines. I'll be sure to take my camera and post pictures to the blog.

Take care,
ExPat

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