Hello,
I'm Jan, currently in Derbyshire, all the way from a tiny coastal town called Coinjock. It's a lovely place. It's a bit hard to answer people where I come from, when they ask "where specifically in America", because I lived in NC before I came here but I was born in WV and lived all over the country before getting on a boat to travel down the Intracoastal Waterway. I'm in England until March 2015 at which time I'll be going back to America. I'm here with my fiancee who is from Sheffield but for whatever reason the man decided we were going to live in a caravan. It's been an interesting experience.
We lived together in America for 8 years, then his mother fell sick so he came home. She passed away and that left him with nowhere to live, so I guess the van made sense. We're now trying to decide whether I move over here or he goes over there. Hence the long stay. Our house burned down last year so we have no home there either but we do have a boat. We were traveling down the east coast when he got the call. We decided that I'd come over here and we'd see which place we preferred but even he's saying he's "ready to go home now". A lot has changed in 8 years. I'm happy to finish out my stay but I am finding it difficult, being so far from home. I know I'm going home though, so I suppose that does make it a bit better for me, rather than some of you who have moved permanently.
The hardest part so far was my grandfather passing away a few weeks ago. I couldn't rush home to go to his funeral or help my mom to grieve and that's really bothered me. I'm also not allowed to do ANYTHING that might be perceived as work, even volunteering is a no-go so I have a lot of time on my hands. A lot.
I'm adjusting well, otherwise. I miss some foods I get at home but I'm finding ways to adjust to it, and trying to get around people not understanding me. I sound very southern and apparently that's wonderful to people here. I'm glad because I thought I'd be looked down upon here for my accent. I have no idea why. My accent being noticed is probably the hardest thing for me to get used to. People across the pub have started conversations about their thoughts on Americans because they heard me talking and weren't polite enough to keep the volume down on that conversation. And watching peoples eyes change from "oh, why is this one bothering me" to "oh, you suddenly became interesting and wonderful" is doing my head in a bit. I noticed people doing it to my fiancee but he never mentioned it so thought he either didn't notice or it didn't bother him. Apparently it did. I'm lucky to have him though, he had the other side of the coin to deal with, being British in America, and can understand what I'm dealing with. He's been very supportive and I guess that's why I'm adjusting well. I have my issues, I totally can't walk in the street without staring at the cars for ages first to be sure none of them are going to decide to move while I'm crossing the street and suddenly decide to start coming at me from the wrong way/right way, oh dear, which way are they going to come from because now I've forgotten which side is right. Yeah, it frazzles me. But overall, I'm doing okay, just looking for people that understand me when I say margarine or something else that completely flummoxes people here but people from home would understand.
I'm sorry this is a bit disjointed. I'm not really sure what to put, so trying to throw in what might seem relevant.
The main thing you should know about me is I'm curious, I love to laugh (which has drawn it's own fair share of attention and I've started trying to remember to lower the volume on that), and I love to learn. So for me, this hasn't been torture or something horrible, it's been a learning experience that I've stumbled over a few times but managed to grasp eventually. I've been here a little over a month now and I'm still learning, so I'm a happy camper. Literally.
PS: How do we feel about British Coke, Pepsi, etc? I've learned to just stick with Tango, it's still a little too sweet for me, but I like it better than the Coke, Dr. Pepper, or other soft drinks I've tried. 7 Up isn't bad either.
