What are YOUR connections to the UK?

I was just wondering what connections you've had with the UK that have drawn you to it, besides a significant other -- if you have any at all?

For me, when I was a kid, my family was close friends with two English expat families who had just moved to the US, so I hung around with 3 English sisters and 1 English boy all the time growing up. I also was penpals with a Scottish girl, and friends with another Scottish girl in real life when I was 12. Also, my dad's father was British, so I think I got alot of influences from my dad's side of the family. So I've pretty much always been exposed to British culture on and off growing up, even though I never actually visited the UK until I was 17.

My grandmother was born in England.  Her father was the dockmaster in Liverpool.  So I always had heard stories and felt that it would be a cool place to live one day.

None.  I just travelled all over the place and when I came here I liked it.  Now my connections are my husband, my daughter and my unborn baby.

Mine is the same as Expat. None except for my husband and our two children. 

Me too...  i had no 'connection' that drew me to the UK.
I came here on holiday, and i liked it.

I was born here.

bvamin

I have two American friends who are real Anglophiles, but that's about it.  Obviously, my connection now is my husband & his family.

I always looked more towards South America, because I had a dormitory roommate & best friend at univ who was from Brazil.  Never thought much about England really (until I met my husband) -- the English students I encountered at univ came off as being very clique-ish & stayed to themselves, whereas the Latinos I met were very friendly & outgoing.

How I ended up with an Englishman living in cold & gloomy England - God knows!

Well, my family are travellers but England was never their focus - or Europe for that matter. I, on the other hand, am a child of the 80s and developed a huge obsession with British music in the early/mid 80s. This lead to trips, a penpal, more trips, and then Uni here where I met my British husband.

That said, I always felt more connected to Ireland and still do to a certain degree.

Me too...  i had no 'connection' that drew me to the UK.
I came here on holiday, and i liked it.

Same here. 

I've got family in the UK- my dad's cousin and his wife moved to London about 30 years ago...their now adult children were born there.

Then I studied abroad for 5 months and really developed a connection with England (and Scotland and Wales too since I traveled all around...)

Now I'm hoping to go back soon to be with the love of my life 

I was born in England to a British family but my parents emigrated to the US. I'm just going home.

No connection really. My Swede and I are looking to move to the UK (from Sweden) because it seems to have more of what we are looking for than here.

I'm of Scottish-Irish-English descent and born and raised, for the most part, in Boston.  Even though Boston is  the birthplace of the American Revolution, it has strong ties (linguistic, food, superstitions, etc.) to the old countries.

When I was in primary school, I took Irish step-dancing lessons.  We went to Highland games every summer.  That's where I fell in love with bagpipes and men in kilts.

In my teens during the 60s, I had a penpal from Manchester.  She was the president of the Herman's Hermits fan club.  I met her in the 70s, when she came to the US.

In the mid-90s, my sister took a bus tour of Scotland, something she always wanted to do.  She came back with videos of various areas she had visited.  After seeing the tapes, I knew I had to go to Scotland.  I knew it was home before I ever stepped foot there.

Sis married a Geordie in 2001 and is now living in Scotland.  I'm going to school in Edinburgh in September. 

I was born in the States to a father from Nottingham and a mother from Iowa. My father served in the US Army and two years after I was born became a US citizen (he retains his UK citizenship). My dad's job kept us traveling a lot and we often passed through here. That, and most of the books that were given to me as a child were published in Britain. At least half the music and cinema I grew up loving (not to mention childrens books!) came from Britain, that's sure to have had some influence. And I just feel totally at home here.

My mother was born and raised in Scotland (Midlothian) and all of her family is still there.