First Time back to the states....

I'm back in the US after living in the UK for 8 years and it's a real adjustment for me. I left the US a single woman with no kids and return married with 2 boys.

Little things throw me all the time... like, did you know that supermarket carts (trollies) here (at least in my area) do not accomodate 2 kids easily? Or that it's not that easy to find full fat yogurt?

I already know that I will feel like both countries are my home. I'm happy to be here now but I do feel like a stranger in a strange land.

I'm back in the US after living in the UK for 8 years and it's a real adjustment for me.
now you get right back here right now! How are we going to know whats going on in England?
 I left the US a single woman with no kids and return married with 2 boys. It must have something to do will the fresh air in the UK
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Don't take this the wrong way, but I really doubt you'll feel culture shock after only eight months. 

My first visit home was after six months of being here and it was like going home after very very long holiday, only I was leaving again after a couple of weeks.

I'm sure you'll be fine!  Try to enjoy it!

I'm back in the US after living in the UK for 8 years and it's a real adjustment for me. I left the US a single woman with no kids and return married with 2 boys.

Little things throw me all the time... like, did you know that supermarket carts (trollies) here (at least in my area) do not accomodate 2 kids easily? Or that it's not that easy to find full fat yogurt?

I already know that I will feel like both countries are my home. I'm happy to be here now but I do feel like a stranger in a strange land.

Balmerhon, that's exactly how I'm feeling now that I have returned to my native UK -- I feel like a stranger in a strange land. There is so much I feel I'm not really adjusting to, even though I'm "from" here. A lot has changed, and even the things that have not changed that much seem very odd to me now, I'm so used to the American way of things.

This country-swapping business is incredibly complex -- it's very unexpected all the complex reactions one has to one's own country after experiencing another seriously long-term. I still don't really know where I belong now, culturally. It's very unsettling and I totally relate to this sensation everyone here has mentioned going through.

I often feel I belong somewhere mid-Atlantic.

I often feel I belong somewhere mid-Atlantic.

Bermuda?

Bermuda?

Now, wouldn't that be nice!   

Bermuda?

 

Midnight Blue, You are messing with my fantasy of returning to the UK

Balmerhon, Your experience reminds me of the movie with Gene Kelly. I think it was called "Brigadoon".
If I remember the story he returned to NY after living in the Scottish Highlands and he looked at NY and thought this is loony, people living this way and excepting it, so I think he returned to Scotland.
I just Googled the flick and I'm a little off but that is my memory.
I hope you come (go) back to the simple life in the Lake District. Oh that beautiful countryside. Through my rose-colored glasses anyway.

Midnight Blue, You are messing with my fantasy of returning to the UK

All I can say is, be afraid, be very afraid!! 

One could say my own return to the UK messed with my fantasy too, lol!

All I can say is, be afraid, be very afraid!! 

One could say my own return to the UK messed with my fantasy too, lol!

I had a girl friend who was from Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales and she moved to the US and after a year or two she was downing everything about the US and looking forward to returning home. She returned home and only lasted about 3 months before returning to the US.
A case of the grass is greener on the other side.
There is advice given to those contemplating marriage and I apply it to this situation, "before you get married keep your eyes wide open and after your married keep them half closed"
Also, this is one of the reasons I'm on UKY, so that I can be prepared through reading about other peoples experiences. Besides I think it is the next best thing to being there.

There is advice given to those contemplating marriage and I apply it to this situation, "before you get married keep your eyes wide open and after your married keep them half closed"

I've not heard that one but I really like that...so very wise. Excellent advice for many a thing. 

You can never go back, really.  Things always change, and when you are gone a long time and return, things are rarely ever the same as you remember them.  I hope if DH and I ever move to the USA (he says he would like to when he retires) we move to a different place than where I am from, in order to make a new start together.  Besides, after living this country life for a while, I imagine being in the city again would be overwhelming....

I think going back to the states could be hard because it is a very harsh culture after living in the "nanny state".
In the US there is the survival of the fittest mentality.
If you have the know how you can get all the creature comforts but does everyone have the know how?
Somethings that can be taken for granted in Britain is the Nat. Health system and the very good public transportation, ships, buses, trams and trains. You don't have to have the expense and inconvienence of a car.
I have to be realistic about present day conditions with the traffic is reported to be at a standstill for a lot of people.
In a nutshell I think people feel very secure in Britain. (what am I saying, economic slowdown???)
I think people feel safe in the British cities. They can take the train to a city and get off and go about their business and not worry too much about their surroundings. I don't think it is the same in the US when I think were the railroad stations are located in the cities.
These are general comments and observations.

If I remember the story he returned to NY after living in the Scottish Highlands and he looked at NY and thought this is loony, people living this way and excepting it, so I think he returned to Scotland.
I just Googled the flick and I'm a little off but that is my memory.

There's anther film that catches this yearning very well -- Bill Forsyth's Local Hero, in which an employee of a Texas oil company is sent to a beautiful small Scottish village to negotiate the process of buying it all up and turning it into an oil refinery.  He falls in love with the village and the people, but his bosses demand that he go back to work in the US.  At the end of the movie, he's standing on the balcony of his expensive condo in Houston, listening to the ambulance sirens and looking at the skyscrapers and all he wants to do is go back to Scotland.  I cry every time ...