Any culture shock?

Well, I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, where we eat our chili (made with chocolate and cinnamon and with a texture more like a meat sauce than the Texan style) over spaghetti, and everyone thinks that's weird! 

That is weird!  Crazy Ohio people. 

Mine was not being able to understand people very well at first. If we were in a loud crowded pub then I wouldn't be able to understand anyone at all and rather than say "sorry?" for the thousandth time, I just started to smile and nod.

I remember I had a whole conversation with a friend of Jon's the entire evening. Didn't understand a single word. He seemed to enjoy it, though.

(and I've never seen people eat chili with rice before moving here. I think it's a bit gross but I'm not fond of rice)

Well, I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, where we eat our chili (made with chocolate and cinnamon and with a texture more like a meat sauce than the Texan style) over spaghetti

 

Hey, don't knock it till you've tried it! It's amazingly delicious stuff, just not what most people think of as chili. It's based on a Greek recipe. I tell most people to just think of it as a meat sauce rather than comparing it to 'normal' chili and that usually gets them over the weirdness.
Oh, and don't bother even looking at Delia's so-called Cincinnati chili recipe, it's complete nonsense!

I have to say I thought the general population would be nicer .  Not trying to be bitter/ controversial.  but that was my number 1 culture shock.



And eing from cinci myself, the chili is fantastic.

When I first moved here in 1986, things were so much different to Los Angeles, that it really WAS a shock. I came on my own at 17 for a gap year before starting uni (and never actually went home ) and, back then, England was a totally different place.

Everything was different. Everything.

Cars, light switches, toilet flushes, sockets and plugs, kettles (I remember being perplexed by someone's plastic kettle. How do you put a plastic kettle on a hob?), door handles, televisions, carpets, curtains, duvets (I'd never seen one before), off licenses (what the hell did that mean, anyway, and where were the ON licenses?), fashion, hair styles, shampoo...

And then there was stuff you didn't get in LA: chip shops, pubs (and all the related eccentricities involved with their opening hours), bakeries that sold savoury food, sausage rolls, working men's clubs, weird telephone dialling codes based on where you were calling FROM, the 24 hour clock, half day opening on Wednesdays...

And then the stuff that was just plain missing: malls, all my favourite clothes shops, the ability to just walk into a bank and cash a cheque, cable tv (England had 3 channels when I moved here, and NONE of them were 24 hours), MTV,  customer service, etc...

Don't even get me started on the new vocabulary. Sometimes it felt like I was speaking Chinese. What's a bap? Or a buttie? Or a cob?

And then there were the words that meant something entirely different:


America: three musketeers bar. England: milky way
America: milky way. England: mars bar
America: mars bar. England: no such thing.

America: snickers. England: marathon
America: marathon. England: curly wurly

I'm still have to resort to long descriptions and hand gestures to buy notebooks, files and binders.


Those are just the non-humiliating examples. I learned the hard way that "fanny" refers to an entirely different part of the female anatomy.  

And then, that's not even to mention learning about "piss-taking". Where I come from, you're nice to everyone, whether you like them or not. Here, you're nice to people you don't know or don't like and "take the piss out of" people you DO like.

I couldn't figure out why people who'd been so nice started saying hurtful things. I was bullied terribly at school, and the one thing in the world I hate most to this day is being laughed at. Imagine when your friends start doing it. It took me a while to realize it's a sign of affection LOL It means they feel comfortable with you and are secure in your relationship.

TBH, I think the UK is much more "transatlantic" than it used to be, but judging by how much trouble I have in the US finding things, I can't believe it's entirely easy for newbies to the UK even now.

Hey, don't knock it till you've tried it! It's amazingly delicious stuff, just not what most people think of as chili. It's based on a Greek recipe. I tell most people to just think of it as a meat sauce rather than comparing it to 'normal' chili and that usually gets them over the weirdness.
Oh, and don't bother even looking at Delia's so-called Cincinnati chili recipe, it's complete nonsense!

I'll do that... think of it as just a Greek-ish meat sauce!
The spaghetti bit wasnt weird to me, though... i remember growing up in Southern California, and there was a family restaurant chain called Bob's Big Boy which used to serve chilli (without beans) over spaghetti, with a slice of American cheese melted on the top, which i used to love as a kid!

Sorry for veering off topic... i am not sure that i'd consider food a 'culture shock' issue, myself.

Sorry for veering off topic... i am not sure that i'd consider food a 'culture shock' issue, myself.

I do.  I didn't have trouble with any of the big stuff.  I'm fairly easy going and was young and had lived in Japan.  But when I was served sweetcorn on a pizza I cried real tears.

Sweetcorn on pizza rules! One of my very favourite toppings on pizzas in Brasil, and made me feel very at home when I had it here!

I'll do that... think of it as just a Greek-ish meat sauce!
The spaghetti bit wasnt weird to me, though... i remember growing up in Southern California, and there was a family restaurant chain called Bob's Big Boy which used to serve chilli (without beans) over spaghetti, with a slice of American cheese melted on the top, which i used to love as a kid!

That is EXACTLY what I thought of!! LOL!
I always wanted to have it at Bob's but was grossed out that they never seemed to drain the spaghetti all the way and there would be a bunch of water in the bottom of the dish. 

Not sure if this is culture shock as much as just coin-shock, but those blasted coins!  Thankfully, I'm getting the hang of using coins instead of notes. The amounts of money that I'm holding in coins still takes some time to register.

I hated paying with coins when I first moved here. I would have to look at each one to figure out what the value was. They look an awful lot like US coins! It took me forever to add them up and I felt very self conscious about it. For a while I would always pay with cash just to avoid holding up the line and getting the odd looks from cashiers  . I've got the hang of it now! I had to, the change was taking over and my wallet was super heavy.

Mine was not being able to understand people very well at first. If we were in a loud crowded pub then I wouldn't be able to understand anyone at all and rather than say "sorry?" for the thousandth time, I just started to smile and nod.

I remember I had a whole conversation with a friend of Jon's the entire evening. Didn't understand a single word. He seemed to enjoy it, though.

This was me too! I had a very hard time with all the different accents. You go 4 miles up the road and the accent changes. I'm alot better with talking to people now and don't even need my husband to translate   I do sometimes have a hard time understanding people on the phone but that getting better as well! I've only been here 5 months so I'm still getting used to things but I gotta tell you I feel so much more at home now compared to the first month!

 

Well, I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, where we eat our chili (made with chocolate and cinnamon and with a texture more like a meat sauce than the Texan style) over spaghetti, and everyone thinks that's weird!  

Nothing wierd with chili with chocolate and cinnamon. It's great.

Nothing wierd with chili with chocolate and cinnamon. It's great.

Nigella has a recipe for chocolate chip chili. It does look pretty good. Being a Texan, though, it feels like I'm being unfaithful if I make it any other way than the usual way. 

Accents:

About 2 years in, we had some friends round and were watching a Billy Connelly video. I didn't understand a bloody word. 

Either his accent has softened or my ears are more fluent, but I understand him perfectly now LOL

That is EXACTLY what I thought of!! LOL!
I always wanted to have it at Bob's but was grossed out that they never seemed to drain the spaghetti all the way and there would be a bunch of water in the bottom of the dish. 

That is my abiding memory as well!   Having to drain off the greasy water into a coffee cup or something before i could eat it!