Alabama Girl overwhelmed in Kingston

WOW O WOW,  I am also orginially from Mobile Al.  and now living in Southern (SW) England (Plymouth).  I grew up in Mobile and my immediate family members still live there.  I moved to Metro Atlanta MANY years ago, so I moved from Atlanta to Plymouth.

WOW YEA MOBILE GALS.  (I am new to UK, been here about 7 months now or little more)

When I first came over here, there was little indication there was anyone from Mobile on UK Yankee. My how times have changed. How lovely!

Nemie, I've never visited Plymouth, but I've seen Cornwall. You live in such a gorgeous area of the country!

Another one who lived in Mobile - for middle and high school.  Welcome!

Outsider!

Been to Huntsville once on a school trip to the space center, 20 years ago. Bought some freeze dried Nasa-approved neopolitan icecream that sort of tasted like powdery flavoured vanilla styrofoam.

Hahaha! Thats the only reason to go to Huntsville And Ive eaten more of that ice cream than I can stand. My husband actually bought some when we went to the space center when we visited my parents last year and he found it to be vile.

I did however intern in Mobile and have a lot of friends from there. I went to Auburn and it seemed like there were a ton of Mobilians in my classes and in my sorority.

Wow!  Thank you so much everyone for your quite helpful responses!  It's nice to know there is a community of people out here that are so helpful.  I don't even know where to begin to respond to everyone.

But first, yes, the lesson about the passport has been learned the hard way. It is locked away and never leaving the house! 

I knew that about the volunteering thing, which is unfortunate.  I feel like I should be doing something productive with my time since I can't work, and volunteering seemed like the perfect thing, but oh well.  I'll have to find different ways to occupy my time (like wedding planning, for one thing!)

And I will definitely look into the walking tours!  My fiancé and I are into geocaching, and we went to a meet of geocachers last night.  Unfortunately, my social anxiety kicked in so I didn't really meet anyone new except for a few people from Germany who were seated at our table.  I know I'll get there, but I'm always worried that people are judging me for being American?  Is that weird?

I was living in Tuscaloosa, AL before I moved here (Roll Tide!!).  I'm an air force brat and in my 33 years, I've lived in lots of different places, but never overseas.  I don't really have that much of a southern accent, even though everyone expects me to sound like I just fell off the turnip truck. Also, I don't know if anyone is into college football? I've been able to watch the first few games over here, but my sweetie doesn't get it at all!

Thanks again to everyone for being so kind!

My fiancé and I are into geocaching, and we went to a meet of geocachers last night.

Funny you should mention that. I'm starting to get into Geocaching too, and I have been collecting glass jars I would normally recycle for the project. Since we're only 4 miles away from Gatwick Airport, there seems to be a decent amount of geocachers in our little village.

I hate American football. Part of it's probably because I was a band nerd and had to endure every. football. game. Another reason is I was really big into watching "60 Minutes", and those stupid football intruded on my Andy Rooney time.

Love "British" football and them 45 minute time limits!

(I have my own time limit right now. Must send child off to school!)

I was living in Tuscaloosa, AL before I moved here (Roll Tide!!).  I'm an air force brat and in my 33 years, I've lived in lots of different places, but never overseas.  I don't really have that much of a southern accent, even though everyone expects me to sound like I just fell off the turnip truck. Also, I don't know if anyone is into college football? I've been able to watch the first few games over here, but my sweetie doesn't get it at all!

Thanks again to everyone for being so kind!

Welcome to UKY and ummm Hook'Em ;-)
I totally watch UT football and now that I have a hava box http://www.myhava.com/product_hava_titanium_hd.html hooked up in the states, I can watch the games LIVE (if they are night games I record).
You will get there and I am sure its hard to be busy but explore while you are not working ;-)

I know I worried a lot about people not liking me because I'm American and figured that as long as I didn't say anything they wouldn't be able to tell.   I still worry about it a little but my actual experiences are that

A) some people, like my BF's father , hate Americans. He is still mad about us leaving the UK high and dry during WWII. I really don't think I can be held accountable for something that happened before my parents were born so I shrug it off. I try to maintain this attitude for grudges based on more current affairs.  These people often hate all imigrants and anyone who isn't a WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant) like them. But really this is such a tiny segment of the population that it's comical how much I worried about it

B) some people are absolutely fascinated with America(ns) and want to know if you've been to Hollywood or NY or done this or seen that.  They want to know if their chips/beer/chocolate/telly/stores/whatever are better than American ones and 20 million other questions.  It's a very American response, really   This is also a fairly small segment of the population.

C) some people know you have an accent (obviously) but really haven't the foggiest idea where you're from. If you answer with a state or city they're probably not much enlightened.  They may ask a few polite questions, then go one with their lives.

D) some people have experiences travelling or living elsewhere. You can exchange border control stories from various countries, laugh about miscommunications (past and present), and feel like you have something in common.

E) The rest...just are. They don't comment on your accent and, for better or worse, treat you the same as everyone else.

I recently had someone tell me that I have a beautiful accent

Welcome to UKY 

That's all really normal stuff to be experiencing. Be kind to yourself, moving to a new country is a huge adjustment and it takes time to feel comfortable.  (((hugs)))

Something that helped me when I first moved was to remember, that I live here, I'm not a tourist, and I'm only human.