actually, with all that being said from your comments, the big question is: are you in the right place for you? can you happily live in England despite the feedback? what do you MISS about the USA?
Not sure if this was aimed at one person, or a general question. If one person, please disregard the following. If general: England? No, I could never live in England. Scotland, however, is great.
What do I miss? Most are trivialities - some of the foods I was fond of are unheard of here. The sidewalks not rolling up at six in the evening. The ease of getting over-the-counter medications that here are prescription. The lower cost for durable goods and the availability of lower-priced shoes of decent quality. (Example: I was just out to city center to look to see if there were any sales on electric kettles or coffee makers. Just the cheap kind that I could set up on a timer and have hot water for my tea, or run water through coffee grounds for coffee. In the States I could have picked one up for maybe $20 at Target. The cheapest thing I could find here was 60 pounds (or about $78). Uh, nooo, not! I keep forgetting when I put the percolator on, so I have to put a kitchen timer on it as well or end up with burnt coffee. And the price of electric toothbrushes is rediculous!) I miss not having to go on a treasure hunt to find things that were readily available in the States. (I ended up ordering off Amazon when I was looking for a heavy-duty extension cord that did not end in a surge protector. I'd been to the DIY stores, and several likely shops here, and all I could find were the surge-protector ones. And it cost way more than it should have.) There was a bit more punctuality in the USA, both socially and in the trades. Speaking of trades, I live in a mid-range apartment. Not expensive by any means, but the housing association touted it as one of their better flats. The quality of the workmanship is a bit less than I would have expected - they did a rehab of the flat before I moved in. There were still pencil marks on the floors from where they made the cuts in the lumber, sticky residue on the windows from where the labels were, the sink in the bathroom is at a wonky angle. The under-cabinet lights in the kitchen keep blowing out the bulbs, and there's a switch on the wall that doesn't seem to control anything.The appliances are far from top-of-the-line. Whatever service they had clean the place did a decent job, except they didn't touch the top of the cabinets. Quite a grease slick up there - took many hours of scrubbing to get rid of. Ick! So overall, nothing hideous, I just miss little things. Lots of little things that add up to a sort of generic annoyance, at times. I also miss being able to socialize without there being an expectation that vast quantities of alcohol will be involved. This island (both north and south of the border) has a serious problem with alcohol. I'm not pressured at all to drink, but there are times when it's just not a lot of fun being the sober person at a table full of people whose brains have gotten pickled.
But, really, am I in the right place for me? Yes, definitely. It's waaaaay more laid back here. I generally enjoy the culture - Glasgow is very 'working class' and friendly. I grew up in that sort of environment, so although I've moved in academic circles for 30 years I can easily switch back and forth and am comfortable with both. The sense of humor in the Glasgow general culture is right up my ally, too.
And it's so green here! I love the climate. When I was a young child I lived in the NE USA, so having real winters (like we did last year, which I'm told was unusal) again was fun. Of course, I'm retired so I can just look at it out the window, which is very different from having to get to work in it. And the summers here do not get too hot. It's also nice about the light. As in, back in California I had to wear photogray lenses all year long, because the sun was so strong it hurt my eyes. I have been able to switch to normal glass lenses here, on all but a couple of days a year, and no headaches. Doesn't set off a migraine. Or sunburns. The sun is just not strong enough here to produce (on my skin) anything more than a light tan. It's lovely. A bit dampish at times, but lovely and green.
Plus, although income taxes are twice as high here, the cost of living is hella cheaper than in SoCal, and I do not need to own (and maintain, pay taxes on, or garage) a car, so that's a plus. If I need to go somewhere a bus doesn't go, in town, I just call a cab. Which are also hella cheaper than in California. The distances between cities here are very small, comparatively speaking. And there are trains, so I don't have to fly unless I want to (I don't really care for flying). Plus I am not paying through the nose for a private insurance cover, and can use the NHS. Granted when I was working in the States all I could afford was the HMO cover my employer offered, not the more expensive (and much better) PPO option, but a policy out of pocket would have run me into 4 figures if I'd had to have bought one there now. So I don't have that cost here. In return, the NHS is remarkably like a HMO. From my experience so far, not the top-tier of care, but perfectly adequate. (Caveat - I haven't seen the GP for anything complicated, so I have to base my opinion on my daughter's experiences and our dealing with NHS dental.) It is somewhat astounding to me to think that if I'm hiking up a hill in the Highlands and fall and break a leg, and they have to airlift me to a hospital, I'm not going to get a bill for $50,000 that the insurance won't cover. They'll just take me to the hospital. That is SOOOOOO cool! Not having to worry about being bankrupted for/by emergency care.
Hope that all helps you, somehow.
