alihouse

Hi there,
I've been here 3 months now and wondered if there are any Brits interested in meeting up? Or even if there are any here.....

Keep seeing the odd Union Jack car sticker, but so far not heard a single British accent!!

Starting to feel a tad homesick, is it because Xmas is coming??....

Alison x

Pulaski

There are a few of us here, and I also see the Union Jack front tags and bumper stickers, but I guess most of us are fairly self sufficient - most people in Charlotte seem to be, though a large proportion of the population relocated here. I have only met a couple of Brits socially and neither seemed to think that being British was a reason to maintain in contact, though I occasionally bump into them; I am ambivalent on that question.

The is a British club of Charlotte but that is based on the south side, with many of their meetings "south of the border" in Rockhill, and a bit of a trek for me. I hear that the Big Ben pub has events for the FA Cup final, and big football and rugby games, but I'm not a fan of either sport.

fsm

Several brits all over the place, I have the lion rampant on my car

Where about in Charlotte are you?

I live in Steele Creek near to a couple of other regulars on here.

GarethD

Not in Charlotte but have moved into the Raleigh area.

A NC meet up would be fun!

Sue

Do you know all the years you've been on here and I had no idea we were in the same city

westcombe

Not there yet, but moving to Charlotte in 2 weeks time for a couple of years. Since we know approximately 3 people in the area, we'd (my wife & I) be up for meeting new faces.

Sue

You're ahead of the game then if you know 3 people We arrived with a few suitcases and not a clue of what we were doing ..lol

Welcome, welcome.

What part of Charlotte are you moving to?

westcombe

Know is probably putting it strongly For the most part, we'll be in much the same boat as you were I think!

We're still working on the housing situation, but have focussed our search for a place to rent so far on the surrounding South Park area (Madison Park - Starmount - Old Providence) as well as Pineville / Ballantyne area. From what I've seen so far, I think we'll end up around South Park.

Sue

It is nice up that way, I'm sure you will enjoy it. Plenty of nice restaurants and parks. I'm down in the burbs nr Pineville and the SC border.

Just a thought but at some point you may be trying to search out the odd British food product, and if that's the case there is a great Harris Teeter in the South Park area that you may find the odd thing (some of them have a small amount of choc products/biscuits and Ribena/Orange Squash). Also check out the World Market store on South Blvd.

westcombe

Great - thanks for the tip off, we'll be sure to check it out. I'm sure once the novelty of American food products rubs off (I give it a month), we'll be searching out small reminders of home!

soap addict

Hi Sue

I was wondering if you could give me a bit of info of what life is like in North Carolina. Hubby, me and two teenagers will be moving there sometime over the summer. Just wondered about housing, and best places to look within about 40 miles of Winston Salem.

Whats the Brit community like in NC - not many Brits here in the inland empire of Southern California.

Thanks

Soap Addict

Sue

Hi Soap Addict,

Will you or hubby working in Winston-Salem? And are you teenagers school age or college age?

There are some Brit Groups that meet up I believe but I haven't done so. I know we've got some BE members who live in and around Charlotte for example. Not so many in Winston-Salem, but I did run into some Brits while we were living there. However saying that they will love you here. Everywhere I've gone in NC folk are fascinated by my accent and genuinely interested in how I came to live here etc. I've never had any negative comments and in some ways its been a nice conversation opener when they realise I'm not American.

Not that I've been to CA myself, but from what I've read NC isn't as cosmopolitan as CA, however I suppose it also depends what part of CA you are moving from and what part of NC you are moving to.

We've loved living in NC. It's fairly easy to get out and about and explore states above us and below us and if you want to venture to the coast. To be honest it's been a great place to bring up our son, and he's made some great friends here. We will soon be moving to another state and despite the fact our son is now away at college he wasn't happy when we told him. To him NC is home.

You get four seasons here, although it does get hot and steamy in the summer months, Spring and Fall are the best times of year and winter does get cold, (we got snow the other day) but generally you don't get the bitter chill that they get up north.

slummymummy

Never been to Charlotte but it is one of the places where I might be looking for a job in the next few months (in the financial industry). It seems like a lot of people move there, so there are many people who are "new" and therefore interested in making new friends. Is this true do you think? Because where we live now we have found it quite hard to make friends except for the standard "hi how are you?" and the very occasional playdate. Never been invited for BBQs or anything like that... which is what we thought America would be like.

Sue

I think it really depends on where you live, e.g. the neighbourhood. Try and find one with sidewalks. I know is sounds weird but a lot of neighbourhoods here don't have them, but those that do you tend to see more of the neighbours out walking the dogs and the kids etc. We've lived in our current neighbourhood for 9 years and there are lots of friendly folk here. I also got to know loads of my neighbours because I joined one of the committees on our HOA.

As to your comment about a lot of new people here, that is indeed true. I meet loads and loads of people who have moved here from other states. If you've still got your accent you will also notice that it helps breaks the ice with people, they do love the British accent around here

slummymummy

That's funny you said about sidewalks, I do think that's quite important!

Thanks for the info...