civilservant

I second that here. It'll be 7 years this year and I actually really enjoy living in the 'rural' part of GA.

I have more house than I could afford in the UK, more vehicle that costs less to own, and access to something that I never knew I enjoyed until I started it - the shooting sports. Not to mention that the weather is so much better than the UK.

Pulaski

Agreed on almost all points .... I still need to make the jump into regularly using the guns I own.

I think the mistake that people (British citizens arriving from the UK) make is to think that the US is very similar to the UK, then get shocked by the differences, which can be jarring in some ways. If you expect life in the US to be quite different from the UK then you will find that it is actually very similar, and the differences are either positive or manageable. Worse, people seem to think that living in a city will make things more like the UK, and I am not sure that is true.

Jerseygirl

when we first moved to the US, someone said it would be easier settling down if English wasn’t the country’s language. Meaning because we speak the same language (well sort of), we think life will be the same. I think that’s very true, that and watching numerous US TV programs and movies.

Pulaski

Which is why I consciously decided to adopt local usage and pronunciations as and when I noticed them - so "to-may-to", "checking account", and "gas" were immediate, "ledduce" and "wadder" took more than a year before I realized why I wan't being understood.

Jerseygirl

I remember it took me ages to find badderies in a store, no-one knew what I meant.

Richie1664

My girlfriend and her friends spend most of the time making me say different words and asking me what we call stuff in the UK HAHAHA, but just learning about life in the states from my girlfriend gives me an expectation, it's crazy how similar but also very dissimilar both countries are!
Having spent enough time in San Diego (well just north Vista) it doesn't take a lot to convince me that I'd have a better standard of life out there

Pulaski

I will never forget my wife's aunt asking me "if I do the knife and fork thing". After consulting with Mrs P, I confirmed that I do. ..... Apparently being able to hold something in each hand and then use them in coordinated way, is considered by many Americans, to be a challenging skill to acquire.

gad33

And I have it on good authority, that despite being an undesirable base, there are worse bases than 29 Palms.

Breakfast, coffee cake, Oceanside, I'm guessing Beach Break Cafe.