You end up not belonging anywhere when you emigrate - it's bizarre. I think you kind of expect England to stand still at the point where you left it but it obviously moves on. As do you. And with a lifestyle change comes a change in expectations that are not met when you come 'home'. There are many things I find really hard to adjust to when I come back, and there are things which seem weird compared to N America. Of course overall I love it here but some of the things I struggle with are;
1. Driving on the left. Oddly hard, after driving on the right. The other way around is easy to do though.
2. Gears and clutch in car (sorry mum!).
3. Piss poor water pressure in the shower.
4. No air conditioning anywhere.
5. Warm drinks!
6. Reluctant attitude of people in the service industry who seem to think they're doing you a favour by serving you.
7. DIAL UP.
8. Crap TV's.
9. Mad lack of respect / attitude from kids has to be seen to be believed.
10. Hilarious turning off of plug sockets when not in use.
Posted by katie at June 28, 2005 11:01 AMServes you right if you're on dial-up... the UK is waaaaay ahead of most other places in broadband take up, and certainly better than anywhere that side of the pond . It's not exactly hard to find wi-fi hotspots either providing you're not somewhere where the smells are agricultural ;) (and actually quite a few of those are covered too)...
UK tops DSL growth chart
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/10/uk_dsl/
and you weren't any better at gears and a clutch when you lived here ;)
Mind you, I struggle too now... I'm just glad they are all rentals when I travel, I remember to change gear (usually) but the clutch bit is a different matter ;)
Posted by: Aka at June 28, 2005 12:25 PM