Today, 30/9/19, marks 5 weeks living in the UK! It’s amazing how time flies when you’re exploring a new city, relaxing while on holiday, and watching LOTS of football (rain or shine unfortunately haha).

I think it’s safe to say there are a lot differences between visiting somewhere and living there. When I visited England in March, I noticed the obvious things: they drive on the left, there are roundabouts every half mile, they put the day before the month in the date, and all of the language differences (I’ll do a separate post on that). Arguably, those are things you might know about England even if you’ve never been. Having lived here for over a month now, I’ve found 10 more differences between the U.S. and England that are worth noting.

  1. Plug Sockets
    • In England, plug sockets have on and off switches. I learned this the hard way (my first night) when I plugged my phone in overnight and woke up to it dead.
  2. Working Out
    • At the gym, free weights are in kg and the speed on machines is in km/h, which is weird because cars use mph.
  3. Food Labels
    • Reading food labels has probably been the hardest adjustment. Rather than cups or tablespoons, they use grams. Unfortunately for me, cups and grams are not compatible, and there is no easy way to measure grams without a food scale.
  4. Paying with Card
    • When you pay with card, servers bring the card machine to the table rather than taking your card away. It’s a bit awkward leaving no tip when they’re standing over you, watching you press “0”.
  5. Air Conditioner
    • Air conditioner or “aircon” as they say over here, only really exists in cars. It is very uncommon in homes/buildings.
  6. Public Restrooms
    • Kind of random, but most public restrooms exclusively use hand dryers, and they don’t have disposable toilet seat covers.
  7. Sneezing
    • Me: “Achoo!”
    • Brit:
  8. Street Signs
    • Unlike in the U.S. where street signs are on poles, in England they are attached to buildings.
  9. Health Conscious
    • In stores you need to provide your own shopping bag, or you will be charged extra. I know my hometown in the U.S. has started this but it’s in full effect here.
  10. Laundry
    • While everyone has dryers, it is preferable to hang dry clothes outside. On the seldom days where it doesn’t rain, of course.

I know I poked fun during this post, but all jokes aside, I am loving living in the UK. Every day I am learning, doing, and seeing something new. I can’t wait to see what the next month has in store for me!