Differences: US vs UK

[cleckner04]

lol yeah I think walmart has everything. You know what sucks about California? No walmart supercenters!! We have to get our groceries at real grocery stores and it's RIDICULOUSLY expensive. I miss Food4Less in VA. Now that was cheap groceries.

 

[MizzDeeDee]

lol yeah I think walmart has everything. You know what sucks about California? No walmart supercenters!! We have to get our groceries at real grocery stores and it's RIDICULOUSLY expensive. I miss Food4Less in VA. Now that was cheap groceries.

That DOES suck! We used to have a lot of Food Lions and they got rid of most of them...but I live in Louisa now, which is pretty country, and all we have are the Food Lions so we are pretty lucky.

My OH likes the World Markets, the Wegmans, and the Trader Joes... they are nice.. but so expensive.

 

[marley2580]

One of the differences that strikes me on here is the difference in attitudes to pregnancy and birth. In the UK a lot of women will still drink tea/coffee, have the occasional glass of wine etc. Whereas in the US they seem to give it all up. With birth, it is so medicalised that it's (in my eyes) awful. I believe there are still some states where it is illegal to be a midwife. Here, most births are midwife led and there is support (usually) for home births etc.

Another thing that I think a lot of British people struggle to understand, is the power of God and religion in the US. We thought it was strange when Tony Blair was open about his belief in God and went to church. In the UK religion and belief is seen as a private thing, whereas in the US every politician and his aunt wears his religion on his sleeve and often speaks about his belief.

Oh, and what's the deal with American's hugging? I have relatives from the US that come over from time to time, (and I've met other Americans that do the same) and they just seem to hug everyone. I barely hug my OH, I never hug my mum or brothers and sisters, yet these people that I have never met just come up and hug me without care lol.

Another bug bear is when people say London, England or Perth, Australia. I realise there are Londons and Perths in the US but surely when you're talking about going to the UK anyway you don't need to clarify the country again.

Oh and I call the kitchen counter a bunker as well lol

 

[Maman]

^^ I'll have to search for some dairy milk than. Maybe amazon has it! It's my go-to place for everything.

My friend that I met through here had this double decker thing from the UK and the chocolate wasn't that special on it I didn't think. She's from scotland originally but married a US guy. (You know who you are. )

thats cause double decker isnt cadbury

i come from where cadbury is made, most of my family worked there and as a kid i got to go behind the scenes at christmas ans eat loads of choccy

the best chocolates are; wispa, bournville and old jamaica. inspirations were to die for but they dont do them any more.

however i do find cadburys to be a bit on the sweet side and i actually prefer lindt excellence basically anything 70% and up, ecuador being my favourite. expensive but worth it.

 

[cyclura]

random one here sorry, someone said about thongs and flip flops..............I am sure thats an Aus thing not American. I went to Australia a few years ago and we were going out for a night on the piss with some of the locals we met at the backpackers. one of the guys said something like......"you wont get in with thongs on" and my reply was "how do you know" while turning around to see if my thong was on show at the back (he was on about my flip flops). I was not allowed to forget that for the whole time I was at the backpackers.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

One of the differences that strikes me on here is the difference in attitudes to pregnancy and birth. In the UK a lot of women will still drink tea/coffee, have the occasional glass of wine etc. Whereas in the US they seem to give it all up. With birth, it is so medicalised that it's (in my eyes) awful. I believe there are still some states where it is illegal to be a midwife. Here, most births are midwife led and there is support (usually) for home births etc.

Another thing that I think a lot of British people struggle to understand, is the power of God and religion in the US. We thought it was strange when Tony Blair was open about his belief in God and went to church. In the UK religion and belief is seen as a private thing, whereas in the US every politician and his aunt wears his religion on his sleeve and often speaks about his belief.

Oh, and what's the deal with American's hugging? I have relatives from the US that come over from time to time, (and I've met other Americans that do the same) and they just seem to hug everyone. I barely hug my OH, I never hug my mum or brothers and sisters, yet these people that I have never met just come up and hug me without care lol.

Another bug bear is when people say London, England or Perth, Australia. I realise there are Londons and Perths in the US but surely when you're talking about going to the UK anyway you don't need to clarify the country again.

Oh and I call the kitchen counter a bunker as well lol

I agree about the religion thing!

The meal sizes like in Macdonalds etc are they really much bigger in US? Someone told me, our large meals are like the kids meals over there? surely not haha.

 

[Lou1234]

I've loved reading this thread!

I love certain chocolate that years ago you couldn't get over here. Reeces cups and all the different flavour M&Ms you used to get before us (peanut butter, biscuit, almond etc). We have shops here in London now that sell American and Japanese sweets and chocolate but it is really expensive.

I visited Tampa one year for work and the guys we were working with were shocked that we didn't get peanut butter things and kisses and cinnamon gum over here. On our last day they turned up with a massive bag of goodies for us to take back to the office!

My OH lived in the US from a few weeks old until he was 15 and he loves root beer! We went to Las Vegas and he got some for me to try and it was horrible (he thought my reaction to it was hilarious!)!! Sorry to anyone out there who likes it but I wasn't a fan

 

[babydevil1989]

wat actually is root beer? x

 

[GoldenGSD]

What is Kool-aid?

I am so jealous of all the pop tart flavours you have! We only get chocolate and strawberry

 

[menageriemom]

Root beer is a sassafras-flavor soda with other flavors added. Different brands use different things. It has a unique taste that is hard to describe! I like it and birch beer occasionally, DH hates them both. It is very popular with vanilla ice cream added.

And Kool-Aid is best known as a powder drink mix that you add to a pitcher of water and sugar. It's very inexpensive but too sweet for me! You guys have "Squash" over there which was a totally new concept to me. However there has just been a new release of a product called "Mio" here which is similar.

I can't believe you only have two Pop-Tart flavors! My favorite is the brown sugar cinnamon. I think there are over 20 flavors available at most places.

I do believe the UK McDonald's have smaller sizes than the US, but it's not as extreme as your large being our kid size. But I believe your 'medium' is our 'small'.

I admire the UK's take on religion. I live in what's called the "Bible Belt" and a lot of the time not being part of the religious majority can cause friction.

Oh, and I like hugging! It's not like I hug strangers or people I meet in passing or anything, but the first thing DH wants when he gets home from a stressful day is a really good hug. It's definitely something that is more prone to happen when you haven't seen somebody in a while.

 

[MizzDeeDee]

wat actually is root beer? x

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_beer


I like brand:https://www.rootbeer.com/


And I LOVE THIS: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Root-Beer-Float

 

[tinkerbelle2]

my fav thing of amazon at the moment...more flavour pop tarts!!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=pop+tarts&x=0&y=0

choc chip cookie dough is my favourite so far!!! I am aiming to try a different pack each week!!!
For the lady saying how much is one cadburys bar in the uk,
https://groceries.asda.com/asda-est...me=Products&headerVersion=v1&_requestid=19362

 

[Blah11]

oh yeh, i love poptarts and hate the choc ones so only get strawberry ones ! We used to get more flavours, idk why not now. same with cereals. RIP lucky charms I remember there was a pokemon cereal out years ago that was the same as lucky charms

 

[CRWx]

pokemon cereal

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

I love pop tarts but I am glad we cant get more flavours as I would have no teeth left haha. xx

 

[tinkerbelle2]

I love pop tarts but I am glad we cant get more flavours as I would have no teeth left haha. xx

try my amazon link....yum yum!!

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

we have a shop in town that imports them but they charge silly money and although they taste nice, they are not THAT nice to pay more than £3 a box hehe x I can only manage one anyway, they seem quite dry?

Oh the other thing is Irony. Is this just something that people say or is it true that the Americans are not such fans of irony in entertainment as the UK? Does this make sense LOL.

 

[CRWx]

to someone who said about the turkey, we have turkey burgers but i've never come across turkey bacon i want some kool aid!

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

to someone who said about the turkey, we have turkey burgers but i've never come across turkey bacon i want some kool aid!

Turkey rashers taste a bit like bacon https://www.mattessons.co.uk/?page_id=376

 

[3rdtimelucky]

It cracks me up that people in the US call their bum(butt) Their fanny.. Where im from that was a very rude word when I was growing up..
The first time I heard it i was watching that programme "The Nanny" and she told one of the kids to grab their fanny bag (bumbag).. I nearly spit my drink out at that, i was in so much shock! ..