1. Cars .. this is a topic that will probably be returned to. When we went car shopping we discovered that our options were limited due to the fact that most cars in England are stick shift. Aaron has no problem with stick shift, his first car - the beloved red 'Stang was stick shift. We can casually mention that I am unable to drive stick. Or we can bring up the memories I have of Judd's determination to teach it me one afternoon in the Woodward Elementary school parking lot. I remember running into a trash can (that's it, I swear) and him giving up on me. I could probably do it if I absolutely had to and there were no cars ahead of me, behind me and I wasn't on any type of incline. At all. But there are no such guarantees. So we found a Ford Fusion (they call them Mondeo's over here) that is automatic and wonderful. Until the one time it didn't start and I had to call our landlord because I was supposed to be picking Aaron up from work. We got all the way to base and our landlord didn't have any identification on him so we couldn't go through the main gate and he said, that's okay - you can just drive my car to get him, I'll wait here. That's when my inability to drive stick was exposed. So we should probably work on that on that.
This was in Windsor. The gear shift box completely stopped working. USAA, roadside assistance and a tow were not on the agenda for the day. We'll have to go back to see Windsor Castle another time.
2. Tax, taxes: We'll start with the TV tax. You have to pay a tax to watch TV over here! Our American TV is downstairs and doesn't have the ability to connect with British TV frequencies so we aren't even able to watch TV on it. But the house we are renting came with a TV upstairs that does receive British TV channels, so we had to pay the TV tax. We were warned that there are vans that patrol the streets and wait to see if you are emitting any sort of TV watching signal and then they check to see if you have paid the tax and if you haven't you get a hefty fine. It sounds silly to think of someone getting paid to do that but we didn't know how true it could be and we definitely weren't going to risk finding out. UK TV license = £145.50 ($232.80) And then there is road tax. We just recently paid this gem. Over here, you pay to have your vehicle inspected once a year and then you also pay a road tax. There is a little circular disc that goes in the left lower hand corner of your windshield with a month and year on it. Road tax =£294.30 ($470.88). Oh, and then there's sales tax called VAT. It's like 20% tax added to your purchase. Have I mentioned that it is expense to live here?
3. Let's talk more about driving and the roads. First of all, it's weird to drive on the other side of the road. It's also weird to drive on the other side of the car in general. Aaron and I have both gone to the wrong sides of the car time and time again. We have both adjusted fairly well though. England has this thing with roundabouts. I used to think of a roundabout or traffic circle, as the one at Lycoming Mall or the street that runs parallel to Wegman's, Starbucks, Panera. Yea, no. Here in England, they are hard core about their traffic circles. Some have traffic lights but most do not. They will have two (if not more) lanes of traffic and multiple points of exit. It's all about which exit you are taking. It determines what lane you need to be in and what lane you need to get in. The first time I had to drive a traffic circle by myself, I missed my exit and just kept following it around until I was able to exit, the second time around. I probably looked ridiculous, but I have memories of intentionally going around the traffic circle at the mall more than once just to go in circles - so I was clearly practicing for England way back when.
These pictures from the driving manual we received to take our driving exams.
4. English houses: They are very small. The British like to "live on top of each other" as one of the realtors lovingly put it one time when we were touring potential rentals. You will see miles and miles of farm land that in the States would be dotted with houses. Here, houses are all clumped together in certain areas. It's odd to see a single home on a plot of land but very common to see development like areas of house upon house upon house often in the same style. Our kitchen is quite different from an American kitchen. Our cupboards house more than just pantry space. One cupboard has a freezer, one has a mini-refrigerator (but full-size to the British). Another has a dishwasher and yet another cupboard contains our washing machine.The washing machine is literally right next to the sink. The house we rent didn't come with a dryer so we borrowed one from base. There really wasn't any room for it in the house without putting it next to say, the dining room table - so we put it out in the garage (aka storage space, I have yet to see someone actually park there car in the garage - ours is way too small to put a car in). Which is fine except that every time I do a load of laundry, I have to take it out to the garage to dry. It's almost always raining whenever that time comes too. Our dryer is a condenser dryer. It has a compartment below the dryer that collects water. So after every load, if not in the middle of every load - you have to take the container out and empty the water. It's super annoying and since the dryer is out in the garage, I have no way of knowing if it has stopped running due to the condenser filling up. So is life, it goes on and I've gotten more exercise out of the daily task of laundry. : )
We love the town that we live in!
5. English language barrier: So we are so incredibly lucky to be in a country that speaks that same language as us. For the most part. Some things said have definitely left us with our eyebrows raised. Like remember above how I was talking about our landlord taking me to base to pick up Aaron when the car wouldn't start? Well, our landlord called the gate guard a "little sausage" for not allowing him to go through the gate without identification. Aaron and I had a hard time containing the laughter on that one. I know Aaron has already told some people the story of when we went to look at a rental property and the landlord kept telling us to give him a tinkle. He wanted us to call him, give him a ring. The other day at work Aaron overheard a British civilian talking about car troubles and how he simply lifted up the bonnet to check things out. Yea, he was referring to the hood of the car. Clothes pins are called pegs. And if you want to sleep in, you are having a bit of a lay in. Cookies are called biscuits. British people are very friendly and helpful so it's been a definite change of pace from our DC lifestyle.
Biscuits!
Traditional English breakfast (not a huge fan of the baked bean portion).
Enjoying England so far! : )
No comments:
Post a Comment