What's the Difference?

I thought in this post I would highlight some of the major differences between living in Scotland compared to living in America (well at least Rochester). Hope this gives you guys a better picture of what life is like here! Honestly there are many similarities, but at the same time so much is different.

Let's start with transportation...

a. They drive on the wrong side of the road

b. All the cars are manual 

c. Their cars are so small, very rarely will you see someone driving a van and I have never seen someone in a truck.

d. The roads are pretty narrow and you can park on either side of the road facing whichever direction you would like.

Food

a. Going to the grocery store here is very different than America. There are no Super Targets or Wal-Marts where you can get anything you want and have about 50 options of each thing. Stores are much smaller here with less options.

b. Peanut butter is not great here

c. They don't eat much Mexican food here, so if you know Ben that is a bit devastating. We went to one Mexican restaurant ran by a man from the middle-east. The food definitely had a unique flavor-not Mexican.

d. Fruit and veggies are cheap here (about the only thing) and you can get 4 avocados for 1-2 pounds which is about $1-2 super cheap:)

5. People drink tea all day long, but only black tea. They would never think of making tea in the microwave.

Health Care

a. The NHS offers free health care to all UK citizens, including us!

b. However the down side you have to wait forever to see a doctor. My first appointment was supposed to be at Noon and we were not seen until 3:30!

c. However people don't seem to worry about their health here or going to the doctor because they know they won't end up paying a fortune because they get sick.

d. They are pretty optimistic about their health care.

Weather

a. The sun never shines...NOT, we have actually had great weather since we have been here, although people seem to complain about the weather a lot. It beats 12 inches of snow in May in MN though!

b. Our summer is pretty much over. 70 degrees is really hot and that is pretty rare. Maybe for 2 weeks the whole year.

c. There will be a lot of rain in winter, but it will never get below 30 degrees! 

Sports

a. Soccer or should I say football is everywhere.

b. The most unique sport I've seen is called bowling. I think it is for a bunch of rich old people. It's kind of like bocce ball but I haven't figured out all the rules yet.

c. People don't play  much basketball here and we had to order a basketball online just to get one. Kid's use the basketball courts to play soccer and it sure is funny to watch people play basketball when they do.

Word Differences

a. boot-trunk

b. nappy-diaper

c. pavement-sidewalk

d. close-hallway

e. lift-elevator

f. flat-apartment

g. aye-yes

h. crabit-grumpy

i. scram-food

j. crisp=chip and chip=fry

You are loved!

Ben, Dani, and Baby A! (only 12 more weeks before Baby makes his appearance:)