Category: The U S of A

After twenty-eight years in the United States, you might expect a British immigrant to have worked out how America functions. I have not. I understand most of the words, can usually operate the appliances, and have learned that “quite good” does not always sound as complimentary here as it does in Britain. Yet American life continues to present me with questions—many of them involving enormous vehicles, enthusiastic customer service, mysterious healthcare bills, and food portions designed for a family of six.

These posts explore the everyday differences between Britain and the United States, from domestic habits, travel, work, and education to patriotism, popular culture, money, medicine, and the national conviction that almost anything can be improved by making it larger. They are the observations of a long-term British transplant who has lived in America long enough to belong, but not quite long enough to stop being bewildered.

The jokes are affectionate, the confusion is genuine, and the conclusions are rarely reliable. America has been my home for nearly three decades. I love it dearly. I would simply like someone to explain it to me.