So as you may have noticed, we are a British family living in SoCal. We’ve only been here 18 months, so we sound very English and it doesn’t go unnoticed. Here are 6 things we hear that make us smile! I can guarantee many of my expat friends will have heard at least a couple of these:
- I love your accent – where are you from? Now obviously we get asked this. We stand out! It has its pros and cons. A definite pro is that people remember us. The meat man at my local store (who I have mentioned before and will mention again because he is awesome!) always remembers us and asks after the children. He also picks me out the best meat and lets me know the special offers. Score!
- Are you from Australia/New Zealand? Now I am not sure what it is, but clearly, there is something similar about the accents. When I make people guess where I am from (see #1!) I get Aussie as the most popular answer. I speak with a Southern English accent. Some might say it’s a little fancy. I am pretty fancy.
- How do you like it here? Imagine moving from somewhere where its wet and cold a lot of the time, to a place that when it rains, everyone freaks out because it’s so rare. Yeah, we LOVE it here! The people are friendly, the weather is virtually perfect and we can go to Disneyland. But let’s be honest, SoCal residents do struggle a little to drive in the rain…
- Are you from London? I get this ALLLLLL the time. It is a bit like you telling someone you are American and them asking if you are from Washington DC. Or saying you are from California and them asking if you are an Angeleno. England is little, but it is much more than just London. I also don’t know the Queen.
And now for a couple that my Brit friends always ask when we go home!
- Don’t you get bored of going to Disneyland? Is that a joke?! If someone gets bored of seeing their children’s faces light up seeing their favorite characters, isn’t into the awesomeness that is Hyper Space Mountain, or can’t muster some joy whilst watching the Paint the Night parade, then they had better hot foot it over to the Frozen sing-along show quick smart to melt their icy hearts at all those happy little faces finally seeing Ana and Elsa belting out some songs. Disney doesn’t get boring. EVER.
- What is the weather like there? Safe to say between April and November the answer to that question is HOT. Sweaty, can’t sleep kind of hot. It’s not like being on vacation though, we don’t sunbathe every day (but we do fire up the BBQ a lot!) December to March the answer is like a classic British summers day. Possibly raining, probably sunny, not hot enough for a bikini but you can pretty much guarantee my husband is still in shorts. SoCal residents are in Ugg boots and a scarf (me included these days!)
And for my make up loving friends, yes I go to Sephora a lot. Enough there they recognize my kids. I’m not even sorry.
