I always thought when I left England I'd make a big post of all the things I wouldn't miss there and all the things I was looking forward to in the US. Now that I'm back, the glaring differences are often the things that I *do* miss about the UK! How's that for a shocker? And that it's hard to settle back in, something we thought would be so simple. But there it is. We love finding products we couldn't get in the UK, but are shocked to find other things we've grown used to aren't in the grocery store at all. We constantly regretted how much cheaper it was in the States while in England, but now back home we notice certain things are much pricier here. Granted, the overall big expenses are still much less in the US (like housing -- man, is that cheaper Stateside), but I sure miss the little deals.
Like sponges. I could get a pack of 10 sponges with a scrubby on one side for a pound in England. Here it seems like it's a few bucks for a pack of two or three. I had gotten used to using a sponge once, maybe twice to clean dishes, then tossing it for a new one. Of course, here our dishwasher actually cleans the dishes unlike the sorry excuse for a dishwasher we had in England, so I don't need nearly as many sponges. Logic does little to ease the sticker shock.
And shipping for online orders. I had gotten used to it being free, or some low amount like 5 pounds for a whole order, even of heavy items. It was a bit of shock to come home and rarely find free shipping, or see that furniture shipping can be quite expensive. It only makes sense, as America is so much larger and the distance to deliver can be further, but it still came as a shock.
I guess settling in somewhere new is always hard for me, and this jerking around between countries is even harder. Add to it this go-round a crappy moving company (wait, that's pretty standard) and buying a new house as soon as we arrived (our first ever!), and it's been a stress bonanza.
Not that it isn't good to be back from Blighty, but, well, I'd finally settled in there. It took several years. Will settling in back in the States take as long? We shall see.
