I miss the chinese in the Soo too. At least the stuff here is good just not the same.

I see u re in Orlando too There are some good fruit and veggie markets in the area. During my summer stays I pretty much shopped only there (I'm a big fruit person ). Just google local "Farmer's markets". They are usually small stores in strip shopping centers, family owened and have huge assortment. There is one in Casselberry (on 436 next to Pottery Barn), and one I last used on W. Colonial (HWY 50). Sorry can't remember exact addresses.

DairyFarmer, when you open your bakery make sure you deliver to Orlando Would love to try some Aussie cookies. Oh, wait, I did try some. Chocolate covered koala bears, I think... Yummy. By the way, you can buy real Australian cookies at the World Market. They carry those koala thingies and really tasty waffles with a weird name (weird cause I can't remember it, lol ), but my Australian friend said they are big back home.

How different is Chinese in Canada? I mean, Dave loves Chinese, so we've tried a lot of places and I loved all of them .

mmm, I have had some good Chinese food around here.... there is a fast food type place that has awesome Chinese food but we don't go often because it is a little far and then we have a great Chinese Buffet place down the street a ways that we go to about once a month... mmm they have awesome sauteed beans, sauteed mushrooms, cheese wontons etc....

I hate when I whona to buy cigaretes and they ask for ID, then I gave them my passport and they refuse to sell me cigaretes.
Unfortunatly that is only ID I have for now. I still can't get my driver licence. So ewery time I need to buy cigaretes my husband goes with me.
When I ask them why my passport is not enough they refuse to gave me explantion.

I also notise that when I wachet TV they cut ewery scene where people only kissing, nothing more, but you can at any time of a day see people killin each other and the other violent stuf on the same TV. I don't understand that.

And what about little brown bags for alcohol?

Ugh. We have terrible Chinese food here too. I really miss the little family restaurant I used to go to back home. The owner says she has a lot of customers who move away, but always make sure they come by whenever they're in town. I want a Combo #2 now!



I'm actually up in Lake County.... Orlando is just my local immigration office. So it's definitely an all-day excursion to go into Orlando. lol. But thanks for the hints. I'm sure they'll come in handy.



Little brown bags?

No problem . And it is kinda far. I bout my car in Lake County . By little brown bags I meant those paper bags they put your wine bottle in at the store, so no one can see you carrying alcohol. I mean here in Ukraine favorite past time activity for the youth is to walk around town sipping beer straight from the bottle. Def. not a good thing to try in America

I miss butcheries. I find the meat section in grocery stores a far cry from the butcheries I was used to in South Africa. Could buy thick cuts of meat, farm eggs, excellent cheese etc.

Miss South African barbecues!

I miss a good butcher too. I've found that Fresh Market and Whole Foods have the next best thing. Not sure where you are in the country, but there may be one near you.

I miss London

there's no London here, from what I can ascertain...

I am in Texas. Thanks for the info - will look into it!

If you miss Londoners too, just make a trip to Orlando during summer. Seriously, I feel like half of them move down there to enjoy Disney and bargain shopping at our outlets. Sometimes I feel I am back in London just because of hearing that amazing accent everywhere: stores, buses, restaurants

Don't you mean a Braai? Yep they are awesome. I only experienced the butchers in Cape Town but even Pick n Pay had a fantastic selection in the butchers case.

And those twirly bacon on a stick thingies.

Here are some Londons for your perusal - there's even one in Texas!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_%28dis...e_United_States


But I miss London too - best city in the world.

I saw a bit on TV last night featuring Dallas, and I thought of you and how different it must all be! Texas certainly is a far cry from London. It lacks the diversity, history, rain and its just not cosmopolitan. And I wondered how you've been coping in your new environment.

I'm not surprised you miss London. I've only spent a few days there and loved it! But, I believe I know you a bit now and I feel very confident that you will learn to make a life in Texas for as long as you need to and that it will be wonderful! Hang in there girl!

I knew someone was going to deliberately miss my entire point, and tell me there's a London in Texas

when they've got Kew Gardens, and Hackney churchyard, and Borough Market, and Columbia Road Market, and Abney Park Cemetery, and Stoke Newington Church Street, and Trafalgar Square, and Leicester Square, and Soho, and all my friends live there, let me know



I'm generally feeling ok about things here, but am feeling really down right now... been RIGHT through all my boxes, and a very special print of the Alhambra that I bought in Spain two years ago is missing
I've kept that safe for two years, against the day I could frame it and put it up somewhere permanent... now it's gone
as incredible as it seems, it must never have been packed at all... it was in a cardboard folder/envelope, so maybe got caught up with some rubbish or something during the packing process, but it just boggles my mind; I pointed it out to the packers and told them it had to be kept flat, and they were so good at caring for everything else

so today is not a good day
first tears on American soil

Sorry, kid, there's no London in Texas.

There is, however, London, Ontario, Canada, which is not too far from where I live. One you have your Green Card, you can come visit me and we'll drive there together and see how it compares to the real London!

I'm very sorry to hear about your lost print and your sad day today. From what I've seen with my husband, the blues come and go. Thankfully, after 5 months here, they seem to be fewer and fewer.

As sad as you might be feeling today, you're the kind of gal who makes lemonade when life hands you lemons. An admirable quality!

I will be in London, UK on the 23rd of July! I'll pass along your regards.

*hugs*

My British husband has been mesmerized by fireflys this summer. He's never seen them before!

He's not too excited about the mosquitos though.

But there is a London, TX




I only know London, Ont from stopping at the Tim Hortons, as it is the halfway point between Detroit and Toronto

Yes, but not the London with all the cool places she mentioned above! Somehow I doubt the London in Otario isn't quite up to muster, either!

Ohhhh, now you're making me cry



I gotta get them all in before I go. Only 2 more weekends... I wish I could wrap up a little bit of London, and send it over to you. Don't suppose they could look for the print where you were living before you moved? If it wasn't packed, it may still be there?



Julez, how come your arriving just after I leave?? *stamps foot*

Awwwww. Big hugs, STP. Click to view attachment I know exactly how you feel. I had purchased a beautiful watercolour from Polperro (England) and had it framed when I brought it back to Canada. That and the framed pic I have of myself, my sister, and my brother when we were babes are the only items which never got delivered by the movers. Lost. I was devastated.

I will be in Spain later this month. If you give me a link of the print you lost, I can try to find it for you?



I'll be there on the 31st!

And, yeah.... London, Ontario is nothing like London, England. But I'm up for a road trip, too!

awww, that's so sweet of you to offer to look for it... are you going to be in Granada?

No, sorry. Barcelona. No go?

no, no go... this was a print of the Alhambra, by a local artist; I doubt you'd find it anywhere else... but thank you SO much for offering

in a weird way, it's even sort of comforting that you had the same thing happen - not that I'm glad in any way, you understand, it just makes me feel not so pathetic, to feel so badly over a picture... I just loved the Alhambra so much, and I spent hours choosing that print - it was a limited edition lino cut, on a lovely thick piece of handmade parchment, and had an embossed seal in the paper, as well as the artist's signature... it wasn't that expensive, as paintings go, but it was more than I'd usually spend; I just loved it so much... and I'd never even displayed it; I'd kept it safe in its folder, and gotten it out every so often to look at it for a moment, ready for when I could get it out and put it in pride of place; that's what I was looking for when I started unpacking today, because I wanted to think about what frame to get and where to put it... it just symbolises everything I've lost, right now

I know you understand, Krikit

I have tears in my eyes. I know exactly what you mean.

It still bothers me that those pics are gone. But I deal with it by thinking that one day I'll get a big surprise and they'll be found again. I know to some who are reading our posts... this may not seem like a big deal.... but I think you have explained it perfectly. It's a symbol of all we have lost/given up.

I think I'll go shopping. lol

I can't go shopping; I'm stuck in the burbs without a car

London to here is a BIT of a contrast... I was dreaming of red buses last night


you won't believe this though... being a very deliberate purchaser, before I bought my print I looked at about a hundred, in all different shops, and narrowed it down to two... I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend the money (I didn't have a job at the time; I was a supply teacher back then and it was summer ) so I got the owner of the shop to write down the details of the two prints I was deciding between on a business card (so I had both the artist's name, and the name and phone number of the shop)

and because I am also a pack-rat, I just went through my travel box, and found the card, and rang them, and they said they'd have a look at their stock for me, but not to get my hopes up because it WAS two years ago that I'd bought it... well, I just heard from them, and they think they have a copy of the self-same print still in the store

I have a photo of mine, so I'm going to send it to them to compare, but I'm quite excited now

*much happier than yesterday*

*listening to the Pippin-bird twittering in the kitchen and feeling similarly*

Oh my God, that is just AWESOME! I feel so giddy!

Ohhhhh yay for you StP, what a great that sometimes it really is the small things that make a difference. I hope it works out for you. Hugs

thank you, you lovely girls

it's funny; I'm pretty well-adjusted most of the time, but when I'd gone through those boxes in an increasing panic yesterday you would have thought the world was ending; I was in floods of tears and life just didn't seem worth living... I guess I'm not as well-adjusted as I thought

You mean?..... *gasp*.... you're normal?

henc

no, I think you go too far with THAT...

I think it is perfectly normal. Considering that majority of us re moving contries and even continents, those few things we do manage to bring over are either practical, vital for survival or sentimental. Throw in the adjustment to new culture, I totally understand the devastation about lost print.

By the way, do hope they will be able to send you a replacement

Finding out that StP is normal just messes with my LIFE!

Glad you have hope on the horizon for a print replacement!

Haha!! Yes, I have certainly noticed this!!! The thunder is not so bad, but the mooing is just plain silly..... as are those little talking coupon dispensing thingies along the aisles. Just when you think you are comfortably alone in the canned goods section, you're accosted by a talking shelf begging you to buy product xyz. More than once I *thought* that I was merely taking a coupon, only to find out that it was like a Candid Camera episode of the "talking shelf". Good grief!

Bunion surgery IS covered in BC (or at least "was" back in the 80's and 90's) I should know... I've had 7 surgeries on my left, 3 on my right.... all covered by Pacific Blue Cross.

Well had our first doctors visit here had to get my son his last hep b vacine, and I needed new inhalers, very different but i'm glad hubby took us to the place he's been going to since a child.

Lots of paper work some of it not use too but the regular health history stuff was normal still not used to having to pay a co pay but at least its not much. Hope we all dont get sick at the same time cause that will be costly.

Anyways the doctor didnt take much time to change my inhalers and telling me i should get a pulmanary test done (its been awhile since i had one).

Ok now for fishing lisence wow what a experience for myself it was a piece of cake, as for my oldest we had to go right to the main office to get it and that was not so easy since he doesnt have any state ID, DL, SSN, we didnt want a nonresident lisence cause it cost more. But he finaly got it with a few phone calls.

Back in England they practically threw chequebooks at you and gave you generous interest free overdrafts even if you saw your bank manager and simply looked down at your shoes and mumbled that you hadn't any money.
[/quote]
Your SO spot on puckle OMG... we live on our overdrafts over here I was telling my SO and he was like 'oh no no we don't have overdrafts here' WTF!!!!? I can't wait til I drag him here to the UK in the future.

Maybe if your english. My credit record counted for nothing in the UK, they wouldn't accept Irish bank statements (that were sent to my UK address) as proof of address. It took me 6 months to get a cash account (no debit card) and almost 2 years for a proper current account.

My OH was being thrown preapproved credit cards in the US, but the UK banks didn't want to know.

I've never seen fireflies either... maybe it's too hot for them in the desert Seen lots of giant palm beetles though. And a hummingbird and a lizard in our garden which was much much nicer


Oh hun - I totally missed out on this thread - did you ever get any joy with that print? I know how it must feel - you spend so long loving something and one of the small things that can make you feel better about moving somewhere you don't really want to be gets taken away from you. It must be heartbreaking. I haven't been too anal about listing everything I have packed - I figure most of it is replaceable and I'm prolly better off not knowing if something goes astray...

My things are getting packed and collected on Monday!!

well, I rang the place where I'd bought it originally, and incredibly - as it IS limited edition - they have a copy
we're in the process of organising it now; they want me to do a bank transfer which will cost me a packet, so I'm going to try another way, but if not, I'll just pay it; I REALLY want that print
feeling sort of better about it now... but still a bit listless; my other boxes won't arrive til the end of August at the earliest so there's no real point setting up the things I HAVE got, when I'll just have to move them all again in six weeks... it's like living in a storeroom at our place at the mo
and finding out that it was missing really stopped me in my tracks; I'd been powering on getting things unpacked and sorted and when that happened I just left it for days; I didn't want to keep taking things out of boxes hoping against hope the print would be in there, somehow overlooked, when I KNEW it wasn;t



one more strange thing I'm not used to (just to justify me being in this thread):

main courses being called 'entrées'
there is NO logic there...

and the other thing that drives me batty (when I'm in a pedantic mood ) is the 'd' being left off things... 'a cliché film' instead of 'clichéd'; 'can vegetables' instead of 'canned'; 'ice water' instead of 'iced'... I can't work out whether it annoys me more or less than 'could care less'

Ha ha - this drives hubs and an Australian friend of mine absolutely nuts

not to mention of course the singular use of the word "cent", no matter how many one has.

Or the "t" being left out of the pronunciation of things: "inernet", "inerstate", "inerest rate"

And the one I will never understand is "irregardless". I've tried explaining what a *double negative* is, to no avail

Thank you!!

My fiancee and his family are always making fun of the English for not prunouncing our "T"'s... and they don't see it when I claim that they do the same thing. They almost turn it into a soft "D"... like "budder" instead of "butter".

And same goes for irregardless!

Haha - I never understand that as well... maybe there is a desire for more courses... maybe you have an appetiser, then entrée then a main course, then desert, then cheese board, coffee and mints... that sort of thing - you know

StP - absolutely awesome that you can get the print back I know I would be the same - we have very little money here (and have just had to deal with our savings not turning up...) but if there was something that devastated me so much then money would be no object if it just helped me settle and made me feel better - I mean if we are going to live here, we want to be happy, right?

As for store room... well our living room looks less like a store room now but as there is no furniture, we have things like a computer on the floor, two on the sofa along with the VCR/DVD player, piles of cans and bottles and card to be recycled... We did pick up a corner desk for my computer yesterday though for $60 from Big Lots - it is just what I was after as it shouldn't interfere with any other furniture we eventually get and is small enough to fit in the corner without obstructing the French doors - I get to put it together (or try!!) later - yippee!!

The very first thing that I noticed that honestly amazed me is --- a lot of fat people just anywhere you go. I mean, there are lots of fat people too in the Philippines, but not as fat as the fattest here. The second observation justified my first----the food servings in the restaurants are way too big for a single seating. Also, in the grocery shops, there is a special cart for obese people to ride. Do they need to exercise more? Anyway, these are just some of it, but eventually I gradually understand the culture I am in now.... so it's fine.

As a lifelong USC, I feel guilty being inside this thread with all of you telling your stories about life in the US. I feel like a spy. But it's entertaining.

Some, well MOST of the things you are complaining about are things I've never even heard of! It all depends upon where in the US you are living and a lot of what I've been reading just is not typical of what I know of this country.

I am familiar with the unfriendly employment practices in our country. A lot of us have no time for life outside of work and that's no good. If the average American knew that workers in other countries had so many days off there would be a lot of jealousy and resentment. (Better not tell them.)

I'm familiar with hearing people say "innernet" for internet and "Torono" for Toronto -- it annoys me too! On tv they talk about "winner" weather and you can't tell if they mean WINNER or WINTER. I don't know where this got started (probably CA, isn't that where most things start in this country? good AND bad?)

People do not say ten cent, they say ten centS. Twenty five centS. They will say "It's a 25 cent piece of junk", not "It's a 25 cents piece of junk." Does that make sense? (oooops, a pun.)

Super sizing, as it's called, of food portions started in the junk food industry, I think. I know it didn't used to be like this. I remember some years ago ordering a SMALL coffee and actually GETTING a SMALL coffee at Dunkin' Donuts. Then one day I ordered my small coffee and they made me get a big one -- at a higher price. In fact, they told me that was the new SMALL.

I think it all started in the greedy junk food/fast food places. It's based upon greed for money, as is most everything in the US. If they keep giving people large portions, pretty soon, people get used to large portions and think they really NEED large portions. They're hooked. The food places get more money that way, plain and simple.

I've never heard of NOT recycling. Our towns provide us with recycling bins and you put out glass, plastic, paper and so on. It's picked up on trash day every other week.

I would have culture shock if I went to a place like this:
______________________________________________________________________________
-The obscene number of telemarketers! Thank heavens for the No-call list!
-mailboxes on the street instead of the slot through the door - and mail carriers in cars only, not walking (may just be here, don't know)
-no bulk food - anywhere! Have to buy in pre-selected, pre-packaged sizes
-high price for produce and lack of in-season local produce in grocery stores
-notary publics in Customer Service centers at grocery stores and at UPS stores
-bag boys that put only one or two items into a grocery bag so you end up with 20 bags instead of 6!
-number of pharmacies - one or two on virtually every corner it seems like
-number of churches and where they are - in shopping malls, industrial centers, street corners, houses, 4 or 5 churches across the road from each other all of them different and so many of them 'megachurches' . . . almost as many pages of churches listed in the yellow pages as doctors or lawyers - with weird exotic names. "St. Pauls" or "****Methodist Church aren't good enough anymore - it has to be Salvation Cathedral of Praise, God's First Breakthrough Ministry, Shield of Faith Christian Assembly, Bread of Life Church, Light of the World Church, Anointed Wounds of Faith, etc. (all taken from our local phone book . . .)
-'illegal' day workers gathered in parking lots waiting for a day's work from a drive-by employer
-election signs - everywhere, all of the time, obscuring street corners and roadways (there is always an election for something or other going on!- no wonder people get saturated and don't bother to vote anymore)
-higher percentage of overweight and obese people
_________________________________________________________________________

(Borrowed this from earlier on -- could not believe what I was reading and just knew I would have to post to this thread.)

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?????? Telemarketers, yes. Fat people, yes (see fast food restaurants/Super-sizing.)

But the rest, especially all those strange sounding churches (if they really are churches) is very weird. The very names made me laugh, they sound so stupid. I could NEVER in a MILLION YEARS live in the place you are living. I'm not a church goer but if I were, I could choose from Congregationalist, Methodist, Baptist, Catholic and a few minorities like Greek Orthodox. Those in the list sound like make believe churches, pretend, made up, even scary churches. Oh, that's right, they have that creepy polygamous (sp?) place in Texas too. That reason alone is good reason for the culture shock that I AS AM AMERICAN would experience if I had to live in a place like that.

What you are reacting to is just ONE PART OF THE COUNTRY -- there are plenty of places that are not like that.

There are lots of good things about this country and lots of bad things depending upon where you are coming from. Please please don't judge our food by our junk food "restaurants" -- go to places that have real food, locally owned places. Go to our farmers' markets for locally grown produce. Buy your food in bulk in a natural foods store. Don't accept the millions of little flimsy plastic bags they try to give you in the grocery store--bring your own canvas bags.

We have some really good foods like blueberries (which are in season now, in July--try blueberry muffins!!), we have great ice cream, we have pumpkin pie in the fall, pancakes with real maple syrup are very GOOD, strawberry shortcake in spring, fresh corn on the cob, LOTS AND LOTS MORE.

What my UK fiance does not like over here is peanut butter (American kids are raised on PB&J sandwiches=peanut butter and jelly), he won't eat summer squash (he thinks it's a gourd!), and maybe one or two other things.

I'm hungry now for blueberries. Got to go have some. I apologize for my disorganized rambling and my interrupting of a thread that I have no business lurking on. LOL

Drive through everythings..... most shocking to me was the drive through ATM.

hehe i liked your post Newenglander, glad you can get a giggle from this topis I know I do.

I did notice even in the real food restaurants you get way too much food, but it is good. fast food places have an affect on many things. I think the strange things we are not used to are not always bad but weird and funny at times. But I really wish the cold water would really be cold when I turn on the tap not hot.

Also the drive thru banks are so retarded ppl getting that lazy they can't walk into a bank to get their money, they dont use the atm they actually deal with a teller for petes sake get off your ### and go in. But thats just me I dont think trusting some dum ### tube that gets sucked up to hold my stuff.

Another thing is this we need your SSN for everything and ppl wounder why there is soo much identity theft.