Anyone been to the states and it changed you?

[funkydosintherain]

I know this won't be a popular thread as most Brits hate America.
But this is just a lighthearted thread. I first went to Orlando when I was 17 on my own, but to meet a friend who already lived there. We had gone to boarding school together in England so that's how we met.
Since then I went twice a year. Also went to Atlanta and LA where my sister lived for many years.
It honestly changed me. I met men over there who were way more sexy. The clubs were out of this world amazing, and I say this as someone who grew up in London. The music, was just so advanced.
I honestly have never felt the same back in London. I just always long to be over there.
Just wondering if anyone has felt the same?
Knowing I'll get roasted. I love the UK too 🙈

@Isitbedtimeyet3

Maternity leave throughout the US is offered for 12 weeks, unpaid but has job protection. It is up to the employer to offer maternity pay. But there are different circumstances based on the individual states.

I went to the States 30 years ago on a Study Tour. We were all billeted on volunteers. My host and hostess immediately became one of my best friends. A few months later they came over to stay with us and since then we have seen each other at least once, if not twice a year. I’ve just come back from staying with them. We have been on holidays with them in America, Mexico, Vietnam and Italy. They have attended all our important family functions. I hated the Study Tour and the other people on it but I am so glad that I went.

Ive been there on holiday.
I find people and culture superficial.

The accent ( and subsequent verbal diarrhoea that everyone possesses)drives me mad. I could not last more than 2 weeks.

I am certainly not in the majority if most Brits hate America.
I absolutely love it. I used to work for an American company and was lucky enough to visit on business so I got to see the "real" America as well as going on holidays to the tourist spots.
There is a much more hardworking "can-do" attitude compared to welfare-dependent Britain. The men are more charming and not crude like so many British men.

I can understand why so many Americans don't have a passport ... they really don't need to travel abroad when they have such varied landscapes, weather and cultures from Hawaii to Alaska, and from Texas to New York.

Yes, I hate the Politics and the division but we have that right here in the UK now as well.

I really find it hard to believe the music is advanced. In what way?

My MIL is American. Her and FIL live in Florida and I HATE going there. Went again last year and had to go to McDonald’s just to get a decent meal. The food there is absolutely awful. I used to live abroad and have many American friends; one of whom has the same chronic illness as me but can’t get treatment on her insurance; another has asthma and has to pay $250 a month for an inhaler. I just don’t like American culture one bit.

I lived in Florida and New York back in the early 200's. I didn't settle well in FL, was too hot and I missed season's, plus the people seemed extremely overtly Religious which I wasn't used to so much in the UK and they didn't get my humour or sarcasm at all 😂
I settled much better in NY, the weather was more seasonal and the people more on my wavelength. My now DH and I have been back to NY a few times and we do love it, but it's extremely fast paced and expensive, now I'm in my 40s I prefer to come home to my quiet English village.
3 things I found quite different from the UK

• They didn't seem to use kettles much out there, mostly coffee machines.

• The washing machines were absolutely next level awful!

-They are very proud of their country, flags outside most homes.

I loved my time out there.

We have family in Orlando so we've visited a lot. I found the people genuinely lovely and friendly. I thought I'd find it too cheesy and fake but I didn't at all. It's a lovely place for a holiday (we also went to Sarasota which was beautiful with amazing wildlife) but I couldn't live there. Too hot and the food isn't great. Also, my BIL told me he was the only one in his street that didn't own a gun 😬

I lived in the US for a year and a half in my mid 20s (husband got a job there). It did change me as it made me question what was important to me. I worked in retail, and, although I didn’t enjoy it massively in the UK, in the US it was soul destroying. No stability at all. So it made me think about what I wanted to do and what my skills were. I worked part time in some theatres whilst I was there which I really enjoyed, but mainly for fun rather than for money. But when I got back to the UK I changed tack completely, got a temping job in an office which lead to an admin job for a lovely charity, which lead to a reward admin job in another charity which eventually lead to my current career as a reward manager in a FTSE100 company, which I adore! It also made me realise I love living in the UK. It’s certainly not perfect, and there are some aspects I miss from the UK, but my current life in a small ancient market town would not be possible in the US, and the work culture here is much better than I had there.

The few times I have been to America I was surprised how backward it was compared to UK, given it's supposedly the most advanced country in the world......

Politically and socially we are centuries ahead. We have a much quality of life in Europe and we have the luxury of easily jumping between countries.

Where America really shines for me is its landscapes and people. By and large, Americans strike me as such gregarious, engaging people. I'm French and when I go back to France I think how boring and mean and priggish many French people are, the brits are like a happy midpoint.

I love America, at least the bits I have seen. My dad lived there for 15 years, my brother has been over there for around 20 years and I have been on many long trips and holidays there. I adore New Orleans, NYC, North Carolina, Florida (especially the gulf coast), Washington DC. I could never live there though, hate the extreme approach to work (10 days of leave in alot of places, whaaaaat), their approach to maternity and health care and the way so many states are eroding women's rights.

I spent four months there for work and the only way it changed me was to make me realise how European I am culturally and in terms of mindset. The term “divided by a common language” is spot on, imo.

I lived on a houseboat on the Hudson for a few months in the seventies. That was before the first of the ( many) attempts to ‘clean up ‘ the city, it was pretty run down and quite dangerous. Public transport was much rougher,people were ruder than in London where I lived usually.

OTOH, the rich were very rich and rather more showy about it ( and I knew some serious aristos at University in England). So I suppose the States made me a bit harder and more cynical , and more aware of preserving my own safety.

Got up one morning and saw a corpse in a grey suit floating down the river.Decided not to mention it to anyone at the time. I don’t think this would have been my reaction in Chelsea reach or EelPie Island .

@chopc

It what ways is UK more advanced, than America 🇺🇸 then?
that made a real difference,

I am just curious and intrigued 🤔

@afrikat

I was thinking of what you said in your post,
about in America in regards of women's rights being eroded,

I've heard about this being an issue when it comes to emotive subject of abortion rights ,

Just thinking 🤔 what other rights have been thought of as there being secure,
but in reality are definitely not as secure as previously thought of then?

I love America. I think we should have emigrated years ago. DH best friend from school, and then best friend from university settled in New York(school friend) California (uni friend) and we are regular visitors.