Living in America 2011

[MmeBucket]

We were a few messages away from being closed on the other one. Hope everyone finds me here.

Hi Kickass, plenty of upmarket delis, Whole Foods, etc but as my 2 ds demolish blocks of cheddar daily, it gets a bit much paying eye watering (for me) prices for good cheese! Stuff at regular supermarkets fine but still puzzled by lack of variety and quality of cheese at reasonable prices here considering Americans love cheese as much as Europeans.

Haven't seen Jaffa cakes in any of the usual places jostling for elbow space next to the Bisto and chocolate digestives. An Australian friend screeched down the phone when she'd found TamTams at her nearest local store. Think TamTams are held as sacred in Oz psyche as much as Jaffas for us.

Happy Birthday, Jenny :) Any Mns near NoVa?

never heard back from cupcake wars, so looks like that's it.

been too busy recently to care or want to go on it! got a big 'thing' mid nov. locally where hopefully I'll make sales AND get orders in for Christmas. I'm expecting Jan to be very quiet after that, then start planning for the summer markets that open in May.

We can get Jacob's jaffa cakes for $5 a pack. The Kroger ones are about 1/3 of the price. There's a fellow Brit at my school - I emailed him a list of my ranking for jaffa cakes according to brand. We both salivate over real bacon as well. There are places that will ship it, but it costs a fortune & will have been frozen once, so has to be eaten as soon as it arrives. otherwise I'd order a year's supply in one go & freeze it.

We do have good cheese here in Oregon. What I got from my trip out of the country was how bad the U. S. has it in terms of bread and supermarket variety cheese.

Happy Birthday, Tad. DH will be in your area tomorrow (he has to go visit stores in Hood River, The Dalles and then will have to end up spending the night in Redmond), so I'll tell him to send birthday vibes in your general direction.

Hello! May I join this thread please?

I'm American and until June of this year lived in London for 6 years. Finding the reverse culture shock a bit much at times so have joined Mumsnet, which I heard about while living there and was a member of as a nanny but now hoping to have my own soon (TTC #1) and remember this being a place of support.

Hello Fishpants! All are welcome here. Whereabouts are you? I'm in Oregon, as is MmeBucket. Kickassangel is in Michigan. Blackcurrants is in NJ. Not sure where NoVa is... Hello everyone else!

hi,

and Cheerful Yank is in Minnesota. She's also an American (as her name suggests)

Where in London were you? I grew up in Kent & still have to have a day back there when I go home, I tend to just wander around going 'wow, it's London' (in my head, not out loud, i hope) like some country hick. You can tell that I live in the mid west, can't you?

I do love that we have this thread - never met anyone here, but it's so good to have somewhere to come & compare notes. I try not to say 'well in England we do ...' too much, so this is where I come for those discussions.

Hi, Fishpants. Welcome. I'm another American. I've never been to England, but I never found an American parenting forum I liked. So I stayed here.

Hello All

Back from a business trip to Texas and surprised to find it so warm at home. But am off to Texas again on Thursday - taking my swimsuit this time.

SweetFudge - I am in NoVa- Northern Virginia for the uninitiated. Have you found Wegman's yet? They have a good selection of cheese.

it is unseasonably warm around here, too. Last saturday I was on 'up' duty (giving DH a lie-in, then we switch the next day) and so got DS and dog all bundled up to go out side at 7am in really quite a chilly breeze. by the time we left the park an hour later we had peeled off hats, mittens (god how cute are mittens on a string? I must cherish the mittens on a string years before he's old enough to shun them as babyish) and were just racing about in a fleece. It's chilly and very wet most mornings but when the sun comes up it is still coming up pretty warm.
it's a bit odd, but I'm not complaining. There'll be plenty of time for being bloody nithered in Jan and Feb, and march and sometimes April also has a big snowstorm... so I can hold off a bit longer before putting on my Seriously Big Coat. I find getting the dog kitted out for the cold AND the boy kitted out for the cold, then getting everyone outside before the dog wets herself or the boy has a tantrum about wearing too many layers, all rather tiring.

I've never been to Texas, spamm - I'm a bit jealous, I've had students from Texas and it's somewhere I'd love to see. I am going to New Orleans this Christmas (yayyyyy!) which is very exciting for me, as I haven't been further than visiting friends in virginia (just south of Quantico - is that NoVa, SweetFudge? It was Stafford, I think - lovely countryside).

oh also MmeBucket when I got pg 2 years ago I eagerly joined a couple of the american parenting/pregnancy forums that friends talked about, and ... just didn't post. Didn't even lurk. Then I think I read about MN in the Guardian (oh dear, yes, I am the stereotype) and lurked for a bit and realised... I had found my people! Heh. Rucks aside, I find people extremely nice here, and so supportive - I think without the BF boards I would have had a much harder time in DS's first months. Plus people feel okay about referring to motherhood as grim sometimes and babies as awkward sods, and that sort of feels reassuring :)

Thanks for the cheerful welcome

I'm in Kentucky - talk about hicks, kickass

I lived in Notting Hill for 2 summers, spent some time in Chiswick, worked there and Kensington exclusively but lived majority of the time in Croydon.

I totally know what you mean about the 'Well in England...' conversations - I have those a lot and I'm trying to convince myself it's just because of the novelty of being back and 6 years of adult life vs. 1 year of adult life in the US. I can tell it annoys my colleagues on occasion, so I am trying to tone it down!

Never been to Texas either, one of the few initiations I have left to experience. I haven't been to New Orleans either, sounds exciting blackcurrants!

I'm surprised to find that I have been to more states than some of my American friends. The US is huge, and I don't know anyone who's been to every one of them, but about 10 seems to be the average for number of states visited - maybe that's because we're up on an edge, but I'm shocked by how few people hold a passport - it's only an hour to Canada (which I still haven't been to - oops)

anyway - The South is somewhere I haven't yet been, VI , and Arizona, but not New Orleans type area

Oooh I love Arizona - my mother lived there for a couple of years so I got to spend some teenage summers amongst the canyons which did wonders for my angst

I've only been to California once for a couple of days, it's definitely on my to-do list. Kentucky is usually lumped in with either the South or the Midwest, so I've been to most southern states - we went to Florida every year for vacation.

It's a far cry from 50, but I've probably been to about half.

yeah, Hawaii & Alaska are the tough ones! Would love to do them both

We have only been here two years, but I have now been to quite a few states: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, Delaware, West Virginia, Florida, Texas (4 times this month), Nevada, Maryland, California, Massachussets, Ohio and New England, as well as the District of Columbia. But it is mostly for work, and although interesting, definitely not the same.

I went to California - LA - for 32 hours in May. Did not see anything except the inside of a conference room, and my hotel room. It looked amazing but I never got a chance to explore. When I am away, I just want to get home to dh and my little ds.

I need to make some plans to travel in the USA, but when we have holiday time, we also need to go and see the GPs in the UK.

Blackcurrants - Stafford is Nova, although it is getting towards the south. We live in the north of Nova, a stone's throw from the Potomac outside DC.

Hi, Fishpants and welcome! I don't post as much as I used to but joined about the same time as MmeBucket. Am also American and also couldn't find an American forum that worked for me. MN has been a huge source of support, amusement, information and companionship for me. Will try to keep up with this thread a little better :)

Hey everyone, long time, no type. Blackcurrants whereabouts in NJ are you? I'm just outside of Lambertville. And if your local to a wegmans they sell jaffacakes. I know that is probably useless for most of you!

ooh I have to look for a wegmans. We live in Union County (I used to wake up every morning looking at the Manhattan skyline, but we moved further into the 'burbs). DH loves it (less of a commute for him) - but my commute is 1 1/2 hours now, so I'm glad I only have to do it twice a week! Part of me misses my little flat in manhattan, part of me loves walking the dog off-lead through the woods every morning... shame you can't have it all, eh?!

Ohh frida you're not that far away. We go down to Sandy Hook to walk along the beach some times, and it's less than an hour.

(I mean, and you're the same distance in the opposite direction. Oh dear, I will stop posting and get some tea. Sorry - ds is ill and woke a lot last night. We're a very snotty house here!)

I have an ill ds too, luckily it's making him sleepy rather than awake, so he is currently asleep next to me. I was wandering about the Sandy Hook reference so thanks for clarifying, we went there this summer, I prefer Belmar, but thats probably a bit far for you guys. Union County is up North? Towards NY? Is that where you commute to, that is a long time in transit. Three hours, two days a week, I'd use the time to catch up on my reading, if your using the train that is. And for me, the woods would win every time, cities are fine for visiting but having grown up in London it's not the sort of chaotic enviroment I want my kids growing up in. Where do you hail from in Blighty?

Hi All,

May I ask to join as well?! Similar to Fishpants I'm an American who's been living/working in (west) London for the past 6 years and will be moving back to NYC next week with my German DH and 7 mo DS. While I'm excited to return to NY, I'm terrified about raising my DS in the States, how to find a doc, what activities to do, etc. London seemed so baby-friendly to me, and I'm oddly worried about being lost in my old system!

I also can't find a well-organized online forum. While Mothering.com has interesting articles, I don't find answers so easily.

I'm currently on mat leave in the UK and can't imagine everyone's reaction to me temporarily being a SAHM! Hope it won't be impossible to get back into the workplace in the coming years.

Like most Americans I haven't travelled much throughout the States though I've lived in various countries so I guess it's time to start exploring the home front!? I imagine Oregon to be really nice! :)

It may take me some time to remember everyone's name hear, but how old are your DCs?

There's heaps to do in NYC/greater NYC as a SAHM, and meetup.com will see you right, CKNY1 :) I was part-time for the first year of DS's life and our 'home' days were positively chokkablock with activities and 'shall we meet at starbucks for coffee?' type dates. Those fortunate few of that group who didn't go back to work have a fb group and a meetup group and are the most social people I know, even if it's just "We'll be at the park in 20 minutes, who wants to join us?" - and new people join the group ALL the time and are welcomed.

Search out region-specific (eg Upper West Side, whatever) meetup groups and you will absolutely fine your social group just waiting for you :) ALso 7 months is a lovely age, aww ! my DS is 15 months next week.

oh frida I typed you a long response and lost it - huh - I grew up on a farm in Yorkshire, and so living in Manhattan was pretty much my dream of perfection - but I do enjoy the quieter burbs of North NJ, and I do like having more space and a bit more $ in my pocket. Plus we LOVE the daycare we use here, and would pay twice as much for it in the city. So... yeah, there are benefits! The commute is annoying but I read, do marking, listen to newsy political podcasts and women's hour, AND I have the internet on a tablet so I can even MN!