MNers living in the USA

[MrsFrumble]

There used to be a brilliant, long running thread about 10 years ago; a little community of mostly immigrant Brits (but some native to the US) who just chatted about our day-to-day lives. I moved back to the UK in 2016 so stopped reading and posting.

I’m now back the US for the foreseeable future and was wondering if any of the original gang were still around, or anyone else would like to chat about life here. Election madness? The weather? Missing Marmite and decent cheese? Sadly I can’t remember anyone’s usernames or I’d try summoning…

I was on that thread but we came home to the U.K. 2 years ago. We naturalised before we came back so even though I’m not there I can vote for the first time!

where are you moving to? My first year home I was delighted by everything but now there are definitely things I miss about California the weather

Ooh, were you in LA @Citygirlrurallife ? If so I think I remember you! I was (and now am again) in Oklahoma City.

Exciting that you can vote! It’s weird here because Oklahoma is obviously such a red state, but in the city - especially in the neighbourhoods near downtown and near the universities - it’s very liberal and we’re surrounded by Harris/Walz lawn signs and bumper stickers. Then we drive out of town and it’s and it’s all Trump/Vance.

Our kids were toddlers when we were here before, but are teens/tweens now so we’re getting our first taste of the US public school system, which is interesting 🤨

Wasn't on MN in 2016, but off near DC. Big enough for decent cheese (unless it's one of the ones banned by the FDA!)

I've graduated one from American schools. Oklahoma is quite a different beast though, their schools superintendent is, um, special.

Ive been on MN for a few years, and live in the US, but dont remember a US based thread, so it was probably before my time. I’d love to join a new one though. Is it OK if we use US spelling as trying to remember to spell in British English and catch the autocorrect does my head in. 🤣

@MrsFrumble yes I was! Yeah it’s weird navigating a system so different to ours - middle school anyway. We left when DS had completed 7th grade and the whole magnet system I found so very odd in particular but I’m still gutted he did his first two years of secondary in America and so had just 5 subjects and missed out on everything else. Even he was saying the other day it sucks that he hasn’t had an art or music lesson since the age of 11

oof! We always had option subjects. In middle school they did them in rotation and in high school they chose. (Music performance like orchestra or chorus was separate; my DC who hates music and is virtually tone-deaf didn't do it.) That seems to be the norm round here. The rotation system isn't the best but it at least gave them exposure to all of them. There was art, music, family & consumer sciences aka cooking and sewing, tech education (woodworking and a sort of engineering fundamentals course?), a computing unit and something else that is slipping my mind now and I don't feel like checking DC3's schedule for the year! We have some magnet programmes but it's the suburbs so more children just attend their zoned schools. I wonder if it was specific to your magnet system?

The thing I liked least was the system for doing sciences in high school: you study one at a time, biology chemistry physics. It's not ideal. Of course, you studied all of those before that in middle school, but there's material in chemistry that would be useful before biology for example.

After over a decade I am still mixing up my spelling! I try to use UK spelling on here, but my autocorrect is set to American for work, and sometimes it trips me up.

See that only works if you’re ok with your kids not learning a language, which I wasnt. I couldn’t believe it’s not part of the curriculum so mine went to a language magnet which meant they learnt Spanish for one term, mandarin for another and then chose which one to continue through middle school, that then took the place of the elective classes. Compared to my DD in year 8 now and she does the usual subjects, Spanish, computing, rotates the arts subjects (fine art, pottery and photography) and rotates the technologies (DT, food tech and textiles) and rotates PPE in “RE” (so philosophy, politics and ethics) all in the same academic year, and does history and geography separately whereas in middle school they’re subsumed into other subjects

Having said that I do prefer the American system for high school when choice can remain wider than your 3-4 A’levels (though the introduction of the EPQ is great) and the Tories have done a number on the fact that most GCSEs now are 100% exam based which sucks.

The other thing I couldn’t get my head around was all the AP stuff and college credits, then added to whether you go magnet, gen Ed, charter etc it all got so confusing!

Mine learnt a language as well. i assumed you were including that in the 5 major subjects. Also standard here from middle school. I do know some places they don’t start till grade 8 which is late. I wish more places would start Spanish in elementary. But the UK is also a laggard for languages sadly.

history, geography, and politics all being lumped into one subject is messy I agree. How much world versus US history you get seems to be state dependent.

I did very much prefer the flexibility compared to A-Levels.

I remember the original thread! One MNer in USA was excited to be buying her first jar of Marmite. She had to wait until she was paid as it was (& probably still is) expensive there. I remember that she didn't like it, but her toddler did. I also remember explaining what a rasher of bacon was. I'm not American, but my best friend & her husband are now & I have cousins & second cousins who live there due to 3 GI brides in my family. We visit USA often to see them.

Also wasn't on Mumsnet in 2016, but I've been in NYC since 2014 and have a 5 year old and an 18 month old. I'd love a thread where we can chat without anyone coming to yell at us about guns or health insurance.

Hello! Was due for a regular name change so gave myself a reasonably appropriate one (and Coastal cheddar from Costco is my answer).

Been in Michigan for a while, can't see us going anywhere else right now.

Hope any Mumsnetters down south are safe from Milton and that Helene didn't impact them too badly.

nope, all the schools in our area had Maths, English, Science, History (or whatever they called the lumped together subject) and PE as the 5 subjects then elective or you could go to a language or music magnet, considering we were in SoCal you'd think Spanish would be compulsory

I was on the old threads and feel like I've been here a lifetime now! My DS had all his schooling in the US so I was surprised when he chose to go to university in England but he loves it there and has found himself quite far ahead in some areas thanks to the US's flexible approach in High School.
He was able to move through the AP courses quite quickly and then beyond to classes such as MultiVariable Calculus and Latin V, Not being held to the limits of an A-level syllabus was really beneficial for him as was taking 6 subjects all the way to graduation.
This is also my first time voting in a presidential election, I live in a blue city in a very red state so it's a foregone conclusion who'll win here but I'm still excited to vote!

Hooray! Fellow US dwellers!

Oklahoma public schools are indeed a bit of a train wreck 😬 (ranked 48th out of 50 y’all!), but we knew what we were getting ourselves into. As we knew we were going to be moving here 9 months in advance, we were able to do our research and apply to the best possible school we could. It’s a magnet school with an International Baccalaureate programme, and feeds into (supposedly) the best public high school in the state. We had to submit school reports, academic references, portfolios of work and application essays, and the kids had to interview over zoom, which felt reassuringly rigorous.

So far I’d agree with many of the above comments; combining the humanities under a Social Sciences umbrella means that DD (6th grade) is studying only geography this year, while DS (8th grade) is doing US history, much to his fury. Also there’s no PE unless they opt for it. On the plus side there’s a wider range of languages on offer and options like debate and orchestra.

I envy those of you living on the east coast (and Michigan) as you must be well into fall now. We seem to be stuck in summer with temperatures in the high 80s/low 90s most days. We’ll probably get to the end of the month and plunge straight into winter, knowing Oklahoma…

Im East Coast, but traveling in Australia right now, so missing the fall colors. Its a pity as fall is my favorite season.

What do you all do for Thanksgiving? I struggled for ages with what to cook as I felt it was ‘stealing’ the thunder from my Christmas menu 🤣. I now have let the dc persuade me into a mash up menu that is part Christmas turkey, but with mashed potatoes and other more American sides (rather than roast potatoes and bacon/sausage/British stuffing etc)

I've been on MN for ages but I don't remember the threads.

My DCs are all adults now, and have been all the way through the education system. They went to parochial school for K-8, and then to the public high school.

They all did music and art all the way through to 8th grade, and Spanish from 1st grade on, but honestly that was a waste of time; I knew more Spanish than they did by 8th grade even though I never studied it. They all took different languages in high school.

Our local high school required a MFL for graduation, and it was impressed on kids in the honors track that selective colleges want to see four years of a language (offerings were Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese), four years of science, and four years of math, English, and humanities. They managed to squeeze in electives (art, mainly) by doing a good few required courses via correspondence school (BYU). Required courses included keyboarding, consumer ed, civics, and several more. They also did summer school for various subjects.

They high school has switched from the biology-chemistry-physics (plus elective or AP science course) pathway my DCs took to a more integrated science curriculum, along with several other high school districts in the region.

I was hugely impressed by the education my DCs received and the opportunities they were able to avail of for art, sports, theater, and more. The high school facilities were gobsmacking.

I'm blessed to live in a city with large Eastern European and Irish populations, so getting popular European foods and decent bread isn't an issue. Local offerings are pretty iconic too, and there is also a lot of Mexican and Middle Eastern fare available.

I live in the US, but I'm not a Brit (don't hold that against me. I'm not American either).

Ooh hello! I am in the Midwest for the foreseeable future for work, we came 3 months ago and the culture shock is real. Unfortunately DH got sick as soon as we got here so we have had a crash course in the American healthcare system.
We can’t find decent feta or halloumi but have found a good source of French cheese. The milk is odd - it all seems to be UHT!
Fresh food in general is very expensive, as is the cost of living in every aspect, apart from petrol which is very cheap.
We are in a blue bubble in a very very republican state and a bit worried about the election.

I do a turkey for Thanksgiving, with all the traditional Irish Christmas foods (no mashed potatoes) along with sweet potatoes, and I do both a pumpkin and pecan pie. For Christmas, I do roast beef and all the Thanksgiving sides plus the pies, and I do mince pies. I used to do a turkey on both occasions but realized one of my DCs hates turkey, and everyone likes roast beef, so heyho. Frankly, it's often hard to find a decent turkey in December. I make tiramisu for both occasions as it's close enough to trifle, and the DCs love it.

We've had a very hot and dry September and October here in the midwest, @MrsFrumble, though nothing like the heat of the southwest.

Forgot to mention the high school required daily PE every year for four years. One of my DCs had to apply for an exemption from the requirement to do AP Studio art and provide proof (1) there was no other way to do that class and (2) that it was required for the colleges she intended to apply for, even though she was on two varsity sports teams that year so possibly the fittest she'd ever be.

We have been in the Midwest now for 7 years.
DC have just started IB program.
Loving autumn not so sure about the endless winter to come.

It's fall here and lovely!

decent feta: I don't know your local chains but it's easy to find where I am. Costco sells Dodoni Greek feta in big tubs too. We don't have UHT milk as standard here, that's odd. You can get the shelf stable parmalat bricks, and organic valley and some other brands are ultra pasteurised (which I think is not quite as high temp as UHT?) but regular supermarket milk is standard. Most of the cream is ultra pasteurised though. I do miss proper English cream, the extra thick double and clotted. A tip: check the side of your cream carton. 5g fat per tablespoon is 36% cream. 6g is 40% fat and nicer! Some brands of whipping cream are only 30% and don't whip so well.

PE isn't every day here. If it were up to one of my DC it would be never!

I quite like thanksgiving, it's all the food and none of the pressure. I like sweet potato but don't get on with that casserole with the marshmallow on top. We don't celebrate Christmas, but I do make a nice nigella chocolate cherry trifle for nostalgia's sake.

Fall in NYC and gorgeous. I just met up with another mum-post drop-off for coffee and a pastry in the park and it's perfect light jacket weather.

Schools in NYC are a mixed bag. They have a grammar-like system and the selective middle and high schools are amazing. The rest of them...not so much. DS is only in Kindergarten but his school is in a very wealthy area (we're technically just out of the zone, but wangled our way in) and the facilities are bonkers. His class of 22 also have 2 teachers, a student teacher and a para 😬. Obv you pay for it in the taxes though...

Food-wise you can get basically anything you want here, but it'll cost you. Honestly that should probably be NYC's motto.

Ugh, it’s 31 degrees here at 4.30 pm. I can hardly remember what a light jacket is! Still, it’s great for drying laundry when combined with the constant Oklahoma wind, and I really shouldn’t be complaining about the weather when I’m nowhere near Florida.

We can technically get decent cheese; we have a Whole Foods, and a Trader Joe’s (fancy!) which sell the good stuff, but it’s incredibly expensive, and as I haven’t got a job yet we can’t really justify $14 for a piece of imported Stilton. I miss the casual ease of picking up a decent wedge for £4 from the local Tesco.

I was a SAHM when we lived here before, due to having tiny children and the restrictions on work permits for L2 visas, but this time around the kids are at school all day and my visa allows me to work, so I need to start looking for something after fall break. Preferably with good benefits as I’m currently a very expensive dependent on DH’s insurance 😬