Living in America....... summer 2010!

[redflipflops]

So.... new thread.... please join me

introductions:

redflipflops - California (central Coast)

We're having a group of mainly American (men) over and I'll make a curry...think my DH may get a bit annoyed having to do a running commentary to explain the rules though!!! I'll go out shopping.

Memorial day is doable (that a word, doesn't look right?) but traffic around San Diego /LA is terrible!

LOL! Doable is definitely a word! If you're up for more desert-y areas, head East or South. Rosarito is GORGEOUS and not too hot yet. Everyone clogs up the coastal areas on Memorial day.

Madam I'm very sorry you aren't feeling welcome . "It's now so bad I don't even like talking to people much because my accent gives me away" was how I felt MANY times riding on the tube. There were SO many days when I just really didn't want to explain why I had given up sunny San Diego for London or explain that I hadn't voted for George Bush etc. If it helps, I found it nearly impossible to make friends while I lived in San Diego, and I didn't have ANY cultural barrier. All the people I met, especially the women, were nice enough, but they already HAD established friend groups and I just felt like I wasn't really wanted along, so I very much felt like an outsider all the time. I actually felt more like an outsider in San Diego than I did in London!

I'm afraid my circle is limited to the West coast. My gran and granddad live in Tennessee, but that's as far East as we go

I have heard from another mother-of-a-toddler that meetup.com is good for hooking up with local playgroups, but haven't tried it.

I hope you are able to find a group that you are comfortable with. It is miserable to feel alone in a sea of strangers.

Hello all! I'm in Central Oregon which is stunning if a little unpredictable with the weather. It actually snowed on Saturday! I have also found it hard to break into established friendship groups as I'm not the most outgoing of people anyway. The people I'm most with are the other two couples who transferred from York when we did and another couple of expats who are married to Americans. So I am a bit homesick and also TTC #3 though my other dcs are 4 and 2 so not such a big gap!

Was it you who had that awful trouble with the flooding Earlybird? I hope things are getting back to normal for you.

My parents are flying in this Sunday so we will be in Portland this weekend which will be doubly great as I could do with a city fix

tadjennyp it sounds horrible, but I'm glad it snowed Sat! I drove from Salt Lake City to Seattle on Thursday/Friday (nearly 900 miles in one shot - I'm STILL recovering). There was a light dusting of snow, but I'm glad to hear the main was after I had been through.

It sounds like Portland will be loads of fun. I've been told I need to go there, but have never had the opportunity

That's too bad Madam. I think your accents (by "you" I mean the whole of the UK ) are a lot more "exotic" to us in America b/c we don't get any of your TV shows or films (unless you Netflix them obsessively like I crazy people do ) and you see more of ours, so it's like "pft, another Yank, nothing special."

So they're probably just interested, but it's too bad it makes you feel like an outsider.

OMG. All the time people constantly rave about our accents..seriously! I am credited with far more intelligence than I actually have all because of my accent. . I am quite enjoying this 'new found intelligence' . Maybe it's just California but everyone loves the British accent here.

hi marenmj! i'm just north of seattle, near the university of washington. i really like how you can cycle/walk/bus everywhere. i'm used to absolutely having to have a car to go anywhere!

Madamdeathstare, it sounds incredibly hard for you. I've heard similar stories about some parts of the US. Do you have some family with you? Are you planning on staying for a while?

People comment A LOT on my kids accents (how funny to hear a child with an English accent etc..). When I picked up my son from Pre School last week they were going on about how he "didn't like his tomARto" (giggle giggle).

My older kids (4 & 6) haven't picked up an American accent yet (I imagine they will at some point) but say American phrases 'I'm all done' etc... How have other posters DC changed accent wise? Is it just a matter of time before they sound American???

Anyone got any kid friendly tips on San Francisco? Am doing a trip next month up the coast - Monterey, Big Sur, Santa Cruz, San Francisco. We need to find kid friendly places to visit/eat

Our DCs are bilingual...speak with British accent at home and American at school . It's an automatic switch, we have been here half their lives (now 10 and 12) and I think they will always be like this now.

Redflipflops - We spent few years living 30 mins from San Fran. when my husband joined a start up in the bay area. I can post some thoughts but have to head out now to help at school. Will get back to you asap. How long are you travelling for?

Hi back again.

Redflipflops Few random ideas I'll throw at you for your trip....

Look up the town of Capitola, an old Italian town, nice ice cream shops, lovely restaurant called Shadowbrook, got a sweet hillovator' (like an elevator but goes up/down small hill! Very cute for kids)). Kid friendly too. Nice beach and good to stroll along. Assume you will do 17 mile drive, it's totally worth it, great photo opps. here. At Pebble Beach, 'the Inn at Spanish Bay' resort has Roys restaurant, bit smarter but we took kids here, went for the views over sea, amazing. Try 'Sams' restaurant in Tiburon, lovely town and great restaurant, always packed, bring hats and sit outside (You can't book here). Monterey, do the aquarium, and there's two choices to eat inside, the very kiddy place or the smarter place with amazing views over sea, still kid friendly IMHO. We ate there many times, taking visitors there. Otherwise there's a nice very kid friendly restaurant in the town, great views again but need to check name of it with DH.

OK, no geographical order to above as you will see if you google the places. Will add more when I think of it.

Sorry to be a bore for those not joining redflipflops on her trip, the above is obviously of no use at all.

The funny thing is, I am also bilingual in the manner of gotmunchies children...I speak American English, of course, but type British b/c most of my online time is spent on Mumsnet.

Sample sentence on facebook chat

Me: You coming round then?
Friend: What? Am I coming over, are you asking? Do we need to have that "you're not from the UK" chat again?

Hi everyone, I can't believe I'm so out of touch on this thread!

I'm in AR and we've already had some extremely warm days but mostly it's been quite nice.

Earlybird, did you make it through the flooding OK?

hi,
i'm in MICHIGAN, and pretty much love it. dh's job gets more interesting by the hour. currently, he is sitting round his ex boss's house getting pissed having fired him today!! rather bizarrely, it strengthens our case for a green card.

If I could, I would be able to work and get home more cheaply, but otherwise feeling quite settled here after 18 months - as settled as I felt after 7 years in our last place.

tadjennyp I lived in york for YEARS, and was just thinking the other day that if I had to go back to the UK, york would be somewhere that i'd consider. i lived in various places around the city centre & still get the odd wish to return, even a decade after leaving. We live in 'small town America', quite liberal & open, but every so often I miss being in a city, still, with dd, i think it's unlikely that i'd be doing the mickelgate run on a saturday night (not that i ever did do it)

btw, it's in the high 80s here this week. after 2 weeks of rain i'm desperately trying to get the garden done & it's nearly killing me!!

Hello jabberwocky and kickassangel. I've not looked into green card stuff at all, how long do you need to be resident?

CheerfulYank It's hard not to use MN acronyms when typing emails to RL contacts! Am pretty sure my DC will do the bilingual thing. Oldest is learning to read in Kindergarten so sounding out letters 'Zee' etc...

gotmunchies those suggestions look really good - Thanks so much. We're borrowing an RV (from a work colleague) while MIL is visiting.... might all get a bit cramped in an RV for 10 days with MIL!!!

Hello - I'm in Seattle too (well Redmond)

redflipflops - there are so many different kinds of green cards, depending on your job, family, visa, qualifications etc etc. find a GOOD lawyer - afaik you can apply as soon as you want, but not sure.

last week i had a shop owner commenting on how much she loved my accent, she could listen to me all day etc, just as i was leaving she said 'i do just think australians sound so cute'. i just smiled & left.

actually, i've got to a point where i don't notice the US accent any more, so when someone notices mine i'm a bit surprised!

I'm the same with accents - I notice an English person far more (for example on TV) now than I would an American accent so I also get that surprise thing when someone notices it.

The only thing is it helps at work if I'm having a difficult conversation with one of our accounts, something about speaking in an English accent makes me sound much nicer than I am I think!

redflipflops definitely go to the Monterey Bay aquarium. It's an all-time favourite of mine. Also, if you get as far north as SF Bay, skip Alcatraz and go to the Exploratorium instead. It's one of the best places in the world . My family is from SF and I still stop in whenever I am in town. Carmel in Monterey has lovely beaches for the kids. My dad likes to kayak there by the pier. Also, iirc, the beaches have lots of sea lions too.

whiteflame, Monkeytoo - funny that we're all so close to each other! I keep having to have the map conversation:
"well, no, we're not IN Seattle..."
"but I thought you said you moved there?"
"oh, well, the temp apartment is really in Issaquah, but we're going to be in Redmond, and Seattle is a ways off, really..."
"ohhhkaaaay"

Spent the weekend in Woodinville wine-tasting and staging drive-bys of apartments. Are you MS widows too? It's weird to feel like the trailing spouse in my native country...

Like CheerfulYank I too am bilingual. Do you think we can put that on our CV's? Friends and family always used to ask if I was getting a British accent yet, but I have to admit, living there made me ... more American, if that makes sense. They never could understand why I thought it would be rude to fake the accent (except when ordering sandwiches. that shit HAS to be right )

The running commentary in my head is constantly using the face. MN has ruined me

OH, redflipflops for camping, as a kid I used to camp at Point Reyes. I haven't been in nearly twenty years, but I ripped my arm open running around there and my brother nearly put out his eye (resounding endorsement!) but we still begged to go back every summer

DOH, have just realized from googling that Point Reyes would have been our jumping off point for visiting the Nat. redwood forests. Mom used to like to take 3-4 day hiking trips with her sisters and all the kids.

point reyes!!

happy memories. we had friends who lived really close by there. we used to fly into SF, crash at their house, then use that as our first day of sightseeing, a gentle introduction to the 8 hour time difference. mind you, the walk up from the lighthouse was anything but gentle.

you can sometimes see whales swimming off shore from there.

If visiting Northern California/ Bay area and you like the outdoors, try Muir Woods, just over Golden Gate bridge, Muir beach too which has a pub! The Pelican? on the road in to the beach, they do Sunday roast. Very busy though.
Muir Woods has the Redwoods, one which is older than Jesus....or something like that

Sorry, was throwing more ideas out for redflipflops but appreciate this might be boring for everyone else.

So, anyone else going back to the UK for a visit this summer?

I went back to the UK in February with the dcs as flights are so much cheaper then! I guess it's cheaper to fly from SFO but it can get expensive from Oregon!

I actually lived in Tadcaster (hence the name!) rather than York but I taught at Jo Ro for a year kickassangel! It is a lovely place to live but I think if we went back it would be too expensive for us to buy now! Would love to go down to northern California and Washington State to visit but have to see how much work dh has this summer!

Sorry about all the exclamation marks!