Expats - What Has Changed? What Won't Change?

[NotQuiteCockney]

As an expat (Canadian in the UK), I'm very aware of what I've changed. I now say "mum". I like queueing. I use lots of British constructions. My accent has even drifted a bit (although only DH can tell. Other people say my accent is still quite strong).

But - I will not drink tea. I will not listen to the Archers. I think that doing either of these would mean I have "gone native", and it would be time to go home.

Do any other expats (to anywhere, from anywhere) have similar lists?

I've been in London for 9 years now, I think. Which is longer than I've lived anywhere except Toronto - and I only lived there while I had no choice.

Frankly, I think identifying with a city is more sensible than with a whole country. Maybe a city is too big a place to identify with, even. I do talk about being part of the Mile End crew - I even have a gang symbol for my neighbourhood.

I still think of myself as a Texan but my ideas are more British. I've never gotten dual citizenship though it's been available to me for a decade. Just doesn't feel right, but maybe one day.

I never really noticed, TBH. I'm still me, so that's all I'm aware of. I do say 'Mum'. There's nothing I refuse to say. I've always been of the 'when in Rome' variety. When I lived in French and Spanish speaking countries, I spoke French and Spanish.

My daughter speaks with a Scottish accent, well, of course she does. There are greater things to concern myself with about her, as her mum, IMO.

I just never keep track of minor 'changes' there are so many other things.

I'm a lifer, but then again, I spent a lot of my life outside the US growing up. It's just the place where I happened to be born.

Oh, I've decided to get dual citizenship, just because renewing a Canadian passport is really really annoying and difficult. I don't know why, Mossad use Canadian passports, but renewing mine is a total hassle.

I don't know, I sometimes think I could stand to move back, but I'm going home a visit in two weeks, and will no doubt change my mind while there.

so, dearest NQC, you don't know Vancouver very well. British Columbia doesn't suffer from being the province farthest away from the U.K. They are as Canadian as the rest. (Except maybe Victoria, which gives itself airs & graces by serving horrid & expensive "English Tea" to foreigners at the Empress.

I was born in Vancouver, have lived in Toronto and go back to Vancouver almost every year to visit my dad & sisters. dh is from Somerset, I'm half British through my mother (thanks, Maggie!), have lived in England but have been in Switzerland for longer than I like to admit. I don't know what nationality I am. I feel like a foreigner wherever I go. But I do know that B.C. is as Canadian as the rest of Canada.

So there!

We've moved around a bit so I don't really identify with an area yet. We were in Cambridge for 6 years, Tokyo for a year (definitely do not consider myself Japanese), and London for almost 5 years. I agree about identifying with an area of London though. They're all so different. We were in SW but now SE. I think I'm more of a SW girl really but time will tell.

I think BC gets points for the Doukobours, and for being the knit-your-own-granola capital of Canada.

No, I don't know Vancouver at all. I do get tired of every single Brit saying "oh, I've been to Canada" "which bit?" "Vancouver". Every single time.

How about 'Oh, I've been to America'. 'Which bit?' 'Florida'.

Expatinscotland, we're just having a bit of fun. I like to stop and notice the little differences sometimes. Otherwise, I might stop appreciating them.

Doukoubors?

Definitely Granola, back to nature; lumberjack song appropriate...

Oh, tex, that would be more annoying than the "vancouver" thing, I think.

EIS, if we assimilate too much, we lose our immunity from the social norms here. I'm sure that I get away with things normal Brits would be shot for (ok, whispered about, whatever).

Sure, never said it wasn't fun. Just that I'm too lazy to ever notice stuff like that. Always a slacker, me. I like it better here, where I'm left to slack in peace. Can't say I was in America.

Ach, well, don't miss it much. Except for good Mexican food from a restaurant. Have to cook it myself if I want it these days, and that means washing up.

Van's a nice place, but Canmore is prettier, IMO. Spent a lot of time rock climbing around there and Lake Louise. And the ex went every winter to climb ice. I didn't like ice climbing, though, but some of the routes had cool names! My fave was 'Burning In Water, Drowing In Flame'.

EIS, definitely much more laid back in the UK. I look around my house now with laundry folded up on the couch, toys all over the floor, the dining table pushed against the wall for some reason (and been that way for days). I would never be sitting at the computer enjoying myself in Texas. I'd be cleaning. Ugh.

I will never eat Marmite, and I will whinge forever about the British school system. But on the other hand I love the multi-culturalism of London, although Dublin has also become much more multi-cultural I don't think they have that many mixed-race families whereas it seems to almost be the norm in London.

Sansouci - I haven't been to BC but I have to say that calling the state British Colombia does indicate a certain ambivalence about how Canadian the inhabitants feel.

sansouci, doukobours, a strange Christian sect who followed the writings of Tolstoy (particularly some letters he didn't want his followers reading!). They believed that ownership was wrong. So they burned down their houses, and danced naked around them. (And in case you're getting a soft rock video vision of this - they were doughy steppes people. Not MTV models.)

Oh, bran, good one! I won't eat marmite either. Oh, and pickle on cheese sandwiches, gah.

You mean foled washing is supposed to go in the wardrobe or cupboard before being worn? And here we bought that tatty chair from Bernardo's for express use as a clothes horse !

My Scottish husband won't eat Marmite, either. Or Bovril.

Actually, Canada kinda screwed over the Doukobours. They were hardworking farmer types, and we accepted them as immigrants, said "you won't have to go to our schools, and you won't be conscripted". (They were pacificts.)

Then we made them go to our schools, and conscripted them.

They started out in Manitoba, and kept getting moved west. Most of them ended up in BC.

Actually, I have a secret. I don't particularly like Vancouver anymore. They've ruined it with too much building, ugly high-rises & the so-called "monster" houses. And then there's the drug problem... don't get me started.

But BC is gorgeous.

I've heard heroin is a real problem there.

I'd love to go to BC, I have a plan for a cross-country trip, as I have family just about everywhere, and a cousin I really like is somewhere in BC.

And I do like Nanaimo bars, but who doesn't?

Like the Chinese, builders of the monster houses. I like the Chinese but there are rather a lot of them in & around Vancouver now.

Mmmmm... Nanaimo bars!