Culture shock in UK

[Sebulous]

Man its been a long time since ive posted, but ive been busy settling in, in UK. Well im wanting to get back into the dating scene but im a little out of it being in a different country.

 

first off, i feel very alien here. Not because im american in UK, but women here are constantly staring at me. The way i dress does shout out im american, but i feel really weirded out by this. on scale 1 - 10 i feel like a 7, but the way im being looked at, im either a 10 or 2 lol. I have seen some attractive lads and quite well, unattractive. so im about the middle.

 

also, it feels weird to talk. as soon as I talk, boom instantly labled american. I would like to sound english, but not certain if they would take offense to it. Ive heard from several people they like american accent (what accent? lol). Some even like to figure out what region you came from. kinda similar to us yanks liking english accents.

 

3rdly, what are some common dates? live in a small town of, oh, 1500. (just came from 1.4 million populated city) met a nice girl but theres only 3 pubs in town and nothing else (club wise) for 30 mins easy. So im kinda iffy about asking her out since, i feel hot / ugly at same time and i don't know exactly what the standard 1st couple dates are like here.

 

asking this cause this girl is the only attractive one(english lass) that i have met in my town, and don't want to blow my chances cause of something trivial as dating standards.

 

thanks for any advice.

and glad to be back at eNotAlone

[crookster_man]

Hey, I lived in Scotland this summer so I know what you mean about the culture shock! It was so hard trying to communicate with some of them, their accents were so thick!

 

As for dating, I did date a scotish girl for a month. She was pretty cool, but 1/2 the time I would have to ask her to repeat herself sinc eI had no clue what she was saying.

 

Just role with it, there wasn't any dating fopas that I ran into. It's pretty similar to how it is in North America. They see our tv and movies, they know how we are (hollywood style anyways)

[Sebulous]

She works at local store. we are really chatty and flirty but haven't had the nerve to ask her out. been years since i have asked some one out. so little rusty. i know what all to say, just little nervous i guess you can say.

 

about being labled american, i don't mind at all. i plan to live here rest of my life and would hope to someday to accepted as being english. not in a hurry though. i can understand english accents very well.

 

besides all of this im kinda broke so im extra nervous about askin her out. once converted, i have maybe 100 pounds

[Santa]

Beware of Chav's.

As for most people, there arn't any rules really. Expect the unexpected.

[crookster_man]

English accents were easy to understand, it was scotish and north Ireland I had real trouble. 1/2 the time I would just simle and nod when they spoke.

 

They slur their words together stuff like "Idunnacan" = "I do not know" And the local slang is just so different, when they refer to lorries and call whip cream "Squishy Cream" It's just hard to grasp what they are saying.

 

It is really a different language, took me a while to understand what they were trying to say. And don't get me started about the humor, they thought I was dry, but It's just I don't understand the local references so how could I find a joke based on that funny?

 

Ah the joy of another culture. I loved the UK, it just takes time to adjust. I'd say 3 months

[Sebulous]

we have chavs in the usa, but they are called teenagers =P. Once I poked around that chav link, saw what you meant. Ya english dilect ain't too hard. Scottish aint too bad either. I am mostly scottish, only a 3rd generation american. Mostly scottish, irish, and then american indian. I am a little used to hearing scott and know abit more than a yank wanderin the UK.

[sambo]

alright sebulous

 

don't worry about being labelled american, I love it when american girls start talking to me because I'm english....its a good conversational starter.

 

and talking about the how we have different words that mean the same thing, is always a good conversational filler.

 

Anyone judging you on being american (maybe because of politics), you should just ignore, but I don't think for one minute that you will get this much here (fingers crossed).

 

dating wise, asking girls out for dinner or something is not as normal for a first date as it is in america (i may be wrong)...if you've got no where to go, then after your first date at the pub, maybe she can fill you in about what you can do.

 

by the way, what town are you in?

[Sebulous]

sadly I live in a tiny town. Feltwell just about 5 miles in Norfolk from Suffolk. SMALL town of about 1500 people, thats including the small air force base i think (according to towns web site).

 

Sucks because i came from a city of 1.5 million people. I miss the city, rather I miss the shopping really. Have to go 30 / 45 mins to Bury St. Edmonds or Cambridge for any shopping. But at times I like practically getting to know everyone in your town. Meet the same people at our 3 pubs, which can be good and bad though.

 

6th form college samba? ive heard about that (ok so i stalked yer website some, can't a guy be curious?) Where is it at? what all they offer?

 

 

I haven't seen the girl ive been talking about in the store. Strange enough I ran into someone from the previous town. She was wearing a Clark HS jacket and asked if it was same clark as in san antonio. we chatted some and she seemed hell a lot interested. I know were to meet her but not really wanting an american GF, let alone a HS senior.