Trio

A collection of my first three posts ---

Want Me To Knock You Up In The Morning?

Want me to knock you up in the morning?

Did that catch you off guard? I can see how it might. First, it might seem a little forward of me to suggest such a thing when we have only just met. And second, it doesn’t make so much sense for a girl to make that offer when she would be the one getting the knocking. Nevertheless this is just one of the gazillion weird phrases the British use, in this case meaning ‘to wake up’ and having nothing whatsoever to do creating a baby. With that being said, if I catch you having fallen asleep while reading my blog I guess I’ll just have to knock you up. ; )

Anglophile. A person who is fond of English culture.

Anglophile. A lover of things English.

Anglophile. An admirer of England or English people.

Yep, that pretty much sums me up. I have been an Anglophile for as long as I can remember. I could name the six wives of Henry VIII before I could multiply big numbers (actually I still cant do that) and was reading Alison Weir histories instead of the Babysitters Club books (though I suppose I did that too). While I was born and bred in the US I was always absurdly proud of the quarter of me that is British and was utterly delighted by the discovery that I prefer my tea with milk. I would dream in an accent and couldn’t wait to visit to land of the Queen. Even before my first trip across the pond when I was 16 I knew my future lay in England.

When I moved to London in January I knew that my half a year there would not be long enough. I knew that my reverse homesickness would be twice as bad. Not that I didn’t miss my family, my friends, even my car but Los Angeles just doesn’t compare for me. I mean nothing against LA, which has always been and will always be my home. It’s where I was born and raised, and I do love it, just not as much as I currently love London. I made a personal list of the pros and cons of living in London (which will probably be featured in a future post) upon my return and it is safe to say that the pros severely outweighed the cons. In fact, the only cons were that I would miss my family and would have to gorge on Mexican food on every trip back to LA.

I think this blog will in many ways be cathartic for me. A way to talk about London without forcing my friends to listen. A way to remember the things I loved and miss. And maybe a way to share my insights with the world at large.

I am fascinated with Brit speak and how in the US we do not speak English, we speak American. You can expect a post or two (or twelve) about slang and the colloquialisms that make the British so… well, British. The Effingpot has an American guide to speaking British that I will likely reference and is good fun when you feel like procrastinating on real work. I plan to blog about pubs and drinking, markets and eating, and the amazingness that is an English breakfast with haggis. There will likely be a post about the difference between the theatre and theater (and the cinema too). And also probably about how in America people are more comfortable watching violence than sex but in the UK it’s the opposite. And then probably another one about Brit speak, just for good measure. But hey, maybe Ill make that one about cursing and all the awesome rude words you too can incorporate into your vocabulary.

So welcome to my blog good people and thanks for taking a gander at my ramblings. Cheers!

Brits n' Bobs

I can’t decide whether it is really cool or really awful that there are so many blogs out there that are similar to mine. It is cool because it proves that my idea was a good idea but it is annoying that lots of other people came up with it too. However, American expats in London and the greater UK aren’t the only ones blogging about their experiences. While googling around (yes, that is a word I use) I came across a blog that was just the opposite of the rest I had seen. This was an English gal writing from America. How fantastic! I have thoughts about her country, now lets see her thoughts on mine.

The blog is called Brits n’ Bobs, cute right?  She goes by the name Limey and hails from Surrey, which I happen to know isn’t too far outside London. As I have grown up fascinated by England she grew up fascinated by the US and so came here for university and stayed after marrying an American. She now calls Boston home (neato! as Boston is perhaps my favorite American city) though she spent a good few years in Oklahoma for school. With 57 true followers and lots of comments on all her posts I could almost be jealous, but I’m not because she totally deserves them. Her blog rocks.

One of the things I love about her blog is that she writes about her experiences and life in a way that is relatable to all expats as well as the general public. It isn’t just a blog for and about Britons in America or Americans in England. She makes her posts worthy of being read and appreciated by Australians in China and Egyptians in Brazil (okay, those are kinda out there but you see what I mean). There have been a number of entries with advice for people moving abroad and for those who have already found themselves in new territory. One such post, ‘Tips for New Expats’ has great advice, and links to further posts with tips from other commenters. There was also another great post; ‘The Expat Life is Not an Easy One’ , which I fully recognize as being important to me personally. Knowing that I want to move to England when life allows me, her comments on how to deal with homesickness, etc. are words I will live by. This makes me think about how I might address these topics in my blog. However consciously or unconsciously, I am already preparing myself for my future move across the pond, and have been doing so for a long time. Could make for an interesting post. Wow, two posts in and I might just take this blog in a new direction!

That topic brings me to another post that I was very interested in, ‘Expats Say “Dont Raise Your Family In Britain”. I don’t know how long I plan to live in England. It could be for only a few years or it could be for the rest of my life. I suppose it will depend on any large number of things. More than once I have thought about whether or not I would want to raise a family in the UK, or even just not in America. Forget about education and such, but would I want to have my kids grow up away from my family in LA? Limey opened the post up to comments as she loved her childhood in England but has no children of her own yet. I like that she openly asks for opinions, it makes her blog not only more informative but also more engaging. Who knew I would find so much to read and think about when I stumbled across her blog?

And that leaves with me a great deal to ponder, which you know will cut into my sleeping time. So good night good people and thanks for reading. Cheers!

An American Girl in Chelsea

I came across An American Girl in Chelsea early on in my googling and bonded with the blog right away. First off, its just pretty. Go check out. I mean really, there is a lovely photograph and classy pink writing. Then, I discovered that she and I share the same Alma mater (or we will once I have technically graduated). And not only did we come from the same university, we both studied abroad in London and completely fell in love with the city. So I bonded with AG over our similarities and the cuteness of her blog but there are some traits in her writing voice that have given me food for thought when I sit down to write my own posts. 

From her first post, aside from her “Hello World” equivalent, AG makes it clear to the audience that she is privileged. Nothing wrong about that outright, but I feel like it has the potential to turn off readers by making them feel inferior. In that initial post she mentions

"Back home in LA, my Saturday morning ritual would be to grab a vanilla latte from Coffee Bean and get my weekly mani-pedi with one of my girlfriends.  One of the best parts of this ritual was that we could give ourselves a little pampering and preparation for the weekend without breaking the bank."

Okay so she says she did this without breaking the bank. But really, if you are getting manicures and pedicures on a weekly basis you have to be pretty darn comfortable. Now dont forget, I am from Los Angeles and I go to a university that is well known for having lots of girls who do themani-pedi thing every week (and wear couture clothing bought with Daddy's credit card, etc, etc...) so for me this is nothing new. However, you have to pretty flush to visit the shops, eat at the restaurants and do most of things that AG talks about.

The hint of superiority aside, AG has a smart and friendly style. Her goal in creating this “labor of love” was to create

"... a resource to help women who were as lost as I was back in ’03 in how to navigate this massive city.  A resource tailored to fabulous and chic ex-pats!"

She is honestly trying to help out those who have questions about London, whether they be about finding good places to eat or how to deal with passport issues. I also really like that AG uses parentheses to add side notes, not just because I do that too, but because I feel that it makes the posts more personable. It seems to me that in those little notes you can truly hear the blogger’s opinionated voice. In a post about a purse designer there is an example of this, as well as something else notable about her voice.

"Something very special happened last week at Cannes. A girlfriend just tipped me off to Atelier Annick, a London-based handbag designer with some killer styles. Truth be told, you have to have some serious glam-attitude to pull of some of the creations- think Gwen Stefani carrying the Waneh design or Sienna Miller clutching the Opeli(which I love!) on the red-carpet! Check out American Girl’s girl-crush, Cheryl Cole carrying the Bebe. She’s so adorable!"

So the parentheses example is pretty obvious, but any idea about the second thing? It’s the use of the exclamation points. 3 !s in 4 sentences. Wow. Some might find it annoying, but I say hey, she is just really excited. And that’s okay by me because again, it makes her personable. AG probably talks like that in real life. Since I was a kid Ive been told that I write like I speak, which used to be an issue when it came to essays, but I think its great for blogging. So keep talking AG, I mean blogging! 

And lastly, AG asks questions. When she talked about a bar she likes to frequent she ended her post with, “AG wants to know- where's your late night spot?” And in her post about the World Cup she finished with

“USA plays England on June 12. American Girl recommends the Cross Keys pub, our favorite. Tell us where you’ll be watching the game!” 

By asking questions and speaking directly to her readers AG creates a dialogue, a friendship. She is confident in her opinions and considers herself well-informed but she still asks for recommendations and suggestions. I like that. It means that in the end, we can be friends.

Thus, while I can only hope that when I am living in London I will have the cash flow to allow me to patronize the posh spots she writes about, I will continue to read her posts and dream of the day.