Tap and Co.

Here we are 3 weeks since we moved from the UK to the USA for a year. It was a big move, but one that I was ready to make! The first couple days were hard, adjusting to the time zone, the heat (more than 30 degrees every day), the humidity (50+%) and of course the food!

Moving in to the apartment was a nerve-wracking one for me, as all I had been told was that it was big, over looking the Mississippi river and that my bedroom is usually the dining area. However, stepping inside I instantly fell in love with my (not so) ‘little’ nook. The first week was pretty much spent buying things to make our apartment feel more like home, including pillows, bedding, some furniture and photo frames, plus getting a feel for the area. My highlight for the week was definitely the Joyful Noise family festival (which has been mentioned in our previous blogs and in the vlog, go check them out if you haven’t!!!). Worshipping with 18,000 people whilst listening to some of my favourite christian artists was an experience!!

However, it suddenly came time for dad to leave us and go back to his job and to the cats! Suddenly I was on my own, no taxi to drive me around. No one to pay for my food. No company, whilst mum is at work. It definitely had its benefits too though, I managed to make a nice dent into my masters project (message me or leave a comment if you want to hear more!) and was finally able to watch what I wanted to on the tv!!!

Now you must be wondering what the blog title means. Well, there have been things that I truly miss about the UK and things that I will definitely miss about the USA when I leave. These are the following:

• Walking here in St. Paul, Minnesota is a lot nicer than where I leave in the UK. Its not every day that you can just take a walk or a cycle along the mighty Mississippi river and watch turkey vultures and bald eagles flying over your head, or watching herons wading in the water to catch their next meal.
• It is definitely more expensive to live here than in the UK. The average that we spent on groceries in the UK was a lot less than here.
• Chocolate here definitely does not taste the same! However, Reese’s peanut butter cups are amazing!!
• HGTV is the best channel ever!
• The cars and the roads are a LOT bigger! Making me feel even shorter than before! There are plenty of cars here that I would need a ladder to climb in to!
• The shops are HUGE! I’m easily able to walk my target number of steps set out by my Garmin, whilst enjoying seeing what the country has to offer!
• AIRCO! The best invention ever when it is close to 40 degrees celsius and 90% humidity!
• The storms here are not taken lightly, whenever there is a thunderstorm forecasted, I straight away get a weather warning on my phone (damaging winds, large hail and tornados are all possible).
• Trenta Cool Lime refreshers!!!!! The best thing when it is hot outside!!
• What I can’t get my head around though is going into a store and seeing a sign saying ‘no guns allowed’. It still feels so foreign to me, and it will the whole time I’m here! Also going into any outdoor store and there along with camping stuff they also stock guns and crossbows along with fake deer and turkeys for practice! Or having displays of real stuffed animals that have been shot!
• What the UK offers that I truly do miss though are my cats, my friends (its difficult to connect when you are 6+ hours behind them!) and church (we have yet to find one where we connect!). And I miss tea! Afternoon teas and just drinking a tea is so not normal here. When you order a tea you have to specify that it is a hot tea, otherwise you get cold, strong, unsweetened black tea!
• And lastly I miss being able to talk and not pulling attention because of my accent. In the UK I have a pretty standard southern english accent as I was brought up in the area near Windsor. Here however, I just open my mouth and suddenly I have 20 people surrounding me wanting me to just keep talking so that they can hear more. It is pretty terrifying being the centre of attention like that!

I’m sure there are plenty more but for now this is my list! On to a new week of new experiences and adventures!