A family who recently moved from the UK across the Atlantic to Florida has shared the eight biggest cultural shocks that have come with their move to a brand new home
A British expat who moved to Florida with her partner and two kids has shared the biggest surprises that have come with moving to a new neighbourhood in the USA.
There are an estimated 678,000 to 685,000 British citizens living in the US, with around 1.5 million more Brits visiting the country every year. While there are several reasons why someone would move across the Atlantic, one family made the leap earlier this year, claiming that they chose Florida due to the all year sunny weather, access to the outdoors and outdoor activities for their two children. They also claimed that their move allowed the two parents to earn more money.
However, even though Mum Emily was born in the US and lived there until she was 7 years old, she has still found several culture shocks that have come with her move, and several of them were just regarding the neighbourhood they live in.
“I’m a Brit living in America and these are the biggest culture shocks that I’ve experienced,” she said at the start of her TikTok video.
First up, she explained that she lived in and HOA neighbourhood, which means that she has to follow a rules set by her local Homeowners Association (HOA), which for her includes keeping the grass in her garden a certain length at all times while also looking neat.
“So everyone in this neighbourhood has got really nicely kept front gardens, which I find in England is not something that most people really do,” she said, as she went on to show some of the gardens around her neighbourhood, which all had neatly trimmed bushes and green grass around them.
Next up, also relating to her new neighbourhood in the States was that people often displayed the American flag is some way, either hanging on their houses or by their mailboxes, which she said wasn’t that common in the UK with the British flag. Also, the houses in question are also very different, with Emily saying detached houses are the most common in Florida.
“Another thing that you don’t really see in England are fire hydrants,” she said. “No, fire hydrants are here out in the open […] and that is something that I don’t think I really saw back in the UK.”
She then brought up the difference in the size of the roads, and how much bigger they are in America, even in local neighbourhoods. And thanks to this, cars also tend to be much bigger than what we’re used to in the UK.
“America is known for everything to be bigger, and those are definitely bigger,” Emily said. “It took a bit of getting used to, but we’ve been here for six weeks now, so I feel like we’re quite comfortable being on the big roads.”
She then went on to say: “And if palm trees count as a cultural difference, then that is definitely that Florida has an abundance of, and I love it.”
Going back to show the differences in her American neighbourhood, she also pointed out that every house had its own personal mail box by the road outside their house, instead of letter boxes houses in the UK have in their front doors. She went on to say that she was a big fan of this, as she said her dogs bark a lot less without the mailman coming to the front door.
“Another one is that so many houses have these basketball hoops, and this, honestly, it’s just like the movies,” Emily said.
“And just a reminder, we do have brick houses out here too,” she said as she went on to show a house made of bricks in her neighbourhood.
