An American woman who is studying in the UK has shared some of the things that surprised her when she moved across the pond – including one place she thought was fictional
For people visiting the UK for the first time, some of the things we take for granted as traditional and part of everyday life can be quite a culture shock. It might come as a surprise to some people that not all of us drink 10 cups of tea a day, we don’t all have the same stereotypical accent, and yes, crumpets are a real thing.
One woman from the US who previously came to study in London has shared a series of things that shocked her when she first moved across the pond for university. In a TikTok slideshow, Caroline joked some deemed normal in the UK would “send an American into a coma”.
To begin her video, Caroline said ordering things online baffled her when she first moved to the UK. In the US, it’s common practice to just leave parcels on someone’s porch or outside their front door if they’re not home.
This is less common in the UK, however. Parcels will be sent back to the delivery depot if you’re not at home when the driver arrives. For this reason, Caroline said she started relying on Amazon Locker and other click-and-collect services to ensure she could collect her parcels at her convenience.
Next, she warned American tourists who take melatonin that they may need to go without it. Melatonin is a hormone that regulates your body’s sleep-wake cycle, and it can be taken as a supplement to help treat sleep problems. However, in the UK, it is only available with a prescription from a doctor, unlike in the US, where it can be purchased over the counter.
Caroline even said that dusk is at different times in the US versus the UK. At this time of year, sunset is around 4pm in London. In comparison, sunset in New York City is half an hour later at around 4:30pm, while on the other side of the US in Los Angeles, the sun doesn’t set until almost 5pm, even in late November.
The woman also warned her fellow Americans about the temperatures in the UK. While it doesn’t get as cold or as hot as some parts of the US, it can often feel much colder or much hotter thanks to damp and humidity. She also joked that London “ceases to function” in even the lightest amount of snowfall.
She said: “Even though it doesn’t get as cold as it does in cold parts of the US, it feels colder than it is because it’s a damp, bone-chilling cold. Hard to explain until you’ve experienced it.
“Summers are gorgeous and it stays light out until 10pm. But there isn’t AC [air-conditioning] everywhere like there in the US, so 85°F [29°C]feels much hotter.”
But one of the things that surprised Caroline the most was visiting somewhere in London she thought was a fictional place. The woman said she was gobsmacked to discover that Drury Lane was a real road, as she believed it had been made up for the purposes of the Muffin Man nursery rhyme.
She said: “Drury Lane is a real place. There is no Muffin Man, but I did have a muffin at a cafe there.”
Commenters on the post were quick to share their own stories of things that had baffled them when they visited the UK, including one person who said it “blows their mind” that Brits need a TV licence to watch live TV.
Someone said: “Things that actually sent me into a coma studying in London: the drinking culture. Could not get over my student union having an entire pub in it.”
Another wrote: “I was there in July to see Oasis and I loved every second. The word ‘bathroom’ confused so many people. I learned ‘toilets’ is the phrase to use.”
A third shared: “I was so cold in December in London. The temp was the same as where I was coming from in the US, but that damp cold was unreal.”
