5 Expectations vs Reality for Life in the UK
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2022
- Life in the UK isn't always what you think... here's 5 expectations I had when I first moved to the UK vs what the reality was actually like!!
You never know what a place will be like until you live and work there - until you're stuck in rush hour traffic, until you're paying your electricity bill, until you're having a coffee at your favourite cafe, or picking up your favourite Chinese takeaway.. I'm very lucky to have had all those experiences and have a better understand of what life in the UK is really like!
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Hey! I'm Alanna - a twenty-something documenting my life as a Canadian living in England.
I share the ups and downs of an expat living abroad and what it's really like living in the UK. It's not always easy, but there's been so many wonderful experiences, too. I post a UA-cam video every Tuesday & Friday plus an additional video every Saturday on my Patreon account. I also livestream every Wednesday and Sunday at 5:30pm GMT/BST on Twitch.
Alanna x
I guess people think it is always cold and wet here, but sometimes the rain is quite warm.
From Ayrshire (SW Scotland) lived in Glasgow for years. The sky is grey. A lot. We call it "the grey tarpaulin". But walk two miles and bread rolls have a new name.
Regarding the weather, most North Americans don’t appreciate how far north the UK is. I live near Newcastle upon Tyne which is about half way up the main UK island, and there are small parts of Alaska and Hudson Bay further south than me!
I felt the same, the first 6 months in the UK were pretty awful and overwhelming (it didn't help it was partially during the darkness of winter). 4 years later, I am leaving when I die, and am eternally grateful for the midlife crisis that brought me here (from New York state). Northeast England is my ''home''. I LOVE that cities here still prioritise parks and green spaces, gardens, footpaths, etc. but I am also a smaller town/ village person at heart.
We have the likes of compasionate often Quaker factory owners like Cadbury and the Lever Brothers for towns like Bournville and Port Sunlight for inspiring other towns and cities to have green and pleasent places in them. Incidently they still do not have a pub or off licence, the residents have to travel outside of the town to find one.
I’m also from NY! I live in the Northwest of England. I also really like the walkability and parks here ☺️
My best friend arrived in the UK 7 years ago. He still doesn't speak a word of English. This may be due to the fact that he is Siamese... and a cat. Cheers Alanna, thank you for another fun little ditty.
😂🐈
Re. variety of accents; I worked in Somerset in the 70s. My boss Jeff and George, his business partner, came from a village called Blackford. Jeff's wife spent all her life in Highbridge. She could talk to Jeff, OR talk to George, and understand either one. But if Jeff and George were talking to each other, she said it was like a foreign language.
The killer? From Highbridge to Blackford is less than SEVEN MILES!
I've told you several times,you're not a foreigner Alanna, you are an honorary Brit.
My experience in England has been a limited one (though thinking back, it was 7yrs ago that I started visiting yearly, except Covid times of course) but I think I was also surprised by the rain stereotype.
I think my main misconception was that the British people would be polite but unfriendly (I know, I know) Literally everyone I've met has been kind and warm and really helpful.
Awesome as always, Alanna!
Ahh thank you!! ☺️
People in Britain are loyal to a fault haha!
@B G Of course there are my apologies.
@@AdventuresAndNaps are all these replies from you on comments? Some seem a little strange, just asking incase you have been spammed.
@@pauls.arts.and.craft. There are definitely a lot of spam messages. I've reported them all.
Thanks Alanna, Resistance is Futile! Our cider, cheese, apple crumble, custard, pub grub & cakes etc will see to that! 🙏
humidity in uk at this time of year is awfull. but at the same time autumn and colder days are on the way which is my favourite time of year 😀
When my mum moved here (in the 1960s) she expected every man to doff their hat and when this didn’t happen she told her cousins their English teacher in Canberra had lied to them. I think this still rankles her to this day 😭 Thanks for this interesting list, Alanna!
Oh no!! 😂 Thanks so much for watching!
Nooo lol
Not many men these days wear a hat.
@@Brian3989 Except for ageing men who think it's great to wear a baseball cap, often back to front
@@jillhobson6128 how dare you, i resemble that remark! 😁
I have watched your videos for a while now and have seen your journey, not just to Kent (the garden of England) but also into real adulthood (which is less about age than it is about experience).
I'm glad that you persisted and created a reality that suits you.
Thank you so much!
Alanna I for one am ever so glad you decided to stay and post your UA-cam stuff. Your channel is hugely enjoyable and I hope you stay with us for ever.
On a trip back to where I was born (Dorset), I visited a thatcher doing a roofing display at a fair. Dorset has a lot of thatched buildings, and he explained how it was a viable roofing material, and the pros, and cons of it. I explained I lived in Canada, and would never be a customer, so he gave an honest description of his work. At a guess, about 40% of buildings there are thatched, which really surprised me. Like you, I had thought it would be only in the quaint, touristy areas. Nope; it is everywhere.
I think the West Country has more thatched properties than other parts of the UK. There are none at all where I live at the moment.
Tis oft said that if you do not like the weather in the UK..... wait 5 minutes 🙂
Alanna, from the busiest Cities to the quietest little village, from warm sunny days to cold wet & windy winter nights, from beautiful scenic views to dingy toilets in a Brighton night club the UK has it all and Adventure & Naps is a great place to come to join in the fun to & experience it.
I've heard good things about Brighton! I'm looking forward to visiting Brighton!
The toilets in Brighton nightclubs? Imagine how many bums they must have seen.
On the rainfall one, it might surprise you to know that the average annual rainfall in London is 615mm per year which is the same as Algiers, Algeria in North Africa. Lisbon, Portugal gets 774mm per year - much more than London. The difference is, of course, that London tends to get a little bit often, whereas Lisbon gets a lot all at once.
The Met Office long-term average states there are 156 days of rain (or precipitation) each year in London.
London gets much more rainy days though as it is light rain more often rather than heavy torrential rain all at once
But you can't get fish and chips ther.😂💖
Love to watch your videos. Thanks.
Really nice video, Alanna! Glad to have you with us. :)
Thats why i subscribed to you in the first place was your honesty and how frank you are! Good qualities to see in a youtuber! Plus your drink tasting videos are truly funny, keeps me coming back! you were the first foreigner reaction video that I found on youtube and your journey has been real fun! keep doing what your doing it works! lol!
Again Alanna another great video. In this country you can go from a small village to major city in a matter of minutes. Picturesque to bland buildings. I think for most visitors or people coming to live here, it is an eye opener. Especially the different accents that change every 18 miles(22KM). Keep up the videos and keep us laughing
I am just Happy that you have endured and are still here Alanna.... Bless you... :-)) xxxx
This summer was so hot and dry in the UK, over 40 C, at least in the South. The fields were parched due to the drought, it reminded me of parts of Australia, with the crops dying in the dry soil. But then the rains came and everything began to flourish again, including those kind of self deprecating Brits who once again moaned about the weather. Some Brits really don’t know how lucky they are.
Yes, if people land randomly in the UK expecting a posh voice anywhere outside pockets of south-east England, they're in for a shock !
Alanna, I was convinced you were saying "there are places around the UK that don't have.....great cider."
Some of our expectations may be generational. At aged eight, I was packed off 7500 km to choir school in London. It was before we had tv in E Africa, and the only English I had heard was the BBC on the wireless. Shock, like you, of my three roomies, just one sounded like my English. He was from Berkshire. The other two were indecipherable at first - a boy from Northwest 🏴, and one from 🇫🇷 🙄🤔. In 1958 we had no movies either, and Nairobi was 12 hrs away, so at eight, having schooled in my local village up to then, I had never seen another "white" child (being an only, and tanned darker than many of my pals), so I was utterly shocked on arrival at London Airport to spy lots of white kids. Nobody had thought to warn me!
Like yourself, I was packed off to school aged 7, as was my older Sister, she to an all girls school, a big shock at first, some snobbery, cold showers and unheated dorms that were like ovens in summer and freezers in winter. If lucky might have seen Father once a year when he was on leave, often cut short if a 'flap' developed, Mother was continually in and out of Hospital with an incurable, even today, illness. Still consider them the best days of my life. All the boys had different accents and Nationalities but the one thing we had in common was our Fathers professions, not all the same service though, a lot of rivalry between the RN, Army and RAF kids, more so with the civvie ones which we tended to look down upon, shame on us.
For the UK as a whole, Met Office states that there are on average 133 days of precipitation each year (taken from the 20 year long-term average).
Fascinating insights Alanna, and all good examples of how countries can defy people's expectations. One thing I've always wondered is how the UK has actually lived up to your expectations, I think that would be an interesting vid too.
Thanks again!
Good question! Thanks so much!
Can people please be aware there's the scam messages claiming to be Alanna on some comments asking to inbox them on telegram to claim a prize, DO NOT contact them, report the message to UA-cam, they are clearly scammers.
I'm the same I'm a country type of guy whenever I go to a big city I just feel lost amongst the concrete it's always nice to visit but I'm so glad when I'm back with the trees and The Beaches and little coastal villages.🌴
Great video as always. The same type of expectations go for the other way too, when folks from the UK move to Canada or the US. Of course, you already know that. 🙂
Nice video! I know what you mean about London. I always remember an evocative passage at the end of a book where a girl left a guy. She walks off and was "swallowed by the great brick maw of London."
Living in Spain, just visited Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds with the family, each have their own accents. My son was born in Spain but when he speaks English, it's with a South London accent. This trip I treat as education for him....
As with any undertaking I think it's always useful to take time to compare expectation with reality, so it was interesting to hear your analysis of your big life decision.
Cheers Stuart!
Alanna, another thought provoking video. I like these where you put a microscope on our lives and culture. Oh and I do live in a thatched cottage.
Thanks so much!! Would love a thatched cottage in theory, but I bet it's hard to maintain lol
Great video Alanna!
Perfect timing just cooked up some fried eggs and chips with beans so I'm all set for the Tuesday upload which I always look forward to 🥳 so in the words of the lady herself Let's Go 🎉🎉
Wooo thank you so much! Hope you enjoy!
This was a great idea video! Hope you’re having a good day!
Thank you so much!
Great thoughts that only come with life experience, your wisdom is growing. Yes indeed, we're all aging every second, perhaps one of your episodes you could use aging software to show Alanna from 22 to 102 and still pumping out the utubes! 😊👍
Great job Alanna! Happy days & travels.
Totally awesome video Alanna, I have no doubt a lot of folks can relate to your experience 😉. You're absolutely right, it's easy to watch TV and think it'll be just like that, also love hearing different accents, which, as you know, you also get in the US, although some folks need to come with subtitles - probably including me 😂
😂 I definitely struggle with a few accents, but those are ones I don't hear often. Love the variety, though!
Couldn't agree more with what you said at 10:30 about having to both live and work somewhere before forming a real opinion!
Thanks for the video Alanna ! 😀
Thanks for watching!
Beautifully wonderful video Alanna, perfectly imperfect Britain indeed, you must have worked hard on choosing your first topic, that set the tone so well, the fact that you used your own experiences and those of the people you play that/those games with online made the whole video inclusive in a very clever and informative way, you never make a duff video, but you always make videos that have a certain something that set you apart from others on UA-cam, it is also why you come across so well, insult a brit, be honest, you do this and we like you all the more because of it, you "for the most part" understand us and it shows. Take care :)
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate it
People (including me) rarely seem to realize that no part of the continental US is as far north as the southern most tip of the south of the UK mainland (the Lizard in Cornwall), and the north of the UK mainland is on a level with "some" of Alaska (not very much)
"Way more overcast", could not have put it better myself. Glad your canuck boots have defrosted, and are now only damp. Very damp. I find the "winter" a challenge too. Chin up, you bring us valued smiles, Alanna.
So damp! Thanks for watching!
Kent has stunning scenery though tbf, especially in Canterbury
Your observations and comments totally resonate with my experiences and expectations when I moved here many , many moons ago. I wish your videos had been around then . Of course the internet wasn't around then. 😂👍
Ahh glad it hear it wasn't just me!
Britain is an amalgamation of 4 different nations. The accent changes every forty miles.
Every 40? I don't think you've been paying much attention.
It having 4 different nations has no bearing on there being so many accents in each country.
It having 4 different nations has no bearing on there being so many accents in each country.
9:27 - The irony being that as I'm watching this it is chucking it down outside and I'm only a few miles down the road from you!
Glad you stuck it out Alanna!
Nice video as always Alanna.🙂
kent is the hose-pipe ban capital!! geologically less rain falls there than anywhere else in the uk
glad you are living your best life
I'm so glad you didn't declare defeat early on and return to Canada!!! If you had, I wouldn't have the guilty pleasure of your vlog to look forward to twice a week🙂🙂🙂Thank you for your fabulous work!!❤️
@@kb5509 i should be doing housework!! Alanna comes first.
Love my small, Northern Yorkshire town.
As you say Alanna, the only way to really get the reality is to try it. I definitely agree about London not being the place to be - I was born in a small village and have lived outside cities most of my life, although in contrast I worked in Central London for 25 years. I'd take life away from the city every time and twice on Fridays and these days I have to have a VERY good reason to go to the capital.
Even the BBC News doesn't stick to Received Pronunciation anymore. Huw Edwards for example has a Welsh accent
“I thought it was going to rain for the rest of my life.” and it did
watching FULL THANKS FOR SHARING
We usually get our weather from the Atlantic , so it's usually cloudy and wet.
Your diplomacy continues apace Alanna 👍
Thanks for watching!
Brit here, Most brits will do the same visit London for a fun day out but would not want to live there.
oh wow if you want more rain come to the Lake District, we have plenty!
If you want to hear posh accents go to the right pubs in west London (Fulham, Chelsea e.t.c.)
Thank you
Thanks for watching!!
You naturally struggled in the beginning but you are officially one of us now.
☺️
We don't get much rain where I am. Most gets dropped west of the pennines. The west is much wetter than the east or south east.
I'm from the North East and it hardly ever rains, overcast yes, I used to say that we lived in a weather void. Now when I lived in Torquay for a couple of years, it rained EVERY DAY.
I'm from Bromley in Kent and my first relationship was with a New Zealander , cross culture relationships have the best comedy 😂
I was amazed that Canadians had cars, I thought because it snowed all the time you need a dog sled or a ski-doo to get around.😁
I think you have fitted in very nicely
I appreciate that!
Coming from Kent, as I do, we seldom went to London because "It was full of foreigners". And that has been the case for many years. It's also bloody expensive.
Bizarre.
Hi Alanna! I've learned something.
Abbreviation text message FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out! I had to look it up, mind :)
Way back in the 1970's, before we emmigrated to Tronno; I used to think Canada was like a wilderness with Mounted Police being the norm! But no, it was just like in the American Police TV series with big wide cars, skyscrapers and all that.
Hi Alanna, when you first came here, did you look for things that gave you comfort (stuff that reminded you of home) or did you just accept you were somewhere new and go with the flow.
By comfort I mean certain foods, personal items with Canadian things like cups, cushions, pictures or bedding.
It's interesting to know, I've never been outside the country but moved to a different and I'm almost comparing.
Wales is green due to the rain. Though I miss living there, much prefer it to Kent
Cool video!
Thanks!
The only thing crazier than us brits is our weather! I remember what my late grandmother used to say when it pisse down, "its good for the gardens". I say that now myself! Keep up the good work Alanna 👍
Brits are not "crazy"
@@kb5509 🤪
@@johnwatson5235 CRAAAZZZYYYY...
@@kb5509 😂😍
You not CRAAAZZZZYYY now and then?🥳
London seems beautiful, but I think I’d prefer living in one of the London boroughs. Maybe a nice mid point between London and Windsor great park. This is a dream of course. I just discovered your channel today, and I’ve been binge watching, as I had a realization just yesterday, that one day, I’d love to be able to live in England, and try for dual citizenship, maybe. I know it would take a lot of time and effort to get there, but I’ve been very into British culture and entertainment over the years, but I never considered moving there until it just hit me. I live in eastern Pennsylvania, and I do love it here, but for years I’ve imagined myself living in England.
On the ball again 🙌🙌👍👌👏
🙏🏻
@@AdventuresAndNaps definitely a yes
Does any expat ever expect to see school children drinking cans of Stella on a Tuesday morning? If not they might be surprised 😄
😂
or sniffing glue at same time
Where the hell do you live? I'm a 57yr old Englishman and I've NEVER seen a school kid drinking Stella or any alcohol
@@bobbierocksbuster5584 I've seen this, are you southern?. I grew up in Leeds in the 80s and myself included always drinking/smoking out on the streets as young as 10, sometimes even younger. Not sure how it is now, cause of all this woke culture but I'm pretty sure kids/teens still do it
@@northernstarr county Durham
Alanna I didn't know that you streamed wow!!! I will definitely make plans to attend your streams!! Also thank you for your videos! I'm moving from America to the UK. My girlfriend and my brother (best friend) lives over there I consider them my family! I know that I belong in the UK but of course things aren't going to be easy and there are going to be hard ass times ahead! But stay the course everything will be alright!! Me and my girlfriend will be renting a flat in South London (Greenwich) I also plan on visiting the villages in the UK but I'm a city boy haha. I'm from Baltimore Maryland in the USA. Small towns aren't for me haha!! But I've no problem visiting them!
Ahh I hope you have a great move over here! And definitely come join us on Twitch!!
@@AdventuresAndNaps Thank you I will definitely stop by!
The Royal Borough of Greenwich* is a microcosm of the places Alanna talks about! It has a fantastic royal park and fabulous other open, green spaces, masses of history and historical sites (some on the banks of the Thames where the are also some beautiful old riverside pubs) and quaint shops and roads (check out Gloucester Circus). It also has less affluent areas and deprivation. Depending on where you are, it’s about half an hour to Charing Cross in central London by public transport. I hope you settle quickly and enjoy living there!
* London is divided into 33 ‘boroughs’ (including the City of London) for the purposes of local governance.
@@tonywall8393 Oh wow I learn more and more about London and it's boroughs! Thank you so much for sharing this information! Yes I can't wait to move and start living haha! As Alanna said it's going to be some tough days and some stressful ones but it's going to be worth! 100% Me and my gf are looking at a flat near the DL rail station. If that rings any bells!
Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins has a lot to answer for!!!!
Defo....🙄🙄
Here is to the next 6 years Alanna!
🥳 Thank you!!
I'm just grateful I found your channel. OMG super simppy😂
I really appreciate your support!!
@@AdventuresAndNaps Thanks Alanna 😊 it's been a few years. Always look forward to A+N time 👍👌
You seem to embrace ageing well. Valuing the maturity and wisdom that only life experience can bring. When we moved to Australia from the UK we expected to see kangaroos in the main street. Reality is different.
Like done watch done. Keep it up ..
I guess it's better than a place where I hear it snows every day.......
Cheers from the Pacific West coast of Canada.
You and your partner should come out to the BC coast, at the least to be better able to describe Canada better to your UK friends.
How often do you get identified as an American from the US? When I was in Europe, decades ago it was constant-and a big deal when I revealed that i was Canadia. Decades ago.
Out of curiosity....why did you move to the UK? I have not seen all your videos from whatever video 001 is so if you mentioned it in the past......just curious. If you have not shared the reason publicly then it's ok.
Which country do you prefer London or Canada?
Worried about the rain. Lol. Good one . It's raining now as I write this down. Yes We brits are worried about the rain. Most time ,the weather person get it wrong. Lol. And it's true , it's kinda gray most times. But when it's hot. It's hot. I don't like city's. When I was young and had jobs. It was fun. Now am more like you. Better to live in a town or village. Be safe . 👍😊
Thank you!!
I totally feel the same about London. It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't wanna live there.
Also, I've no idea what you mean about thatched cottages, historic high streets and trendy cafes. I have never seen these things where I live.
But Alanna, in Canada your "run-down" areas have the bonuses of moose, elk, caribou, bears and poutine - none of which are in the UK apart from poutine which can be found at a Canadian restaurant in Covent Garden...
Keep on amusing us please 👍
Honey, we can all have crap day without leaving the house. A brave choice to try to fit in to a different culture. Well done.
Oh, there is absolutely such a thing as a British accent. Calling a given accent a "British accent" isn't very specific, but then calling an accent "American" isn't particularly specific either. Boston and Piney Woods accents may not be quite as different (linguistically) as Exeter and Aberdeen, but they're definitely not quite the same, either. Yet it remains that both Brits and Americans can generally quite readily tell the difference between a British accent and an American accent, even if they don't know the differences between the other country's various more specific accents. (There are a couple of special exceptions, like the High Tider accent, which sometimes gets mistaken for British; but there are specific historical reasons for that, making it the exception that proves the rule.)
R.P. is actually a very special case (or strange outlier, depending what spin you want to put on it), because it was originally exclusively an affected (i.e., fake) accent, but people faked it so much that eventually it ended up being native for later generations.
And yeah, absolutely agree, big cities are neat to visit, but I would NOT want to live there. Cinci is great to visit. Toronto is great to visit. Chicago is great to visit. Cleveland is... better than Detroit, and the zoo is decent. But I would never want to live within an hour's drive of any of them.
You want to talk about overcast, I can top anything you can say. I grew up in northeastern Ohio (lived in Canal Fulton but was regularly in Massillon, Norton, and Akron for assorted reasons. When I was in seventh grade, in '87, we moved to western Michigan, and by the time we arrived it was dark out. The next morning, I got up, looked outside, and got out my camera, because the sky was sky blue, and I wanted photographic evidence of it, because I was concerned that people wouldn't understand that I meant it was _literally_ sky blue. Up until then I'd assumed sky blue skies were an artistic convention, similar to drawing yellow lines radiating outward from the sun. I was not aware that it could actually happen, and I assumed it was very unusual, because where we lived in northeastern Ohio, the sky is grey. Always. Sometimes it's darker grey, sometimes lighter grey, but it's always grey.
There is not one British accent but hundreds. They are regional and class related.
Here's something that struck me about this video:-
2:54 - "[...] sooner rather than later."
4:41 - "[...] sooner than later, [...]"
🤔
So overcast by still 25c in my flat
Alanna - how true. I worked in Devon/Cornwall for 20 years. Thankfully I am Back in E. Yorkshire. Devon/Cornwall endure 50 per cent more rainfall than my hometown. Not for me. Glad you settled down and stayed with us. When I was your age I was anti- royalty. I have softened a lot. They do many charitable things and suck in thousands of tourists.
Tbh your expectations were pretty tempered lol. A lot of people move countries expecting to escape their problems or to totally change their personality.
You're totally right! I guess I subconsciously already suspected I wouldn't be escaping my problems lol
Same with Digital Nomads!
Alanna never expected the vocal mating practices of foxes...🦊🇨🇦🇬🇧
😂 that, too!
I've been informed there is a kentish accent. Do you agree? I thought we just sounded as though we had a slightly soft version of RP.
You make England better.
You're too kind!!