Scotland vs. Arizona: Reverse Culture Shock

People have been asking me: "So how does it feel to be back in Tucson?" And the answer is, "Mainly, weird."

Some things feel very normal - for example, driving again is pretty much like it ever was, despite the kids' amazement that now I can drive.  With broad roads,  well-signed streets, and a zippy new(ish) car, driving is pretty easy, except for the unpredictable behavior of other drivers.   

But little things are odd.

I'm still walking on the wrong side of the walking path, which tends to be a problem on a campus with 50,000+ people - I'm likely to get bashed into (or run over by a bike, skateboard, or golf cart) if I'm not careful.

U of A Administrative building with cactus garden in front

When I went out to lunch, and we cleared our table afterward, it felt odd, as you would just leave your dishes on the table for someone else to clear in Scotland, even at a small cafe, so I haven't cleared my dishes at a restaurant for 2 years.

Looking at refrigerators and washing machines and cars (for example) - lots of things are just BIGGER in the U.S. These things seemed small in Scotland at first, and then we got used to the smallness so now everything seems big.

Dropping the kids off at school is different - I've traded a 30 minute walk (up two hills to A's school and down 1 1/12 hills to my work) for a 60 minute drive each morning, dropping C off, and then A, and then finally heading to work myself.  I still get a bit of a walk...but when I got my parking permit, the guys looked at me strangeley, as if "Why would you want to walk; most people want to park as close as possible to work!" And they wonder why obesity is a major problem in the U.S.

The Mexican food is certainly a lot better here, and the diversity of places to eat.  But with diversity comes mediocrity, too.  There are a LOT of "not that good" restaurants that can stay in business (all they have to do is fool some of the people, some of the time), so you have to be wary. And the prices seem to have risen exponentially in the five years we've been gone. We haven't even tried the sushi place yet, concerned about sticker shock.

There is a lot of choice...Dundee has fewer choices, in places to shop, places to eat - we relied a lot more on Amazon.co.uk to get us things that we wanted but couldn't find conveniently in town.  But in Tucson, choice abounds. Restaurants, stores, multiple malls. But then you have Target - which I missed when we first arrived in Dundee, but now seems like a black hole for money - you walk in, and $65 is vacuumed out of your pocket.  Even if you're only stopping by "to get one little thing."  In the UK, pharmacies sell medicines and a few related items (diapers, sanitary supplies). In Tucson, medicines are only one of approximately a million items sold by Walgreens or CVS. 

As I was when I first arrived in Tucson from the East Coast, I am surprised and how sunny it is, and how big the sky is.  Scotland has beautiful scenery on a sunny day, but the sun, and open space are different here in Arizona.

It's different driving around, too...I keep wanting to pull the car over and snap pictures of the "different from Dundee" things - like storefronts advertising homemade tamales, and tortillas. Like the surprisingly large number [now THIS is something that has changed in 5 years] of places where you can be certified as a user of medical marijuana...just right there as you drive past...don't know if they're all dispenaries, or a combination of sellers and "doctors" [I put this in quotes not because I doubt effects, but because this doesn't seem like the kind of service a doctor might specialize in, or advertise widely, but maybe it's just me] popping up to serve a market that has probably always been there in Tucson, but just not so..in your face.

I'm switching back to American words and spellings, even though I had switched over in Scotland - it's a bin, not a trash can; trousers, not pants; I'd even started saying "If you fancy X" - all that has to go. Ditto spelling - writing papers for British journals, having my email correct me when I slipped up - "behaviour", especially was one I used a lot and now have to not spell "wrong" for the American audience. 

But maybe I should try to keep the British spelling and speech patterns - I fogot how "cool" it is to be British in the U.S. It gives you a certain authority that you lack if you're just a regular American.  Some of my new co-workers were telling me I had an accent - I tried to explain that I've always kind of had a British-esqe accent, but it's just magnified by virtue of having spent two years where all my co-workers sounded like that...but maybe I should just cultivate it, and pretend I'm really a Brit. Trouble is, if I really try to do a Scottish accent, I end up sounding like the leprechaun from Lucky Charms. So scratch that. I'll just have to be an American for whom, right now, Scotland seems normal and Arizona seems weird.  Until it doesn't anymore.    

Scotland: Cultural Differences Part 3 (Or Seven Things What Will Shock my Seven-Year Old When We Return to America)

First, they don't call the whole continent "America." Over here, the U.S. Canada, Mexico, it all seems to be combined into "America." when her friends ask "Where are you from?" Audrey says "America," but soon she'll have to be more specific.

Second, there are no school uniforms, and as a result, U.S. kids care a lot more about their clothes. Don't get me wrong, kids in Scotland do care about their clothes, especially (for seven year olds) tracksuits and party dresses, but they really only have 2 days to indulge that interest. The other five days are back to the pinafore, or skirt, or (very occasionally for girls) trousers.  The related item to this is that (shh, don't tell my Scottish friends) only old ladies iron in the United States. Everyone irons here. It's like a national pastime. We've speculated that it's related to the dearth of clothes dryers.

Practicing with her uniformed "Dance Team" in the schoolyard

Third, there is no blackcurrant juice. Only grape. I am not sure how blackcurrent managed to take hold in the UK but it is everywhere. You can have blackcurrent, orange, or apple. Those are your choices. 

Okay this is actually a novelty Ribena radio, but it was the best blackcurrent picture I could find!

Fourth, you don't have to walk nearly as much, and only if you choose your home very strategically will you be able to walk to school (especially in Tucson). On the plus side, you won't be walking up two steep hills in the rain and "fresh breeze" to school every day. 

Fifth, some holidays that are minimally celebrated here in the U.K. are a BIG deal in the U.S. I have already been prepping her for Halloween. Of course the rise of Halloween (and Dia de los Muertos in Tucson) means that something else has to go - the "Bonfire Night" fireworks (and yes, bonfire) celebrating Guy Fawkes attempt to blow up Parliament (generally, in Scotland, or, celebrating that he failed, depending upon your location in the UK and your politics) won't be a fixture anymore on November 5, nor will there be Christmas Light Night in mid-November. 

Bonfire Night fireworks

Sixth, it's called a bathroom or a restroom, not a toilet. And a faucet, not a tap.  And a hundred other language differences.

Seventh, no one can sing the lyrics from One Direction's latest album.  At least, I hope they can't. For everyone's sake.

Scotland: Cultural Differences Part 1

After nearly two years in Scotland, the cultural differences have become normal to us. But as I contemplate the American visitors who are coming to see us in this, our last summer in Scotland, I think about all the things that will seem very foreign to them. I tried to make a list of all the "cultural differences" topics that I talk about when people ask how things are different in America. It's definitely too long for one blog post. So, here is Cultural Differences, Part 1, not necessarily in order of "importance" but in order of how I thought of them, which is generally how I experience them in everday life, too! 

1. Cultural norms are different
This takes lots of forms.  The most obvious examples I've run into concern customer service, tidyness, supermarket layout, and the house/garden distinction.

Customer service, in the UK, is generally minimal. And it's not just me. British people agree with me on this one. This is true for corporations - one of Paul's favorite stories about our move is that when he called to set up Internet service, British Telecom (BT) told him it would take 3 weeks. He said something along the lines of "I'm going to call your competitor! (Sky) and the agent replied, "Go ahead, they use the same technicians we do, so your Internet is still going to take 3 weeks." Customer service in shops and restaurants also tends to be very low-key. Part of this (especially in restaurants) is likley because tipping is uncommon.  A 10% tip would be generous. This may be more Scotland than other parts of the U.K. (Scots do have a reputation for penny-pinching).  On the flip side, however, you can get very personal service because the U.K. is a small place (well, maybe except for London). People know you. So I've received a personal call from a local librarian to tell me that a book I ordered is in. Also a call (probably from that same librarian) to tell me my 5-year-old forgot her kittycat stuffed toy at the library. I've also watched the owner of a small post office/corner store come out from behind the counter and help a woman with mild dementia do her shopping, while 6 or 7 people waited patiently in line while he helped her.
  
The supermarket layout in the U.K. is mystifying.  It totally reminds you that you are not in the U.S. Two particularly puzzling examples are pancake syrup and straws. In the U.S., the syrup would be in the baking aisle, near the pancake mix, and the straws would be in the paper products aisle, near paper cups and napkins. But in the U.K., pancake syrup is in the dessert aisle (because pancakes are generally a dessert/sweet treat) and straws are with the party stuff (because, why would you have a straw if you weren't having a party?) Also, tissues. Again, with the paper products in the U.S., OR you could buy them in a drug store. Makes sense, right - you have a cold, you go to get cold medicine, and tissues. Not so in the U.K. No tissues to be had in the drug store. Drugs, yes. Feminine hygieine products, yes. Hair products, yes. But no tissues. The upside was that during my fruitless search for tissues, I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a while.  She didn't seem to mind my runny nose.

Tisseus finally purchased at the supermarket, Tesco

Which brings me to...cleaning up after yourself, and your dog. I'm not saying that people in the U.K. are untidy. It's just aparently not as much of a cultural norm to pick up after yourself as it is in the U.S.  It starts early - I think Audrey is the only kid in her (first grade)  class who throws things into the trash bin in the schoolyard. It's just not expected.  If you go to a cafe, you leave your teacup and trash on the table. Someone will come clean it up. Audrey's school employs a janitor to pick up ofter the kids. And the local city government employs people to pick up the streets as well. You see them walking up and down the streets, wheeling along a trash bin and picking up everything that's left on the street. Except dog poo. Of which there is more than there should be. In the middle of highly traveled sidewalks. Big poo, small poo, what I have come to call "dog-a-rhea" for obvious reasons. Some people do pick up their dog's poo.  There are small bins for that purpose stuck to posts at regular intervals, and signs or stickers on the bins/posts to remind people that it's actually the law to pick up your dog poo in Scotland, but it doesn't seem to be changing anyone's mind. So watch where you step.
 
Speaking of stepping, you have to watch your step in people's houses, too, although not quite as literally.  In the U.S., if you invite someone to your home, it is likely that you will give them a tour of the house, especially if they have not visited you before. In Scotland this would be unheard of. If someone invites you to their home, you are expected to stay downstairs, probably in the kitchen, dining room, and living room. The only possible exceptions are if their only bathroom is upstairs (in which case you are allowed to visit it) and if they have kids (in which case the kids, if they are old enough not to destroy everything in their path, can go upstairs, but you should still ask before going to collect them from upstairs- it is likely that the Scottish person will bring them down rather than let you go up.)  Gardens, on the other hand, are a point of national pride.  You may be asked to visit a friend's garden and tour it, and you should be appropriately complimentary, as they have likely spent a lot of time getting it to its current lovely state.

Pond in my friend Frances' garden

2. Language is different
If you read this blog regularly you will have already read a lot about language, butI'll  just give it a few more words here, because it really is one of the big differences you notice as a foreigner.

First, British English has different words for almost everything.  And there are certain words that can lead to serious embarassment when used incorrectly.  Foremost among these words are pants and pumping.  If you are American, you're probably thinking...Pants. Pumping. Those words aren't very embarassing. One is something you wear when it's chilly outside, to keep your legs warm, and the other has multiple meanings - you can pump gas, or pump your legs on the swing to keep swinging higher and higher, especially if you're seven. But in the U.K., pants are underpants, so if you slip and say "I bought some new pants" people will titter.  This was absolutely the first language change made by the 5-year-old. "Mom, don't say pants! Say trousers!" Pumping in the U.K. means farting. So pumping on the swing takes on a whole new meaning (thank you to my three Scottish readers who are laughing right now).
 
Second, Scotland has accents in abundence.  I have written about this before but it's inescapable on the the ground. Once you start hearing the differences, you can detect Edinburgh (the mildest of the Scottish accents, at least among the educated Edinburgh folk I know. Sounds nearly English, but shhh, don't tell them, they'll be offended). Aberdeen sounds a bit like Scrooge McDuck (again, this is not a compliment, sorry people from Aberdeen).  Glaswegian is distinct from Dundonian, and then there's the Highland accent which is slightly more intelligible than the outlying islands, where the accent and the vocabulary are fairly different from anything you hear "on the mainland."  Plus throw in people who still retain and English accent or an Irish one after living in Scotland for some time. Everyone may have some common "Scots" dialect like saying "wee" for anything small, and (on the east coast) "bairns" for kids (there's a different word for the West coast but since I don't live there, I don't know what it is!)  But back to where I began this post; I just asked Paul to describe the Glaswegian accent, and he said "I don't know - whe we first got here I could hear it, but now I don't anymore." It's just normal.

This poster, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, is probably one of the most common memes in Britain, When I Googled Scottish Accents to look for a good image, I got "Keep Calm and Love Scottish Accents" and "Keep Calm and Fake a Scottish Accent"