During our US visit I was frequently asked the same three questions. In case you were wondering too:
When are you coming back?
We do not know for sure. The earliest will be the summer of 2011.
What is different in London?
Now that living in London is everyday life I do not notice the differences so much. I was hard pressed to put into words the differences. A big difference I notice quite often is when you go to the store to pick up any item you have to be prepared for the store to not have the item. For example, I go to buy mozzarella cheese. In order to avoid disappointment, I have a back up dinner plan because there is a very good chance they will not have mozzarella cheese on that day. In the US this rarely happens because if it occurred regularly the stores would go out of business and managers would be told off every time they were out of an item. The same holds true in restaurants. Always have a back up plan or two because they may not have half the item menu items available. At first this is aggravating. But once you are prepared then it is not such a big deal.
As a general rule strangers do not smile and speak to each other, especially on the bus or Tube. But I still smile and say hi.
How was it giving birth in London?
We have health insurance so it was basically the same. George was born at the “posh” London hospital. In Dallas the hospital would be considered yucky and I would have shopped until I found a better one. Medical care seems to be much less invasive. They always asked if it was okay to examine me. To which I really wanted to say, please do because I need to know what is going on and I am dying to know. In the US we like to hear numbers and stats – dilation, station. Only when I really pressed them to give me numbers would they actually disclose such information. After George was born and I was moved to my room the nurses came around at the beginning of the shift and I did not see them again. Also circumcision is not standard so I had to take a few extra steps to make sure it happened.
When are you coming back?
We do not know for sure. The earliest will be the summer of 2011.
What is different in London?
Now that living in London is everyday life I do not notice the differences so much. I was hard pressed to put into words the differences. A big difference I notice quite often is when you go to the store to pick up any item you have to be prepared for the store to not have the item. For example, I go to buy mozzarella cheese. In order to avoid disappointment, I have a back up dinner plan because there is a very good chance they will not have mozzarella cheese on that day. In the US this rarely happens because if it occurred regularly the stores would go out of business and managers would be told off every time they were out of an item. The same holds true in restaurants. Always have a back up plan or two because they may not have half the item menu items available. At first this is aggravating. But once you are prepared then it is not such a big deal.
As a general rule strangers do not smile and speak to each other, especially on the bus or Tube. But I still smile and say hi.
How was it giving birth in London?
We have health insurance so it was basically the same. George was born at the “posh” London hospital. In Dallas the hospital would be considered yucky and I would have shopped until I found a better one. Medical care seems to be much less invasive. They always asked if it was okay to examine me. To which I really wanted to say, please do because I need to know what is going on and I am dying to know. In the US we like to hear numbers and stats – dilation, station. Only when I really pressed them to give me numbers would they actually disclose such information. After George was born and I was moved to my room the nurses came around at the beginning of the shift and I did not see them again. Also circumcision is not standard so I had to take a few extra steps to make sure it happened.
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