Underwear, Knickers and Pants

Americans don’t wear knickers.  They just have underwear.  And they wear their pants over their underwear, which kind of makes sense.  Except that I am British.  So underwear, knickers, and pants are all essentially the same thing.  Although having said that, knickers are normally female in the UK, whereas underwear and pants can be for either sex.

Yes, I am getting my knickers in a twist over the differences between American and British English again!

British pants were not always underpants.  When I was a child the word “pants” was normally used to refer to any sort of long trousers, the same way that the Americans use the word.  It didn’t matter what they were made of, denim, tweed, or cotton, as long as they started at your waist and covered your ankles, they were pants.  Then, during the 1990s, something rather strange happened.  Suddenly British people started using the word “pants” to mean underpants.  If you used the word in the old sense, to mean any type of long trousers, people would snigger at you, as if you were committing some enormous “faux pas”, when all you were actually doing was using the same word that everyone had always used in the past. 

My brother lived in Germany during the 90s and returned home to Britain to find that people were giggling when he talked about his pants.  I have the opposite problem to my brother.  I have to keep reminding myself that when Americans refer to their pants, they are not discussing their knickers.

I guess this sort of thing has happened before.  I mean, I remember my grandmother referring to my footwear as “stockings” instead of “socks” when I was a child.  I have no idea when the sock/stocking change happened but it clearly took place during my grandmother’s lifetime, but before mine.

As Americans don’t use the word, “knickers”, I’ll leave you with some of its uses, other than meaning an item of underwear.

1.  “Knickers!” exclaimed can mean “Rubbish!” or “Nonsense!”

2.  It can also mean, “Oh sod it!” and you can say “Knickers to that!” when you are fed up with continuing something.

3.  The phrase: “Don’t get your knickers in a twist!” means don’t get unduly stressed out.

10 Things that a Brit in the USA should never forget! (funny British and American differences written from experience!)

Being a Brit who has visited the USA many times and who now finds himself to be a US immigrant living here, I’ve learnt from experience that despite many similarities, there are a number of funny British and American differences, both with British and American culture, as well as British and American English.  So here are my 10 things that a Brit in the USA should never forget!

1.  Don’t forget that there are alligators, snakes and giant insects roaming loose in the neighbourhood.  Even if the Floridians think this is normal, it is not.

2.  Remember that under no circumstances should you say: “smoking a fag”, as it means something very different in the USA to what it does in England.  Remember  that to the American ear, you are not referring to “puffing on a cigarette”, you are talking about “shooting a gay person”, or doing something more graphic to him.

3.  Don’t forget that you can eat pancakes all year round in the USA and not just on Shrove Tuesday.  Yum yum.

4.  Don’t forget that the weather is predictably sunny in Florida.  You do not need to take a jacket or a jumper out with you, just in case the weather turns bad.  They do not have rain, sunshine, hail, wind, sleet, snow, and fog all in one day, like they do in Britain. 

5.  Don’t spend two weeks searching for coriander in the supermarkets.  There is no herb of that name in the USA.  If you want to make a curry, look for something called cilantro.  It looks and smells like coriander and is in fact, coriander, but it is called by a completely different name.  Do not attempt to pronounce oregano the way that the Americans do.

6.  Don’t forget that when an American in the Deep South says that he’s been saved, it doesn’t mean that someone has stopped him from drowning, or prevented him from scoring a goal at football – he means that he has found the Lord.

7.  Don’t forget to leave a tip every time you go to the bar and buy a beer.  Remember that the USA is the most generous tipping culture in the world and that they thrust dollars at people just for looking in their general direction – okay that’s a slight exaggeration. 

8.  Remember that Americans usually drink out of small beer bottles and European 500cl bottles are relatively rare.  Do not imply that American men are less manly because of this. 

9.  Don’t forget that the day after Christmas is just another day in the USA and the term, “Boxing Day” does not exist.

10.  Do not attempt to use the phrases: “in a strop”, “dustbin men”, or refer to a “yard” as a “garden”, as you will get blank or funny looks.

Trash can or dustbin?

My new UK expat blog: I got my K1 Fiance Visa, now I'm living in the USA!

Arrival

Welcome to my new UK expat blog!  It’s been a packed 6 weeks since I arrived to start my new life and began living in the USA.  Once I'd got through my K1 Fiance Visa interview and received my immigrant visa from the USA Embassy in the UK, my plan was to come over to Florida in time for Christmas.  But I nearly didn’t make it, due to the heavy snow in Europe and I had to spend an unscheduled extra 24 hours at Dublin Airport en route from the UK to Florida.  I should have guessed what was about to happen when I saw the flakes fluttering down onto the runway as we came in from Manchester.  The worst thing was that they made us board the plane (pictured below) and wait around, before ordering us off it again 2 hours later.  Then they told us that they were closing the airport down because of the weather and we had to leave the building complex.

It’s no fun being amongst a crowd of angry and upset people, especially when there are thousands of them, it’s snowing heavily outside, you don’t have a penny of the local currency, you’re lugging around two heavy suitcases, one carry-on and a large guitar, and you’ve no idea where you’re going to sleep that night!  On top of that there were people still arriving at the airport, unaware that the authorities were trying to evacuate it, due to fears of overcrowding!

Anyway, it all worked out in the end, I got a lift to a hotel in a van full of Americans and Irish and my plane was rescheduled for the next day.  Aer Lingus have since told me that they’re going to refund my accommodation expenses.  I’d always fancied visiting Dublin, but that wasn’t what I had in mind!

Marriage

The journey to Orlando was uneventful after that and I came through customs without any problems, although it was pretty time-consuming.  Upon arriving in the US port of entry on a k1 fiance visa, the official kept telling me that I needed to get married within 90 days, or I’d be kicked out of the country.  I told him that I was aware of the US immigrant visa restrictions and that, despite not having fixed a date for the ceremony, I planned to get married very soon! 

Abby and I have been seeing each other for over three years, ever since we met on MySpace.  We were both involved with the poetry/writing scene there and became romantically involved, communicating with webcams on Skype each evening.  Six months later I flew over to the US and we met in person for the first time!  It was a little nerve-wracking, but luckily we hit it off.  After that we met up every 4 months, me visiting there and Abby and her daughter coming to the UK.  But living three thousand miles apart was never going to be a serious long-term option, so I applied for a fiancé visa.

We tied the knot a month ago in mid-January.

Money and Poetry

I had to give up a decent job to move over here (I worked for the library service back in Yorkshire) and am currently unemployed.  I brought some savings with me, but psychologically I feel a little self-conscious about not having any income coming in.  So I thought I’d look into ways of earning online and came across Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.  It looked interesting.  I’ve since blogged about it on hubpages (I’ve posted the cheesy pic I used for the blog below! Hehe!), basically you perform tasks on your computer and receive small payments that you exchange for Amazon giftcards.  The first day I tried it I did a dozen tasks and received the grand sum of 34 cents!  I now make about $9 on a good day, which usually takes up 2 or 3 hours of my morning.  It doesn’t make a massive difference to the household finances, but it does pay for a few little luxuries that we wouldn't have had otherwise! 

I’ve also been involving myself with the local writing and poetry scene, performing a couple of readings at a local café bar with Abby, and have also made moves to do some (unpaid) work with a local writer’s group, which I’m looking forward to!


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