Ten differences between the US and the UK

Big flags, big smiles and the absence of cats

The clocks have gone back here in Skagit County, on November 3^rd in fact. So there is a week where I am just 7 hours behind my friends and family in the UK. Not all places change their clocks I discovered a few years ago. Arizona for one and Perth in Western Australia for another.

With the shorter days, my desire to be out among the trees grows stronger. Sunshine, sometimes weak and limpid beckons to me. We are blessed with an abundance of trails in every direction and of every kind from urban river walks to mountain climbs. High winds and stormy weather has us stay out of the trees. They’re big, really big and you really really don’t want to be under those when they are shedding branches. We have the La Conner boardwalk trail alongside the Swinomish Channel. Last week at the tail end of high wind, the channel churned and sparkled in the sunlight breaking through the late afternoon clouds. The wind whipped our faces and my spirits danced.

I’m drafting this on election day and it’s a welcome distraction to consider differences in the US and the UK. It is an entirely personal and subjective view but I thought this might be fun for readers on both side of the pond. These are just a random selection of things I’ve noticed so far:-

1. Doorways are bigger here in the US

In homes, shops, offices, restaurants. Everywhere. Doorways are just bigger. While I’ve always loved higgledy piggledy old buildings with low doorways and tiny cupboard-under-the stairs hideaways, I am enjoying the assumption of the necessity for a certain minimum amount of space in doorways. Does it perhaps affect the psyche? It invites easy passage. You are not stooping or turning slightly sideways to pass through a doorway. I never feel like Gulliver here.

There are places in the UK, I do. I’m not especially tall, 5’ 7” at the last measuring. Here on the West Coast of the US, the built environment of modern day cities and towns was largely constructed by immigrants. Most structures have gone up in the last 150 to 200 years. Is it a factor of no space restrictions? In an already crowded medieval town in England, finding space for large doorways may just be impossible. They say Americans are larger framed than Europeans. I’m not sure that is accurate. Some are for sure. But many are not. Something else that is bigger, are the Autumn colours.

2. Autumn or Fall colour is more vibrant

Vibrant yellows stand out against the dark green cedars and firs as American hornbeam, beech, hickory, sycamores, sugar maples, ash and black and yellow birch leaves turn before they fall. Stunning pink and red leaves of ornamental Japanese maples offset the towering dark green needles of pine trees and the ever present cedar trees here in the Evergreen state. Thank you to Dicken for sharing with me that these are newcomers. Thirty years ago, you didn’t see many. Now they are showing off their finery in every other yard or so it seems. Fall colours, as they are called here on the west coast, are not as spectacular as on the east coast in places like New England but I was talking with someone from Southern California the other day and they just love Fall here because in Los Angeles (a city built in the desert) fallen Autumn leaves were a rare treat. She used to love to kick up the few leaves she found. Here giant yellow and red leaves carpet the trails. The sheer scale of the tree giants makes Autumn colour more vibrant. Does this extend to the people too? The next point begs the question are Americans essentially more friendly than Brits?

3. People in stores seem happy to see you!

My UK friends may know immediately what I’m talking about. When I first began visiting the US I was shocked by how friendly waiting staff and shop assistants were. Admittedly it was in Northern California where the smiles are wide and the teeth are whiter than white. I compared this to the muted or non existent welcome common in some stores in the UK. It got me curious. Here there is a big tipping culture, not just in restaurants but hairdressers, car services and coffee shops. For wait staff, or servers as they’re known here, there is for sure, a big incentive to be friendly and helpful as tips potentially make up a large proportion of your income when you work in hospitality. But this smiling friendliness was universal. In supermarkets (grocery stores), libraries and other places where no tipping occurs. I’ve noticed a difference between Washington state and California. Up here in Washington, the greetings are still warm and friendly but a little less effusive. I realise how in some shops and offices in the UK the attitude to customers or members of the public is a real mixed bag. Indifference, surly indifference or downright rudeness used to be common. I think it has improved a great deal. I would say my experience of the US is of a more courteous people in general. This one could be debated for ever but the next point is a small, nice little detail I’ve noticed.

4. Water is brought to the table in restaurants

I remember my Mum talking about this on a visit to Seattle and Bainbridge Island many years ago. It’s true, water is brought and the glasses refilled throughout the meal as standard. It isn’t bottled water and you are not charged for it. In the places I’ve been, it’s delicious! Thinking about it, perhaps that has come over to the UK from the US in recent years. Many trendy coffee shops and cafes in the UK have a water station where you help yourself. That’s common in cafes here too. Water is water but driving, ah now that is another matter.

5. Americans drive on the right hand side of the road.

I’m curious about the origins of which side of the road drivers in different countries drive. In Australia they drive on the left as we do in the UK and Ireland. Apparently in Japan too. Most of mainland Europe drives on the right. Maybe someone can enlighten me? Most cars here are automatic.

As a permanent resident from the UK, I have to take a driving test here to get a Washington license. Interestingly, if I was here visiting I could use my UK driver’s license for up to one year, but as a permanent resident it is only valid for the first 30 days. I’ve already taken the Driver Knowledge Test which is required before you can get an Instruction Permit. It was fun learning the Highway Code and doing mock tests online. I felt 17 again. In general driving here is slightly slower than in the UK. The speed on most freeways (motorways) is 55 miles per hour and highways the top speed is 50 mph. As with the doorways, the roads are wide and outside of cities, towns and freeways, the roads are rarely congested. Driving is similar but different. The next difference is a big one, for me, coming from the UK.

6. Visibility of tribal people

The house we rent is on land owned by the Swinomish tribe and the community is under the jurisdiction of the tribe police. As you enter tribe owned land there are signs. A local coffee shop has a short booklet with guidance on how to talk to people from the tribe. I realised how ignorant I am about these things and so was really glad of the input. The La Conner Swinomish Library has a great section of indigenous writers and history. There is much for me to learn.

At events there is often a statement read out at the opening and printed somewhere in the publicity material, acknowledging if the event is taking place on lands once occupied by tribal people. This is something I noticed in British Columbia in Canada as well. The presence of the Swinomish tribe is visible to me through art, community signs, businesses and housing areas and we are guests on their land.

There is no equivalent in the UK that I am aware of. There is something that unites the people of this area.

7. People who live here love Skagit County

This isn’t a difference but a similarity to what I found living in Wales for twenty odd years. Of the people I have met there is a mix of those who’ve moved here from other parts of the US or other parts of the world and those who have grown up here. Universally there is an absolute joy at living here. A sense of being in the most extraordinarily beautiful place. In Wales too, I found a love of the land among people who lived there. Communities that love their place tend to take care of it and take pride in it.

8. The flags and billboards are huge

And I mean ginormous. It still gives me pause. I have never seen such enormous flags. As you drive along the interstate, flags tower over you like sentinels. It fits. The landscape here is vast. Mountains taller than tall. Giant trees. Rock formations that make you feel you are ants living in dolls houses. I have been lucky to do road trips up and down the coast of California and from Northern California through Oregon to Washington state. So I have assumed the huge billboard thing is a universally American thing. But this is not so apparently. Thanks to Coizie who told me in passing there are no billboards in Vermont. A small state on the east coast. And we are back to ways in which things are bigger and better in America.

9. Halloween decorations and pumpkins are bigger and better

Halloween creations

I can’t let an opportunity to share more pictures of the wild and wonderful Halloween decorations I’ve seen go by. It’s been a delight to witness the creativity and effort that goes into Halloween decorations and I have seen the largest pumpkins I’ve ever laid eyes on over the last weeks. I used to grow organic vegetables, including pumpkins but these are something your average village, county or even national agricultural show in the UK would not believe. Something that is notable by their absence are cats.

10. The absence of domestic cats.

I saw a cat under a mail box the other day and it was only in that moment, I realised how rare it is to see cats outdoors. That got me thinking because I know the US is a nation of cat owners. The ones I’ve heard of tend to be indoor cats. The reason, round here at least becomes apparent very quickly. Look up! The skies are full of raptors. Cat collars have been found in Bald eagle nests. At dawn and dusk there are coyotes and bob cats on the prowl around the golf course near the marina and undoubtedly in the neighbouring forest. Both would happily snatch a cat for supper. People here don’t take small dogs into forests after dusk. Mountain lions are also in this area. It is a beautiful, seldom seen, large cat whose other names are cougar, panther, catamount and puma. Deer are its primary prey. With bigger predators around, domestic cats are unlikely to be out preying on small birds. In the UK most cats are outdoor cats and they can prey on birds and small rodents.

These are ten random differences I notice between the US and the UK from my observation point here in Skagit County. I hope it uplifts and entertains you.

Since I drafted this, the election here has come and gone. There are plenty of words on that everywhere, so take this as something completely different.

Threads that pull me

I went on a media fast for a few days which meant only consuming words where absolutely necessary (some emails). This meant abstaining from social media, news and hardest of all, books! It wasn’t election related though I was thankful to step aside from the frenzy. It was more to find my own words again with my novel. Thanks to Julia Cameron for this tip she shares in the book, The Writing Life.