How Are We Doing So Far, Y’all?

In a couple of days time, I will have been living in the US for two months. Every time people ask me in emails or on the phone (thanks Si), “How’s it going?”, I have to tell them that I’m still settling in. Lots to do. Forms to fill in (or “out”).

This chap has been living in San Francisco for a good few years, and his post the other day got me thinking about my own experience so far. He’s also one of the founding members of ORG, which does vital work in the UK, and which you should join. In fact, I think it was his pledge that started it. Anyway.

I’ve been having a good time, no question. Visiting LA, receiving visitors in SD, enjoying a national holiday or two. But all of this is against a background noise of “settling in”. Phone, internet, cable, driving license, parking permit. Driving on the right, automatic, air conditioning, remote garage door opener.

The mundane stuff like grocery shopping is a new adventure. I think I’ve figured out that 1% milk is the same as the semi-skimmed I liked in the UK. I have enough Typhoo to last me a while, and then after that, what do I do? Should I keep trying to drink tea in the British way? Should I succumb to the caffeine-drink snobbery that pervades the middle classes here (“let the bag steep for exactly two minutes, not a second more or you have ruined your tea”, “if you don’t roast and grind your own beans, you are ignorant scum”)? Maybe I’ll just buy a filter machine and swill venti until I sweat.

More to come. In the meantime, I’m fine, settling in, lots to do.

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