American on the outside, looking in.

So I'm safely back in England. Safely through customs, safely assured another year, safely here.

Boy, I'm different.

December 17th will mark my one year anniversary as an immigrant (I'm not quite yet the expat). In that time I believed I had changed, but not nearly to the extent of change that greeted me whilst roaming through my former home states. (I note my use of 'whilst' and my utter fascination with 'fortnight' as words denoting minor change.)

Firstly, I hate having to drive everywhere. Now that was fairly common knowledge before, but the seething passion that came out at thinking about 30 minutes here and 1 hour there was apparent. I recall once that I had a fantastic colleague over from the UK when I lived in Texas. Their shear shock at how far things were puzzled me. "We could've been in Scotland by now," were the words they used when we were on our 3 hour trip to Austin. In the time I spent on the road and in traffic I could have conceivably visited four to five European countries. Instead, I spent it driving hither and tither to see people...

Which leads me to another thing - I appreciate space WAY more. Sure, I had to drive, but man there are ceilings that are high in the homes I visited! Aisles that are wide in the stores I browsed! Selection which is long like the wall of salsa! When going to grab some cleaning solution for our tenant maintenance I nearly had a panic attack when denoting the 10 different varieties I had to choose from. Sure, I do like the two (if that) choices you get at the local Co-Op for the sake of simplicity, but what I cherished most was approaching an aisle of bread which looked stocked and fresh - not raided like post-hurricane clean-up.

Though the one thing that really, really got me was how much more active I am. Sure, I noticed when completing my first 10K here that 10 minutes evaporated off my time based on my lifestyle, but looking at the American population - wow. The number of people waddling along and looking poorly based on a lifestyle of sitting and eating horrible foods - I never really saw it until now. I keep a pedometer with me to get points towards a yearly award from supplemental insurance. On average I get my maximum points in 18 days. In my two weeks there, between driving and moving, I only have 1 day worth of points out of the 14 traveling. One day.

If there is anything that really, truly shocked me - it was that.

Standing on the outside and looking in on my old life I know there was good and bad to it. America is a wonderful place despite it's flaws and most likely one day I will return to roost. But for now I like my little Oxford existence, even though it's not perfect either. My goal is to one day be in Florida acting like a Brit/American hybrid - walking all over town but instead of beet red slathered in sunscreen. And as the people drive by, confused about my skin tone but my ability to transport via foot I will know I have indeed brought two different worlds together as one.