Christmas in England

For my first Christmas away from my family, it was pretty difficult. Not only was I not home for Christmas with my family, but I was in an entirely different country. I'm not a huge fan of England, either. I love Wales, but England is just something else entirely. I know, I know, some of you are rolling your eyes right now. How could I not like England? Bear with me. I thought I would love England until I actually went there. I want to stress again that I do love Wales and I've only been to Wales and England, someday I'd have to visit the other two countries that make up the UK, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

This Christmas Ollie and I stayed in a hotel and commuted to his mother's house for visits. To me, Christmas was so different this year. Can you imagine, being so used to Christmas at your mother's house in snowy Michigan and then suddenly in a hotel in a suburb of London? I know, some of you are thinking 'this girl is crazy, I'd do anything to be in the UK!! It's England how could she not like it?!' However, me moving to the UK has made me realize something very big.


In the past, I'd never consider myself patriotic. People around me, sure. I know lots of people who are die hard Americans. It's not like I didn't like my country, I just didn't express my love for it on a daily basis. Until now. Oh America, how I miss you! I took you for granted! Please, give me another chance? I remember when I first got really home-sick or should I call it country sick, since I missed the US? I told Ollie that if I saw an American I would hug them. Well, here's the problem. I'm so used to hearing American accents that it no longer registers in my brain. Ollie would hear American accents and he'd automatically turn around and go "did you hear her? She's American!" and I'd be confused because I didn't even recognize the girl's accent.

I've come to a conclusion. Maybe before I moved to the UK I was less aware of the world. I mean, you don't just hop on a plane to another country and then your eyes are wide open. I went to Prague when I was 15, and although it was eye opening, I was mostly in awe of the architecture and art, oh and of course the rich history of the Holocaust within the Czech Republic. But it didn't give me that "I love America" feel as much as the UK does. Well, I have to admit- while I was in Prague I hated the food. I remember the last night we were there my mom and I went to McDonalds to hopefully get something relatively American but even their Mickey D's was full of Czech delicacies.

The moral of this story is simply this: don't take what you have for granted. I took the US for granted and yes I can come back and fully appreciate that I was born in such an amazing country and thank my relatives for immigrating to the United States. The UK is a great country as well, but it's no America.

Here's a bonus: a photo of me with the lady M&M