Any of y'all homesick?

[Opalie 0]

There's a great pub in apopka that is awesome...sometimes you can't even get in the place. St Andrew's Tavern iirc. They put out some pretty traditional food too.

I used to live in Apopka and went there many times. You can even order sausages and back bacon to take away from there, they were pretty accomodating :-)

[Alex & Rachel 78]

After living here for nearly three years, there are only a very few things I have not been able to find:

- golden syrup/black treacle

- good-quality joints of lamb at a decent price, including things like lamb's liver

- Jaffa cakes! I can find McVities digestives, rich-tea and all kinds of Jaffa cakes substitutes/rip-offs, but not McVities Jaffa cakes (or, I think I did once, but they were INCREDIBLY stale!)

Pretty much everything else, from all varieties of chocolate to good bacon/sausage, bread, biscuits, the particular brands of curry pastes/chutney I like, even mint jelly (for the non-existent lamb), jelly babies, etc., I've been able to find, even if it is in some specialty market at a ludicrous price. Then again, I'm fortunate enough to live in a heavily urbanised area.

[DiZZyLoX 114]

we found the curry sauces and powders...even found wheatabix. i'm surprised you can't find lamb. there's so many little greek places around here that they must be getting that lamb from somewhere. It's about. Gotta be.

[GDHB 3]

Our situation's not typical; we're both Brits. I've been here 15 years, Fiona arrived for the first time 2 years ago.

There are things I love and miss in the UK (Family, Friends, pickled onions, affordable AND good lamb, etc) but I always look forward to coming home.

There's a great UK food store in Nashua NH (British Aisles) where you can get a lot of stuff that you might miss.

I've made my own pickled onions, even given them as gifts (British ####### label). We make our own Steak and Kidney pies, Toad in the Hole, etc. We buy DVDs from Amazon UK and watch them on a region-free player.

AIR QUALITY

My wife has a respiratory issue, but in the six months she's been in New Hampshire, never needed her inhaler once. We flew back to the south-east of England ten days ago; within a few days she needed the inhaler.

I have a good job, she will soon, we have wonderful friends. We've found a wonderful place to share our future together and will not be staring wistfully across the ocean.

[N M 96]

Milky Ways in the UK are different to the US Milky Ways, I think.

US Mars Bars are nothing like UK Mars Bars, but I suppose the nearest thing to a Mars is a US Milky Way.. got it? Good, cuz I haven't.

Ok - Neal's guide to American "chocolate" bars.

US Milky Way = Very similar to a UK Mars bar.

US Mars bar = Kind of similar to a UK Topic.

3 Musketeers = Similar to a UK Milky Way.

But as with all American bars, the chocolate tastes VERY different. It's all down to the different ingredients, and personally I'm not a fan.

By the way - American made Cadbury's products taste like #######. Ditto American Kit-Kats.

[Damian&Kelly 16]

American Cadbury's is just Hershey's in a Cadbury wrapper.

I live right next to Hershey and I love how they say it's sold around the world, yet it's really hard to find in England, changed my view a bit.

[David And Katie 5]

Went to Meijer the other day (midwestians will know...) and went to the "foreign" food aisle.

Everything in the British section was SO overpriced. I mean I understand that a: it has to be imported (mostly) and b: it has a "cool" factor of being foreign which immediately adds about 50% to the price, but $8 for a SMALL 125g jar or Marmite? Sod off!

I told my dad this and bless him he went out and bought some marmite, digestives and hobnobs to send in a care package! D'oh.

[Empress of Groovy 373]

Went to Meijer the other day (midwestians will know...) and went to the "foreign" food aisle.

Everything in the British section was SO overpriced. I mean I understand that a: it has to be imported (mostly) and b: it has a "cool" factor of being foreign which immediately adds about 50% to the price, but $8 for a SMALL 125g jar or Marmite? Sod off!

I told my dad this and bless him he went out and bought some marmite, digestives and hobnobs to send in a care package! D'oh.

I think there's a Marmite cartel in the U.S. I've never seen it anywhere here for less than $6 for a small jar.

[Pooky 3,807]

Went to Meijer the other day (midwestians will know...) and went to the "foreign" food aisle.

Everything in the British section was SO overpriced. I mean I understand that a: it has to be imported (mostly) and b: it has a "cool" factor of being foreign which immediately adds about 50% to the price, but $8 for a SMALL 125g jar or Marmite? Sod off!

I told my dad this and bless him he went out and bought some marmite, digestives and hobnobs to send in a care package! D'oh.

I think there's a Marmite cartel in the U.S. I've never seen it anywhere here for less than $6 for a small jar.

The question I have is ...

"Why are you looking for Marmite in the first place???!!!"

[Empress of Groovy 373]

The question I have is ...

"Why are you looking for Marmite in the first place???!!!"

For the husband, of course! Although I can tolerate it. I like salt.

[GDHB 3]

The question I have is ...

"Why are you looking for Marmite in the first place???!!!"

If there is any question in your mind that you should be looking for Marmite, you should read this:

So you think you're rather English?

[Pooky 3,807]

If there is any question in your mind that you should be looking for Marmite, you should read this:

So you think you're rather English?

To which, I will counter with the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r99w-gOtj4

[Pooky 3,807]

Then there's these ...

... and, last of all ...

[Nik+Heather 121]

You're just two years behind us.

So far, Nik hasn't really felt home sick at all (I've asked a few times). The good news for him is that he spent a lot of time online at home, and guess what, the intarwebz is the same here as it is there. In fact, he's got even more bandwidth here! We have also found a board game group from meetup.com, so a lot of the time when we go out, we see people who are "our" friends and not just "my" friends. You don't even need to find a British club, just something in common to start building up a life again.

I think also driving was a big help. It's some independence, and more comfort/understanding with the sort of flavor of the new city. We sort of happened into a good pattern, while he was waiting for paperwork, I went with him a few times to the Home Depot down the street, and gave him some "Honey Do" things, and he could go out by himself to the store with a goal, and of course, driving me to and from work (we still share the car I had before marriage). Then we just slowly expanded his radius, and now he can comfortably go all the way to the outskirts of town and back. Most of that without a gps, which I think was uncomfortable at first, but it was a really great way to stretch his boundaries. AND, now I can talk to him like a local "Oh, that shop is on 44th street and Camelback...", and he'll have an idea of where that is and in what direction it is from where he's currently standing. I know when I was over there visiting him, just sitting as a passenger was bewildering. No idea what direction we were going, where we were etc. It was helpful too that my retired parents live nearby, so sometimes if my mother was nearby, and he needed to go somewhere unfamiliar and farther away, she could go with him to navigate - and maybe some comments about American driving, which is easier to hear from someone not your spouse sometimes.

Sometimes he wishes for a little taste of home, but as we've been looking there are a LOT of things which have come over. For example, we now have Crunchy Nut Cornflakes - his favorite breakfast cereal (and Weetabix has been here a while too). The flagship Fry's (Kroger) grocery store around here in the rich side of town has a relatively large section of actually imported British foods. Treacle, and squash and some sort of lemon spread stuff, "real" chocolate, spotted #######...just about all the weird things I've ever heard of. Not to mention the ex-pat we found who runs his own import shop, where we can get BACON. *drool* On the other hand, I've introduced him to many new foods which are new favorites!