America, the Beautiful

11 September 2010
Mood: EXHAUSTED
Theme Song: Nothing, as I left my iPod on the plane from Atlanta to Cincinnati two weeks ago *angry face*

Sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting for my return flight back to London Gatwick. It always amazes me how many people are always in the airport, no matter where I am. I sit here wondering - where are they going? why are they going there? are they happy? sad? future axe murderers? (yes, yes I know I think too much)

This trip back home has been so surreal for me. I haven't been back to Cincinnati since the very first of the year. (I went to San Diego for work in March but that was just a few days and very isolated - work all day, hotel, etc.) I know I've only been living in England for going on 9 months now, but it has already started to feel like "home" - maybe that is why I have been so hyperaware of all of the differences.

Someone asked me during my time here to describe the top three differences between the U.S. and England. Here is what I said:

1. Expecation of service. This is not to say that you get bad service all the time in England. What I mean is that we, as Americans, have an innate expectation of good service. Our free market system means that if we don't get what we need/want from one provider/vendor, we can easily (in most cases) simply just go somewhere else.  Companies, by and large, want to provide good service and want to make the customer happy. I don't think it's the same in England - or at least that's been my experience. The country is smaller and the infrastructure is different, and so there isn't this need to please or retain business... people often don't have anywhere else to go. British Telephone make you mad? Well, sorry for you, because that's your one-stop shop. Sure, you can order through Sky TV or TalkTalk or any other vendor, but at the end of the day, it's BT who is installing that phone. And they take their sweet time about it, too. I've also found this to be true in terms of hospitality service. I don't know if it is because people don't work for tips in England, but the service in restaurants is usually apalling. In the U.S., we are trained as servers to bring drinks/greet a table within 2 minutes. That is pretty much industry best practice. I have waited 10-15 minutes... in a half-full restaurant... for someone to acknowledge my presence. Granted, England does not move at the hyperfast speed of the U.S., but I think it is more than that. There's just a general sense of ennui and disassociation from the customer. 
2. Sense of adventure. Now, I know that this is going to sound funny to my non-American friends, especially when most Americans don't even have a passport. But let me explain. Even if people won't leave the country, they do tend to leave their neighborhoods... and the state. What I have noticed is that people in England seem scared to leave the little enclave where they were born. Maybe scared is not the right word - it's just that they don't seem to see a need to go anywhere else. If they live in Town X, by God they are working in Town X. The thought of commuting to Town Y (even if its 40-50 min away) is just rather shocking. I know I'm going to get grief on this, but its just how it seems to me.
3. Space. Everything over here is like a miniature version of what I'm used to in America. There's this constant sense of being closed in. Its not like when I was in New York City or Tokyo - both cities have limited space and so everything is compact and pushed together. England is different. It just feels like I'm living in a Barbie Dream House country. The roads are like mini-roads. The stores are like mini-stores. It is so hard to put into words. I'll think more about this and find a better way to explain it...