What living in the UK like?

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Caledonian Damian

Hi Tommy. I am in Edinburgh, Scotland. No - it is NOT always cold and grey here - that is a myth. Sure it is like that a lot of the time but not always. The sun does shine here more often than you think - and we can have days of wall to wall sunshine and 25C or more in the shade, and on days like that the UK is glorious. It is never too hot nor too cold, we do not get extremes. We do have snow and frosts right now as it is currently the coldest winter for 18 years. We have rain all year round and that's why the UK is one of the greenest countries in the world and our countryside is unbelievably beautiful to those who come here from abroad.

The music scene is great and comprises all kinds - much of it homegrown and we have loads of groups and singers, local and national. Loads of clubs and discos and places to party. Most pubs have organised music nights - pubs in the UK are unique - nothing quite like them anywhere else in the world. They are the hub of British social life and never dull - there are all kinds of pubs and inns and most have full dining menus with all kinds of nosh.

Fashion is great and caters for all tastes and age groups and the change according to prevailing styles - and shopping is a great experience.

The media varies in its views and opinions of Americans and the USA generally - right now our media is mostly hopeful and much more positive since your new President Obama was elected. Before that there was a certain trend towards fairly widespread negative anti Americanism here, and even more so elsewhere in Europe, But there have been signs in the last few days that this may well be maintained and Anglo/American relations may be strained over the issue of anti terrorism security secrets. Could well be a wee bit of a spat there between us..I certainly hope not!

The Queen as a person is very well respected and most people think she does a very good job and presents a very good image as our official Head of State. British people are free to criticise the Queen and the Monarchy if they so wish - they can get up onto a soapbox at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park and advocate the abolishment of the Monarchy and slag off the Royal Family (or certain members of it) to their hearts' content if they want to, and also say whatever they like about the Government as part of our precious Freedom of Speech tradition, but if we were to have a referendum there would be a large majority among the British voters to retain the Monarchy and the Queen as Head of State in preference to any other form of democracy as we all see the Queen and the Monarchy as a very stabilising feature of the British way of life - it has been so for many hundreds of years (with only one short 11 year break - 1649 to 1660 - known as Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, with the Monarchy re-instated in May 1660).

Living in Edinburgh as I do I have personally seen the Queen on various occasions here - she does, after all, have a home in this city at Holyrood House, close to the Scottish Parliament building. She also has a Scottish country home at Balmoral Castle, up in the Highlands on Royal Deeside, where she spends the summer seasons.

I love living in the UK - it is a very diverse country - and although very small in size (you can put the entire UK into Texas two and a half times over and in Montana twice!) the UK is so varied not only in its countryside but also culturally and even nationally - although we are all very close to each other by American standards we can also be a whole lot different, especially when it comes to accents - the UK has a very large range of regional accents - an accent can change radically from one place to another no more than 20 miles away or even less - and aso languages. English is, of course, the main language of the entire UK, but they also speak Gaelic (pronounced as Gallic) in parts of Scotland...about 10% of the Scottish popolation. Down in Wales about 30% of the people are able to speak Welsh, a truly Celtic language as the Celts were the original Brits before all the various invasions by the Angles, Saxon, Vikings, Danes, Jutes, Normans etc...once the Romans had left thesae islands. In Cornwall, in south west England, some people still speak Cornish.

The UK is bursting with history and that is evident all over the country, starting with the Stone and Iron age with relics and monuments still remaining, such as at Stonehenge - a 3k+ years old stone circle which is virtually a shrine for mystics and all sorts of other people. Then came the Romans - there are Roman buildings and roads and walls (as in Hadrian's and the Antonine) relics over most of the UK, over 2k years old. Then over the centuries we gained all the magnificent castles and fortresses and cathedrals and mansions and monuments of all kinds as testimony to the UK's very colourful history.

The UK saw the intro

Bill(55 yrs old)

Life is what you make of it.
At the moment we are going through the worst winter for nearly 20 years and as a result not everyone was prepared for it, hey that's life.
Music scene crosses the 'pond' (Atlantic).
The media is generally pro USA however the media (like the USA) likes a lame duck/target, so will pick on any object/person/country to laugh at but they soon move on to the next subject.
The Queen is much respected although to international observers that doesn't seem to be the case as we rarely sing the National Anthem and our National Flag is only shown/flown on special/specific occasions.

kookooberry

No, it's not always cold and grey! LOL! The summers can be quite hot.

I am an American who lived in England for several years and I can tell you that the way we are portrayed (mostly on tv) is that we are all fat, loud, gullible and fake. We all either sound southern, like we're gangsters, or like we're from the midwest. We're made fun of for not being able to pronounce the names of places like Leicester -- never mind that it sounds nothing like it's spelled! LOL! -- and yet Brits can't seem to get Maryland or Michigan right! We get ripped-on for saying 'have a nice day' and called fake for it, when really it's meant as a pleasantry -- we don't *really* mean it, but we don't not mean it either. It is what it is. I could go on; those are just some of my experiences.

King Dedede

1) Yes Britain is very cold and miserable at times. Currently it's snowing! It's not always crap though. It can be pretty hot sometimes!

2) Indie music is the most popular over here. Other forms of rock, Grime (which is sort of like southern hip-hop), R&B, bassline, and various forms of dance music are also popular. There is a big collector scene over here thanks to northern soul, rock, etc.

6)Wacky and big mouthed. You're also fat and fake according to the media. The media over here pick on everyone really. Once people are bored of a story they'll find another country to pick on, e.g. Japan, France, any middle eastern country, etc.

3)Same as in the US really. Of course we do things a lil different and have different attitudes though!

5)Most British people aren't even bothered about the royal family to be honest.

6)No. I've only ever been to London once! I've never even seen the queen though. She'll just stay in palace usually.

Riggers

Ok, well the weather this week has just been non stop snow all week but usually it just rains here. The music here is good listen on you tube to Rhianna - Disturbia and that is what most music to me is like. Fashion here is very mixed skinny jeans and uggs are in at the minute. The US is kinda portraid in an okay way : love the accents, associated with obese people, and cool theme parks. The queens cool i guess i have seen her once but it was in a crowd and didnt actually get to personally speak to her. my advice would be that there are some really rough places of england and so you need to take all your savings and tour arround England in all the different towns.

Good Luck

<X>

Angel of Music

Depends where you mean in United Kingdom......England, its very boring and rubbish with horrible weather and well we run out grit during snow......Scotland beautiful country......Wales amazing.....North Ireland....never been but I heard its beautiful

AbLM

Well, its cold, not all the time.Sometimes our summers are hot.very hot.
and you would think that it's grey, but it isn't, not really.although recently it has been so snowy, all the buses shut down, and the underground, and the trains.london came to a standstill.wow.
its very busy, its either very rough, or very high class.it can be dangerous too.
London always has musicals going on, operas etc, and then there are other genres of music, such as indie. like Brixton Academy.that's more heavy metal. london is very lively basically, at night and during the day.business during the day and parties at night.there are take aways everywhere too. gum all over the streets.adverts everywhere.taxis and buses too.
as for the media, well, Americans aren't portrayed very well over here.lets just say that.and the queen, well, we either worship her or we have nothing to say about her.there are certain places in buckingham palace where you can visit too.
i don't live in london, i live in suffolk, its well known for lots of farms.but really, it isn't.its mostly countryside.but everyone in the UK has different accents.you think we are all posh.but we aren't, we really aren't.if you visit places like liverpool.you will understand that.england can be very rough.

sidb

it grinds to a halt with a bit of snow about

DAVE S

it sucks

clint

I'd say kookoobe has it spot on.
I too am US living in UK. Born Colorado in fact!

It is grey and dull and wet and chilly here a lot but it is also nice often warm sometimes almost hot. No extreme hot and no extreme cold either.
As far as I can tell, from TV news and wordof mouth, the real bad cold snow that folk have mentioned has amassed a maximum of about 18 inches in towns that aren't right in the highlands. most of the ocuntry is probably lucky to have seen an average of two inches of snow. I haven't even seen that much in the NW

I'm actually looking at going the otherway across the pond! For better weather and less grumbling ;-)

cybawitch

Its rubbish here. And yes, the weather is mostly wet and cold. We may get a few days of nice weather in summer but they are few and far between. I'm proud of our music though. Most Americans are portrayed with comedic value and shown as being over the top. Perhaps that's the reason why Americans think we are boring but stereotypes aside, my daily experience isn't something I would recommend to anyone.

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