- [Josie] Do you like Marmite?
- No, absolutely disgusting.
- [Josie] You're so annoying.
(upbeat jazz music)
- Hi guys, I'm Stevie,
and I have lived in the UK for two years now,
we just hit my anniversary.
I can't even believe it.
I feel like it kind of feels
like I've only been here six months,
but also 17 years at the same time,
because it's been in COVID years, you know?
So I just wanted to answer some of you guys' questions.
Tell you how I got here.
Maybe you are considering moving to the UK,
and you kinda wanna know what my experience has been like.
First of all, not sponsored,
this is just literally my favorite British junk food.
I've got my British wife behind the scenes,
looking up your questions,
and she's basically choosing the questions
that you guys have sent me on Instagram.
If you don't follow me on Instagram,
you should.
Favorite thing about UK food, better regulated.
- [Josie] What do you mean?
Just like the?
- There's things in American food that are illegal here
because they kill you.
Yeah, corn syrup is illegal here.
Yeah, that's really my only favorite thing
about British food.
That's not actually true
because Indian food here is absolutely amazing.
But is it British?
Guys, I can eat like the entire thing.
I just eat the whole thing.
- [Josie] What was your biggest cultural shock?
- General lack of efficiency.
(Stevie laughing)
Just like no sense of urgency.
It's like when people aren't terrified
that they're going to like become broke
and homeless at any point.
What did you just steal? Hey! (cat meowing)
Gumbo was just walking away with of my wrapper.
When I first got here,
I was extremely entitled American,
who talked about 20 decibels.
Is that high?
I talked at like volume 10 at everything.
Americans just scream all the time,
and everyone around me was like jumping.
That's the only time I could ever like get some life
out of British people, is if I just like screamed.
You need something and then you're lucky
if you can get it in two weeks.
Do you know what I mean?
I don't know, just maybe it's because of the places
that I lived in the U.S.
We're just very like quick, fast-paced cities
where, "Oh, you need a plumber?
One will be there in 30 minutes."
Versus here where it's like,
"Well, there's a bank holiday and then I'm booked,
and then yeah, so I'll see you in July."
Along comes lots of laws and paperwork and bureaucracy,
just in general in England,
so I usually have to kind of remind myself
if something is like difficult or there's red tape
or it's taking a long time.
I have to remind myself with that
because I live in a country that values paid time off
and maternity leave and shorter work hours
and sick days and stuff like that.
Anyway, I'm much more relaxed now.
I'm much more chill and much more quiet
than I would've been before.
And Josie's looking at me at disbelief,
but we didn't date for that long before I moved here, okay?
- [Josie] How is British TV?
- British TV is way better than American TV.
It's absolutely amazing.
I love that, it's not all super models.
Like I feel like in the US,
everything is like very traditionally attractive people,
at least in reality TV,
but even in stuff that where there's presenters and stuff,
a lot of people look different from each other.
There's another person asked
if we're ever gonna go on Couples Come Dine with Me.
And I would absolutely love to.
If you guys know anyone there, let me know.
I would love to throw a dinner party for a reality show.
- [Josie] What are some words and expressions
that you find funny in England?
- What you on about?
Is that a really good accent?
Did I do a really good job guys?
- [Josie] It's funny how you've lived here
for like two years
and your British accent still hasn't improved.
- How dare you?
What you on about?
What's she on about?
- [Josie] What's something that you didn't expect
to miss about US but you actually do?
- Yeah, customer service.
Anytime I have to call the US for customer service.
After I hang up the phone, I'm like, oh, that was wonderful.
But then I have to remind myself
that it's because you can get fired
for being rude in the US
and you can't get fired for being rude here, right?
Like you can't get fired for not being overly nice.
- [Josie] Yeah.
- Oh my God, I miss pickles, American pickles.
Oh, I've had to import them,
but here there's no such thing as sour pickles,
there's only sweet, sweet pickles or sour and sweet pickles.
- [Josie] Is there anything that you thought
wouldn't be different or is?
- So many things.
Like almost every day I find a new different thing.
Oh my God,
if you order a package, you have to open the door
and say, thank you and wave at the person.
Or they will take it back on the freaking truck
and drive away.
Or they will leave it with your neighbor.
What? I hate that so much.
I put it in all the notes,
leave on front door, leave on front door,
leave on front door, like everything.
And then I refuse to answer the door.
Like if a package gets delivered,
I'm like I'm not answering the door.
I will just go like this and then point down,
leave it on the doorstep.
'Cause that's the fricking notes say.
- There are rules that they stand by, right?
And one of them is probably to make sure
that the person gets the package.
- Yeah.
- [Josie] You don't live on the stair.
- I'm not saying it doesn't make sense.
I'm just saying it's different from America, and I hate it.
(Josie laughs)
- [Josie] What is the most British habit
that you've started doing?
- I'm just generally more relaxed.
Another British thing I do is I don't pay
for my medical care at the point of service.
I pay for it in my taxes, which is pretty good, right?
Oh, wait, I have milk in my tea now, which is wild.
Oh my God, I can't believe you didn't know that
that was British thing to do.
- [Josie] No. Why did you choose the UK?
- Because that's where the love of my life lives.
I mean, I've never been to anywhere else in Europe.
So except for that one time I went to Paris.
But you guys already know that story,
I won't bring that up again.
- [Josie] We don't talk about that, do we?
- We don't talk about Paris. No, no.
- [Josie] What about the humor do you find different?
- What about the humor do I find different?
Do people joke with me that I talk to 'em in public?
- [Josie] You always say things and then,
I'm like, what?
And then you're like, "Oh, I was being sarcastic."
- Yeah. So apparently British people
have very strict rules on how exactly
your banter needs to be or else they won't understand it.
- [Josie] No, it's all about inflections.
It's all about the way things you say things.
- Exactly. So your sense of humor,
it operates under very strict cultural and societal rules
that you have to follow or you won't get the humor.
- [Josie] Have you seen an improvement
in your quality of life?
- Yeah, I think definitely culturally
it's like more acceptable to rest
like hustle, hustle, hustle culture.
It's a necessarily part of the culture here.
Like even in London, it's not.
Like it is more than it is where we live
in Blackpool.
Not nearly as much as it is in the US.
And also obviously like I have disabilities
that have cost me a lot of money in the US
to when there are, when things pop up,
but also just for insurance.
So here I can hopefully never go bankrupt
because of a medical issue.
And that takes a lot of my like hustle
and needing to make more money
and as much money as I possibly can
just in case I like, you know, can't,
I'm bedridden for two years again or whatever.
So yeah, that has reduced my anxiety a lot
and has allowed me to heal a lot.
I think that living in America is trauma, period.
That's a full sentence.
And so now that I'm removed from that environment
has allowed me to heal,
which I don't think I could have if I still lived in the US.
That got pretty serious.
Mr. Kipling is kind of like Little Debbie.
It's like a brand and they come up,
they have a bunch of different cakes, right?
- [Josie] What supermarket do you shop with?
- Well, my absolute favorite supermarket is M&S,
very middle class of me.
Is that funny?
Why ain't you joking?
Why ain't you laughing?
I just made a very British joke.
- [Josie] Oh, you were joking?
I couldn't tell.
- Morrisons has very convenient home delivery.
That's like goes quickly, so it depends.
I'm going to in-person, go to a grocery store.
I really like M&S.
I absolutely hate ASDA.
I hate ASDA.
The lights are so intense
and the floor is so uneven
and I just get so over stimulated there.
- [Josie] Do people make fun of your accent?
- No. If I were to take Josie to the US,
everyone's gonna be like, "You all want Mike?"
Like everyone's gonna be like,
"Can you say Harry Potter?
Can you say Harry Potter?"
I feel like it's just an American thing to do
is make fun of other people's accents.
No one here makes fun of my accent,
but every single person will ask where I'm from.
No one ever guesses where you're from here.
I think that's rude.
But one time someone in a drive through
was like in a KFC drive through or something.
And they were like, "I love your accent, are you Canadian?"
And I was like,
I feel like every Canadian I know is so annoyed
because everyone asks, if they're from the US,
the only time someone asks where I'm from,
they ask if I'm from Canada.
I just thought that was really funny.
And I took it as a compliment.
Wow, someone assumed I was from Canada, how nice.
When they ask if I'm here on vacation,
and I say, no, I live here and they say why?
(Stevie laughs)
And I always say the weather.
Hey, I do do banter.
- [Josie] Yeah. And they never get it.
- They never get it.
Why don't they get it?
- [Josie] Because you don't in the right tone.
- I usually go, yeah, I moved here for the weather.
- [Josie] Yeah. No.
That is so funny to me. - [Josie] That's too genuine.
- Maybe it's slightly, I kind of like the chaos
where they don't know if I'm joking or not.
- [Josie] What surprised you most about UK homes?
- UK homes, they're tiny and freezing cold.
No one turns the heat on here.
It's not so much that they're all really small.
It's that they are all, they have a small,
the floor is small and then they just stack everything up
on top of each other.
A lot of vertical space, which is not ideal for me,
'cause I don't like stairs.
So yeah, and like most houses I would say,
oh, well, over 50% are the exact same layout,
which is really interesting.
I really like the like two living rooms
and a kitchen downstairs.
And then right above it,
it's two bedrooms and a bathroom,
you know it's really cute.
And then there's like a hallway with the stairs going up.
It's adorable.
I don't think beans on toast is bad.
I love beans on toast.
But in America the only time anyone's ever served beans
to me, it was like a side dish at a barbecue.
And it's like slightly sweeter.
It's like if you took beans that are served in the UK
and added barbecue sauce to it.
But also I ate it as a meal growing up
because I grew up poor
and it was called pork and beans.
It was like beans with like little pieces
of hot dog cut up in it.
- [Josie] Have you noticed how amazingly delicious
the cheese is in the UK?
- Yes. Cheese is really, really good here.
I've only gone to one cheesemonger here
and it was amazing.
'Cause they were like telling us the type of cheese
and what kind of milk it's made from
and how it's made and age.
And they call it by its name, right?
- [Josie] Does the British class system come
into play at all or are they just like American?
You're except and cool.
- I don't know like as a neurodivergent person,
I've been learning a lot about neurotypical communication.
I like watched a video that said like neurotypical people
can walk into a room and sense some unsocial class.
And I was like, that's impossible.
And then I asked Josie and she was like, yeah, duh.
And I was like, I don't understand.
So yeah, I'm the most terrible person you can ask,
I have literally no idea.
What do you think?
- [Josie] People think you're rich.
- People think I'm upper class.
- [Josie] Yeah.
Because I'm American.
- [Josie] Yeah. - What?
- [Josie] But I don't know if its because you're American.
I think it's just your vibe.
- I don't, this is so weird.
I hate being perceived, no one perceived me.
(Josie laughs)
Best thing I found in the UK.
I really like dry stone walls a lot.
I really like little sheeps
and I like the hydrangeas are native.
So they grow everywhere in the spring and I can't wait.
They're coming soon.
They might not be native,
please don't quote me on that.
This is just like the perfect weather for them to grow.
Hot water bottles.
Let me tell you if you don't know
what a hot water bottle is, brilliant.
I feel like it's not necessarily British,
but British people,
especially British people in the north
all use them all the time.
So I'm not really sure,
I should probably look up where they're invented.
But it's like, you know those really old cartoons
that you see when someone bunks their head
and then they have like this rubber thing
that they put on their head
and they like fill it with ice water or whatever.
I made a rubber or latex or whatever,
really thick water bladder basically.
And you boil a kettle.
I know, get an electric Kettle they're great.
And then you pour it into the water bottle
and then you cover it with like a sweater thing
and you can get all different colors and stuff.
They replace a heating pad.
They're portable, you can walk around with them.
There's also something like Velcro to use.
So if you have cramps or if you have any kind of,
I don't know, like if you're just cold,
you could just put your feet in your hands inside of them.
They're so great.
Not inside the water pad,
but you know what I mean?
Anyway, they also last a really long time.
You can go to sleep with one in your bed
and turn your heating down at night
to save on energy costs, amazing.
- [Josie] What's your opinion on Blackpool?
- It is the best place in the UK.
Everyone should visit here.
It has everything.
It's close to everything.
It is cheap.
There's things for kids.
There's things for deviance.
I love it.
- Do you find it funny that a drive
is considered long in the UK if it's like four hour?
- Yes. And there is a reason, first of all,
it only takes eight hours
to drive all the way across England.
So the country is tiny.
So people think that that's so far.
Also gas prices are ridiculously expensive here.
Also, it's expensive to even have a car here.
You have to like get an, they call it an MOT.
You have to like go and check
and make sure your car is safe once a year
and get like certified or whatever.
- [Josie] Scandalous?
- I know America, that would never work in the US.
People in the US would be like, I'm not doing that.
It's ridiculous.
So there's just cars driving around in the US
that are just like don't have seat belts.
Like, okay, good luck.
I mean like that's illegal,
but like how they gonna find out
unless you get pulled over, you know?
It's great though, because I really, really like driving
and I'm used to driving long distances for stuff.
So like when I take Josie on a two-hour
to take her for a birthday dinner,
it's like, wow, that's so special, you know?
Wow, Stevie must really love you
that she drove for two hours
and I'm like that's like LA traffic.
Like what?
Okay. Thank you so much for watching guys.
I hope you enjoyed that.
Let me know if there's something I'm forgetting
to talk about.
Like do you guys wanna hear my Visa story?
Do you want me to go in more in depth
on any of these things?
Let me know in the comments.
Also thank you so much to today's video sponsor.
No one.
And thank you so much
to my beautiful, wonderful, lovely patrons
for continuing to support videos like this.
You want to be part of our family,
click the link in the description,
and we'd love to have you.
Oh my goodness.
Aw, so she's on camera.
You see the woman behind the voice.
I'm so happy we live in the UK.
You wanna move to America?
- No.
- Oh, I thought you were gonna say yeah for the banter.
(upbeat jazz music)