Hey, guys, welcome back to the Girl Gone London channel. If you're new here,
my name is Kalyn.
I've been an American expat living in the UK for the past 10 years.
And today I'm telling you the things that I don't miss about America.
First things first,
if you're interested in this kind of content life in the U.K.,
British travel content, hopefully once the world opens up,
make sure to subscribe, because that's the easiest way for me
to be able to tell you that there's a new video.
So today's topic are things that I don't miss about America.
I've done a video on things that I do miss about America, which I'll link below.
But I want to talk about some of the things that really I could do with.
Let's jump right into it with the first
thing which I have done a whole video on health care in the US.
Now, there are some things about the American health care system,
like the flashier looking hospitals that I do miss.
But overall, I do prefer the NHS to the American health care system.
Again, I've done a whole video, so I will also link that below.
But I find it really nice here to not have
to worry about going broke because I come down with an illness or not having a copay
if I need an ambulance or something like that.
So overall, I would say I'm not desperate
to go back to the American health care system.
Next up. And a little more frivolous stopgaps.
So if you go to any American public bathroom, whether you're in an airport or
a restaurant or whatever, we are used to these gaps under
the bathroom stalls that are like 10 feet high.
And I think it's to make cleaning easier because you can get the mop underneath.
But honestly, have you had the experience where a small child who's in the bathroom
with his mom, like, comes under your stall and says hello?
It's just really strange once you move
to the UK because their cubicles are like mostly fully closed off,
obviously there's like a tiny bit because you need the door to open,
but it's like having your own private room to go to the bathroom instead of just
being in this kind of row of dividing walls with giant gaps.
So if you ever come to the UK and you see
the public bathrooms, here is definitely a different experience than in the US.
And a lot of Brits, when they go to the US
and use a public bathroom, are very confounded by why you could
basically stick a whole human under the door.
The third thing I don't miss is like a super overzealous store employee
who kind of follows you around the store asking if you need help.
Now, I do miss American customer service. So don't get me wrong,
I do miss friendly employees and an emphasis on customer service.
But there is sometimes just this American
way of a company forcing their employees to, like, follow you around the store just
in case you have any questions and living in the UK where that is definitely not
a thing and British people would not go for that.
It feels so uncomfortable when I go back to the US, not like if I'm the only person
in the store, I feel so awkward if the employee is,
like, super focused in on what I need, I'm like, oh my God.
Like, I just I've been accustomed to just like browsing apps and then needing
to contact the employee like 18 times before they turn around to help you.
And I don't know.
I mean, yeah, I do miss American customer
service, like I said, but it's this very specific instance
of a company who have forced these poor employees who don't even want
to to basically follow you around asking if you need help.
OK, the next thing that I don't miss about America are the medical commercials.
So fun fact it's illegal in the UK to advertise prescription medication
because a prescription should be prescribed by your doctor.
Not necessarily. You going into your doctor saying,
I saw this commercial when I was watching HDTV and I think I need this medication.
So you don't see any sort of medical
commercials here in terms of prescriptions for literally anything?
My husband is like, does everyone in America have psoriasis
because they don't even use that term here?
And every commercial that we watch seems to be a psoriasis commercial.
But I also, like Lokey,
feel like American medical commercials may have played into my adult hypochondria,
where you were trying to watch like some TLC show to escape from it all and you
were just constantly bombarded by all the things that could be wrong with you.
And on top of that, they're like, well, this might give you a beautiful life while
you ride off in the sunset drinking your orange juice with your family.
Or you might die because of taking this
medication or you might have heart failure.
And then with stop the whole thing.
I don't miss those commercials.
They are funny to watch when I go back
to America now to think how normal that was to me.
But British people definitely think that's strange.
And I think on the whole, I would prefer not to be advertise
prescription medication while I'm trying to watch The Bachelor.
And the final thing that I do not miss about America is the banking system.
So here in the UK, every every customer of basically any bank will
have what's called a sort code and an account number.
And that means in order to transfer money
from bank to bank, say I'm transferring money.
In my accounts or I'm transferring money to my gas supplier or for my mortgage or
I'm transferring money to my friend because I borrowed 20 pounds.
If you have their sort, code and account number,
you can transfer money like no problems, no fees between banks and in the US,
we are definitely behind on banking when it comes to the U.K. A lot of people don't
realize this, but the UK got like chip and pin cards way before us.
Contactless came to the UK before us.
And they just have this system where it's
super easy to transfer money in and out of banks.
They don't need a special app.
And coming from the US,
where if you do want to transfer money to your friend in a different bank,
often you'll need to use something like Venmo or some sort of cash up.
It's just an extra layer of hassle that doesn't need to be there.
And again, if anybody has any explanation for why
this might be the case, maybe you work in finance in the US.
I know we have a much bigger country
and bigger system, but it's so much easier here to transfer money.
Whether you bank with Barclays, HSBC,
Lloyds, Halifax, everyone just says what your shortcode, what your account number
and they can easily transfer money between people.
OK, so those were the five things that I do not miss about America.
Not to be confused with the things I love about the UK because I feel like that's
a different topic and I will definitely do a video on that.
But I thought to balance out my things I miss about America video, Jesus,
I would go ahead and do this video on things I don't miss.
Hope you enjoyed. And as always, remember that you were very
welcome in our Facebook group, which I will link below if you have any
questions about visiting the UK, traveling to the UK or moving to the UK
and also check out the Girl Gone London book, which is all about life in the UK.
As an American expat, I have heard from people who are traveling
to the UK and not just moving here, that it was really helpful when it comes
to the chapters on culture and language and communication.
So definitely whatever your reasons
for being interested in the UK, it definitely check that out link below.
So that brings us to the very end.
I hope you enjoy it and I'll see you next time.