Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Girl Guy london
Channel If you're new here, my name is Kalyn.
I'm a dual UK and American citizen
and today we are going over nine things I absolutely love about a UK summer.
Now we are fully in the swing of a UK summer in my mind.
However, here in southeast England,
the schools haven't actually let out yet, which is always really weird to me because
where I grew up in Florida, we would get let out of school like mid
May and we go back at the end of August, whereas here they typically don't get out
until mid to late July and go back in September.
So in my mind I've been in summer for like
two months, but I would say weather wise, considering it's about to be the hottest
day in the UK ever, we're definitely in summer in terms
of the weather and the kids do get out of school very soon.
So summer is here and summer is one of my favorite times in the UK.
And here's why.
The first reason is the sheer amount of daylight.
The long, long,
almost never ending days where it doesn't get dark until like 10:30 p.m.
And gets bright at like 04:00 a.m. Is really, really well.
Some people don't like it because they get woken up very early.
But for me it just makes me feel like I'm getting the most out of my time.
I love the sunlight, I love the daylight, and so the long days
are here and it really makes the summer just such a good time in the UK.
For me, it's easier to make plans
with people because it's not going to be dark super early.
So really those long daylight hours are something I really love about a UK summer.
Now, I have talked about this briefly
before, but there is another very important reason to me why I love the long
daylight hours in the UK summer and that is because I suffer
from something called seasonal depression or sad.
So for me, seasonal depression is what
most people think of as something that happens in the winter.
So for me it typically goes from about October until March or April and it's
partly caused by the complete opposite of the long days in the summer here.
It's a very short,
very short daylight hours in a UK winter as well as just the general grayness.
I also learned the other day that seasonal
depression can actually affect people in all kinds of seasons.
But there is a large contingent of people
who experience this seasonal affective disorder in the summer months.
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Now let's get back to the video.
Okay, the second thing I love about a UK
summer, our summer fetes, or what I would kind of call like a summer
festival, maybe we don't really use the word fate in the US.
Where I'm from,
but if you are in the UK watching this, you know exactly what I mean.
If you're not, imagine like a bunch
of food trucks, stalls set up from various people
in the local community, maybe people selling things,
maybe like the local parish church has set up some sort of activity for the kids.
It's usually in a field somewhere.
Sometimes there's a recreational dog show
for everybody in the neighborhoods to show off their dogs.
It's just like a classic part of a UK summer is a summer fate.
There's usually always a Mr.
Whippy ice cream for sale and you walk around with your ice cream and sometimes
it's warm, sometimes it's raining, but whatever.
The weather is just such a classic part of a UK summer.
And while we do have a lot going on in the summer in the US.
This type of festival that you can find
in most villages, you could just go to them like every weekend all summer.
It is a very UK thing and I really enjoy that part of the summer here.
The next thing I love about a UK summer is a barbecue.
Because every time it is sunny, people are like straight for the barbecue.
The barbecue section is always sold out at our local grocery store.
Sometimes it's an impromptu thing,
sometimes you plan the barbecue hoping that the weather is good.
But just a summer barbecue in the UK,
you can't get much better than it just the smell.
And most people here typically have like
not well, I won't say everybody, we don't have a gas barbecue.
We have an official legitimate charcoal barbecue.
So will it or won't it cook in less than 3 hours is also part of the experience.
It's just really fun having friends over and having a summer barbecue is another
one of my favorite parts about summer here in the UK.
The next thing I love,
which has passed for this summer but does happen every summer, is Wimbledon.
Honestly, I think Wimbledon may be just
in general one of my favorite parts about life in the UK.
I follow tennis not at all,
so I show up once a year to Wimbledon and know maybe the big name players.
So mostly I don't know who anybody is.
I get Berry involved for that day
and then I leave and I forget about it until the next summer.
But the act of going to Wimbledon,
of eating strawberries, how beautiful the grounds are and really
being a tennis fan for that one day, it was one of my favorite parts of the UK
summer and something that I really look forward to.
I think I've been four times now.
I also have a video on my channel I think of two years ago when we went.
I've done the queue,
I've bought tickets, I've sat on Center Court and Court One and
Henman Hill or Murray Mound or whatever you want to call it.
Like I said, the atmosphere of Wimbledon just screams summer here to me.
And it's one of my favorite things, full stop about life in the UK.
But it's also one of my favorite things that happen in a summer here.
The next thing I love is just a general sense of good cheer.
I feel like in some other countries it's
like Christmas time is when everybody's super nice.
Aside from the boiling hot days when we
all lose our mind a little bit because nobody has air conditioning.
I would say that summer in the UK is sort
of when everybody is like the best version of themselves in terms of saying hi
to your neighbors, smiling at people, randomly walking down the street.
The sun in the summer, I think, bring out the best in people in the UK.
It just feels, like I said, feels happy, feels cheerful.
And to me, that vibe of summer here is something I really love.
Okay, the next thing on my list
are the I'm not entirely sure how to pronounce it.
Is it roundtree?
The roundtree watermelon pops.
Amazing.
The taste of watermelon is one
of my favorite tastes and you don't find too many watermelon
flavored things here typically, but I found these.
They're incredible.
They're my favorite summer treat and I
would highly recommend to go and try them if you haven't.
The next thing I love about a UK summer is
swimming in the sea on like a really scorching hot day.
So I'm used to temperatures in the sea that are certainly warmer than we
typically get in England, having grown up in Florida.
But on a really hot day, like swimming off Born Myth Beach, it's so refreshing.
The water is so nice.
I actually found a 20 pound note floating in the water towards me last summer.
Nobody around me was missing it.
So that was, I guess, born Myths gift to me.
But going for a swim in the sea in the summer is definitely one
of my favorite parts about life here in the UK in the summer.
The next thing I love about a UK summer are the visitors.
Not only does my business rely on visitors
to the UK who might be interested in things like my London guide or
my London Itinerary or my book about culture here in the UK.
But it is fun to walk around and hear lots of different accents.
And again, typically people who are coming
here to visit the UK are super excited to be here.
So I think that also contributes
to the general sense of positivity that you can find in many of the major
cities across the UK as well as more rural areas.
But the summer months, they bring the visitors,
they bring the pounds, they bring just a sense of excitement about the UK.
And it's nice to meet new people and to get a lot of people who watch
my channel or who are otherwise following my website to be able to have them
complete their trips to the UK and even meet a couple of them in person.
Now, the last thing that I love about a UK summer is an outdoor cinema screening.
I love an outdoor event in the summer is the best time for it in the UK.
And typically, especially around London and other major areas,
they do outdoor movie theater experiences, which I really enjoy.
We've gone to a couple of drive in summer experiences during the Pandemic.
I think there are still a couple that they put on, but just in general,
like bringing a blanket and doing an outdoor cinema screening or outdoor
movie screening for those Americans watching.
It's such a quintessential part.
I think of a summary here.
For me, it's something that we do every
summer, sometimes multiple times of summer.
And again, it's just the vibe.
There's some, like food vendors, you're all watching a movie,
hopefully the weather is nice and the days are so long that you've really packed so
much into that day and are finishing off with the outdoor cinema screening.
Quintessential for me and the final thing on my list of things I love.
Now that brings me to the end of this video.
I would love for you to comment below on your favorite part of summer in the UK.
Maybe you don't like summer in the UK.
You can also comment that too.
Maybe you have another favorite a season.
Let us know.
But I would love for you to share that in the comments.
Thank you, as always for watching and I'll see you next time.
Bye.