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" Someone once said culture is what makes you feel out of place when you&amp;#039;re away from home. I never truly grasped that until I moved from New York City to Oxford, England, with my husband. It all started last year when Christopher brought up the idea of taking a break from his surgery residency to do a year of research at the University of Oxford. I think he secretly thought I&amp;#039;d say no, but the idea of getting out of the big city and exploring a world I&amp;#039;d never seen before was exciting to me. So, over the course of three months, I got married, quit my perfect job (what was I thinking?), and moved to a new country. Just figured we&amp;#039;d make all our big life changes this year. And the changes are still coming every day.  Even the little things, like not starting your day off with The Today Show and having to convert every single unit of currency, temperature, and measurement, are hourly reminders that I&amp;#039;m not in the U.S. anymore. Here&amp;#039;s what caught me off guard: Size does matter. I had heard food portions and cars were tinier in Europe so I was expecting that, but my mouth literally dropped when I saw the size of our apartment&amp;#039;s refrigerator, which resembled the one my college roommate and I had trouble fitting all of our Cokes and Girl Scout Cookies in. This should be fun for weekly meal-planning, although it does make you wonder, if we can get by on these smaller things, are we wasting space and energy in the US?  Passenger drivers. Yesterday, I saw a baby driving the car. A baby. But then I realized the little one was actually just riding in the passenger seat. You would never see that in America anyway, but I do admit the fact that I&amp;#039;m not totally getting the driving-on-the-opposite-side-of-the-road thing adds a lot of confusion.   w3talkcars.eu  Good deals and bad deals. Because of the exchange rate, most things are more expensive for Americans in the UK (\u00A31 \u2248 $1.68). At first glance, a cup of coffee at Starbucks appears to be about the same price as it is in the US, but then you realize it&amp;#039;s in pounds, so you&amp;#039;re technically paying 70 percent more. Hence why I spent $7 on iced coffee yesterday. The only things that are much less expensive are mobile and broadband. A wireless plan comparable to what we had in the States costs 76 percent less a month, and Internet is about 30 percent less (which makes me wonder why we pay so much back home.) At least the huge tech savings will help make up for all the money lost on daily lattes, maybe.   wigglegif  A whole other language. Yes, even though we all speak English, there&amp;#039;s still somewhat of a communication barrier. Online shopping, in particular, was a hilarious experience. At first, I thought the Brits didn&amp;#039;t have clothes drying racks or potato chips (this would have been a big problem), until I figured out I should have been searching for an &amp;quot;airer&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;crisps.&amp;quot; Most of the time, it&amp;#039;s an ever-so-slight change, which makes it all the more frustrating when you finally figure out the problem\u2014who knew ground beef was also minced beef?   What Should We Call Single Life  It&amp;#039;s so cold all the time. As the Dixie Chicks once sang, &amp;quot;It looks like spring and it feels like sunny weather, but it&amp;#039;s a cold day in July.&amp;quot; I&amp;#039;m pretty sure they were talking about England, where even when it is warm, it tends to be damp and cloudy. Last Saturday, it was dark and wet outside all day, putting me in quite a sour mood, so I made Christopher take me to a musical to cheer me up. With the rate this is going, I have a feeling we&amp;#039;re going to be very cultured by the time this year is over. But I do love that the sun stays out until 10 p.m. Back to you on how I&amp;#039;m doing when it&amp;#039;s winter and we only get five hours of light.   What Should We Call Single Life  The pub is where it&amp;#039;s at. Much like in the U.S., drinking is a huge social affair in England\u2014but there are some differences. For one, Brits tend to buy in rounds, meaning one person takes care of drinks for the whole table. This makes it easy to be guilted into drinking more than you anticipated (&amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve already got it, mate!&amp;quot;) I often find myself doing a double-take at young people sipping stout, but then I remember that the drinking age is 18. Hilariously, I still got carded when buying a bottle of wine at the store yesterday, and ended up being denied because I didn&amp;#039;t have my passport. Yes, this is funnier now that I&amp;#039;m securely home with a bottle of ros\u00E9, but I still don&amp;#039;t know whether to laugh or cry at the fact they thought I could still be in high school. After all, I&amp;#039;m turning 30 next month!   Life Lessons from HIMYM  Despite the fact that my New York drivers license is apparently not a valid form of ID, that I have to cram my groceries into a fridge made for ants, and that I need to wear a hoodie in the summer, I&amp;#039;m really excited about experiencing this culture for the next year. I&amp;#039;m sure I&amp;#039;ll still feel ridiculously out of place, but that&amp;#039;s the fun part, right? Julie Pennell is a freelance writer living with her husband in Oxford, England for a year. Follow her adventures abroad at juliepennell.blogspot.com. Related:10 Things Strong Partners Say to Each Other10 Things Every Happy Marriage Has in Common4 Ways to Compromise as a Couple "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/love-sex/relationships/a18519/things-that-surprised-me-about-england/>