NO ONE tells you these 5 things about the UK! // Wedding breakfast?! // American Expat in the UK

and i remember being like oh my god breakfast at a wedding that is so cool i love breakfast the cashier of course was too british to actually say anything so she just kind of stared at me as more and more groceries piled up at the end of the line and i just looked at them kind of in panic not knowing what to do [Music] hey there welcome back to the girl gone london channel if you're new here my name is kailyn i'm an american expat who's lived in the uk for the past almost 10 years and today i'm telling you the things that nobody told me before moving to the uk now i know what you're thinking this is probably clickbait i'm going to talk about like driving on the other side of the road or things that people did actually tell me but no these are five things that just kind of get lost in the shuffle of explaining expat life that people don't often mention some of them are super small and some of them are bigger lifestyle things but i thought i would go through all five with you today okay so thing number one that doesn't make sense number one thing that people didn't tell me before moving to the uk is that you have to bag your own groceries now i have no problem with bagging my own groceries but if you've been to the us or live in the us you'll know that for the most part we have somebody at the end of the grocery checkout situation who bags your groceries for you maybe even helps you take them out to the car so if you were to jump in and try and bag your own groceries in a lot of grocery stores in the u.s people would think you were being really strange well here you don't have anybody at the end bagging your groceries for you you're supposed to bag your own groceries again don't have an issue with this the problem comes when you don't realize you're supposed to do that so the first time i did like a big grocery shop in the uk i was waiting for someone to bag my groceries because that's just what i was used to and the cashier of course was too british to actually say anything so she just kind of stared at me as more and more groceries piled up at the end of the line and i just looked at them kind of in panic not knowing what to do and eventually i forget how i figured it out maybe somebody else in line was like what are you doing go bag your groceries but that was definitely an embarrassing moment and just nobody had ever mentioned to me that that's how you do it in the uk so from then on of course i always make sure to be ready you are encouraged to bring your own bags but they can supply them for you so you don't have this like paper or plastic question that we do in the us it's all plastic bags or bringing your own reusable one and it does become kind of like a game show where the cashier is just so good at ringing things through that they're just like sliding them down to you super quickly but you're not well versed in bagging so you're trying to shove everything in and it can be comical but that is the number one thing that people did not tell me before moving to the uk the second thing that i didn't know was that at the end of the year unless you are self-employed you do not have to file taxes imagine that the government actually already calculates all of your taxes for you takes them out of your paycheck every month and at the end of the year they will send you an end of the year kind of statement whether you oh hopefully you shouldn't if everything's been done correctly but sometimes something could have like the wrong code next to it or you started a job halfway through or blah blah but they make it super easy you don't have to file your own taxes unless you're self-employed because then of course the government doesn't necessarily know what money you've been making so then you have to file but it's actually a super easy process i still have to file u.s taxes because i am a u.s citizen even if you live out of the country for no matter how long if you are a us citizen you do have to file taxes in the u.s even if that money is income from abroad which i can talk about in another video but when i go through the u.s taxes i'm like i need a phd eight accountants and like a degree in literature to figure out what all of this means it seems so complicated to have to um figure out exactly what to put down and if you're doing it right and you're trying to do it right and you don't want the irs to come after you but there's conflicting information and blah blah blah so i find it so easy in the uk to do my taxes and that's something that nobody ever mentioned to me the third thing that people didn't tell me before moving to the uk has to do with weddings and i actually have two to do with weddings so the first is you can only get married in a venue that has what they call a marriage license so in the u.s getting married is based upon the person who is marrying you having the right license in the uk it has to be that the venue also has a marriage license so if you want to get married in your sister's gorgeous house in the countryside you actually can't if there's no marriage license for that venue it will not be legally binding wedding again i'm from well i'm not from but i moved to london and the southeast i now live outside of london but in the southeast of england so if it is different elsewhere in the uk comment below and let me know but overall the system is different and you cannot just choose any venue that you want you have to make sure it has a marriage license and i'll go on to number four because it also has to do with weddings and that is that the reception dinner what americans would refer to as the dinner or the meal at the wedding reception is often called the wedding breakfast the first time that i heard wedding breakfast was when we were at a uk wedding for my husband's friend and i remember being like oh my god breakfast at a wedding that is so cool i love breakfast who doesn't love hash browns eggs toast like in my american mind was like anything goes i was so excited to eat breakfast at their wedding turns out when we sat down and we were fed chicken and vegetables it was done at breakfast it was their reception dinner that they call a wedding breakfast and the reason behind this that i have researched so if you have other information let me know but i have researched and found out that the reason for this is simply because it is the first meal for a married couple together hence breakfast being the first meal of the day wedding breakfast and number five the last thing that people did not tell me before moving to the uk has to do with stamps so in the us you buy a stamp and it's a domestic stamp you send your card or letter and hopefully it gets there basically when it gets there in the uk they have two different kinds of basic stamps first class and second class so again i didn't know this before moving here and the first time i went to the post office to try and send a letter they said well first class or second class and i was like i don't know how i want my letter to fly so first class usually means that it should get there within the next working day second class is of course the slower one meaning that it could take two to three days this isn't always 100 accurate based on my experience sometimes we've had second class letters get there the next day depending on where you're sending it to and obviously first class there can be some delays but in general when you are purchasing stamps in the uk or deciding how to send something you will need to decide between first class or second class and that was a surprise to me having only one class of basic stamp in the us so i hope you've enjoyed this video again some of the things were small and some of them are quite impactful on your lifestyle here in the uk like bagging your own groceries but these are things i genuinely did not know before i moved here so if you are moving to the uk i hope that you find this helpful again leave a comment below with any questions or any experiences you have to share and i'll see you next time

Channel: Girl Gone London

Views: 109,007

Keywords: us to uk, american expat life in the uk, things no one tells you about the uk, american in england, american expat, american abroad, american in the uk, moving to the uk, how to move to the uk, how to move to the uk as an american, how to move to england, how to move to london, wedding breakfast vs reception dinner, uk weddings

Id: _wmA_2kzbOM

Length: 8min 16sec (496 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 15 2021