We went from the UK to live in the USA.
USA
Positives - Space
In the USA rooms are larger. Near Washington DC we had large rooms and walk in closets for hanging clothes.
Negatives - Noise
Our main problem was noise from neighbours. The building construction was flimsy, with wooden floors meaning your footsteps were heard by the people below. Even walking normally, your steps were heard. If children ran up and down, the problem was exacerbated.
Working Late
In Asia the Chinese work hard and late at night you can see the restaurants still open. Similar work ethic appplies to East coast America, New York and Washington, DC. We would sometimes go into work at the weekend and the place was never empty. Somebody was always there working. HR and marketing department were phoning, recruiting staff, or conducting interviews.
In the evening, we would pop back to the office to collect papers or check on a programme left running on a work computer. Somebody would organize pizza or something else on expenses to feed everybody. Your colleagues were people you saw day, evening, and weekends. They became lifelong friends.
We lived in Connecticut in a shared townhouse, also Rockville, Maryland in a top floor, third floor flat in what the Americans call a condo. I suppose the addition of a swimming pool meant that it was a condo.
Shared Company House
Whilst we were looking for a place to rent, the company put us up in a house they owned. Somebody had worked out it was cheaper to house three of four company staff members plus overseas visitors in one house, rather than pay lots of hotel fees. Maybe somebody bought a house then went out of town and rented it to the company, or sold it to the boss.
The system worked well. On arrival instead of being alone in a hotel you had friends from the company to advise you where to get a good meal, go out for the day, hire a car, or buy bedding. New arrivals could borrow items or take them from a cupboard of stock left behind.
Small items such as kettle or toasters could often be bought on the company's expense, if it was for shared use. You just bought cheap. You left it behind, or replaced it with a cheaper item, if you had spent above the amount that the Accounts department thought reasonable.
Similarly with the bedding. If you took a fancy to the sheets, you replaced them with something on sale. If not, they went back into stock and you bought new for your new home,or used the stuff which was eventually shipped over.
Condo Or Flat?
The Americans use the word condo exclusively for a complex with extra facilities. They use the word flat for a simpler dwelling. The Brits simply use flat to mean one storey dwelling rather than a two storey house.
That's the reverse of the American yard and the British back garden. To the British a yard is hardly more than a yard, a few feet of paved area for storage at the back of a terraced block. A yard in Britain is small. No flowers nor trees. In Britain we would say,"It doesn't have a proper garden, only a small yard."
I remember my shock when a visiting American in the UK told me, "I like your yard."
Story and storey
Americans also say story for storey. For Brits a story is a tale with a plot. A storey is a level in a building.)
Points to consider:
View
Size of rooms
Noise from outside
Noise from neighbours and below and above
Likelihood of neighbouring land being built on
Cost of heating or aircon - or both
Nearness of swimming pool or gym or on site
With Streetview you can now check the outside and outskirts of the streets and buildings.
Author
Angela Lansbury
Positives - Space
In the USA rooms are larger. Near Washington DC we had large rooms and walk in closets for hanging clothes.
Negatives - Noise
Our main problem was noise from neighbours. The building construction was flimsy, with wooden floors meaning your footsteps were heard by the people below. Even walking normally, your steps were heard. If children ran up and down, the problem was exacerbated.
Working Late
In Asia the Chinese work hard and late at night you can see the restaurants still open. Similar work ethic appplies to East coast America, New York and Washington, DC. We would sometimes go into work at the weekend and the place was never empty. Somebody was always there working. HR and marketing department were phoning, recruiting staff, or conducting interviews.
In the evening, we would pop back to the office to collect papers or check on a programme left running on a work computer. Somebody would organize pizza or something else on expenses to feed everybody. Your colleagues were people you saw day, evening, and weekends. They became lifelong friends.
We lived in Connecticut in a shared townhouse, also Rockville, Maryland in a top floor, third floor flat in what the Americans call a condo. I suppose the addition of a swimming pool meant that it was a condo.
Shared Company House
Whilst we were looking for a place to rent, the company put us up in a house they owned. Somebody had worked out it was cheaper to house three of four company staff members plus overseas visitors in one house, rather than pay lots of hotel fees. Maybe somebody bought a house then went out of town and rented it to the company, or sold it to the boss.
The system worked well. On arrival instead of being alone in a hotel you had friends from the company to advise you where to get a good meal, go out for the day, hire a car, or buy bedding. New arrivals could borrow items or take them from a cupboard of stock left behind.
Small items such as kettle or toasters could often be bought on the company's expense, if it was for shared use. You just bought cheap. You left it behind, or replaced it with a cheaper item, if you had spent above the amount that the Accounts department thought reasonable.
Similarly with the bedding. If you took a fancy to the sheets, you replaced them with something on sale. If not, they went back into stock and you bought new for your new home,or used the stuff which was eventually shipped over.
Condo Or Flat?
The Americans use the word condo exclusively for a complex with extra facilities. They use the word flat for a simpler dwelling. The Brits simply use flat to mean one storey dwelling rather than a two storey house.
That's the reverse of the American yard and the British back garden. To the British a yard is hardly more than a yard, a few feet of paved area for storage at the back of a terraced block. A yard in Britain is small. No flowers nor trees. In Britain we would say,"It doesn't have a proper garden, only a small yard."
I remember my shock when a visiting American in the UK told me, "I like your yard."
Story and storey
Americans also say story for storey. For Brits a story is a tale with a plot. A storey is a level in a building.)
Points to consider:
View
Size of rooms
Noise from outside
Noise from neighbours and below and above
Likelihood of neighbouring land being built on
Cost of heating or aircon - or both
Nearness of swimming pool or gym or on site
With Streetview you can now check the outside and outskirts of the streets and buildings.
Author
Angela Lansbury
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