I emigrated to USA in 1996, and settled in Atlanta, Georgia. A couple of months later the Olympic Games descended upon the City, and I might have attended a few events, but the whole experience was just a blur as I came to terms with my incongruous decision to move across the Atlantic. A little Frenchman told me it would take approximately two years to settle down, and he was spot on. Twenty years later, the adventure continues. Based on my time in Atlanta I’ve listed below things I like or liked about living in America and conversely things I dislike or disliked living there:
20 Things I like/liked about living in America
- Blue skies with not a cloud to be seen.
- Hot Wings and baby back ribs. My favorite places for those culinary delights are Taco Mac (the original location in Virginia Highlands,) Three Dollar Café and Wild West Wings, and Blue Ribbon which also does a mean martini.
- A big house, bang for the buck which we couldn’t possibly afford if we were still living in the UK.
- Health care, and I’m not referring to Obama Care.
- NBC coverage of the Premiership. I can watch more Premiership games live than my son can living in London.
- Air Conditioning
- Variety of places to travel in one big country: mountains, desert, tropics, beaches where the water is actually warm. Alaska and Hawaii would have been difficult to reach if I still lived in the UK.
- Visiting Monument Valley at sunrise was breathtaking.
- Touring the national parks in Utah was a truly awesome experience.
- Learning another language; American-English. I’ve battled for twenty years to master the dialect, but I’m afraid it’s a losing battle. Allow me to apologize to y’all. For example, Atlanta is embracing the merits of the roundabout, but have labeled it the traffic circle.
- Visiting Great American cities; Washington DC, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Savannah, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Los Angeles to name but a few.
- Our dog Tiger, was an unusual mix of chow and collie who passed away in 2007, aged 17. He was probably my best friend in America. He was brave, strong, loyal, loveable with a sense of mischief.
- Open air concerts at Chastain Park ranging from Harry Connick Jr., Tony “Bleeding” Bennett, Ringo Starr All Star Band, Huey Lewis and The News, BB King (God rest his Soul,) Chuck Berry and Ray Charles.
- Grilling out on the Big Green Egg for nearly 10 months of the year.
- The High Museum of Art. I had the privilege of viewing an Impressionist exhibition, a Norman Rockwell collection of originals, and Elton John’s photography collection by several famous photographers.
- The opportunity to attend four different professional sports in one city: basketball (Hawks) ice hockey (Thrashers now extinct,) baseball (Braves) and American football (Falcons.) a Major League Soccer team, Atlanta United, will be playing here next season.
- Visiting Hawaii and Alaska both of which provide breathtaking scenery. Active volcanoes, bears catching salmon, a flight around Mt. McKinley were just a few of the highlights.
- Chick_Fil_A, easily the best fast food restaurant chain in America.
- Lightning bugs and humming birds in our backyard.
- Close proximity to an international airport.
20 Things I don’t like about living in America.
- Traffic where the increasing number of tractor-trailers intermingled with idiots make driving conditions extremely difficult not to mention driving on the wrong side of the road.
- Dog days (excluding Tiger…) of summer when the humidity is at its highest and most unbearable.
- Political correctness.
- Lack of community spirit.
- Sense of entitlement of certain racial ethnicities.
- Deteoriation in customer service in stores, restaurants and bars.
- Insularity. I’m afraid the “special relationship” that supposedly exists between the UK and USA is grossly exaggerated. Millennials don’t relate to World War 2 or the British Pop invasion in the ’60s. As one local talking head put it so succinctly: “Britain is that little island off the west coast of Europe.”
- Total bias of major TV and radion networks whether it be conservative or liberal. The media has become propaganda machines favoring one party over the other unwilling to give the public objective commentary on current affairs.
- Eighteen months of personal mud slinging campaigning to earn the right to be the presidential candidate for your Party. And boy have we ended up with two humdingers in Clinton and Trump.
- Sixty feet high trees falling on my house and in my yard.
- The fallacy that I could reinvent myself in USA.
- Noisy restaurants. I can’t understand why people need to shout and scream at each other across the table.
- Roofs (shingles) which only have a shelf life of 15-20 years. Where is the good old Welsh slate when you need it?
- The South’s obsession with college football. Alabama doesn’t have a professional sports team, but the Crimson Tide (University of Alabama) attracts 90,000 to home games. They enjoyed a similar attendance for a practice game last season. (14)
- Sports radio stations in Atlanta, and the irrelevant pre-season NFL football games.
