Ok, I'm very naughty posting on here as I'm not a BA expat but I just thought I'd relay my observations on being an expat as it's similar wherever you go.
When I first left the UK for Ibiza, I noticed every little thing which was different; the property buying system, the body language, the customary curtesies, the levels of service, the availability of familiar goods, the prices, the quality of everything, the reliability of the transport system.....
It probably took two years to fully stop being A COMPLAINER. That's a long time to spend winging about little things.
Then I realised that the complaining disease is a UK and probably US epidemic. Every time I went back to the UK it seemed there was always a complaint in the air about one little thing or another....oo this or oo that.
Then my parents emigrated and my god! None stop complaining about EVERYTHING. By this time I was nolonger suffering from the disease, other than on major subjects like men and lack of trade, but the former I prefer to see as a genetic disorder and the latter a matter of life or death. I'd wound down enough to not let the little things bother me. I had become like an Ibizan....knowing the place is a bit rubbish in some respects but not feeling the compulsion to go on an on about it, especially at the dinner table.
My parents have been here for a year now and are definately complaining less and certainly in a less insane, panicky and babbling way. Honestly, for a while I thought they'd turned into turkeys!
What I'm trying to say is, if you feel annoyed at little differentials, it could be that you have yet to shed the baggage of living in, what is essentially, a spoilt and spoon fed environment but that you will, eventually, find you yes YOU blend into your new environment more peacefully.
When I first left the UK for Ibiza, I noticed every little thing which was different; the property buying system, the body language, the customary curtesies, the levels of service, the availability of familiar goods, the prices, the quality of everything, the reliability of the transport system.....
It probably took two years to fully stop being A COMPLAINER. That's a long time to spend winging about little things.
Then I realised that the complaining disease is a UK and probably US epidemic. Every time I went back to the UK it seemed there was always a complaint in the air about one little thing or another....oo this or oo that.
Then my parents emigrated and my god! None stop complaining about EVERYTHING. By this time I was nolonger suffering from the disease, other than on major subjects like men and lack of trade, but the former I prefer to see as a genetic disorder and the latter a matter of life or death. I'd wound down enough to not let the little things bother me. I had become like an Ibizan....knowing the place is a bit rubbish in some respects but not feeling the compulsion to go on an on about it, especially at the dinner table.
My parents have been here for a year now and are definately complaining less and certainly in a less insane, panicky and babbling way. Honestly, for a while I thought they'd turned into turkeys!
What I'm trying to say is, if you feel annoyed at little differentials, it could be that you have yet to shed the baggage of living in, what is essentially, a spoilt and spoon fed environment but that you will, eventually, find you yes YOU blend into your new environment more peacefully.
