By Lucy Marshall

Copyright glasgowlive

Relocating to a new city, particularly one that’s far from home or even overseas, can be an exhilarating adventure, but it can also be quite intimidating. You might have spent years fantasising about what it will be like and where you’ll end up, hoping that reality lives up to your expectations.

After completing her studies in the United States, 23-year-old Kayley made the bold decision to move to Edinburgh, despite having “no knowledge” of Scotland or its culture. She confessed online: “I’ll never get over getting to live out the childhood dream.”

From immersing herself in the city’s rich history, to settling into a city centre flat and adopting Tesco as her local shop, she has found her feet since relocating two months ago.

However, certain aspects of British life left her utterly perplexed. She informed her TikTok followers: “It’s a miracle that I have survived here on my own for a month.”

Kayley then proceeded to highlight four of the most significant cultural shocks she has encountered since making the transatlantic move.

1. Electronics

Upon moving into her new abode, Kayley was struck by how different the plugs are in the UK. She was taken aback to discover that switches need to be turned on for electronics to function here.

She added: “I kept forgetting to turn on my microwave… There are so many light switches in this room it freaks me out.

“Bathroom lights are also automatic and so are the hall lights in my apartment and it just really freaks me out sometimes.

“I also learnt what a towel radiator was and I had never seen that in my life.”

Kayley confessed that she initially believed ‘pence’ was a historical term, and was taken aback when she heard it being used in modern Britain.

She continued: “Once I got the hang of pound and pence, people started throwing around this term ‘quid’ and I was like what is this new money term that I now have to learn..

“I thought there was a whole new type of currency I was going to have to learn about.”

3. Food and drink

As a fan of ranch sauce, Kayley found it challenging to locate it in the UK. This savoury, creamy American salad dressing is typically concocted from buttermilk, salt, garlic, onion, black pepper, and herbs.

Kayley remarked: “Ranch is not a thing here – never have I felt more American than when I was trying to explain what it is to a group of Europeans and they were like ‘it is mayonnaise’.

“Like no. Like honestly ranch sounds disgusting when you’re trying to explain it.”

She also observed how different coffee is. Kayley noted: “They also don’t have coffee creamer, it’s not a thing that they use here so they like didn’t know what it was.

“They just don’t do the same funky latte flavours that we have in the US, but matchas are really big thing.”

4. Petrol stations

In the US, petrol stations are referred to as ‘gas stations’ – and it appears, that’s not the only difference between them.

Kayley noted that petrol stations and their operations are “so different” in the UK compared to her home country. In contrast to the American practice of pre-paying for fuel, Brits fill up their cars first and then pay at the tills.

Despite having no intention of buying a car during her stay, the American found this British system “really weird”.