Sunday, November 20, 2011

I'm with the Brits

This past week, I attended my first-ever pan-European conference for work.  Over the years, I've attended numerous US conferences, and several UK conferences.  This was the first conference I've ever attended that spanned not only the UK, but the continent as well.  And, let me just say....if there were ever any doubt about identifying with the country I've been living in for the past 3 years and 8 months (!), that all evaporated this past week!
The chaos, pushing & shoving (we were a bit cramped...) and 'non-British' queuing *really* got on both my and my London-based colleagues nerves-and I can honestly say I was longing for the ways of the English. Funny.

Conversely, I don't think others saw me as an American at this conference either; I was quite firmly with the Brits, and identified as being 'one of them' (primarily by non-native English language people who can't discern the accent difference).

And, I was completely OK with it.

Posted by ~kristina at 10:26 AM
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2 comments:

  1. Expat mumNovember 21, 2011 at 6:48 AM

    Isn't it funny how your loyalties shift around. I chimed in on a blog post the other day that was completely slamming Americans, but a lot of it was factually wrong. While I wasn't exactly a cheer-leader for the US, (because it's opinion at the end of the day) I did make quite a few corrections to the original post!

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  2. ~kristinaNovember 21, 2011 at 7:15 AM

    It's very surprising, @expatmum. I can certainly say I didn't see it coming at all!

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