Well, we’re home again.  England knew I was on my way, it seems, and I watched out the plane window as we went from glorious sunshine up above the fluffy landscape down through the fog, only to finally land in black skies and pouring rain.   Welcome home!

American Airlines is one of my least favorites to fly, and coming home was no different as they changed our aircraft at the very last minute, delaying us by three hours.  Some of the passengers got bumped when we took a smaller plane, or decided they’d rather go to London immediately instead of waiting three hours to get on a flight to Manchester, but AA forgot and loaded their bags on the new flight anyway.   This is how we ended up sitting two hours on the tarmac, waiting for their ground crew to check through all the bags they’d already loaded.  

This begs the question:  If you can’t (understandably) take off with owner-less bags in the hold, lest they be bombs, how do those bags eventually get to where they should be? I mean, presuming the passengers who changed flights have already left the airport?  They must get there somehow.

Anyway, our flight was mostly full of brits, and thank goodness, since they were all pretty laid back about the five hour delay for their seven hour flight.  They even clapped when it was time to take off.  I can’t shake the suspicion that if it had been a flight of americans, there would have been way more shouting, and not in a good way.

Mr. Tea and I were talking about british temperament while we were vacationing.  I have noticed something interesting since starting this blog. I constantly nit-pick about both countries and cultures, but since Great Britain is all new to me, I tend to focus on them, particularly when whining. The thing is, the brits that read this blog never really give me a hard time about my complaining. They take it in stride or explain where I’ve lost the plot, and mostly laugh along with me when I bitch about the weather.

It’s the americans who get super defensive and huffy when I mention things about the states that make me crazy. That surprises me, since when I say something about life in the states, it’s based on WAY more experience than my statements on life in the UK, which I know are frequently sheltered and naive.  Maybe the yanks should change the motto to “Taking it personally since 1776.”

Obviously, this post will do nothing to help my public relations in that department, hahaha.   Really, though, I find europeans to be much better at agreeing to disagree, or at least logically debating an argument, and sure wish the people I love from home would try to understand how that skill can benefit an entire nation.  I’m still not as good at it as I’d like to be, but of all the personality changes cultural immersion is causing in me, that’s the one I welcome most.