A Brit out of water

The first other ex-pat blog I've found is A Brit out of water and it's a good one. The Brit in question moved to Brooklyn last summer, lives with his American wife, known as The Special One, The Youngest, and possibly other children I've not yet read about. Try How to get a red in advertising and School papers for a taste. The simple use of effective graphics like the interstate sign holding the date and the days out of water counter is impressive.

Things I can steal from A Brit out of water:

• Write really well

Hmm, I'll keep that in mind.

• Find decent aliases for family members

I'd like to keep this blog anonymous, as it features my family heavily. I've never quite worked out how to refer to the recurring characters. Must sort this out.

• Use of strike-out text

Moving from the UK to the USA involves learning second names for lots of things and learning when to speak English, and when to speak 'American'. My current plan is to generally speak British English and only provide the American versions when confusion arises. So route is 'root' not 'rowt' and depot is 'deppo' not 'deepo'.

The exception to this is when speaking to US Government officials - for them I'll say whatever makes the conversation shorter.

However, Home Depot is a name, so it would seem only polite for me to pronounce it as they would pronounce it. I wouldn't tell Colin Powell how to pronounce his name, so why Home Depot?

Anyway. moving back to the written word. Currently I've been writing the British word and providing the American in brackets which looks clumsy. A Brit out of water uses strikeout text like this: courgette zucchini

Which provides a little humour and also flows slightly better. Ok, the pilfering has begun.