Hello you all! I’m already on my way to hometown in Finland and went through all the confusing emotions last night. Leaving Newcastle must have been the hardest thing I’ve done for a while and I’m still trying not to cry every 30 minutes because I had to leave that place. This post includes cultural shocks/differences, that were surprising, amazing or weird at first when I got to know the culture in the UK. These are not necessarily bad at any way- they were just odd to me before I got used to them.
1. The washing machine is in the kitchen.
This was surprising and unusual for a Finn. Back in Finland we have a specific laundry- room or the machine is on the bathroom. This was definitely different, but not necessary in a bad way.
2. There’s a switch in every power socket.
The UK is the only country where I’ve seen the switch in sockets. I asked about it, and it’s safer because then children won’t hurt themselves when the socket is not working.
3. You can’t fully open most of the windows.
In most windows there’s a limiter (a stopper etc.) in the windows, so you can’t for example put your head out of the window because most of the time, it won’t fit.
4. Fitted carpets everywhere.
I got used to this in the USA, but it is also very famous in the UK. I personally am not a fan of fitted carpets, because the cleaning is harder when you don’t see all the dirt on the floor.
5. There’s no “hand-shower” in the bathrooms.
In Finland we’re used to it that next to the toilet there’s the small hand-shower. That was probably the hardest thing to get used to, because instead of using the hand-shower, you had to buy wet tissues that you use to clean yourself. And if you forgot to buy those- well it was interesting.
6. Houses and rooms are tall but narrow.
The British houses are very different from Finland. We’re used to space and large rooms- so called open-concept model. In the UK there’s many rooms, but all the rooms are very small. It’s not bad, I noticed that you really don’t need that much space when you learn to live with less.
7. Telling the table number when ordering food in the pub.
Usually in restaurants you just sit on the table the whole time, or if you go to McDonalds etc. you order the food and wait the food and go to sit after that. It was weird that when ordering food in the pub, you go to the bar and ordered drinks and food, but you also had to tell the number of your table (which is written in the corner of the table) and then they bring the food later to you. It definitely took a while to learn to always check the table number before ordering!
8. Saying “Cheers!” to everything.
This was really confusing for all the exchange students, even from the ones from the USA. You could say cheers to say bye, thank you and of course cheering for drinking. Time to time it felt like you could say “Cheers mate!” almost in every situation.
9. You can buy medicine from regular grocery store.
In Finland we always go to special drug stores (like Boots) to buy medicine. I assume most of the people do that in the UK too, but it’s interesting that you can buy medicine from the regular store as well.
10. Regular grocery stores sell wine and hard alcohol.
This is very common in most European countries, so it wasn’t such a big surprise that you can buy all kinds of alcohol for example from Sainsbury’s (in Finland same store would be S-market). Alcohol is also so much cheaper in the UK than in Finland!
11. Meal deals.
For those who don’t know- meal deal is a deal where you get usually a sandwich/wrap, a water bottle/soda and a bag of crisps. And it usually costs between £3-4! The shocking thing was that some people eat a small bag of crisps every day- it’s weird because I’ve been raised to eat healthy and not eat unhealthy snacks during the day. But I do like that they also have a lot of healthy snack options like apples or grapes instead of crisps. But after living in the UK for 6 months and getting used to that- I’m so sad we don’t have meal deals in Finland as well!
12. The cashier packs the bag.
In a grocery store such as Sainsbury’s or Tesco the cashier often packs the goods to the bag for you. In Finland everyone packs their own bags so that was surprising! Also very often Finnish people bring their own fabric bags with them to reduce plastic waste that comes from the plastic bags.
13. All the cigarette packets look the same.
I noticed that friends of mine who smoke and buy cigarettes, had to know exactly what type of cigarettes they want because the packets looked all the same. And apparently it was very expensive too.
14. All the crisps packets are small.
It was surprising that in the country where they eat a lot of crisps- the packets are all small. Even if you buy a huge bag, it’s full of small ones. I personally feel that it creates more waste than just making big ones, but that’s just my personal opinion.
15. A lot of fruits bowls.
I really loved the possibility to buy fruit bowls from the grocery store- especially when the fruits were part of the meal deal. It was always the healthier option for other snacks and I really liked it! It wasn’t that expensive either- you could get a large bowl of pineapples for £1,50.
16. British people love to talk about the weather.
I think this is a cliché, but I noticed that it’s true. It’s not a bad thing and after seeing and experiencing the weather by myself I can totally understand why they love to talk about it. It’s just so unpredictable!
17. British people are very polite.
The first thing I noticed is that all the people (there are exceptions of course as always) in the UK are very polite. Even when they’re having a bad day, they keep smiling and are nice to you. The brutal Finnish honesty hit me really hard at the airport when I arrived last night, and I have to admit that I do prefer the UK.
18. Driving on the left side of the road.
This was a real shock at first because I had never been in a country before where cars drive on the other side. It took some time, but after 6 months of being there I can honestly say that coming back to “normal” doesn’t seem normal to me anymore. I’m got so used to that UK traffic already!
19. The orange fake tan.
This was an everyday joke when walking in the streets, because you could see so many British women with horrible orange fake tan which obviously looked super unnatural. But I honestly think that the tv-program Geordie Shore has probably been inspiration for several women.
20. Super long Easter holiday.
In Finland the Easter holiday is two to four days- in the UK it’s three weeks! Which was for sure very surprising and odd at first. It felt like a short summer holiday without the summer. I wasn’t complaining though, because my friends and family were able to visit me during that time!
So here are the 20 so called cultural shocks that blew my mind away. I got used to all these things after a while and there are habits that I brought with me back to Finland. I got more polite, I’m confused about the traffic in Finland and for sure I do love to talk about the weather.
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