I've Forgotten How To Cross The Road
Emigration, as an experience changes you. You're very much taken out of your comfort zone and forced to adapt. You pick up new habits and conform to new norms. You eat things you wouldn't normally eat. You become exposed to cultures beyond those that you grew up with and that you have moved to. Eventually, it just becomes second nature. In my case, this lead to a whole raft of wonderful experiences. I picked up plenty of new habits. Most of them good, I'd like to think. Most of them, I stopped noticing after a while. I started saying things like "trash can" and "pop the trunk". I'd genuinely go to the pub "just for one drink". Occasionally, I'd get stick from my friends at home when I started talking "American". That said, I still held strongly to some home comforts. I always made a point of watching the 6 Nations rugby championship, for example. I would pay over the odds for Toffee Crisps in sweet shops that carried them.