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American woman living in London admits there are 10 things she totally misses about the U.S.

"The default American personality when meeting strangers is happiness."

Some of the best things about America.

Every American probably has a long list of things they would change about their country, whether it’s the cost of rent, political divisions, or the bill you get from going to the ER. However, if you took the same person to Europe for an extended period, there would probably be many things that they would begin to miss. As they say, absence makes the heart grow fond, especially if you’re an expat.

TikToker @AnAmericanInLondon recently graduated from William and Mary College and moved to London to start her career posts about the cultural differences between the US and the UK. Recently, she posted a photo collage about the things she misses about the US, and it’s sure to make Americans feel a twinge of pride, even those with a long list of gripes about the country.

Here are 10 favorite things that AnAmericanInLondon misses about living in the US. (Note: You can see the full photo carousel on TikTok).

tiktok, us, ukTikTok · AnAmericanInLondonwww.tiktok.com


1. Nature

“We really do have the best nature out there, from California to New York Island. From the redwood forest to the gulfstream waters. From the Grand Canyon to the rocks at Yosemite. The diversity of nature in the USA is *chef's kiss*.”

2. Happiness

“The default American personality when meeting strangers is happiness. Yeah, people say we're loud and overly friendly, but I'd rather be that than perpetually gray and depressing all the time.”

3. Big glasses of FREE water

“Why am I paying for water everywhere else? And why, when I pay, is it poured into the tiniest glass, not even big enough for a chihuahua!?”


4. The food

“We have amazing food, and I won't hear any slander for it. You wonder why we're all fat. It's 'cause our food rocks. Mexican, southern fried chicken, New York bagels, Chicago pizza. You can't beat all the local food in the USA.”

5. Thanksgiving

“It's honestly more fun, lowkey, not as stressful as Christmas. Americans get two days off for Thanksgiving rather than one day for Christmas, so it's a better vibe if you get me. The food is unreal! Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, dressing, green beans, apple pie. So much better than Christmas.”

6. Driving in my car

“Now that I live in London, I never drive, and I really miss when I was in high school driving with my best friends to school. Stopping at Starbusk singing Jason Derulo's 'In My Head' at the top of our lungs. Ahh, the good ol' days.”


7. College (uni) sports

“College sports are so much fun. Especially since, in the USA, this is how players go pro. Imagine sitting next to Peyton Manning in calculus on a Tuesday morning.”

8. Fahrenheit

“I just will never wrap my head around Celsius or Kelvin. They will never make me like you, Kelvin!”


9. Diversity of choice

“There are so many options in the USA. More variety. According to Econ, more choice = higher utility = better preferences = happier people.”

10. The American Dream

“The idea is that every American should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. Americans value success and are proud of their achievements, which should be celebrated.”

via Canva

A child raises her hand in a bathroom.

A teacher on TikTok has created a debate over whether it’s appropriate to let elementary-age kids go to the restroom whenever they say they have to go. Jade Barrow, an elementary school-age substitute teacher in London, says she uses “discernment” when deciding whether a child can go to the bathroom and has no problem making them wait.

Barrow made the video to push back against parents who say their children should be able to go to the bathroom whenever they like. “If you want your child to receive special treatment, mainstream state school probably isn’t the place to be sending them,” Barrow captioned the video. “Some parents really are setting their kids up for failure in real life with all this pampering and entitlement.

“Today, I had about four examples of a time where I did not let the children go to the toilet,” Barrow said in her video. “So I just want to give you a bit of insight into our world so you can make a better judgment when you say, ‘Well, my child is allowed to go to the toilet whenever they want.’”



@homelearninghaven

If you want your child to receieve special treatment, mainstream state school probably isn’t the place to be sending them 😩 some parents really are setting their kids up for failure in real life with all this pampering and entitlement 🙄

“Today, we had an activity where, for three minutes, you listen to your partner read and then you swap over because you’re going to give them feedback on how they read ... I start the timer — one kid starts reading. The partner comes up to me and is like, ‘Ms., can I go to the toilet?’ But right now, you’re supposed to be listening to your partner read for three minutes,” she continued.

Barrow said it wasn’t fair for the child to take a bathroom break while working on an assignment with another student.

She added that it’s inappropriate for a child to ask to go while she is giving instructions. “No, because if you now go to the toilet, when you come back, I’m going to have to explain the activity again to you.” She also believes they should wait once recess has ended and the kids have returned to class. “You literally just had playtime ... you’re going to have to hold onto it for a minute,” she said.

The teacher clarified that she’d only make a child hold their bladder for a few minutes. “At max, it’ll be like, four minutes,” Barrow said. “If I can see that they’re really ... desperate, then fair enough, I’ll let them go.”



The video didn’t sit well with many parents on TikTok who think their children should never be denied access to the bathroom. “I've told my daughter, if she needs to use the toilet, just ask to be excused once, if the teacher says no - walk out,” Zeduk wrote. “If you need the toilet, that's all you will concentrate on.. so the child won't actually be taking in the information and it's likely it will need repeating anyway?” SunshineLvoes assed.

A teacher said she takes the opposite approach, which works fine for her. “I’m a primary school teacher. Children in my class use the toilet as and when they need to go. It’s their right. If I have to catch a child up, I do. I’ve never had an issue—they love the freedom,” BubblesWHU wrote.

Some commenters thought Barrow was right to expect children to wait until an appropriate time to leave the classroom.

“She is explaining that it’s only 4 mins max, let’s be honest, most times 4 mins is fine. My son tells me he needs the toilet when we’re on our way home, literally a few mins away, he’s fine,” Caits wrote. “Outside of education, children also have to wait to use the [bathroom]. Are these parents seriously saying they've never had to walk 5 minutes through a shopping center, or walking home, or in the car,” Helen added.

Ultimately, the debate is about balancing a child’s immediate needs with healthy classroom management. The key is for Barrow and other teachers to let their students know when they can go to the bathroom and when they’ll need to wait a few minutes. That way, the students can be conscious of their needs and develop a good habit of planning to use the restroom before it’s too late.

Modern Families

My family just flew to three European countries and home again for $149 per person total

Here's how we traveled from the U.S. to London, Athens and Vienna and back again for less than the cost of one domestic flight.

Photo courtesy of Annie Reneau

My husband and kids sitting on Ted Lasso's bench in Richmond, U.K.

Our family of five just got back from a nearly 3-week European vacation—three different cities in three different countries—and we only paid $149 cash per person for all of our flights combined.

It sounds too good to be true, but it's not. It sounds like there's got to be a catch, and there is, but not like you might think.

Welcome to the world of travel hacking, where if you learn to play the points and miles game well, you can take vacations you (or at least I) never thought possible.


I started learning about the points and miles game in the fall of 2021 via the 10xTravel free course, and I started playing in earnest myself in February of 2022. As a result, in the past year and a half, our family has taken multiple flights and stayed at multiple hotels within the United States—including some schmancy resorts—for free or very close to free. (Certain taxes and fees on flights have to be paid in cash, so there's no such thing as a 100% free flight.) But this trip to Europe was our first foray into international travel with points.

Four people standing in front of a lit up tree

My family enjoyed the Rathaus Christkindlmarket in Vienna.

Photo courtesy of Annie Reneau

The one "catch" to travel hacking? It's a complicated, strategic long game that takes time and effort to learn. But it's totally worth it. The basic gist is that you maximize credit card sign-up bonuses to accumulate transferable credit card points or loyalty points/miles with hotels and airlines, all without spending any more money than you normally would. Then you learn how to redeem those points for travel, which makes them way more valuable than simply getting cash back.

I wrote an overview of how the game works in a previous article (which you can read here), but I figured a real-life example is the best illustration.

For this trip to Europe, I transferred 362,500 Chase Ultimate Rewards credit card points to United Airlines. (My husband and I have accumulated over 1.2 million points and miles in the past year and a half, so this trip was barely a third of our points.) That's what all of our flights to, from and around Europe cost, plus one more flight paid for with Southwest points to get all the way home. The taxes and fees for all flights came out to $149 for each of us.

three young people in front of the temple of poseidon

The Temple of Poseidon was a favorite of the whole family.

Photo courtesy of Annie Reneau

Our original itinerary was actually US > London > Athens > Tel Aviv > US, but obviously the Israel plans changed when the war began. We switched from Tel Aviv to Vienna for our music-loving kids just a couple of weeks before we departed. The flight from Vienna back to the US cost fewer points than the Tel Aviv to US flight, which made it so our added Athens to Vienna flight was covered by points we'd already spent. (We'd originally booked a one-way cash flight from Athens to Tel Aviv. That got refunded when the flight was canceled.) And thanks to United's Excursionist Perk, our London to Athens leg also cost us zero points—we only paid taxes.

So what you see here are the fees we paid out of pocket for three flights—Spokane to London, London to Athens, and Vienna to Chicago (where we stopped to see family and friends for a few days on our way home). The Oct 15 "date of purchase" was actually the date we changed our Tel Aviv flight to Vienna—we purchased the original tickets months ago.

As you can see, the fees for these flights were $112 per person:

Screenshot of airline fees

Fees for flights from Spokane to London, London to Athens, and Vienna to Chicago

Screenshot via Annie Reneau

Here are the taxes and fees for the Athens to Vienna leg we added after the Israel changes, which were $31.40 per person:

Screenshot of flight total

Taxes and fees for flight from Athens to Vienna.

Screenshot via Annie Reneau

Finally, to get back to Spokane from Chicago, we booked flights on Southwest. We have a ton of Southwest Rapid Rewards points accumulated from playing the game as well as two Southwest Companion Passes, which means two of our kids traveled with us for free (only paid fees on their flights—no points needed). So we paid 14,345 Southwest points x 3 (43,035 points total) and the fees were just $5.60 each, which brings us to our grand total of $149 per person.

screenshot of southwest flight totals

We paid $5.60 each for our flight from Chicago to Spokane on Southwest.

Screenshot via Annie Reneau

To reiterate, we didn't pay anything beyond our normal spending for the points we used to get these flights. We just strategically utilized new credit cards for all of our expenses every few months. Accumulating points is actually the simpler part of the game. Figuring how to find the best redemption deals for the points is where it gets complicated and the real work comes in.

It's not like I just went on the United website, put in our dates and destinations, transferred the points and got the tickets. I spent many hours poring over different airline websites and different city combinations and dates to see where the best deals were. (We weren't tied to particular cities or dates other than our religious pilgrimage to Haifa, which didn't end up happening anyway.) It took a lot of time to find these tickets for the price we did, but again, totally worth it to save thousands of dollars.

family at sunset

Our whole family at the tip of mainland Greece at sunset.

Photo courtesy of Annie Reneau

If there weren't as many of us, we could also have gotten hotels on points, but with a family of five it was more affordable to book Airbnbs where we were Europe. So it's not like this vacation cost us nothing—we still had accommodations, public transportation, a car rental in Greece for exploring outside of Athens for a few days, food (pretty cheap in Greece, more expensive in the U.K. and Austria), and any museums, attractions and events we enjoyed.

But getting the flights for a song enabled us to do the rest. The cash price for the exact same flight itinerary would have cost between $6,000 and $9,000 for the whole family, especially since most of our flights were direct and at desirable times. Even if we were to see the 362,500 Chase points we used for their straight cash back value ($3,625), we still got a good deal. But those points didn't cost us anything. And our family got to take the trip of a lifetime. Travel hacking for the win.

Joy

Dapper British man delights strangers with 'devastatingly effective' compliments

He'll turn you into an expert at delivering compliments in under a minute.

Comedian Troy Hawke explains the art of the compliment.

Complimenting a totally random stranger on the street is a great way to get some serious side-eye. But British comedian Troy Hawke is such a master at the unique and sincere compliment that he spreads a bit of joy wherever he goes.

Hawke’s comedic persona is an erudite, sophisticated 1930s Errol Flynn-style throwback, and people seem to appreciate a compliment from a man who clearly has mastered the art of etiquette and grace.


In a recent TikTok video that received over 9 million views, the comedian throws a total charm storm on Notting Hill in London, where he compliments strangers on their wardrobes, how they walk and their driving skills. The cool thing is that everyone who receives a compliment from Hawke seems to enjoy the encounter.

The video is a friendly reminder that a well-timed and accurate compliment can be powerful. "Compliments are simple but not easy. Trust me," Hawke says, noting that it's especially difficult for English people to accept one. "Sincerely appreciating something someone has made an effort on will make their day.”

“The more unique, the more bespoke [the compliment], the more devastatingly effective,” Hawke adds. “Get it right, and it’s like a natural high for the pair of you.”

Hawke’s video is a fun reminder to all of us to be more thoughtful, sincere and prolific in our compliment-giving. They can really have a significant effect on another person’s day. The great Mark Twain once said, “My child, I can live on a good compliment two weeks with nothing else to eat.”