Talking Shit with a Yank & a Brit - 20. Pump N Munch

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

We have a special guest this week!!! Together we discuss experiences between living in the UK and the States - stick around til the end for some bloopers!Get in touch with the on social media @TSYBPOD or email in at [e-mail]

Welcome to Talking Shit with Yank and two Brits. Woo! Yes. Hi, everybody. Royal Britannia! Well, as you can hear, we have a very special guest today for our 20th episode. Whoop, whoop, we hit 20! Oh, yes, the 20th episode!

Gemma, do you want to introduce our guest? Well today, we have the legendary, the one and only, Kate's other half, partner in crime, Mr. Sean. Boo boo boo, eh eh eh. That is me. Hello, everybody. Hello. Hi, Nigel. Hi. Yeah, I'm the Nigel. Yes, this is the Nigel that Kate speaks of. Call me Nigel.

We thought it'd be fun for this very special episode, which is kind of a milestone of sorts, to have a guest and we you know had auditions we considered a variety of people and ultimately landed on my husband. How does it feel to be part of this crazy ride that we're on Sean? Absolutely fantastic I'm delighted to be here. Marvelvellous. Great. Well, we thought it would be cool to have you on because obviously you have lived in both the UK and the US of A and it would be great to get your opinion on our culture differences and our, you know, way of life and whatnot. Yeah, yeah, that I have i mean absolutely i mean cultural differences that is the uh the main headline that's for sure i mean we both speak

the same language which helps yeah um oh my goodness yeah the you know the different cultures um it was absolutely crazy um at first and i guess there's still a couple things that you know um really sort of stand out and i think like the main one and i shared this with a couple of friends the other day is obviously you know petrol stations or you know in the united states known as gas stations um some of the names that exist for them. Come and go. Spelled with a K, K-U-M as well, you know. Yes, a come and go, a very, very interesting one. I came across one the other day called Pump and Munch.

Yeah, it's a good one. Which, you know, who comes up with that and who thinks, yeah, yeah, you know, great, great name. We'll stick with that. Pump and munch. Perfect. And then, you know, it's not really a petrol station as such. I guess they can be. It's like an oil change place.

Speedy Lube. Yeah. And the fact that they call it Lube versus oil. I thought that was hilarious when I came over. Yeah, it gets me every day. It tickles me every day. Yeah, I mean, I've lived out here for almost 10 years now. And I still see it and chuckle to myself. And I've never given it a second thought. But I'm glad. I'm glad you mentioned it. I was going to ask. So you've been here for about 10 years now, a little bit less, I think, but you visited before you moved here. But the official move was in 2014.

And I guess maybe talk a little bit about kind of like when you when you first visited and things you've noticed and things that excited you and. You know, meeting me. Well, when I first started visiting, I thought I, well, I'd never had it before, but I was like, do I have something wrong with my stomach? No, it was just a heart attack food that I was subject to. Subject? No one's forced you to eat weight every day. I remember obviously, you know, me and Kate, you know, dating and all that kind of stuff and laying there at like 2am with my stomach going, I'm going to poop myself. I'm going to poo my pants. Okay. But like, you're right. Yeah. I'm just having a few stomach issues and, you know, fast forwarding time.

It was just, again, those things where we eat that kind of food in England, but like, you know, the different oil, different milk and stuff like that. And more of that stuff in types of food.

That was very interesting to get into but now i love that kind of food and so the question on everyone's lips sean is did you shit yourself no i didn't um no i did not yeah i think i came close a couple times um definitely not even a cheeky little shot no no shot no I do remember though uh that first trip that you took when we met that you and your friends getting so excited about Wendy's and the square burgers and like that was the thing and we lived down the street from one after you moved here. And I think you maybe wore yourself out a little bit going there so much. Yeah.

That reminds me as well, like, you know, we're going back a little while, but obviously the whole like phone's not working over there. I remember going on your mom's computer and printing out directions to Wendy's and being like, yeah, I think I can find it. Oh, wow. That was like my daily thing. That was like the only thing I did in a day was went out to Wendy's. Yeah, it was great. Fucking hell.

He didn't even branch out. There's so many other like food places here that you guys don't have. And that was the one that like really, I think stuck to him for a while. I mean, in Sioux City, Wendy's was pretty gourmet though, wasn't it? I suppose. you guys don't have and that was the one that like really i think stuck to him for a while i mean in sioux city wendy's was pretty gourmet though wasn't it i suppose it's not my there's only like two of them versus 10 mcdonald's it's true but no it excited all us

brits because you know american like hamburgers such a staple staple and in England we only have um I think like McDonald's and Burger King yeah and still only like one in a town if you're lucky versus 800 in a town in America yeah true um did you have any problems like with the lingo like i think we've already talked about the the tap and force it thing haven't we i remember when i came over to visit and uh kate's aunt picked me up and you know they're midwest midwestern girls through and through and i'm in the back of the car and you know i'm just i'm just chatting and uh kate's aunt cindy just turns around to me or it might have been denny and just sort of you know i basically said something and they kind of looked at each other and they just went gobbledygook like

they couldn't figure out what i was saying uh lingo no i mean i understood the majority of words i think people had a hard time understanding me. And one of the hardest things, which kind of shaped a lot of potential connection building, was me just saying my name. I think people would, you know, they would hear this Sean. And obviously in America, you know, it'd be Sean. And I'll just get all these blank stares and people probably thinking, why did your mother hate you and give you that weird sound? Sean. So that was really hard, just those pronunciations. And, you know, I'm sure a lot of people didn't understand a single thing I was saying at times, talking quick and just, you know.

thing I was saying at times, talking quick and just, you know. Well, I think people, you know, people that I've known for a long time who were just meeting you for the first time and didn't know anything about you, where you're from, and you introduce yourself and say, you know, I'm Sean, Sean. They think you're saying Sean, Sean, you know, and they aren't expecting it. So it doesn't sound like anything in their vernacular and are just really surprised and so I remember watching a few people who struggled and I'm like it's Sean it's don't worry they're like oh Sean I see Sean yep and ordering water at a restaurant oh yeah that was that was a that was a story wasn't it we were in some like proper poland little town and you know i wanted some water with my food and this young kid he could not understand what i was saying and i probably said water four different ways like you know

pronouncing it and the kids still didn't know and i started started to get very, I think I said, look, mate, you get out your tap. And then I realized that tap, I was like, this is just a game over. I'll just be thirsty. I'll be thirsty. And so then I was like, here's some water. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I felt really bad. But even, I said, even to this day, I, I, you know, I play football with a lot of people, a lot of Hispanic people um and things like that and when I say my name they they still they don't get it like they try and say it back and they're like sure oh it's nice to meet you cool that's why you should just stick with

Nigel yeah Nigel it's yeah yeah I get it understand that one yeah can you talk about like i'm just so curious because you took a driving test in sioux city when you got your license there after you can call it that yeah that's what i mean is just to retake your license so he could drive on you know just having his like uk driver's license but after he moved here like part of it is getting the things like once you change residence you have to like like so we you know we moved to minnesota we had to get minnesota driver's licenses and stuff so at some point he had to go and get it like an id slash license and all of that and he had to take the test because he didn't have one here yet so yeah i could get my driver's license before my green card, if you will.

To Kate's point, it was a form of ID and obviously I needed to drive. Yeah, it was very interesting actually because it was very loose so I just didn't read up how long my UK driver's license was actually valid for. I think it definitely ran its course. But yeah, I remember especially comparing it to how it was in England and from what I understand now driving tests in England is even more intense you know we have the hazard and perception test your theory like the practical and it's like a certain amount of time but yeah out in Sioux City I remember doing my um my theory if you will the written test as they call it and it was basically like two questions you know I mean can you drive yes

and then I really yes right well you know can you drive a go-kart yeah well you're fine um I remember getting in the car and obviously, you know, I had been driving and again, driving a manual all these years, you know, getting in an automatic. It's so easy. It basically is a go-kart. And yeah, I got in the car and I was expecting, and Gemma, you might be able to help me out here. Like, you know, in England, you have to do certain maneuvers within your test. And some of them are tricky. You know, when you're learning, everything's hard, right?

You get more nervous. All I did was came out of the building. This young lady was like, take a right. Okay, I took a right. Take another right. All right. Okay, take a right. Pull over on the side to the right all right

pull off again okay take a right okay take another right and i'm back at the test center you passed that that would that was it and i think i was out in the car for about 10 minutes um well i guess that's kind of all you need in america because everything's square and you just keep turning right and you'll end up all you need in America because everything's square and blocked. You just keep turning right and you'll end up where you need to be eventually. And actually, that is actually one thing I think is incredible about the one thing I think that is incredible about the driving out in the States is that you can turn right at a red light. Yeah. It makes so much sense.

You can also turn left from a one way onto a one way on a red yes yes you can can you at sean's almost taken out a pedestrian or two in those early days because he didn't realize that like the people walking the opposite direction of the green like so if the green light was this way the people could walk and so he wanted to turn left. And the woman was crossing and had the walk. And he almost hit her. And I was like, you have to wait. Well, come on now. That's just an accident waiting to happen, isn't it? I mean, that's absolutely outrageous.

And whoever wrote that into the law, hopefully lost their job. They got to walk sometime. Yeah, but the fact that you're not going across the road, which when you're stopped, makes sense. It was my right to turn, but it was their right to walk. I was like, what? The traffic, the green light was going straight. So they got to walk sometime. That's the way I wanted to go as well.

Yeah, you wait until she just crosses and then you can go. Yeah, that was bad. And I was like, that is really, really dumb. Yes. I've also noticed that you don't seem to have roundabouts in America. We do. In Minnesota particularly, there's a lot of them, but they're not as common and they're not quite as effective, I think.

No, they're more to, I know roundabouts prevent speed and whatnot, but in England there's a lot more purpose to going off in different directions. But here they literally are to slow roads down at times i really well i saw a video of uh one that had recently been installed i can't remember where it was in a town somewhere in america that had never had a roundabout before and no one knew how to fucking use it like some people are going the wrong way around it absolutely ridiculous yeah oh yeah that's great um one thing i really want to bring up uh i discovered something this week and it's blown my little mind um apparently americans cannot do bank transfers on their like banking apps what the hell is going on it's 2023 how do you

get by we don't and so this is why i guess you have like venmo and all these yeah money transfer apps and stuff that's just below my mind as well jma I mean America is built off convenience and it's a very convenient fast-growing country where there's drive-through banks off licenses you don't have to ever get out your car it's all convenient but yes you cannot transfer for one bank to the other on an app that's mental have you got like contactless yeah we do finally but they don't always work yeah yeah and the fact that when you go to pay for stuff you can choose the debit or credit

option which is basically putting in your pin or not putting in your pin and that really confused me when i first moved here because i'm like it's not a credit card well I don't want it on credit which one do I choose um yeah I remember one thing that got me was I mean it may have changed now but when I think the first time I came over and like you're in a restaurant they take your card away and like pay for it at the till without you and that really freaked me out working in fraud i was like this is just fucking fraud waiting to happen like bring the machine to me or ask me to come to the till and i'll do it there like i did not like them taking my card away it's getting more common but definitely not prevalent because i remember being like here's my card and they're like oh no i'll just do it here and i was like what yeah they just bring

the machine to the table now yeah yeah they bring it back with like four different types of receipts and then you have to you know get your pencil case out and do a math class of how to figure out how much okay when I first came out here, and we went to like a first restaurant, and we were presented with tipping, you know, Wigsy just was so blunt and said to the wait, what do I do? Like, you know, could you help me? And she looked really embarrassed to be like well obviously give me like the highest tip you can but we were so mind blown by it we're like just tell us tell us how much money how much you want how much do you want take my money how much you want come on do it yeah i remember being i think

maybe a couple times but like cornell and callum ended up coming to omaha with me because that's where their flight was and i took them out one night and i was like now you give them a dollar for the drink in addition to paying for the drink and they're like what i was like you have to just leave a dollar get your money back and leave a dollar for your drink at least you can do a little more if you want at least a dollar i'm gonna go on a little mini rant here about tipping kate obviously has educated me a lot and obviously i've you know i've had to because it's it's very customary out here and even more so with certain industries like the service industry out here is that you know they basically get paid in chocolate

buttons and make their money with tips but the one that really gets me because i feel like the prices are extremely high for the industry anyway and two things i really like to get done which is getting my hair cut and getting tattooed um tattoos are very expensive out here and even getting the haircut when i get my haircut it basically cost me 50 and you know you're paying for that service, and then it's customary to leave a tip on top of that. But when you're getting tattooed, and you're dropping $250, $300 for an hour tattoo,

and then giving like 20% tip on top of that, it's like, I could get a whole other tattoo. So that, it's really hard. Yeah, like the service should be included in the fact that you've paid 200 quid for a tattoo yeah well it gets dark than it because obviously they're they're renting a chair it all comes down to how much money they have to give but you know for me sitting there like i'm paying you 40 to cut my hair that that's that that that's enough for me thank you to be fair I do tip when I get my hair cut over here just cause

I'm imagining the stylist probably doesn't get the full thing of what you're paying so I just give them a little extra say thank you for making my hair look nice and not shaving it off by accident yeah I mean it's been like this for as long as I've you know have had to pay for

my own like haircuts and stuff like and beyond but I it's always confused me because it's like well I get that you might be renting the space or you may be getting paid whatever and the tip is like you know thank you but it's also like just like charge me a little more so that you basically get the full amount of you know what what you would be getting or something but yeah I don't mind tipping my hairstylist or my tattoo artist but you know I get I get that Sean's point is like part of the reason we tip in you know restaurants and stuff is because they make three dollars an hour or what are chocolate buttons i guess whereas tattoo artists and hairstylists kind of can set their own prices you know yeah exactly my um my

math teachers would be very proud of me now i didn't do very well in math in school but every day is like maths out here because every time you purchase something there's tax added onto it yeah you're not doing math when you're buying shit well if you only have if you have like a 10 you know a 10 bill and you know that something's 10 well when you get to the till you're gonna have to have more money because it's not 10 dollars yeah it's you know i get it now obviously everything's cards you're like whatever but yeah it's um that is quite confusing for for foreigners visiting and kate were there when you first met sean were there stuff he said or like things that

really confused you where you were like what are you talking about i know that we spent a lot of time talking about like not just with Sean, but some of the other people, you know, kind of around the wedding time we first met things that were different, but I'm, you know, my friend who was dating the person who they got married to whose wedding we're at, she often kind of would fill in some of the differences too. So I had some semblance of an idea, but Sean, you'll have to remind me.

Did you like, was there anything that you shared with me? And I was like, what? It is hard to remember i mean you are the smartest person on the planet kate so you knew everything and know everything um it's true and you know we're obviously you trained him well she we were into similar stuff in that aspect as far as like our conversations and what we were talking about i think she had the gist or she was just being extremely polite just agree yeah yeah absolutely yeah no exactly what you mean yeah yeah yeah I'll have to think about that but I know like some of the things that maybe have kind of confused me now is as the years have gone on and I've gotten to know and visited and I'm like like as we've talked about in previous episodes like oh i can't get an iced

coffee here or wow your sandwiches at gas stations are really good i love eggs still loving those damn eggs yeah yeah i think the thing that also that just to kind of give a semblance of home for Sean is trying to find the things he likes like his Heinz beans or you know digestives and the tea he likes and having to like go to a special shop that has them though some of our stores here do have a little bit more of those things which is helpful but then it's either really expensive or not quite the same because it's not made by the same company like we have Cadbury's here but it's not the same as in England and so it doesn't taste as good and apparently I found out the reason why chocolate doesn't taste as good in America um and it's because the dirt yes I bet it's the water, right? No, it's the way it's made.

So like we have kind of easy access to like the dairy farms and the milk that goes into chocolate. But whereas because your chocolate has to be shipped such far distances, they have to change it and use like the, you know, the UHT shitty milk. So it lasts longer? Yeah, basically just to preserve it longer so that's why it tastes different apparently yeah well recipes can change how they taste like if you had a if you had a grandma who made a really good whatever and then you try to replicate it you follow the steps exactly sometimes it comes down to the water you know that you use where you're at or like the particular brand of flour or

something that's available to you. So yeah. Apparently Cadbury's all around the world is, is made slightly different. And yeah, to Gemma's point, it's what's accessible. But also one of the biggest things I read was, uh, obviously, you know, chocolate can, can, can melt and not be kind of pleasant to eat or, you know, loses its brand recognition and whatnot, melting points. And to do that that that's where they have to add like pretty much like wax to it to it to kind of preserve its its shape because yeah the cabri's out here just does

not taste the same it just doesn't definitely a little bit of toe wax in there as well you know something that is not necessarily like special to the uk or the us but is an experience that i've thought a lot about is kind of sean's immigration journey um compared to people from other countries and that was fun yeah you can talk about that too but as i did a lot of the paperwork for that for the fiance visa, just because I kind of, you know, knew a little bit more of the legalese of it and kind of what needed and then I had, you know, a good friend, Allison, who works in immigration who could help guide me. talking to other people. Like I have another good friend who's from Africa and his journey was a lot longer, more arduous as far as like getting things approved. And I also, you know, my step sister-in-law, I know she kind of had to go through some hoops that were really surprising. Like we didn't have to like prove anything. Like they didn't come back to us and say we need more evidence of your relationship and stuff or question anything um yeah and like the biggest

hurdle we ran into was his employment authorization card got destroyed in the mail and so the day we got it it was like completely defaced and had to apply for it again and pay for it again and wait another and so it's so frustrating because like I know Sean was bored to tears when he couldn't work for that period and having to wait even longer to just like be able to work legally that was a very very sad day I remember the postman was like oh I hope this wasn't important and it's like yeah it really was because you like I physically needed that card to go down to like, you know, the Social Security office and get like a Social Security number, you know, national insurance number for the British listeners. And that was, you know, to prove that I am someone and that I can work.

it was it was bad and that was like a four five months in possibly of of living there where I had to wait for my work authorization and uh yeah that was a sad day god what a bullet again why why do you have to have a physical card like just it kind of served as like his number I know and I think it kind of serves as like an ID of sorts so So like if he wanted to go apply for a job, he could show it and be like, yep, here's my authorization to work and stuff like that, which is why you would think like, well, I am authorized to work. Like I literally am. I just the face of the card got defaced he could just say oh i need a replacement card he had to basically ask for another oh it was so frustrating and we're like well the post office which is a federal agency is the one that did it like the machine destroyed it so like maybe these two branches that are in are these two agencies that are in the literal same branch of government could just communicate with each other and like send us a new one no that's not how it fucking worked you would like to think that's just made me think of something else um when i came over when we went to that baseball game oh yeah the twins yeah and i brought my driving license as id

to buy alcohol and they fucking refused to serve me because they didn't understand my driving license or accept it as ID man that got me so angry I was like are you fucking kidding me it's a driving like it's it's a driving license it says the UK on it it's just a UK driving license it's got my date of birth I'm clearly old enough to drink sorry ma'am we can't accept that you're gonna have to show us your passport i've not brought my passport out with me because i don't want to lose it like what the fuck didn't that happen we went to like one bar and then they but so we literally just went next door and they accepted it yeah we just went based on the business not the it's not the law yeah you used to get really upset about that because

coming down to like law stuff it's it's a like a legal document right or identification card which it you know should be accepted as valid as a passport and um because it happened to me in in sioux city it's never happened to me here because i think obviously i had my us uh id but for a while, obviously I didn't. And they wouldn't, in places in Sioux City, just didn't understand what my pink card was, the driver's license card. Well, and I think, like I said, it wasn't the law. So it's not like they're like, sorry, law says we can't. It was like the policy. But I also think it was the person who was there, just not really sure about it. Didn't want to get in trouble. Yeah, they're just like, nope, sorry.

And I'm just like, you can accept this. Like, you can. This is a legitimate form of ID in this country. And I was like, I need to get drunk because I am not enjoying baseball. So please just give me the wine and let me go and sit back down. We got you drunk, don't worry oh i know i was very drunk by the end of that but yeah as far as you know as far as my journey you know on the boat coming over here um i i had i had a very smooth journey compared to again friends

that we know and you know something i've always kept an eye on obviously being an expat and whatever um but yeah little things like that your identification getting rejected uh you know at times it made me feel a little horrible um you know there was that little ignorance in in like kate said the person enforcing the policy you know like a bouncer syndrome right no yeah you're not coming in um and yeah you know i i battled with bits of that i would say that was the only hardship and then other than my work card getting destroyed in the post um of just a little bit of ignorant small talk of people being like oh you know i guess you must be here for a green card and you know it's like well oh absolutely you know yeah you know england is such a third world country you know um little little things like that used to bother me um

just because i i didn't want to be i didn't want to draw any attention, but obviously there's not a lot I can do being like the only British person in Iowa and things like that. You know, people would ask a lot of questions. What else really bothers you when they assume you're from Australia, right? Oh my goodness, yeah. Oh, like, yeah.

You know, are you from Australia? No, I'm from England. Oh, the same thing well different ends of the planet but at that point i just feel sorry for them i'm just like that's just that's unfortunate here's a map i mean it is a country that initially was started as like what, a prison island for Brits. So and I like to say Australia is just like the Texas of Britain. Oh, so even worse, I think I'm a convict at the same time.

I must be. Look at him. Short hair tattoos. And what was the like citizenship test like? Was that really hard? A citizenship test, like, is that really hard? Well, this is the thing, right? After kind of years of having to go through certain statuses of being a resident to a permanent resident, you know, like being a number in the system to finally actually sort of having a glimpse of, you know, being able to buy a beer because the ID was correct.

When it actually came down to my citizenship test that was an absolute doddle um you know the studying of it was always something to be a you know like out of a possible hundred questions they only ask you 10 80 percent right that's what you only have to get six right and the studying of it was fine i kind of did enjoy it but i remember the day right math yeah it might be right yeah i thought it would be like a full-on like 100 question exam like like a two-day affair where you have four hours write a dissertation and yeah yeah no it was a little blood it was a lot for for nothing in the way that just how long it took and I remember Kate came with me that day and we went downtown Minneapolis to my appointment and we were like in a in a coffee shop across the street and when I

went over I think I was coming back across the street within 10 minutes. And I know Kate was like, he failed. Something happened. I was like, oh my God, I got to go. I think you failed. But it was so quick that it actually bothered me a little bit. Like when Kate was like, you know, what questions did they ask you? Like, I couldn't remember because it all happened so fast.

And the guy, you know, was just pushing it so quick to almost being like yep this is fine yep you're good cool yep great and uh a bit of an anti-climax if you will did you guys have to do one of those interviews where you have to like nope i really so i yeah i think they do that when they had a birth and yeah they do that when they... What's his date of birth? Yeah, they do that when I think, and maybe they don't anymore. Maybe there's a little bit of a myth to that. But I think that happens when they have questions about the legitimacy of the relationship. Yes. And so I guess maybe because you've been married for so long, by that point, that was accepted.

I had to answer basic biometric questions on the day. Like, what's your name Sean and date of birth you know that so that was it and I think because of the process we chose which was fiance visa which means he left we applied for it he came back we got married within a certain amount of time you know our wedding that May. And then we could then apply for the legal permanent residence status. And then he kind of just like he could have gotten his citizenship within like the year after that. But he maintained his green card status, you know, up until November. I think it was November of last year, right?

When you got sworn in as a citizen? Yeah, with my little flag. Or was it two years? I don't remember. I mean, basically we waited a long time before we decided to do it. But so I wonder if like, if we were to have gotten married

when he was visiting and then wanted him to stay, they might have had some questions about whether like it was a legitimate or a sham marriage but because he left and we kind of just like did the waiting period so to speak um but i know after he did come over there's like limitations on you being able to leave again while your status is pending too and that was hard because i know like wanting to come back maybe for because like someone passed and stuff like that or just not being able to visit for a while was difficult yeah no that was tough it was yeah when my nan died um you know i couldn't leave i couldn't without my visa um being revoked um but then also i don't

know if i'm allowed to say this but my journey was smooth because i'm a white man from england you are allowed to say that because it's true. You know, as far as horror stories that you hear of someone is having a tie to a country that I don't even know what it's looked at as being like why that country is, you know, penalized, if you will. And but yeah, you know, you hear horror stories all the time, people getting just questioned and more interviews, and again, like questioning their relationship with the other person. And obviously I had none of that. Pretty smooth sailing then.

It was smooth sailing. It was smooth sailing the whole way. Just took a little bit of time. Yeah, money. Yeah. Yeah. and yeah yeah so if you'd failed would you have had to pay for it and go through the whole process again yep no i think on my on my test i was allowed to fail it once and you get to redo it i don't know if that would have been in the same day or rescheduled but after that you then have to basically file the the whole thing again to do

it so yeah yeah well you're now a fully fledged citizen of the usa i'm basically james bond you know i have multiple identities right yeah it's great cool cool yeah uh you know and i i think the things that not a huge amount of difference between being a legal permanent resident and a citizen except for kind of a few things voting being one though i was told that you could vote you supposedly would have been able to vote in kind of the local elections if you wanted but i i'm also not certain if that's true um and then also serving on jury duty i remember before he became a citizen he got he got called for jury duty and we were going out of town that time frame so he couldn't do it anyways but basically you can ask for like a reschedule and he submitted a reschedule but also there was a box that's like are you a u.s citizen and he

checked no and they're just like oh never mind they're like oh you can't do it anyway i'm like i think they're gonna check that on you yeah yeah yeah because the way they it depends on your jurisdiction but the way they like pull people for jury duty is based on you know who has a driver's license or if there is voter registration so they might get some people who actually don't qualify um based on the list they use so i remember being so jealous though because i was like i want to i love jury duty let me do it and i was like this sounds like living hell like i do not want to do this at all okay i was like i'll do it yeah so are there any things that you like really miss about England or are there things that like you prefer in the US? Hmm.

I really miss hearing people say chicken goujon. I really miss it, Gemma. Why? Get out here. Tendies, tenders, nuggets, nuggies, fingers. I love a good goujon. Just such a great word. Chicken goujon.

We have that French influence, I guess. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sorry, goujon sounds like nonsense. Like going back to when my aunt thought you said gobbledygook when you said legitimate words like goujon it and it also doesn't like i don't like it on my ear holes or in your heart hole or in my heart hole you're correct yes i you know the the classics obviously i miss my you know my family over there and i yeah i miss my friends and and whatnot um certain foods and things like that and the the football scene um

you know in england you know the whole community feel of football um you know everyone going to the game locally and and and whatnot I really missed that but then you know it's interesting like I when I left England um you know I I was loving my job and things like that and obviously you know I had to make that decision to move over here but since being in the States I've had a lot of opportunity you know i really have i've you know and again especially in the world of football like whether that is because i'm i'm from england and i do believe that i got my first coaching job purely because i was english you know that i must know what he's on about and i did take my my licensings and things like that which was great but just from there i, I've just had opportunities

and I've gone up and up. And not to say I wouldn't have had them in England, but I guess I don't know. Like I look on that on a really positive lens of being out here in the States that, you know, I'm now a director of a company and got some good success that way and have learned a lot. And people look at America and think about that with like the opportunities here

you know and all that kind of stuff um the american dream yeah um definitely not land of the free if you think about it there's government involved um but yeah no the opportunities i've had out here have been absolutely great and obviously i've got to build a life, you know, with Kate and we've got our own house and all that kind of stuff. But also, you know, like, you know, when I left England, just before 25, you know, I was 24 year old. You know what I mean? I was still in that. I don't know what I kind of really want to do. Yeah. And I remember you being like super excited, obviously, because you're gonna go move there with kate but just like being almost a little bit disillusioned with england and you were super up for going to america and we always said that you were a little american at heart because you loved your

skateboarding and your punk rock bands absolutely yeah and the oc yeah yeah yeah that kind of california lifestyle and then i moved to iowa yeah hey you knew what you were getting into i lived basically in the same town when we met and then i was like by the way I'm moving back to the town that we met in so FYI but you know again we we quickly realized there that you know there wasn't much opportunity for me there and obviously you know we kind of moved on from there and that's where our real journey began when we moved to um moved to Minneapolis but yeah you know it was Minneapolis um we have we visited here a lot we have friends who who lived here. So we kind of got to know it. And it felt like kind of a upgrade in terms of like city size and like metropolitan

without being too far away from an area that we knew the friends, my family. And, you know, just like kind of a nice transition without having to basically move all the way like across the country you know yeah yeah and I found a job here that I liked so cool nice yeah what else have you got on your little notes there Sean yeah tell us well obviously um you know being a guest on this show um some people don't know much about me but i'm a big football fan or sucker um as it's known as here um and when i first started coaching um this blew my mind and it's actually it pains me still a little bit to this day because obviously of how much i love the game of football and how different it is out here in the States. So I remember when I first started club coaching and I was coaching these like

you, you 16 girls or something like that. Then in the space of like 10 seconds, my mind was blown with the language that they used. They mentioned the words cleats and scrimmage. And I was just like, harry potter film is this you know like what did you just say scrimmage cleats what and just little things like that like and that is actually in the football world i had to learn a lot there because what i would say would not make any sense on a tactical standpoint or or for my players to

understand what I'm talking about and what the fuck are cleats and scrimmage a scrimmage is basically a game a match right the game right like playing a game but it's like it's not it's like a scrimmage for us is like when the players are practicing on the same team so you split up and then they're playing against each other but playing the game to practice or you could have like a friendly match that doesn't like it doesn't really matter who wins or loses you know like kind of that's what my understanding of a scrimmage is but yeah it is ultimately playing the game yeah yeah and then cleats are football boots you know right just like a cleat is a stud if you will from what we know of a football boot having studs in them okay

cool yeah and again i i see i i play and still work in that industry and it's you know i work for a company that has soccer in it in the name and it still pains me a little bit to this day yeah um i do think though one thing that we're really missing out on is the whole bank transfer thing so i agree with that like seeing that i was like man that's pretty swish i wish we had that because it's like oh let me go to the atm so that i can just give you some money yeah but i tell you what people in England are missing out on, putting your crisps in the freezer. Yes, exactly. It's delicious.

That is, I think, kind of more of just a me thing rather than an American thing. That foil freshness that you put them in the freezer, it really, really works. Yes, that is good. I should do that more. Also, better hamburgers, I will say. Our meat tastes a little bit better. Yeah. Yeah, I'll give you that. I should do that more. Better hamburgers, I will say. Our meat tastes a little bit better.

Yeah. Yeah, I'll give you that. I will give you that. Could you, for example, could you go out and get a chip butty anywhere? Maybe somewhere in the States, but not, I don't think there's anywhere here in Minnesota that does that. Well, here's what i'd have to do i'd go to any you know anywhere because obviously you know fries are served

with a lot of food and i'll be like can i have a chip buddy and they'd probably say gobbledygook but then it'd be like okay okay mate just give me a portion of fries two bits of bread and I'll make it myself yeah I also read this week that apparently Americans don't tend to use butter in their sandwiches okay funny story about this and I'm glad you mentioned it because I did also see that um yeah so no I don't think I've ever put butter on a sandwich I've eaten toast and buttered bread before but like as far as a sandwich goes if I'm just making well first and foremost I wouldn't put butter on a PB&J but like if I was having a turkey sandwich it would be mayo or mustard or an aioli and no butter but Sean is a big fan of that and will make his sandwiches with with butter he will put mayo on it you know you can talk about what you put on your your sandwiches Sean but right after he moved here

and wasn't doing a great deal he would make me lunch and I sometimes would have a sandwich and it was also right before the wedding and I was trying to lose weight and I just happened to like open the sandwich and I was like there's butter and mayo no wonder I'm so fucking fat Sean what the fuck are you doing but maybe that's why our petrol station sandwiches taste so good because we use butter and condiments yeah butter both sides of the bread

absolutely yep I'm just like I don't need that extra those extra calories please should we play a game or do you have anything else on your little list there sean you know i know you two have covered um quite a bit of stuff so you know I'm excited about a game and maybe if something comes to mind I will talk about it

well considering you guys didn't get questioned during the citizenship journey what I'm going to do is play a little game of Mr and Mrs or you may call it something different in American

I do think it's more like the newlywed game but I like Mr and Mrs better because it doesn't suggest that we're just recently married yeah so I'm going to ask you a question and I want you both to answer for the other person

yeah crap okay we've been put on the spot here babe So I'm going to ask you a question and I want you both to answer for the other person. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Crap. Okay. We've been put on the spot here, babe. Here we go. Yeah, me too.

So. Yeah. Okay. Good luck. What's the one household chore your partner absolutely despises? Sean, you go first. I can only choose one. Sean you go first I can only choose one

You can Pick Pick the one you think I hate the most But you can say both Or more Doing the washing up The dishes Yeah sure

Yeah that's right That would be probably my number one yeah hey ding ding ding and kate same question directed at you um i feel like a game show host this is great i do all the bloody chores i you do a lot and i appreciate that. I think that you do not particularly, you've gotten more into it recently, but you did not particularly enjoy making dinner, making meals, but I also

think that you don't particularly enjoy vacuuming. Do you even know me? No, I don't. What is it? I love know me no i don't what is it i love i love sticking the hoover around i love it okay so yeah cooking for sure i feel like it's uh yeah it's a love hate relationship i love food i like it if like you send me a recipe and we have the stuff i despise the process of potentially having to go out and get bits for it and whatever.

I think, you know, again, they came down to more of a simple sort of diet, even like in England and just what I ate. So yeah, cooking is not my strong suit. I have like two things I like cooking, that's it. Well done, guys, you've passed round one. Now we move on to round two.

If your partner could have any celebrity as their best friend, who would it be? Oh, fuck. You want me to go first? You want Sean to go first? You can go first. Is celebrity like loosely defined? Yeah, just. Okay.

They have that certified tick on Instagram. Well, because I know like celebrity can mean a lot of different things. It could be a musician. It could be an actor, actress. It could also be like a sports person. So I'm like conflicted here. I think Sean would really enjoy being best friends with one or all of the members of Blink-182

but I was also going to say if you had to pick one of the members Tom? yeah the weirdo I was going to also say I was heavily considering Jurgen Klopp interesting he would be a good hookup I was going to also say I was heavily considering Jurgen Klopp.

Interesting. He would be a good hookup. You would be able to go to all the games for free. Yeah, fair enough. But I'm glad I was right with my instinct. Well done. Sean. Who would Kate's best friend be?

Yeah, she could have any celebrity as their best friend. Any celebrity as their best friend. I know the answer to this. Yeah. This is actually a tricky one. Cause in my mind, there's this one name that cut one name that comes to mind, but I don't know if it'd be more on a friend or she'd just like to see him naked.

Okay. I would not pick that person as my best friend if you need a clue that's kind of yeah damn best friend celebrity oh i'm having a having a tough time with this i'm gonna say i'm gonna say euron mcgregor that's because she wants to see his willy he's not best friend material jemma what were you going to say? I just hear you're a real big Swifty now so honestly it'd probably

be Beyonce over Taylor Swift if I had to pick out of that but I you know to be fair I don't know if I've ever really thought enough about this I do think Kate doesn't like people yes I do think Kate doesn't like people yes I do

sometimes I'm struggling with this one I really don't know who you would pick it's a tough question if you don't know the answer to it Kate then Sean has no chance I know I've said I would love to be best friends with that person

or I want to be friends with that person. But I'm thinking probably like, like Emma Stone seems like she might be kind of cool to be friends with, you know, but I haven't greatly thought about this in any detail. Maybe I guess Hayley Williams, I would be best friends with her.

I like Paramore. Yeah. Seems cool. I'd quite like Jennifer Lawrence. Oh yeah, she would be funny too. I think she seems really funny. Sorry, I'm just inserting myself into your game. No, I'm glad you said that

because same, but to be fair I won't give you too much shit about this, Sean, because you're right, I don't know if I've ever really thought about it much. I feel like I'm winning. Am I winning this game? No, I am. We can be tied. I feel like I'm winning. Okay, this game no i am oh we can be tired i feel like i'm winning am i winning um okay this one's a good one i'm gonna change it a little bit though so what's

what's your partner's go-to dance move on a dance floor not great for a podcast because no one can see it, but. Oh. I'll go. You probably will disagree, but kind of like a, like a little. This is how, I mean, you probably don't realize it, Sean, but that is how you do it. Because I'm drunk when I dance, so I don't realize it at all. So that was like the towel dance. A shimmy? Yeah, a little bit like, like kind of like he has a towel and he's drying his butt with it.

I have a surprise for you. Yeah. Right. Kate's dance move. Oh, my goodness. Well, she does a really good kind of like wobble dance, which I think you two discussed last week, right? Like a salmon, as Gemma referenced, I think.

I mean, yeah, I don't know. We both do not like dancing. It's not our thing. We actually think it's like cringy. I wish I was good at it. I think probably my go-to is just a weird little white person shuffle but if i yeah it's i don't know the lingo of what i'd even call it but there's some movement of limbs that's about it okay yep that's about it my other joke dance move though which i thought

you would say is the people on tv are dancing like this oh yeah her signs dance move but she never does that to music and or in public it's usually my eyes um so yeah that's for your eyes only it's abigail breslin she's very young in that movie in signs and at the end like when they defeat the aliens she comes in and she goes the people on tv are dancing like this and she just kind of you know i do not remember that i don't know why that's stuck with me all these years i worry as i'm getting older i do the classic like air guitar and air drums oh shit stuff and yeah nice yeah yeah okay um if your partner could only eat one food for the rest of their life, what do you think it would be? So essentially, what's their favorite food?

Well, clarification. Can we say a cuisine, like a type of food, or does it have to be an actual food item? You can say a cuisine, I think, yeah. Okay. You go first, Sean. Asian food for kate that covers a few different flavors doesn't it but i know you love asian food i mean i would if i had to pick like a food to eat for the rest of my life and only that it would

be something broad like that because of the wide variety of food within that subsect. I was safeguarding my answer by saying Asian food. I'm going to say bland ass British food for Sean. He wants those beans on toast. He wants those fish and chips. He wants the chip buddy. How can you call lamb and mint sauce bland? How can you call a roast dinner bland seriously though i would say like tacos i bet you would eat the hell out of some tacos yeah but you had it right the first time like those english dishes like you know shepherd's pie

roast dinner like that if we're talking about more broad um that's definitely food that i would happily eat for the rest of my life yeah okay well done guys you've passed that round yes i'm starting to believe you are a genuine couple so jemma secretly works for uscis isn't she no no no no no no no no, no, no, no. No, no, no. Okay, what's your spouse's guilty pleasure snack that they can't resist indulging in?

Sean's got a major sweet tooth. And I'm going to cheat a little bit. He really enjoys Pop-Tarts and cereal, but he will get just like a sneaky little candy bar or a biscuit thing whenever he's at the store, and he's like, just, or some gummies, and it just fell into my cart.

Yeah, that's what I always say. Oh, how did that get there? Whoops. Kate's would pretty be cris crisps chips frozen ones frozen ones yeah yeah i mean i'd beat them if they weren't but she loves a chippy as she calls them do you love a chippy i love a chippy and eggs i like it would you like it if they released egg flavored chips do you think i guess i would try it it depends um i guess it's probably that wouldn't really taste like much of anything i'm just gonna say this though i feel like i eat more egg than kate does i don't really like eggs that much i love eggs i have eggs at least once a week i mean i

like them fine. That episode made it seem like that's literally all I eat. I mean, the egg and crust sandwiches I get. I mean, you know, I think to that whole point, it was like you chose that one over all the different types of sandwiches. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So I'll do one more. What's your spouse's most prized possession i think sean would be really sad if he lost the necklace his mom gave him of what is it saint thomas um no it's uh who do you call it the uh the one who keeps you safe when you're traveling um yeah i think you'd be sad if you lost that thomas i don't know what is it jemma i don't know saint christopher saint christopher yeah the pain of travel or whatever it is yeah oh yeah that's a good one that was quite that's quite deep and meaningful um i was gonna say something more like your phone but um it's replaceable isn't it yeah no you're right um

um prize possession um kate is not a fan of like jewelry or like photos or anything like that really so it's not really um i mean i like them yeah um oh this is a tricky one i'm gonna go with the phone i think you may have lost that shawl maybe yeah i mean it would suck but it's replaceable i feel like if there's something i lost that i couldn't replace that like we could replace that necklace but it wouldn't be the one that you were given by your mom right so like i think that's what matters and i as i look around the room it's all just i don't want to say that to sound harsh towards my wife it is more that she's not really into possessions like that um well the one thing that i probably wouldn't want to say that to sound harsh towards my wife. It is more that she's not really into possessions like that. Well, the one thing that I probably wouldn't want to lose, I already lost.

Yes. Have you ever shared that story? I mean, on the podcast. I lost my engagement ring. You lost what now? My engagement ring. Shortly after what now? My engagement ring. Shortly after we got married. And it sucked, but it happened.

Yeah. Ouch. What a terrible wife you are, Kate. I know, I'm the worst. And then it was like, did you have it insured? And I was like, did you not put it under homeowner's insurance? And Kate was like, did you? And I was like, I didn't live here.

No, we had renter's insurance, but it didn't cover it. Yeah. You got diamond insurance and not the whole ring insured and you need the band, the actual band, in order to replace the diamond, yeah. Yeah, yeah. If the stone fell out, you could easily get that. But obviously, yeah, Kate lost the whole thing.

It's all a scam. Everything's a scam well that concludes today's episode of mr and mrs with sean and kate who who who did win obviously me i think kate won yeah oh that's okay sorry about that sean it's all right it's all right next time yeah win some lose some it's all right exactly that's the game of life you know let's uh end the episode on a little am i the asshole? You know you are, baby. Okay. This is for the both of you. Okay.

Exciting. Am I the asshole for demanding I not be referred to as English? Am I the asshole for repeatedly having to ask international friends and colleagues to refer to me as British instead of English? Insert Valley Girl accent. Oh my God, are you from England? The crux of the matter is I'm not English. My father is and that's it. I identify as British because my mother is Scottish. I'm proud of that heritage and not to suck my own dick, but I'm related to a very important former Scottish football player. I grew up in Scotland

and my blood is mostly iron brew and whatever cigarettes and being obese does to you. Obviously, I don't like to say I'm fully Scottish. Between all of the questions about my accent not sounding right, I'd feel like one of those Muppets that makes their whole identity Irish when their great-great-great-granny was Irish. Wow, actually, typing that out makes me feel like a massive hypocrite. I've admittedly been a little passive-aggressive about it over the years and asked repeatedly despite there being language barriers, etc. Judge me, Reddit. being language barriers etc judge me reddit um there's one more edit um i forgot that this will help massively i speak several languages and i correct colleagues in several languages this probably makes me the asshole more than anything else i've said also that's seven languages

four completely fluently am i the asshole well that was a mouthful wasn't? There was a lot to digest there. Yeah, there was. It's often the case you have to listen quite carefully. Yeah, I'm not very good at that. Okay, well, essentially, so she's, well, she's half Scottish, half English. Or he. Yeah.

And when people ask, are you from England? Are you English? He corrects them and says, like, he's called I'm British, actually, and I prefer to be referred to as such and wants to know if that by doing so kind of constantly and insisting on that makes him an asshole. No, I don't think it does. I know that Scottish, Irish and Welsh people certainly don't like to be referred to as English because they're not. They are from a different country. The only dad is English. That brings a little bit of question into it. But if they're brought up in Scotland and identify more as Scottish, then no. They are British because it's part of the British Isles

and not just the country of England. That's my opinion. Yeah, it's an interesting one. I feel like I don't think this person's the arsehole i think they might be an arsehole in general i don't know why that might be just because of like what they said but this is yeah this is an interesting thing i feel like it's all about maybe how someone asks that question um lucy oh can you hear the cat yeah

she's um she's taking a poo in the litter box and is enjoying herself right now. You know? No, I'm going to side with Gemma. I do not think they are the arsehole. Yeah, so the general consensus is Lucy thinks this person's an arsehole. But no arseholes here.

Basically, consensus is, oh, hi oh hi baby is an asshole um and someone the top response is totally appropriate to ask to be identified in the correct way but just fyi i think the average american doesn't know the difference between british uk and england which i think is true and australia apparently yeah i think they are synonyms in many people's minds so you might be just running into an ignorant American problem. They think that English and British is the same, that you're making a fussy distinction without a difference. You might get more traction if you go ahead and say that you're Scottish. People understand that Scottish and Irish are something distinct.

Or you can just call yourself whatever you want to be called and deal with ignorant people. Yeah, 100%. lol yeah 100 there's also um some americans seem to get confused with like europe yeah and yeah i seem to think that um it's like only england or something in europe i mean or in england itself whenever i'm you, we're coming to visit and people are like, oh, you know, you're going to London. Actually, technically, yes, I am, I guess. But like sort of I'm landing in or around London, but I'm not going to London. I'm going to England and we're not going to spend any time there. I get these questions a lot with people obviously ask where I'm from.

And it is all about how I don't like it personally. And I probably come off as a bit of an arsehole depending on what mood I'm in. You know, people assuming like you're from Australia. Yeah, you are. And it's like, well, no, I'm not. And now I need to almost dare you, you know, because I'm not. But I like it when people actually show an interest

and they're like oh where are you from hmm from England what part you know East Sussex

and they're like where's that is that London yeah yeah it's kind of near London whereabouts in Europe well technically you know.

I'm going to close on this comment, if that's cool, and the response to it. Someone wrote, I've been living in Europe for almost 25 years now, spent most of that time in hospitality. Never have I met anyone who was British. On the other hand, I've met thousands of English, Scottish, Welsh, and the occasional Northern Irish.

And the response to that was, well, big big daddy i'm half and half in it half english half scottish fully a wanker nice yeah you got that right boy and that was the op who responded so oh well that was fun thanks for joining us nigel yes yes i uh traveled really far for it well i appreciate your time thank you yeah no thanks having me guys thanks for traveling to our studio um yeah and sharing your insights it's been fascinating and entertaining. And just a real delight. I'm sad that I couldn't have Gemma be Judge Gemma on my complaint. Yeah, we'll have to do that another time. Another time. Well, cool.

Well, I guess we'll end this here. Sounds good. Where can people find us at Sean? The internet See he doesn't actually listen Wait where am I? What is this? What are you doing on my computer?

Find us at Talkshit2us at gmail.com Or various social medias tsybpod correct um and also just like if you're enjoying listening to this um just like tell some friends about it or family spread the word you know word of mouth is really helpful um and also give us a little rating and review on whatever you listen to your podcasts on. That's also really helpful to get new listeners and share the word of the incredible insights that we give. So smart.

We are smart. Click on it, download it, share it. Yeah. Sing about it. Sing about it. Write about it sing about it all of those things all of those things it's great do it hey g happy 20th episode oh happy 20th we did it we made it you're welcome thanks sean yep cool with that, goodbye. Goodbye. Sean? Oh, yeah.

Ta-da. Goodbye. Do we have to say it like five times or? Bye. Bye. Bye then. Bye then. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye then. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye then. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Welcome to... welcome to talking shit with the yank and two brits okay we're gonna try that one again you both need to say and two Brits at the same time. Oh, okay. Okay. Should we practice? Yeah, okay, we'll practice. Welcome to Talking Shit with the Yank. And two Brits. Oh my god.

Jenna was like a slow southern and two Brits. No, you were. I was slow? Yeah, you were I was slow? yeah you go and okay try it one more time and then we'll do it for the money okay welcome to talking shit with the yank and a brit

fuck I said it wrong yeah and two brit I was like okay I didn't do anything wrong Gemma okay one more practice welcome to talking shit with the yank I didn't do anything wrong. Okay, one more practice. Welcome to Talking Shit with the Yank. And two

Brits. There we go. I'm going to include all of these. Yeah, you absolutely should. That'd be kind of funny. So are we doing it one more time? This is a fucking nightmare. how do you do this every week okay well we just we're naturally good at it sure yeah We'll see you next time. you you you you you you