You Know You've Adapted to Aberdeen if....Part Two

So today is our 2 year anniversary of arriving in Aberdeen. In some ways it feels every bit of the two years. In other ways, it feels much shorter. In honor of said occasion, I thought it only appropriate to bring to you the sequal to last year's one year anniversary post. So here they are in no particular order:

You know you've adapted to Aberdeen if.......

1. You actually go out of the house without a coat more often! (I must be finally becoming more Scottish and used to the cooler air. That or it has indeed been warmer this year.)

2. The US date structure of mm/dd/yy looks odd to you and you've come to prefer the dd/mm/yy UK version. (It's honestly challenging to think of the date in US style any more. It took a while for this one to come, but now that it is here, it is pretty engrained in me. Except for our birthdays, I still think both sound better in the US version.)

3. More Scottish phrases/words/sentence structures have worked their way unknowingly into your vocabulary. (I was shocked nearly 2 weeks ago when I was talking to some American friends and I phrased something in a very Scottish way unintentionally. After I said it I looked at them and said "Wow, that was really Scottish. I would never have said it like that in the US.)

4. Related to the above: You can't even always remember how it would be said in the US because you are so used to hearing it said another way. (This scares me as I think about going back to the US!)

5. You've come to greatly appreciate the fresh air and actually look forward to opening your windows to let that air circulate.

6. Roundabouts are your friend.

7. It doesn't scare you nearly as much to play chicken with another car in the middle of the road that is only one and a half lanes wide.

8. "Wee" has replaced "little" in your vocabulary.

9. The seagulls finally annoy you nearly as much as they annoy the locals. (See last year's post at the bottom. Though, there is one exception -- when they are soaring in the wind.)

10. You can understand an increasing amount of doric conversation. You can even sometimes speak a little.

11. You forget at times that you live overseas because things are so familiar and comfortable to you. (It's nice that this has happened in some areas of life. Too bad it's not in all areas.)

This is more of a "You Know You've Lived in Aberdeen Too Long if..."

You get pretty excited when you go to someone's house and they have a real TV with real channels and you get to watch it (i.e. you aren't watching a "film" or show on your laptop).

How you know you've got more adapting to do:

1. You do not at all care for the lack of using "cups" in recipes.

2. The sides and backs of food packaging with various values and percentages still means nothing to you because it is all in grams and litres, and uses different words, like "energy" and "kilojoules." (What the stink are kilojoules?!)

3. The weather still amazes you. (How in the world can it change so quickly! In the blink of an eye?!)

***For further cultural musings and probably more entertainment, visit our friend's blog whose one year anniversary of arriving was yesterday.