I realized I have learned to be a bit English when “Jolly Good! Well Done” automatically leaps from my lips as the grocery clerk produces the Cornish clotted cream I’d been searching for. I always wanted to be bilingual, but I never guessed English would be my second language!

Learning to be like the British is more than incorporating a few catchy phrases into your vocabulary. It requires an understanding of the long history that has produced the unique culture that is Britain today. As Joe and I began our two-year London assignment in June 2001, we did not realizing just how different America is from its motherland. But living in London definitely grows on you, as does a fascination with the Royal Family and traditional British events such as Wimbledon Tennis, Royal Ascot Races and the Chelsea Flower Shop.

This book is a diary of everyday occurrences in the form of emails written to our family members to give them a glimpse of life in London at the turn of the 21st century.