Union Jack is Union Jack no longer...this blog is new and I am reserving the right to change my guy's moniker. The new name came about this morning while he was packing for his ten day trip to Europe. He asked if he had a sweater and I replied that of course he had everything, he's James Bond. I'm not kidding with this either. He always dresses very dapper, but we recently moved and when I was organizing the closets, I discovered that he owned a tux and a wetsuit. Totally Bond. He also drives a cool race car. And of course let's not forget the sexy accent. So, his new and likely final blog alias is going to be 007. (Update (a week and a half later)- he has decided that he doesn't want an alias and just wants to be known as Dan,, this is final!!!) Right now, 007 Dan is on a jet somewhere over Canada. This is the longest that we will have been apart since we started dating back in January and it's already killing me. He was very sweet and left me with a bouquet of beautiful flowers.

I am missing him and one way that I thought of to have fun with it over the next week and half, is to do a blog segment on his culture. Since we have been dating, a lot of cultural differences have been highlighted and saying "Hey, I'm a quarter English" just doesn't mean anything. More on that in another post, it's too big to tackle tonight.

In prep for this series of blog posts, I needed to acquire supplies. After dropping 007 Dan off at LAX, I headed to the mecca of imports, Cost Plus World Market.

That's my bag of goodies, minus what's being stored in the fridge. I will be describing my experiences with the mystery items over the next few weeks. There is an ulterior motive at play...I need to taste the treats so that I know which ones to request of him to stock up on and bring back to America. A girl has needs and they usually involve chocolate.

The other objective is to try foods from the UK to build a better vocabulary for communication. Let me explain...everyone has foods that they grew up with and loved or even hated, but were unique to their experience. This isn't just because Dan grew up in England, but it could be anyone, anywhere. My ex-husband grew up in Connecticut and loved peanut butter and fluff sandwiches. I just didn't get it until I tried. I still don't  get it, ick.  I bought a bunch of UK products, some Dan has mentioned and some that he might not have even tried. I'm going to have a taste test on a range of products and blog about it, hopefully he will gobble up the lefts overs! Food is a frequent conversation topic and it will be nice to have more moments of common ground.

Tonight, I watched the first episode of the first season of Downton Abbey. I'm hooked. It's exactly the type of show that's right up my alley and I've wanted to watch it for a long time. I decided to give it a go tonight because it partially films at Highclere Castle, which is right by Dan's hometown and where he will be staying for the majority of his trip.

His mom even exercises with Lady Carnarvon, the current owner of the property. Cool right? And so not like anything we have here in America. This is the tip of the iceberg with the differences. The differences are not a negative at all, just quirks and often funny misunderstandings.