The other thing? If you have to wear hose/stockings/tights/whathaveyou? Having fur there ITCHES. (I did Early American Christmas Dinners for four years. Knee breeches and stockings were de rigueur.) (Perhaps that's why a Scot's kilt hose are too thick to catch on one's leg-feathers?)

Europe definitely does have different priorities. How the treat their eggs, for one thing. I scoured the ENTIRE refrigerator section in the co-op in Gateshead, no eggs.

They were across the aisle, on a regular shelf. Which is perfectly safe if you don't chemistry the hell out of them like us Yanks do.

Oh, and religion, too. Tomorrow's a holiday for us heatherns, and I'll bet a majority of the Christians in Britain know it. And I remember my once-companion's co-worker's reaction to me: "Ooooh, she's got a shaman..." not negative at all; I was considered somewhat exotic and to be envied. The fact that a dear friend is an out-of-the-closet kitchen witch was absolutely no barrier to her being elected parish councillor, nor running for MP... and the parish church in the next village but one welcomes her musical talents with open arms. She's been friends with at least two vicars...

But, yeah, you do you. As for me, pretty may turn the head, but clever and kind and funny wins the heart.