Spending a significant amount of time in any foreign country will often open one’s eyes to new and diverse ways of thinking and living. Sometimes these differences are positively influential in that they provide a different way of doing things. Here in the United Kingdom, I have noticed many differences about the ways of the life across the ocean from the United States, particularly a difference in environmental conservation and world concerns.

The first thing you notice when entering the UK is of course that they drive on the other side of the road and the driver is on the other side of the car. Once you get beyond this strange behavior you notice that the cars themselves are considerably smaller and more compact than almost any car you will find in the US. This may be due to the fact that their roads are narrower, but you also notice that almost no one in the city owns an SUV or a truck because they simply don’t need it. There seems to be recognition of what they need and what they don’t in the UK. And, these smaller cars seem to handle gas mileage much better than the average American vehicle.

When you turn on the telly here in the UK, you won’t see many commercials during your favorite show. On average, they show about half the commercials that US stations do. However, many of the commercials you do encounter push energy conservation to the consumer. One of the most frequently aired commercials shows washing machine dials turning their temperature back from 40 to 30 with the idea that if we all do our part, we can keep the earth’s temperature down and slow global climate change. Essentially they are focusing on energy conservation. I’ve also noticed while living with my host family that the heat is shut off during the middle of the night, and many other study abroad students have also encountered this difference. Because it is not as cold here, they don’t need the heat on as much as we would in Wisconsin. They are doing what they can with what they have, and this seems to be another step towards energy conservation.

Besides the energy conservation commercials, there is also a great deal of advertisements for supermarkets offering fair trade products. Fair trade is a new world movement to help impoverished countries by only purchasing products where the workers are paid fair wages and not supporting underpaid and slave labor. Most often these products include coffee, tea and fruits, and almost everything in the UK seems to have a fair trade equivalent option to the standard product. This consciousness about the world has taken the UK consumer to a new level, and it seems to be clear that they are taking the stand as a nation for change.

Everyone can learn different ways and styles of living from any country. Some of the ideas can be beneficial when brought back home and enforced in one’s own home country. By going abroad and experiencing different cultures and living styles, students’ minds have been open to the bigger picture and often these students in turn bring these ideas home and integrate them into their own lives.